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A streak of light flashes across the inky sky. Yeon doesn’t care much for it, but Rang immediately cuts away from their conversation, distracted. He looks up. His eyelids flutter shut, and his lips move as he mouths something inaudible.
Yeon watches in surprise. His brother is the type to offer wishes and seduce poor unsuspecting humans into a trap, and not one to fall prey to superstitions like shooting stars.
“What was that?” he thinks aloud, when it has died down.
His brother is still facing upwards. “A shooting star.”
“It’s not exactly a star,” Yeon impulsively corrects him. “It’s a—”
“I know it’s a meteor,” Rang interrupts in an irritated tone. He shifts slightly to the left, almost to the edge of the bench they’re occupying, putting more distance between himself and his brother. “I was just - it’s nothing.”
Yeon is intrigued. There’s so much he doesn’t know about his baby brother, so much he wants to find out about, and so little time. “I thought you were the type to flick coins into ponds and wishing wells, not pray to passing rays of light.”
His remark is met with a blank stare. “What?”
“Nothing,” Yeon dismisses. He should’ve realised that the pond incident has not happened yet for his brother. While Rang is aware his brother is from the future, he still doesn’t know what he’s in store for, himself. And he’s not supposed to, because such things are meant to be spoilers, as they say, and as he’s been warned.
Rang goes back to staring at nothing, deep in thought.
“What did you wish for?” Yeon asks, curious to know what’s in his mind. He wants to make good of every moment he gets with his brother, to make up for the time they’ve lost, time that could’ve been fulfilling and full of love and togetherness.
“I’m not telling you,” says his brother, like the child he was when they had first met. The only thing that’s missing is the childish pout.
“Money?” Yeon prompts, because is that not what most gangs of bandits are after?
Rang scoffs. “Not worth wasting a wish on.”
“Power, then?” Yeon goes on, recalling how the young lad had decimated an entire village. “You wish to be invincible.”
Rang shakes his head.
Yeon moves on to the next item on his list. “Immortality?”
His brother shoots him a sharp look. “Isn’t that more of a curse? You should know that better than anyone else. People around you - those you love - they wither and die while you—” Something changes in his countenance, and he leaves it unsaid.
Yeon takes a few seconds to study his brother’s eyes. There’s a spark in them that’s not been there before he met the mermaid girl. He smiles when her eyes brighten, And her eyes brighten when he smiles. A good-looking couple, they’re bashful around each other, sweet as two peas in a pod. Agreed, these dates began as compulsions, but off late, Rang seems to be looking forward to meeting her. Is it… can it possibly be…?
“Rang-ah?”
When Rang looks down with a wistful sigh, Yeon can tell his guess is right. His head is full of her. His heart is taken. It's the pretty mermaid. “Her,” he quietly voices it. “That’s what you crave, Rang-ah.”
His eyes light up for a second, but the next second, he withdraws into a shell. Shoulders straight and chest out, Rang is instantly all alertness. Gone is his droopy posture, and gone is that look in his eyes. “You can’t simply go on making assumptions like this.”
“I’m right this time,” Yeon continues to probe. “You have fallen in love—”
“Love is too strong an emotion,” Rang hurriedly cuts him. “It’s scary. When it doesn’t go your way, all it leaves you with is emptiness and loneliness.”
Yeon is silent. Who better than him to vouch for this? But the wait, if you’re patient and persevering, is worth it, for it has reunited him with his Ah-eum.
“I’m not cut out for things like that,” Rang continues, with no prompting this time, breaking through Yeon’s thoughts.
Yeon shifts closer to narrow the gap between them. “So you are in love.”
“No!” Rang hastily denies, but thankfully, doesn’t shun the proximity.
Yeon only knows quite well what’s running through his dongsaeng’s mind. “So she did manage to win you over.”
Rang answers with a frown. “I told you I’m not in love with her.”
Yeon grins. “And I’m supposed to believe that.”
His brother mutters something under his breath and goes back to shooting glares at the darkness.
“Come on,” Yeon coaxes, nudging his brother playfully in the side with his elbow. “You can confide in me. Brothers are meant to have such talks—”
“You’ve never been there for me,” Rang immediately accuses. “Why now?”
