Chapter 6
As the elevator doors closed, I saw my expressionless face reflected in them.
My abdomen cramped with pain.
Actually, in the beginning, my relationship with Jake wasn’t as bad as this.
When we were young, although he didn’t like me, he never did or said anything too extreme.
Compared to Dad who treated me like I was invisible, Jake as a brother was the only person I felt close to.
Back then I thought, even if Jake didn’t like me, we were still family. That’s what blood ties meant.
Until middle school, when Tina came to live with us.
That’s when I realized.
Brothers could actually be so nice to others.
Not always wearing a cold expression, not telling her to “get lost,” not mocking her with sarcasm.
That was how a brother should really treat a sister.
But Tina wasn’t satisfied.
On the fifth day after she transferred to my middle school, when I came home from school, Jake slapped me hard across the face.
I held my cheek and stared at him in shock. He was saying things I couldn’t understand.
Bullying.
Evil.
Vicious.
Apologize.
But when I saw Tina standing behind him, head bowed and clutching his shirt,
These scattered words suddenly pieced together into a complete lie in my mind.
I tried to explain.
But he didn’t believe me.
The argument that erupted that day and the obvious favoritism suddenly shattered the naive and foolish thoughts I once had.
Jake wasn’t stupid enough to be unable to tell right from wrong.
It was simply that he chose not to.
I seemed to belatedly realize on that day.
My brother truly harbored genuine hatred towards me.
My relationship with Jake deteriorated rapidly.
Unfortunately, in my foolishness and immaturity at the time, I only thought that rather than having him treat me like a stranger like Dad did, I might as well antagonize him.
At least then,
Jake would see me.
The tense relationship between us continued until I was eighteen.
At eighteen, I was dragged into hell.
After eighteen, my relationship with Jake suddenly became that of strangers.
Like a war that abruptly ceased.
We no longer argued, no longer lashed out hysterically, no longer confronted each other.
Just cold indifference, as if we didn’t know each other at all.