Your Smile, Your Heart, Your Hospital Bed| Lee Dokyeom

4.) Necklace.

March 30th, 2018 

It was the last day of March, well, it was the 30th and I can't count.

It also happens to be the day my brother was free from assignments, exams, and projects. Kwon Soonyoung, studying broadcasting at Seoul University.

So he came home from Seoul very abruptly, only planning to stay until Tuesday. He calls me up right after school just as I was walking through the gates, telling me to meet him at the mall at a café.

Frankly, I only went there for the free food.

"Hello, sister." He greeted me monotonously, but I could tell he was trying to hide a smile. He took a seat on the table opposite of me, wearing a navy blue sweater matched with ripped white denim shorts. He was also wearing a suspicious black cap, nonetheless, it was a style glow-up. It was a very good glow-up, I dare might say.

All my brother ever wore was a cheesy smile on his rice-stuffed cheeks, and a tragedy of a bowl cut.

He takes off the cap to reveal his hair cut short and bleached, looking back at me with a mischievous grin.

I gasp, "You killed your hair?!" I lean forward, touching his hair as a little part of me dies inside, and then exclaim. "Why??" 

"You don't like it?" he pouts, putting the black cap back on, "My girlfriend said I looked nice, though."

"Girlfriend?!" I gasp once more, hearing him erupt into giggles as he nods his head.

Wow. Does everyone have a love-life besides me? 

After keeping my mouth wide open at the news, I find myself saying three words, a phrase that could shatter him to pieces.

"I'm telling mom." 

He hits my arm and shushes me, "Don't." He glares, "I will have to murder you here and now if you do." 

I laugh cheekily, hiding my smile behind my hand. "Am I the first one to know?" I ask him, wondering to myself as to who the unlucky girl could be. 

"My roommate and a few college friends."

He holds up his pinky up to me, like we were gonna arm wrestle with our promises. He says, "I know I don't tell you much about my college life, but me telling you this information means I trust you." 

"You know you shouldn't." 

"Promise me, you won't tell mom or dad until I'm in my fourth year of college." he continues, nearing his magical pinky that would ultimately have to mean that he would have to do his best to shut me up at family dinners. I twist my pinky around his and then we decided to get ourselves some iced coffee for that afternoon. 

All jokes and sarcasm aside, it was great seeing my brother again. It was really sad not having him at home for Christmas or New year. I did shed a tear that night, which is painfully embarrassing to admit.

After a cup of coffee (which I still have with me since I couldn't finish it in time), we walk around the mall in search for a book store. We found it eventually, then he tells me to wait outside as he buys a few textbooks for future exams and whatnot.

I sit on a bench placed in front of a small pond, decorated with fake plants and coins drowning in the bottom. Deep in my boredom, I try to entertain myself by watching the people living their lives around me.

And then I see him, again, for the third time in two weeks.

He was with a girl, presumably his girlfriend. 

But well.. Probably not, anymore.

I could see the visible frustration, sadness, maybe even slight anger on both of their expressions. It seems like they were arguing pretty badly. I watch them silently from afar as their voices grew into louder yells, perfectly oblivious to the passers-by staring at them.

The girl aggressively takes off this necklace around her neck and forces it onto his hand. Then and there, she leaves him. 

He stands there looking dejected, like he was a failure, watching as his partner stormed away from him and he couldn't do anything to win her back.

And I couldn't do anything to stop it.

Just in time, my brother exits the bookstore and calls me, "Mizuki!"

"I got the textbooks," he says as he reaches inside the plastic bag, "I got you something too."

I furrow my eyebrows and ask, "What is it?" 

"A Pororo coloring book." 

I should've never came here.