Stay With Me - Yeongyu FF

Chapter 33

Beomgyu POV

When I wake up the next morning, it's thanks to 'Ma, but it isn't the usual waking up method. This time, she shakes me frantically, calling my name. Because I'm still so tired, I barely manage to ask what's the matter, but she understands, or maybe she was already planning on telling me.

"I got a call. He's coming in like, two hours"
"Who?" is all I manage to say from my entire sentence.
"Your brother" she says, slightly hysterically.

I look at her with probably the biggest shock ever. My brother? Back? And on such short notice?  Things were suddenly starting to get better! I don't want to see him. Not now, not ever. I get out of bed, now fully awake, and head to the bathroom to take a shower, moving almost mechanically, like a zombie. When I'm all cleaned and dressed, I let the information sink in.

My brother, the one person who I never wanted to see again, the one who drowned me, coming back.

"Ma probably feels me shaking from head to toe while I help her prepare the house for his arrival. We clean up the house, dust the shelves and prepare lunch, all while I panic at the thought of my brother coming over. He's been gone for years, and niwz he decides to show up. I feel like it's a good thing for 'Ma, but I'm so scared. I prepare myself just as thoroughly as I prepared the house: once there is an hour left, I take another shower, change clothes to something a little bit more presentable than a pyjama shirt I find cute and a pair of old shorts. I end up choosing jeans with a grey shirt and a flannel jacket. 'Ma says I look cute. I choose to believe her to ease my stress. I carefully apply some makeup to try and seem the slightest bit pretty - I remember him being particularly good looking, and I want him to think of me as good looking too - and spray what 'Ma says is his favourite perfume.

I certainly take an hour to get ready, and while I review all my manners, I hear 'Ma calling me. I walk downstairs not wanting to run like I usually do to avoid seeming chaotic.

The man I see downstairs isn't the one I remember. 'Ma and I had forgotten what he's been studying in, but his black suit gives away a very businessman-like vibe to him. Sure enough, like I thought, he is a very pretty boy, a real gentleman. When he approaches me though, his eyes bore into me judgingly. He pulled me, although lightly, to the nearest bathroom. I follow numbly, too scared to fight, 'Ma looking back at us.

"Wash your face. Take off all that makeup" he says once the door is closed. Shaking crazily, I rinse off all the powder on my face. I still feel his eyes saving in his mind every detail of my skin, so ugly now next to his.

"Isn't it better like this?" He asks, and although it seems like a rhetorical question, I decide to answer.
"I don't think so"
"You're good enough as you are" he answers, hugging me. Although it seemed slightly awkward, I could still feel the tension releasing. He seemed to accept who I was, in his own fucked up way.

I hear him breathe in something while around my body. I guess he's noticed the perfume. He asks me who gave it to me.
"'Ma" I answer sheepishly
"Oh, I didn't think Mother would remember"

I purse my lips. The sour voice with which he said "Mother" got me feeling guilty for calling her 'Ma.

The silence that followed restored the awkwardness between us - of course, just when I thought it might all turn out well in the end - and I decide to leave the bathroom. When 'Ma sees us again, she notices that my makeup got taken off, and starts reprimanding my brother slightly, telling him that I have the right to wear makeup of I want to. He answers by saying that I don't need it, and that he doesn't want me to become a fake. I can't help but roll my eyes.

'Ma and my brother manage to catch up on all this time during the few hours we have before lunch. I take advantage of that to slip out of this socialising club and go back to my room. I start basically panicking. I call Yeonjun, telling him about how my brother is here.