"That's cute." Angel said in approval, making Rea scrunch up her nose.
"This?" She questioned, holding up the polka dotted shirt in question. "This, Angel."
"Yes. It's nice."
She stared at the shirt with a tilt of her head, wondering if she could see what he saw, but it didn't work no matter what angle she looked at it.
"Wow, look at that, there's only one left, maybe someone else will want it. Let me be nice and put it back." She gave him a pushed out smile as she hung the shirt back on the rack.
Angel couldn't help but chuckle as he continued following Rea around the women's section of the store.
They had been shopping for a couple of minutes so far. Angel realized that Rea really did like shopping now.
When they were younger, Angel would be the one that would go to stores with their mother and Rea would be the one that always chose to stay behind.
"Since when do you like shopping?"
"I've always liked shopping." She spoke absentmindedly as she searched through the racks.
"Really? Rea, you never wanted to come to the store with me and Mom."
Rea grimaced a little, before picking a random skirt.
"What do you think of this one?"
Angel noticed her avoiding the topic and he couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows instead of responding to her question.
Rea looked at him for a couple of seconds, before sighing and putting the skirt back, continuing to look.
"I liked shopping. I just didn't like shopping with you and mom." She shrugged as she spoke honestly, picking another skirt and looking at it.
"Why?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows as he continued following her, seeing her place the skirt on her elbow.
Rea stayed quiet for a bit as she continued to walk slowly, looking around the store.
"Mom got along better with you than with me. So, it was just awkward for me to be there." She said softly.
Angel raised his eyebrows in shock as he looked at the back of her head.
"What? Mom always liked you better."
"Oh come on, Angel." Rea said as she turned to look at him. "Mom was always with you. She barely even looked at me for more than a second. It was always Angel goes first."
Angel kept his mouth shut as he acknowledged she was right to an extent.
Their mother had a tendency to pick favorites on different days, but Angel always got the better end of the stick.
Rea sighed as she turned and continued looking through the racks.
"I always liked going to stores with mom, but whenever you were there, it was always what you wanted to do, or what you wanted to buy. If we were in the mall and I wanted to go to see the water fountain, you would say you wanted to go to the candy store, and that's where we would go."
"If you said you wanted a dog plushie, you would get it, but if I said I wanted the same thing, she'd buy it but with disdain."
Angel was hearing these words for the first time.
When they were children, they'd always end up arguing about favoritism, but he thought she was exaggerating then. Now that he's older, he's realizing how much of her words are true.
"Why don't you like hanging out with me?"
Rea wanted to ask him this question since they had that small conversation in their hotel room, but she never had the courage to ask him again after his answer before was so vague.
They weren't looking at each other as they continued walking in the store. It would make things more awkward for Angel and horribly emotional for Rea. So, she avoided looking at him.
"I told you already. You always want to leave and then we have to leave. Or you're mean to my friends."
Rea nodded her head in understanding, before tilting her head.
"Can I tell you why?" Her voice broke a little but she only continued looking through the rack.
She realized that, just like she had chosen to have Heeseung read her like an open book, quite literally, she was supposed to do the same with her brother.
"Yes."
"Since we were kids, you would always choose your friends over me. You would go out with them and even stupid things like, letting them in your room. You never let me. And it's stupid, because I know we were kids, but... I just always felt like you pushed me to the side. In middle school and even in high school. That's why in college, I avoided chasing you, or hanging around you in general."
She somehow felt guilty saying those words out loud.
Angel quietly listened to her..
"And there were times, where I felt like- like I was supposed to look for you, and ask you for help, but because I felt like you would push me away, I never did. I hated you, sometimes." She admitted in almost a whisper, as she felt the lump in her throat grow and the tears threaten to spill.
Angel felt tears in his eyes too, and he tried blinking them away as he looked up at the ceiling.
"I-I'm sorry."
"It's okay. We didn't know better. I probably have a lot of things to apologize to you about too."
"I never meant to push you away. I love you more than anything in this world."
"Ew." She chuckled through her tears, making him smile too.
Rea felt his arms wrap around her shoulders in a hug and she contained her sobs.
"Why are we doing this in the middle of a store?" She cried making Angel laugh through his own tears.
"It's okay, the French don't know who we are."
"I love you too, Angel."
"I guess the twin bonding trip is bonding now."
She smiled softly at his words as she caressed his forearm, before he let her go and wiped his tears.
Rea finally turned to face him as she reached to wipe her tears but her hands were full with clothes.
Angel smiled in amusement as he wiped her tears for her, making her chuckle again.
"Let's actually get to know each other better. Not just petty things that we know since we were children. I love drinking, especially red wine. I don't drink white wine as much anymore. And I partied a lot in college, I went wild." She informed in a list form, thinking of other things to say.
"I went shopping a lot with friends. I've only dated Josh before. I hate blue cheese now. My favorite food is not Aioli pasta anymore, and now it's buttered lobster. I love archaeology more than I did when I was younger."
Angel nodded his head as he took in the new information.
