Dancing To Your Tune

Withering Soul

Ayan was making breakfast while his little sister got ready for school. She would be starting high school today and was pretty pumped up for that. They had lost their parents in a car accident five years ago and since then it had been just two of them. Ayan was nineteen at that time while his sister, Amber was only twelve years old. They had been devastated, they were left to face the world on their own. Ayan didn't have time to grieve, he had to toughen up for Amber. They had no relatives on his mother side while the one on his father's side didn't want to deal with them. Their grandparents had passed away long ago so it just left two of them to navigate through life. Things had been rocky in the beginning. Fortunately his parents had left good amount of money to ride them over and the house was under their name.

Ayan worked two-three part time jobs to support their education and pay the bills. Amber had wanted to work as well but Ayan strongly disapproved. He wanted her to just focus on her studies and have fun like other teenagers. He was her big brother he could provide for her. Amber was sweetest thing in the world, she was kind and full of sunshine. She smiled as if she had never known pain. Ayan thought it made up for his lack of emotions. She had enough for both of them.

Life made him grow unexpectedly fast and he had to let go of his carefree nature. He used to a troublemaker, not more than he could handle but he had habit of challenging everything. He was more like an adrenaline junkie, he got thrill out of doing things in different ways, he looked at world through different lens. He had strange love for bike racing, his mother always admonished him for that but he couldn't let go of that. It all had stopped the minute his parents had left the world. He couldn't afford to take risks like before, he couldn't get in trouble anymore, he had to take care of his sister, he had to be there for her. How would she live if something happened to him? Who would take care of her?

He would admit he had almost succumbed to the desire to end it all. He didn't want a life without his parents, he couldn't imagine living like that but he couldn't die. The only reason he decided to live was for Amber. She was the sole reason for his existence. If it's for her, he would live a life he didn't want anymore. As long as she's happy, he could bear with it. He had dealt with grief the only way he knew, by ignoring it. If he started thinking about it, he may never stop. It was like spiral that would keep going, never ending.

Amber had finished getting ready for the school. She came down, smiling at the meal prepared by her brother. He was the best cook in the world, he made even vegetables taste good. Amber watched her brother arranging the table and thanked heaven for giving her Ayan. When their parents had died she had been scared, how will she live without them. She had been scared of even going out of her room, the world suddenly seemed too big and foreign. But Ayan had been there for her through every moment, he had guided her and helped her regain control of her life. Even though he was hurting as well, he had kept his pain aside and just focused on her.

For her, Ayan was all smiles and warmth. She had never seen him smile at anyone else. She hoped one day he would find someone he could smile for. She hoped he would start caring about himself more, instead of only caring for her. She had been nagging him to find a lover. He was old enough to date people but he hardly ever did that. At best he would have flings, nothing serious. All her nagging went over his head.

"Stop thinking and start eating. You'll be late for school." Ayan said.

After dropping her at school, Ayan came back to the house. He was a webtoon artist and he was glad his job didn't require interacting with people a lot. He wasn't people's person. He had started drawing webtoons when he was kid. At first it was for fun, just a hobby but soon he got really good at it. His teacher had suggested pursuing a career in it and he thought why not. He had participated in lots of contests held by many popular webtoon pages and platforms.

Finally he had won the contest of Haverhill platform. It was well known and one of the best. He had signed the contract with them and he was paid handsome package so it was pretty good deal for him. It helped him focus on Amber better. He could keep an eye on her as he worked from home except weekly meetings held at the company to discuss details regarding the webtoon he was working on. It was the biggest perk of working there as he could be there for her whenever she needed him.

He was working on his ongoing series, "Oath of the Devil". It was fantasy story with action and adventure thrown into the mix. His producer had asked him to add romance to his story but he had politely declined. He wasn't comfortable venturing into that genre and he didn't think he knew enough about it to draw it in his storyline. He never read the comments on his work. His producer assembled them if there was any good suggestions among them or if there was something his readers didn't like in particular. He mostly stayed away from social media, all his social media accounts were handled by the company. He wasn't interested in dealing with people and saw no point in engaging with them unless absolutely necessary. He preferred it that way.