270 Brother????
It has been 10 days.
Kairen had just found out that he had been here, with his brother, for 10 days. He was unconscious for a week before waking up for a few minutes and ten fainting for another three days, only to wake up and faint again after hearing that he had been away from Earth for 17 years. He had just woken up after being unconscious for half an hour.
“You are an old man now...”
Kairen mumbled absentmindedly while staring at his brother.
“Yeah.”
Aaron just nodded.
“I’m old too...”
Kairen again mumbled while staring at the ceiling.
“You are only 33.”
.....
“That’s old.”
Kairen raised his head to stare at his brother’s face.
“Do I look like a 33-year-old to you?”
“You are more like a 3-year-old to me.”
“...”
His brother’s answer, which came immediately, hurt more than the wound on Kairen’s shoulder.
“That’s not fair...”
PUFF
He laid back down on the bed.
“But aside from that... I’ve been here for ten days...”
Wasn’t that too much? How come he hasn’t healed yet?
Also, how come they weren’t caught? He, a wounded agent, and Asa, a precious healer of SMF’s unit 5 were kidnapped and were being held in this place. Shouldn’t SMF come after them? Didn’t that commander bastard babble about how valuable Kairen’s power was? What? Why didn’t anybody come after them?
“It’s because I’m too good for those fools to track down and capture. Heh!”
“....”
Kairen didn’t respond to his brother’s ridiculing statement.
“I should go back.”
“No.”
“I have to go back!”
“I said no. No is no.”
“Why?”
Kairen jumped up again.
“Isn’t it obvious? You will die if you stick with those people.”
“Then, will I be fine if I join Philomns?”
“I never said you had to join Philomns!”
“Then what?”
Aaron put the plate full of sliced fruits in front of Kairen.
“We will run away.”
“Huh?”
Kairen stopped stuffing the fruits into his mouth after hearing those words.
“Why would we work for SMF or Philomns anyway? This is not our world. Let them do whatever they want with their lives. I won’t let you get involved in their shit.”
“...”
Kairen put down the fork that he used to pick up the sliced apples.
“But I’m already involved?”
Wasn’t Kairen already deep in shit?
“Doesn’t matter. No one will be able to do anything to you as long as you are with me. I will protect you so neither SMF nor Philomns can do any harm to you. I’m pretty strong.”
“....”
Kairen kinda felt happy hearing those words. It felt nice knowing that his brother wanted to protect him. For him, who had thought that his brother might not want to meet him again and was avoiding him on purpose, seeing that his brother was willing to go so far for him felt more than pleasing.
“Ahem!”
Kairen coughed awkwardly.
“Thank you. And I really want to do the same thing, but I can’t.”
Aaron frowned at his words.
“Why?”
Kairen lowered his head.
“I still have things to take care of.”
There was Kain, who he had to find a cure for. For Kairen, Kain was a precious family member. If not as much as his real brother Ron, not less from him. Kain was his brother.
Kairen always had doubts about how he was supposed to act around Kain. In fact, he still didn’t know. He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that he was the same kid from his memories. It felt strange and scary at the same time. He had two lives in two different worlds. How was he supposed to manage two different lives? One was more than burdening and he had an extra one now.
Kain was his family. Even if he couldn’t accept the fact that he was indeed Kairen 1, even if he didn’t have the memories and the feelings of the Kairen who had lived in this world for 10 years, Kain was still his family. Even if Kairen couldn’t connect to the person he was before he lost his memories yet, Kain was still someone who gave him a home and cared about him more than anyone else.
Kairen couldn’t abandon him.
And more than anything else...
“I also made a promise I can’t break.”
He was away from home for ten days! Ten fucking days. What about Ariyan? The little kid was left alone in the house!
Kairen was drowning in his huge poll of guilt. He had left a lonely kid alone at home for TEN days. Not to mention that he also broke the promise of not getting hurt.
“I have to go back.”
“...”
Aaron closed his eyes. He said nothing for only a few minutes, but that short silence felt like an eternity to Kairen. It was scary in fact. Nothing good would happen if his brother went silent like this all of a sudden.
“So... You don’t want to come with me?”
Aaron finally said, his voice cold and at the same time disappointed. It sounded both threatening and sad.
“Ah? No!”