"I'm very sensitive to words, especially yours. I-I was very depressed throughout my sophomore year of college, due to some circumstances. I read a lot of romance books, and sometimes I'd use your jeans thinking I looked good in them whenever you didn't come back from college during breaks." She continued before thinking again. "I think that's all that I can tell you. We'll figure everything out as we go."
"My favorite color is not red anymore, it's purple. I also like drinking a lot, but I prefer shots of tequila, even though I'm a lightweight. I was also very depressed during my freshman year of college, because I was away from you, mom and dad. I also hate blue cheese. I'm not sensitive to words, but I am sensitive to your words. I was jealous of you in high school, because you were too smart and dad would compare me to you. I love keeping the windows open while I sleep even if it's cold. And I used to fart in your room to see if you would notice a difference in the smell."
Rea stared at him at the last sentence he said, before slapping his arm harshly, the clothes following her and swinging against him too.
Angel giggled as he moved away from her, and she couldn't help but laugh a little with him.
"That's disgusting! Why would you do that?"
"Shh, Rea. We're going to get kicked out of the store!"
******///******
Heeseung breathed heavily, laying on the floor as he tried to catch his breath from the intense set he had just done.
"Good job." His trainer said as he passed him another water bottle.
Heeseung sat up slowly as he took huge gulps of the water.
His eyes ran around the training room again, as he noticed Dal running on the treadmill.
Her eyes met his, and she gave him a smile, which he returned with a small nod of his head.
Heeseung's manager walked into the training room with a tablet in his hand and Heeseung rolled his eyes as he noticed what he was here for, laying down on the floor again.
"Heeseung, I need you to answer these questions-"
"Tell Dal to do it."
The manager made a sound of bewilderment as he raised his eyebrows at Heeseung's tone.
"After hanging with that little snake, you have lost your manners."
"Tell Dal to do it, please." He emphasized the last word with a small smile as he looked up. "You haven't given her press interviews in days."
"You're the one making a grand comeback."
"I can do interview questions later; I need to finish my set so I can go on a date." Heeseung shook his head as he stood up, his trainer leading him to another part of the room.
The manager sighed in stress before looking at Dal, who was already looking at them, with an undecipherable emotion in her eyes.
******///******
Rea raised her eyebrows, before reaching for her phone.
She had been trying to reach Josh for the longest time, she was always sent to voicemail.
But she won't stop persisting.
How did he even get here? How does he know where Heeseung is?
She broke out of her thoughts before dialing his number.
It rang and rang again. It rang for a very long time, but she wasn't willing to give up.
"Hello? Rea? Is this you? You're calling me?"
"Stop acting like you didn't call Heeseung's phone, Josh. How do you even have his number?"
"Rea, I don't know what you're talking about."
"It was your number, on his phone, and I answered it, so you kept quiet. Tell me why and how, now." Rea avoided saying things too harshly as she took in a small breath.
She had hunches on her shoulders about Josh at the moment that weren't letting her think properly, and she hoped that these hunches were nothing more than her anxiety.
Josh was that stalker ex, and even if he hadn't done anything to hurt her before, that doesn't guarantee that he can't do anything to hurt Heeseung.
"Why is he not dead yet?"
Rea almost dropped the phone in her hand.
"What are you talking about? What do you think you're saying? Josh, don't even-"
"I'm asking why is he not dead. I thought he died. I told him he would."
Rea immediately felt the urge to do something to him.
She was starting to understand Heeseung when sometimes he thought of others getting hit by trucks, but this time she wanted to be the one driving that truck to run over Josh multiple times until she was satisfied.
"I saw his car turn twice and him being carried out limp. I was happy. But then I find out he's still breathing."
Rea's eyes ran around frantically as she felt tears of anger reach her.
She grabbed Angel's phone from the table, putting Josh on speakerphone and placing both phones together with shaking hands.
"If this has anything to do with you Josh, I promise you that I-"
"You can't do anything. Because you can't prove anything. How would you know if I had something to do with it?"
"Josh, how could you? Are you crazy?"
"His tires weren't equipped for the rain. His team is horribly unaware, and his driving skills probably weren't as good as he thought. That's why he hit that wall and should have never woken up again-"
"Shut up."
"You shouldn't have treated me the way you did, Rea. You shouldn't have ignored me for him. You shouldn't have blocked me!"
"You did all of this because I broke up with you?"
"I love you. And I'd do anything to get the person I love back. He had you, and I wouldn't let him. I told him. I called him and I warned him. He laughed at me. He had the audacity to laugh at me!... He deserves to die."
"You do. More than him." She whispered as she placed her head in her hands.
"Well, things are different now, Rea. The one that should never wake up, is him! I want him to never open his eyes and rot in that hospital bed-"
Rea hung up before placing her head in her hands, turning off the recording on Angel's phone before shaking her head in desperation.
"This is all my fault. It's my fault that you were there." She said dejectedly as she cried quietly.
Rea let herself cry as she quickly picked up the phone, sending the recording to RJ.
"You're going to jail, asshole." She whispered angrily to herself as she compiled into a text everything she knew about Josh.
His full name, pictures, his address, his family members and everything that could help them find him and get him any faster.
She was typing quickly as she wiped her tears, before she threw the phone on the bed.