To The Stars (1/1)

Richard Clayderman's piece, Mariage d'Amour reverberated through the halls of a desolate home. Tears will fall, just as it surely did when that armless man played it on China's Got Talent."Home," I told no one in particular. My brother, Shin, age twelve, came walking out from the direction of his room. His dark eyes and pale skin glimmered as the sun from behind him signaled his figure. Weaker by the years....how miserable life must be for him. Why wasn't it I instead to receive aplastic anemia?"Welcome home," he greeted me with melancholy eyes."They're gambling again?" I asked."Yes....of course," his stomach growled."I'll make you something to eat," I patted his head. "Go lay down. You look like you're going to faint."His eyes furrowed, "I'm not tired." Defiance?"Come sit down then and talk to me in the kitchen," I walked into our small dirty kitchen. My feet felt the squishiness of the alcohol before my nose did. Drinking... again...I turned to look at my brother, "Promise me something.""Yes?" he looked up with surprise."Promise me that alcohol will never pass your lips. That you will never inhale the smoke of a cigarette, a cigar or any drug. You will never inject yourself with poison. Promise me that you will never count cards or gamble," I waited for his confirmation. My beautifuly younger brother nodded his head."Of course, yes," he replied."Even if... you lose me, you....never mind. Sit down over there," I pointed at a chair. I cleaned up after my parent's mess again. Shin hummed to the tune of the song.Shin laid down in bed after our dinner.He looked up at me with solemn eyes. "Tell me a story."I touched his forehead and rubbed it gently. "Once upon a time, in another world where nature has died and men destroy for their ideas, there was a girl who would do anything for her older brother. She loved him dearly and one day, her wish came true. Her brother was dying slowly, but he wanted to see the stars, the stars that he read about in books so old, the tattered pages would break at a touch. He dreamt of new worlds and people not of their world. In their world, where pollution covers everything, even the moon, he could only dream of escaping reality.""I will fulfill your dreams brother, she told him. I will make a new world... a new home so that the two of us may live in happiness. Don't worry.""She studied every day so that she could make him a spaceship, a new home big enough for them to travel the universe and leave their world. When she completed her dream of making a spaceship, she went to the hospital and sat down next to her brother.""Brother... I have fulfilled your dreams...we will see the stars everyday, begin a new journey and reach happiness, the girl said to her brother.""What happened next? Did they go to a new world?" my brother's eager eyes pleaded."They did... and they lived happily ever after," I kissed his head."Maybe sister.... I will fulfill your dreams, just as that girl. One day, I will be strong enough to protect you," he smiled at me."You are strong enough. Now, it's time to go to sleep," I played with his hair. I laid down next to him and closed the lamp next to our bed. He hugged me as a baby would its mother and I hummed Mariage d'Amour for a couple of hours. I thought about that story and my lies to protect Shin. I closed my eyes and feared for our futures."Brother... I have fulfilled your dreams...we will see the stars everyday, begin a new journey and reach happiness, the girl said to her brother."The brother turned to his sister and smiled and he stayed smiling like that even at his burial. The sister cried and cried for days until her body could no longer produce tears. Impulsively, she undug his body and brought his rotting body onto the spaceship she created for him. They went into space where she cried even harder. She wanted to launch him and herself into space, to keep him floating in a sea of stars forever. She tied their hands together so that they could never part and opened the door to the stars. She died from lack of oxygen and suffered but she mirrored his smiling face. Their bodies now float forever together.If someone were to look into Jab Cho's room shared with her brother, they would notice the extreme OCD-ness of the residents. As it were, sunlight streamed into Jab Cho's room and onto the respective heads of the siblings. The 5:00AM alarm went off, "Good morning! Wake Up, Jab Cho! Wake Up!"I stabbed the alarm button as my eyes opened to view the ceiling."Is it time?" my brother yawned."Go back to sleep," I put the covers back on him as I climbed out of bed. My feet straddled across the floors and out of the room into the hallway. My hand turned the knob of the bathroom door and climbed inside to get ready for the day. I left the bathroom after washing up and entered my mother's room.... and found it empty. I sighed as I turned to leave to start making breakfast and lunch for Shin.Years ago... was it years ago? Maybe a decade or more... yes, that seems more fitting, we used to be rich and well off. That's how both Shin and I got into Shinhwa. Our grandfather was a business man who was extremely good friends with Shinhwa's ex-President and the Republic of Korea's ex-President. However, the business dipped when my father....well... isn't that the mystery? to this day, no one really knows why our company was destroyed besides those involved or why the two ex-Presidents did nothing to help us.I remember my grandfather's funeral well, full of debt collectors and so called friends. I knew their faces... the faces of their children very well. It didn't take a day for them to start hounding us for money we didn't have. My father committed suicide the next day and now my mother is remarried to a drunkard gambler."Noona Cho," my brother said."Yes? You're awake?" I smiled at him."Can you iron my uniform?" he asked."Of course. In a moment," I closed the lid to the bento box.We rode the bus to Shinhwa. I dropped my brother off at his class and gave him his lunchbox. "Have a good day," I told him. "I'll meet you up for lunch."Perhaps it is my anger at those who know no shame...or the fact that I blamed them partially for my grandfather's heart attack and my father's suicide but it has passed onto Shin, who seems to hate the rich with a passion...or maybe it's simply because we can't afford nice things like them. Jealousy... perhaps. We are both together loners in a absolutist prison, who know that the only way to success is