The Idol Effect || COMING TO AMAZON SUMMER 2024

🝮C H A P T E R 22 🝮

From the very instant the twins were born, they were joined at the hip, always curling in on one another, holding hands and silently gazing into each other's eyes. Eun-Jeong was a realist, a scientist, she never believed in those old wives' tales about how twins were able to feel each other's pain and emotions, but somehow her children made a believer out of her. Whenever Sora was upset and would wake up crying in the middle of the night, Sailor would do the same, wailing at the top of his lungs. Whatever food Haru decided was awful, Sora swore off of too. She'd hoped that eventually, it'd fade away as they got older, that soon they'd become their own people with entirely different hearts and minds but that was never to be the case.

The primary school playground was hustling and bustling with scattered children swinging and laughing and playing catch. The twins were seven now, and it was becoming more evident that they may have been cut from the same cloth but strands of different fabrics. Sora Park was a social butterfly, she never had to make an effort to make friends they simply flocked towards her, she was both at the top of her class and at the top of the rather tedious 2nd-grade hierarchy. She was on the mini football, field hockey and swim team all the while keeping up with several extracurricular activities like art and ballet.

Allow me to paint the scene for you; A seven-year-old Sora Park standing at the centre of her chirpy friendship group, everyone eager to engage in conversation with her and have the bragging rights of calling her their companion. She holds a football at her hip as she laughs at something that was said, all the while making sure that her gaze never shifts from what's important. In the corner of her vision is Sailor, seated in solitude underneath the bleachers with a pen and notebook to which he wrote his every passing thought. His hair is shorter, wearing a Star Wars t-shirt as he tucks the pen behind his ear.

He is a stroking opposite to his sister, he is meek, quiet and reserved. Only speaks when spoken to, never raises his voice, and never shares his secret thoughts. Sailor isn't on any sports teams, therefore looked down upon by the boys, his first real friend Stevie Fraiser moved to Edinburgh last term leaving him with no one to talk about dance with, or music or that one kid's program on the Telly. The event I am about to discuss is a core memory for both the Park twins, one that would define their character for years to come.

It all happened in a flash, the boys from the little league football team approached Sailor and he looked up at them with hopeful eyes, maybe they had wanted to be his friend. But something about the way they looked at him made him realize the latter. Sora kept a careful watch but was admittedly distracted by her friends discussing their next excursion to the lake. They tore his notebook from his hands and ripped up the paper pages that were inside, reading them aloud and ripping them to shreds. It felt like he was being stripped bare in front of everyone as they knew all his deepest darkest thoughts, making a mockery of them. They pulled him away from his spot beneath the bleachers and shoved him onto the rough sand- that sure got Sora's attention.

But it was too late you see, the damage had been done.

Later on that very day at home, Sora had fallen victim to her mother's scoldings of you're supposed to look out for him and you're all he got don't you understand? And so then, after their evening bath as Sora placed a bandaid on her brother's bruised knee, she promised him that she would never leave him alone again. And so she never did, she would become his fierce protector, his halo of sorts. This event marks the moment in which Sailor knew he was different, knew that he would never truly fit in in Scotland be it because of his race or overall silent persona. It marks the moment in which Sora would give up everything, to be the best sister to him.

But it is important to note that as the two grew up that these dynamics would inevitably shift; Sailor would hit puberty and grow into himself, suddenly his awkward walk would become his confident stride, and he would grow out his hair and stop hiding from the world, he would become the centre of attention in every room he walked into. His charisma and gentle kindness would attract the attention of both the girls and the boys at their private boarding school by the coast. He would take music and dance more seriously, allowing himself to be uplifted by the undeniable talent coursing through his veins.