Chapter Text
One evening, I was coming home for the weekend.
My mother was coming back the next day, and I wanted to be there for her arrival.
The evening with Fang had been quiet, and we had gone to bed not too late.
I was in bed, but I wasn't asleep. I was texting Peem, and we were having a good laugh... when I started to hear footsteps.
I figured it must be Fang, doing something in the house.
Suddenly, the kitchen door slammed. My heart skipped a beat. Panicked at first, then driven by adrenaline, I grabbed my high school baseball bat and went out to check if there was an intruder.
And I found the intruder very quickly. In the middle of the hallway: Tan.
“What the hell, Phum! What are you doing in the middle of the night with a bat? Are you trying to hurt me?”
“I should be asking you that! What are you doing here?”
“What do you think? Your brother wanted to see me.”
At that moment, my brother came out of his room, pale as a sheet and clearly confused.
“Tan, who are you talking to? Oh, Phum! I'm sorry, we woke you up... you can go back to bed.”
“But P’, are you okay? You look pale...”
“Yes, don't worry. Tan came to help me. We didn't want to disturb you. Good night, see you tomorrow.”
And then... that was the last straw. My brother would rather call Tan in the middle of the night to come and take care of him than simply knock on my door, which is three meters away!
I understand that he doesn't want to bother me, that I'm his little brother... but at that point, I felt like he was relying too much on Tan.
I felt really weird when I went back to bed. I didn't understand why. Did I feel like Tan was replacing me? Was it the shock of seeing him in the middle of the night, thinking he was an intruder?
I finally fell asleep. We'd see about it tomorrow.
The next day, at breakfast... Tan was already gone. Gone. I thought he would at least stay to meet my mother... but he had already left. I didn't know what to think about it all.