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Han Yoojin grew up taking care of his baby brother.
It's not like there was any other choice when his parents passed. He's the older one, he's almost legal, he's fit and healthy, why should Yoohyun have to suffer?
His adorable little brother. There's nothing Han Yoojin wouldn't do for his brother, and so he drops out of school and starts looking for jobs. Turns out, that despite his young age, as long as you find the right places, you can get hired. There's some illegality here, but at the end of the day, if he gets paid, Han Yoojin doesn't give a shit.
He packs bottles and glasses, carries boxes and metal bars, runs tabs and registers. It's long hours and little pay, as all odd jobs are, but as long as he can put food on the table, there’s not much to complain about.
"Study hard, Yoohyun-ah," is all he asks.
The days repeat, arduous and stretching, until days turn into months into years, and Yoohyun is already turning sixteen.
Han Yoojin feels pride and warmth whenever he looks at his baby brother, who's proving to be a bright kid, excelling in his studies, making friends in school and playing sports.
"Take this and go play with your friends," Han Yoojin says, as he stuffs a few notes into Yoohyun's hands.
"But, Hyung–"
"Take it, you can pay me back when you're older." When Yoohyun remains unmoving, hesitant despite clearly wanting to go out with his friends, Han Yoojin tells a white lie, "I got paid extra for my good performance, so this is spare cash, really."
It's not entirely false, either. Han Yoojin just didn't say that all that he earns is for Yoohyun's sake. It works anyway, so he ruffles Yoohyun's hair dotingly, and leaves for work.
Perhaps it's the abnormally cold weather, perhaps it's the consecutive streak of night shifts, perhaps it's the discounted convenience store kimbap that was expiring soon, Han Yoojin falls sick.
It's climbing his shoulders as he packs the warehouse boxes, it drags his legs as he does deliveries. By the time he's handing over the store to the next employee, a flush hits his cheek and he's started coughing.
It's troubling.
Yoohyun can't afford to fall sick when he's so close to his final year, and honestly, a trip to the doctor's is a waste of time and money. Still, he can't infect Yoohyun with his viruses, so Han Yoojin quickly drops a text, Gonna work the night shift tonight, don't stay up! and makes his way to the nearest public bathhouse.
It's either the heat in the rooms that causes him to sweat, or he's had a stroke of good luck, because Han Yoojin recovers quickly, and is up on his two feet the following morning.
Work resumes as per usual, and winter passes just like that.
Yoohyun turns seventeen, and that's when the world comes apart.
Dungeons, they call it. A door that brings monsters from another dimension, wrecking havoc around the world. It's natural for people to adapt to changes, and the most resilient ones quickly make themselves known in times of crisis.
And his baby brother happened to be one of them.
Yoohyun has always been good at whatever he does, why would this be an exception? Han Yoojin feels like he's watching a chick leave its nest, only that the chick has outgrown the nest. He'll only hold Yoojin back, he knows when it’s time to let go–but he doesn't want to.
"Yoohyun-ah, it's dangerous," he tries, to no avail.
Soon enough, Yoohyun leaves, and he's left alone. The house is large and empty, but he never moves, because Yoohyun might come back one day. Han Yoojin is at square one, waiting, like a grandmother would, standing at the porch, for kids who have already forgotten about her existence.
In the two years he had spent in the military, Han Yoojin watched the news religiously. Because his brother is there, and while Yoohyun may no longer need to be looked after, that’s still his precious family. That's a fact that will never change, and despite Yoohyun being stronger than him too, S-ranked and powerful, Han Yoojin will always want to protect him.
So he went to a broker who was known to be able to awaken people, and took the bait for what it is.
He used the last of his savings, but a fool's gold has no worth, and the big, red F stares back at him.
What was he expecting? Laughing mirthlessly to himself, Han Yoojin packs his things up, and re-adapts to the world that has changed.
There are some things that are constant, and one of them is the way money is earned. With the right (or wrong, rather) people, Han Yoojin manages to find his way into a low-ranked dungeon, farming ores and plants and whatever that he can get his hands on. It's dangerous, sure, but what choice does he have? This is the world that he lives in now.
As luck would have it–and doesn't he have shitty luck? Han Yoojin once thought he was lucky, but that's only true when he was with Yoohyun; does that mean it's Yoohyun who is lucky, and he's just leeching it off of him?–Han Yoojin finds himself with a broken leg during one such dungeon run. He can't remember if it was due to a monster, or if it was done by a fellow dungeon member. Both seem to be possible options, and he wakes up to sterile, white walls.
A faint glimmer lights in his heart. Was it Yoohyun who helped him? Yoohyun didn’t forget about him, after all? He hears familiar footsteps coming his way, and Han Yoojin quickly sits up in growing happiness.
The door opens and–
Oh.
He listens wordlessly to Yoohyun's words: "Then how can you be so shameless? You're no custodian of mine, all you do is drag me down.
"You know what? It's better this way. At least now you'll stop going on those raids that you can't even handle.
"Please just keep a low profile. Stop dragging me down with you."
The most damning thing is that it's true. The media repeats the exact same message; strangers sneer at him upon recognition; what difference does it make, even if he tries? He's weak and powerless and hopelessly trying to cling onto his brother.
No wonder he abandoned me, Han Yoojin scoffs at himself.
He's stirring in his own dark thoughts when he realises abruptly that it's eerily quiet. Then, the ping of the system notifies: [Custodian] title effect in place! Bonus skill [Final Thanks] activated!
