The Idol Effect || COMING TO AMAZON SUMMER 2024

🝮C H A P T E R 19🝮

"Woah, the girl he's out with right now did all of that?" Katayi wondered, "and she as his girlfriend?"

"Yeah for almost two years," Sora confirmed,

"Weird." Kat spoke shaking her head, "he never spoke of her before."

"It gives him war flashbacks." Sora stifled a laugh, "it was not a happy fun time."

"Let's just make sure she doesn't look at me the wrong way or I might just cuss her out." Kat smiled, trying her best to hide her feelings. "I'm going to forget I heard any of that now."

But despite her efforts, it was becoming increasingly obvious to anyone who wasn't her that she was taking things to heart. She had left the room, but the tension still lingered.

"There's something else," Khondwani adds,

"No there isn't, nothings's wrong I told you already!" Sora protested, but he wasn't buying it at all.

"Does saying that usually get you out of situations?" He asked her and she looked up at him with bright eyes. "I'm just asking because my sister has always done the exact same thing."

"Yeah well, my feelings have never really had room to exist. They would get in the way of more important things you know?" She asked, as if it were a casual statement to undermine yourself like she just did. So effortlessly, so naturally.

Sora Park had always been the perfect sister, if Sailor was blue then Sora was bright yellow, a complimentary colour to him on the vast colour wheel of life. She was always amiable, always bright, and never complained, just like her eomma asked of her. She made a promise you see, to always protect him, she had dedicated her entire life to being his rock. Reliable, unmoving, the only steady element of his life.

But Sailor was growing up now.

"You shouldn't undermine yourself, your feelings, every single one of them; dramatic, or not are so incredibly valid." Khondwani encouraged placing his hand on the side of her face, "why do you think that they're not?"

"I just have never had time for them, when I was a kid you know, I promised my eomma that I would always...always protect Sailor. If I spent my life selfishly absorbed in my own feelings I wouldn't have been able to do that." Sora expressed, opening up to him, it felt odd to do so— when she'd been closed off all her life.

But Khondwani Sitali was so very easy to talk to, so very easy to shatter in front of, you trusted that he would pick up the prices and piece you back together.

Khondwani too had spent a lot of his life worrying about his sister, and had dedicated so much of himself desperately trying to understand her. Searching the landscapes of her mind for any patterns, any consistencies and yet at every turn found none. So he came to accept that geography that was constantly inconsistent. Grew to love every crashing wave, hurricane in her heart and dead end along this journey.

"That's a lot of pressure for a little kid." He empathized,

"I am not a kid." She grumbled, "I never was."

"You were, Sora, you were." He reminded her,

"He had it worse, you don't understand—" she explained, desperately, "he had it so much worse."

"But that doesn't mean that you didn't have it bad too." He told her, and she leans into his touch. "Your feelings matter, matter to me."

"You mean it?" She spoke with teary eyes looking up at him, "don't just say stuff like that if you don't."

"I don't say anything I don't mean." He assured her, "I'm always here to listen, to understand if I can."

"Katayi is so lucky to have you." Sora smiled and he wiped away a tear from her face,