No Dogs Allowed

Fight or Flight (ToothNail)

(ty for reading, ur much appreciated. the little star says hello  and as do i, and we apologize this chapter finds u so late. I've been 10x more busy than usual, and i'm sick :( so if it's 1x a week for posting for the next month or so, please forgive me and understand !! ty ty ty)

(the video above is the song that Kane was and has been humming, by the way! if you want to take a listen :)

CH3CH2OH

Ethanol.

Organic compound, alcohol. Colorless liquid with a pungent odor, often used in alcoholic beverages as a psychoactive drug, anesthesia processes, and as an antiseptic or antidote. Highly flammable and volatile.

____________________________

Yakgwa is a fried, honey-coated cookie shaped similarly to a flower, and comes in various flavors and sizes. It's a popular dessert and treat of Korea. I have only ever had it once.

My mother was in the kitchen with one of the servants, the two of them mixing whatever little spices and meats we had in the house up to create some form of jigae for lunch. My brother had snuck in courtesy of his sly convincing of one of the assistants. He peeked his head inside the room, the round window behind me displaying the golden sun in a long ellipses of light before me. I said, "Hyung?"

Elias swiveled his head back. He crept for me. He said, "Echo." He said it like Eko. "It's almost Chuseok."

I glanced out the window. It was actually a handful of weeks from Chuseok, the leaves outside still only tinged with amber, the sun not yet cold and the air not yet brisk. Still, I nodded. "I guess so. You're not supposed to be."

Elias pressed a finger to his lips. "So? You don't want to see me?"

I frowned. "I didn't say that."

Elias crouched down before me. He pushed his fists at me. His grin was bright, a merry and mischievous thing. "Take a guess."

"For what?"

"It's almost Chuseok," he said, then frowned. "I won't get to see anyone on Chuseok. Appa is making me train. Umma doesn't want to see me at all." His voice was sorrowful and bitter at the last part. "That leaves you. Yuma emo says that twins have to stay together. Twins are like a soul split in two. Chuseok, that's for family. That's for going home." He smiled at me. "What else is home but your other soul?"

I stared at him. Two halves. One soul. My brother and me, the ghost and the gold. I wondered if that was the case, if he had the other half of my splintered heart, broken by the hammer of my father's wrath, my mother's fear, the marks on our hips.

I tapped his right fist, took the bet. He opened his palm. Nothing.

He opened his left. A parchment-wrapped cookie sat inside.

He dropped it into my waiting palms. "Yakgwa," he told me.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Something delicious," he promised. "Try it."

I unwrapped the sweet cookie. I took a bite. The soft honey melted in my mouth, stuck to my teeth and tongue. "What is that?" I said, taking another bite.

Elias laughed. A sweet thing, green like summer, his face like my mother's. He said, "Told you. Do you like it? I can bring more. I'll try, some other time, maybe."