That is harsh as hell, and it stings. But his brother’s indignation is justified. “Let’s just say I want to compensate for the past.” And treasure what I have, because now is all I have. He doesn’t push, though. Rang must confide in him only when he wants to, if he wants to. What he can do is wait with open arms.
“My heart flutters,” Rang opens up, a dreamy smile on his lips. “It beats harder whenever I see her.”
Yeon throws an arm around his brother’s shoulders. “I can see that. However—” Yeon can’t help but smile. Given Rang’s aversion to water, of all the women he could have, he had to go and lose his heart to a mermaid? “What if she expects you to come live with her in the ocean—”
“I’m scared,” Rang says, ignoring the teasing. “I’m worried it might not end well. That I might lose her forever.”
Yeon’s recollection of the future feels like a blow to his belly, but now is not the time to speak of that. “It’s alright to be scared,” he whispers, giving his brother’s arm a gentle squeeze. “But that doesn’t mean you should give up what you have now.”
Rang ponders his advice, but when he opens his mouth to reply, another shooting star lights up the sky. This time, Yeon joins his brother in saying a little prayer. He has never believed in all this, but it won’t hurt to try. If - if this gives him a chance - even the slimmest- to change what he has been through and Rang is yet to go through, is it not worth it? There's nothing he wants more, than to be with the two people he loves. He yearns for things to change, pleading with whoever is up there, listening, for Rang too, like Ji-ah, to be a part of his tomorrow, and the day after, and the many years after that.
When he opens his eyes, though, Yeon is too overwhelmed to speak. “We should head back inside,” he says, taking his arm off his brother and getting up.
“Hyung,” Rang calls, when he begins walking away.
Yeon halts, but doesn’t turn. He waits for his brother’s footsteps to approach him.
“What did you wish for?” asks Rang, his turn this time.
“I’m not telling you,” Yeon replies, for he knows if he opens up, he might get overly emotional and break down about the future.
“You should,” Rang pursues, just like Yeon earlier did. “Brothers are meant to have such talks.”
Yeon stands there, still with his back to his brother. He can feel his lips tremble. He wants to - he wants to tell him everything. He wants it all to gush out like water from a dam, but will he be able to face the void if he’s not able to save his little brother when this is all over?
“Let’s go,” he murmurs, because if he stays here any longer, he won’t be able to contain himself.
“Your lover,” Rang surmises, before he can bolt off. “But you said you already found her in your future. So what more could you possibly want?”
“It was not just about her.” Yeon can feel his eyes flood. “Love is not just about the woman you love, Rang-ah. It—” He gulps down the obstruction in his throat. “It’s about everyone you love. Your family, your brother…”
He stops at that and proceeds to leave.
“It's what I asked for,” says Rang. The next moment he’s in Yeon’s way, blocking his exit, his eyes meeting Yeon’s. “It was not just her I wished for, hyung,” he admits, his voice cracking. Those unshed tears - they’re in his eyes too. And love - such a lot of love that wasn’t there before - or maybe, it was always there, and he just couldn’t see it then. “Love is not just about the woman you love, no?” Rang continues in a hushed tone, his hand reaching out to Yeon’s. “It’s about—” He blinks, and a stream of those tears escape his eyes. “I’m scared about being left alone,” he gently admits. Yeon can see the little boy he’d rescued stand before him, lost and terrified. “But it’s alright to be scared, no? It’s—”
When he breaks away, unable to speak, Yeon pulls him into an embrace. Time stops, and with it, his apprehensions weaken. They’ll come back later in full strength, he knows, but this is the moment to pin his hopes on his hope and to not give up what he has here, in his arms. Now is his chance to right all wrongs, to make a vow, a resolution he’ll do his best to keep.
“I won’t abandon you, Rang-ah,” he promises, combing his fingers through brother’s hair. “Not now. Not ever again.”
When Rang’s hot tears seep through his shirt, Yeon lets his flow, too. While time may or may not take his side, now is the time to let go and be a brother to his brother. To make a wish for his wish to come true.