Shit. What's going on? The guildmaster died? This was supposed to be an easy dungeon, a breeze for the lower ranks.
Han Yoojin picks up his crutches, wobbling his way around in panic–when he hears it.
The unmistakable, deafening roar of a tier-one dragon.
He feels like an ant, a small fry in the face of the three-headed beast, but foolishly, deep down, he still wants to live. He wants to escape this dungeon, he wants to see his little brother, he hasn't given him New Year's money (not that Yoohyun will need it, but old habits die hard).
But wanting and being able to do so, are two different things.
His limbs are not working quite as well as they did a year before, they haven't been since the injury, and he's constantly needed the aid of crutches to move about. He has to sit down on long train rides, and when the cold weather hits, the joints in his knee ache in particular. He hasn't quite recovered from the injury, to be honest.
Han Yoojin is staring helplessly in the face of the open-mouthed dragon. He squeezes his eyes shut, waiting for the imminent clamp of its jaws around–when he's picked up.
"Y-Yoohyun?! What are you doing here?"
He's not sure what to focus on: the fact that Yoohyun is here, in this dungeon; that every single guild member has probably died and he's the last one left; that this is the first time he's seen Yoohyun fighting.
Han Yoojin is awestruck at the way Yoohyun is moving faster than he can follow with his eyes (it might also be because his head is still ringing from the hard knock against the ground).
Regardless, Yoohyun's movements seem restricted, almost as if he is protecting…
"Yoohyun…!" Han Yoojin calls out, a flare of hope stuck in his throat.
Yoohyun opens his mouth, shouting, and with each sentence, the kindle that was started has been stamped out. Furiously, to ashes.
"Just shut up and go hide in the corner!" Yoohyun finishes, in anger and impatience.
Something in him cracks.
He can't quite hear it, but he feels it. It gets bigger and bigger, until all that's left is the shattered remains of a glass heart.
Han Yoojin realises it then.
He drops his weapon, and forces his legs to stand. "This is all it takes," he says, under his breath.
It must be the enhanced hearing of an S-class, because Yoohyun hears him, and stops arguing back suddenly.
"Even if you save me, I'll just end up slowing you down again. Just let me die here. It'll save you the trouble of holding a funeral for me. I'm sure your guild will be thrilled as well. So just forget about me and–" live your own life.
A pity he couldn't finish his well wishes. Han Yoojin feels the grinding heat of the Rauchitas around him, the scorching acid in its saliva withering at his bones, the suffocation and constriction.
There's pain.
And then, nothing.
"Y-Yoojin?"
Hyung, he wants to cry out, but he lost the right to use that name years ago. He can't call Yoojin Hyung, after all that he has done to push his brother away. Cutting ties with an S-rank is what was safest for him, so, what is this?
Han Yoohyun is shaking in apprehension when the system flashes before him in the next second: [Dependent] title effect in place! Bonus skill [Final Thanks] activated!
He's trying to make sense of what's happening, of what this new title of his is, when everything is answered for him: in the form of Yoojin's memories.
Yoojin standing alone in their kitchen, listlessly stirring his coffee, "Ah, Yoohyun stopped calling me Hyung… I'm not even worth the respect now huh."
Then, the whispers that follows, "How shameless of him. I mean he's just an F-ranker!"
When he’s in the supermarkets, "Aren't you the Haeyeon guildmaster's brother?"
At the dungeon entrance, "F-rank!"
Like it’s a curse, "No wonder that fancy little brother of his abandoned him too!"
Worst of all, himself: "Get lost, Yoojin."
The memory replays, in Yoojin’s subconscious, "All you do is drag me down."
No. No, no, no. It wasn't supposed to go this way! It was meant to protect Yoojin, not to harm him! That's…
Fuck, what has he done?
Han Yoohyun sees the mocking system notice and nearly laughs: You are under the custody of the deceased Han Yoojin. Skills and stats will now have double its effectiveness.
"Let him out," Han Yoohyun grits out, through heated tears, "Let go of my brother!"
Y-Yoojin is dead? And even in death, Yoojin is protecting him? Despite how harshly he has been treated, Yoojin still loves him?
Grief, anger, love; it's a cycle of emotions, and Han Yoohyun feels them all. He throws himself, without fear, head-first into the Rauchitas, chopping off heads and tails and arms. Give him back! he shouts.
The neck of the dragon is sliced open, and the half-mangled form of his brother–all that's left of him–falls into open arms.
"Hyung," he cries, shaking, cradling, "I'm sorry."
The blue light of the rewards from slaying a dragon sound, but Han Yoohyun is too distraught to care about it. Only when it is forced into his face, blocking his view of Yoojin, does he finally look up.
"A wish stone? Bring Yoojin back."
The system denies him. Han Yoohyun yells back in anger: "Fuck, you're useless to me, then!"
It shakes, as if agitated, when Han Yoohyun ignores it, and moves into his face again.
"Fuck off! If you can't bring him back, then you're useless! Fuck!"
In a fit of blinded fury, Han Yoohyun grabs the stone and is about to throw it into the nearest boulder, when it lights up, shining brighter than before.
It asks: Do you wish to turn back time?
To before, when Yoojin would look at him and pat his head? To before, when he hasn't fucked up their relationship? To before, when Yoojin was alive?
Han Yoohyun takes a deep breath and exhales.
"Yes."