through this school. We understand very well the need for vengeance against those who caused the deaths of our father and grandfather.I entered Shinhwa High's campus and the main building. No more than a minute into their, as I stood to the side, I saw the daily "magnificent" F4 enter with their annoying street clothes and condescending air.Gu Jun Pyo: heir to the Shinhwa company and the grandson of my hated enemy, he was a textbook example of antisocial personality disorder but more than that... he was a complete moron. Shinhwa would only die in his hands.Yoo Ji Hoo: the former president's grandson, another child of a hated enemy, he suffered from autism and was often in a daze. He was unthreatening, unlike Jun Pyo.Song Woo Bin: the son and heir to a mafia runned "real-estate" company, he could be just as violent as Jun Pyo and just as resourcefulSo Yi Jung: the heir to a family focused on the arts, he was a Casanova who preferred to play rather than deal in business politicsThey began to walk forward but Gu Jun Pyo suddenly stopped. He looked to his left at a young boy, who appeared to be wearing the same shirt as him. I don't hear the exchange but I understand the complete fear in the young boy's quivering body. Wasn't he bragging earlier that only he and Jun Pyo had that shirt?Woo Bin hands Gu Jun Pyo his juice, in which Jun Pyo spills it completely down the poor boy's shirt. A gasp trembles throughout the crowd. F4 leaves the scene as if such an act was nothing. The boy begins to cry and I sigh as I head over to my class. Such drama...for what? A shirt? Stupid.The boy deserved it. I felt that sometimes, Jun Pyo's was a creature sent from the gods in punishment of the rich students who went to Shinhwa. Jun Pyo suffered from no form of guilty conscience of what he did; perhaps simply being a monster was a punishment enough. One day, he'd end up killing someone maybe. I could only hope to see it through.When it was lunchtime, I went to go and meet Shin as our usual habit. We ate lunch quickly, as we didn't chew often. When we were done, we realized we still had at least fifteen minutes left. We stood up and walked past by the cafeteria's table of food. The dessert served for today was ice cream. My brother looked at it with sad eyes. I looked at the ice cream and the chef. I opened my wallet and sighed as I pulled out money for a cone."Here," I handed it to Shin.He laughed as he took it. I felt satisfaction, even though I knew it would be taken out of several of my lunch meals."Let's walk around a little bit, don't you think?" I asked him. He nodded happily and we left the cafeteria to the back of the school where it was usually empty. Laughing at me, he ran forward and tripped backwards on the stairs. He fell to the green grass and his ice cream landed on the shoes of someone. Shin and I looked up into the face of Gu Jun Pyo.My brother stood up immediately and bowed politely, "I'm sorry. Forgive me.""If everything works out by saying sorry, then would there be laws and police in the world?" he replied.My brother looked up at Jun Pyo with raised eyes while still bowing, "Should you kill me instead then? Go ahead and kill me then. Call your lawyer. Call the police if you want to. I've said all I could.""Yah... this kid, you think I won't resort to that?" Gu Jun Pyo's laughter was as hollow as his soul.My short twelve year old brother straightened up and stared Jun Pyo straight in the eyes. His words lacked formality and respect, "Kill me then, over a pair of expensive shoes. Your family has killed for less after all. A bunch of thieves and cons willing to sell their own daughters and son for a bit of cash. Isn't that so, Jun Pyo? After all... look at your sister, just a whore isn't she?"A gasp was heard from the other F4 members. Even if I was a bit surprised at Shin's ruthless description... but wasn't he taking my words? I suppose it didn't sound harsh until someone else said it besides yourself. Jun Pyo's eyes blazed as he stepped foward into Shin's personal space as if he were going to beat him up. "Won't you stop?" I stepped down from my position on the stairs and onto the green grass. I pushed Shin behind me and stared into the face of a monster. "Did he fall because he wanted to? If he apologized, then that's enough.""What's this? Hey kids, American style is restricted here. Your words are a little short, aren't they?" Jun Pyo came to stand closer to me, trying to intimidate me with his size. Woo Bin whispered into his ears. "Ah, is that so? So you're that genius girl who just recently won an award, didn't you? What a total disappointment that you're too stupid to not know your place and mind others' business. Why do you step into the affairs of others?" he asked. His fists were tight and ready to strike Shin. My protective instincts took over again. I needed him to direct that anger elsewhere. "He's not a stranger. He's my younger brother. In a wealthy person's dictionary, I'm assuming they don't carry words like family, do they? I mean.... look at your parent's marriage and their willingness to sell your sister for money. If that's not a whore... I don't know what is."Jun Pyo's fist came from nowhere. I was on the floor faster than I could imagine. "Jun Pyo!" his friends yelled as they pulled him back. My face was numb, blood trickled down from my lips but it felt satisfying for once to hurt those who have taken away everything from us. "AH!!" he yelled as they dragged him back. He pushed them back and stood, breathing through his lips like a fire canon ready to launch again. My brother came to kneel next to me protectively.Laughter escaped from my lips, "Gu Jun Pyo...how long do you think it'll be before your mother sells you like a prostitute? I don't even think you know what the meaning of love and family is, do you? What a pity," I stood up."It's easy to hit someone for you, isn't it? It's easy to make others do your dirty work and bully others, but are you so dumb that you can't even win a war of words? As dumb as you are, you'll probably just give me a red card or something childish." I smiled at the enemy. "You can hit me... you can kill me but you can never make us take away our words because they've already been said. As rich as you are, you can't buy time. Come on, Shin, let's go," I grabbed my brother's arm, squeezed it and left the area.I sent Shin home. I went to work. I came back. We ate dinner in silence. We went to bed in silence. We were preparing for his next move.