Kairen shook his head.
“I didn’t say that!”
“Then what?”
“Obviously, we will go back together!”
“...”
Aaron tilted his head from side to side.
“Yes?”
Kairen moved his body. His position was not comfortable and he couldn’t see his brother’s face clearly so he moved a little bit to sit up straight. His body didn’t hurt that much. He thought Aaron must’ve fed him some medicine when he was unconscious, and he was grateful to him.
Seeing him move, Aaron rushed to stop him, but he then stopped midway and went back to sit on his chair and folded his arms with a sudden angry face.
‘Huh?’
Kairen was dumbfounded, but he didn’t say anything because he was scared. Was his brother mad at him?
“Ahem! Even if I want to, I can’t go back alone... I’m injured after all.”
Aaron’s frown deepened.
“You want me to bring you to your base so that you can go back to live with that other ‘brother’ of yours while I get captured and executed, huh?”
.....
“....”
Blink Blink
‘Huh?’
Kairen opened and closed his eyes.
“Hmph!”
“...”
Aaron just snorted at his dumbfounded expression and retorted his face. Sitting on the bed, Kairen stared at the man who was frowning and huffing like a little kid.
‘Is he really 45?’
That was the first thing that crossed Kairen’s mind before he had a sudden realization.
‘Wait... is he...’
“...Are you jealous?”
Kairen blurted out loud.
“WHAT?”
Aaron almost screamed, making Kairen flinch and move back on his bed a little bit.
“Y-you are jealous of Kain-”
“What the hell are you-”
“Jealous that I found another brother!”
“Shut up!”
Aaron jolted up from his seat, stormed towards Kairen, and grabbed his collar.
“Hey Hey!”
Kairen was honestly terrified. He just wanted to tease the man, but his brother looked too mad all of a sudden. Would he be murdered by his brother just after their reunion? No! Please no!
“What the hell do you mean by another brother? Huh?”
“I-I was just joking! Ron! Brother! Dear brother let me go!”
Shake Shake Shake
Aaron was shaking Kairen’s body back and forth.
“Seems like you had a lot of fun here, huh? Did you enjoy finding another brother? Was he better than me?”
“Ron! Please! I didn’t mean that!”
‘I’m injured! I’ll faint again! Stop!’
The man didn’t stop. Instead, he pulled Kairen up a little bit.
“Do you actually like this place more than our own home? Answer me!”
Kairen shivered after making eye contact with his brother’s scary eyes and hurriedly looked away. His brother seemed to be about to burst from anger, or maybe burst open Kairen’s skull. Kairen had seen him angry so many times, but he was never like this. Not this angry, nor this irritable.
‘Did he grow anger issues in that 17 years?’
SLAAAMMM
The door of the room burst open and someone jumped inside.
“What is wrong why are you yelling Mr. Hey-”
It was claire, who had an anxious look on her face. But as soon as she made eye contact with Aaron, who was grabbing Kairen by the collar, Claire’s face turned to that of a blank one before she made a sad and embarrassed face.
“I mean sir handsome and young man who I don’t know the name of and just refer to Hey. I rushed to this place upon hearing a loud yell coming from this room. Sir, would you like to explain the situation to this poor teenager?”
Claire pressed her lips together as she said that.
“....”
“....”
Kairen looked up at his brother.
‘Why is this girl behaving like this what did you do to her?’
“I said talk to me like before.”
Aaron commented nonchalantly. There were no hints of his previous anger in his voice.
“No sir.”
“...Claire, you know you were the one who assumed that I was an old man. I never told you anything about my age.”
“Yes sir. I was wrong. Forgive me.”
“Claire-”
“Seems like there was nothing important, so I will take my leave. Have a nice day.”
SLAM
Claire left the room and slammed the door.
“....”
“....”
Aaron glanced at Kairen, who was still dangling from his hand holding his collar.
“What did you do to the girl?”
“...She is mad at me because I wasn’t the old man she thought I was.”
“...But you are an old man though.”
“No, I’m a handsome young man.”
“....”
“....”
‘Seems like his anger subsided...’
Kairen thanked Claire internally for saving his life.
“Listen, Ron.”
Kairen grabbed Aaron’s hand holding his collar.
“I have a plan. Okay?”
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