Chapter 2

The next day, after my dressing was changed, Tim brought me home.

We'd barely walked in when my mother called, her voice frantic.

"Was that Sophie in the photo? What happened? Didn't I tell you to look after her?"

I froze, and just as I was about to speak, Tim came over.

"No, Auntie, it was Adela, not Sophie."

My mother let out a breath.

"How's everything going? Sophie hasn't been any trouble, has she?"

I looked around at the apartment, at Sophie's traces everywhere, and didn't know what to say.

Tim smiled.

"She's been good. No trouble at all."

Hearing his voice, Sophie came bounding over in the same women's couple's pajamas as mine.

"Auntie, I've been so well-behaved!"

The two of them took the phone and sat at the other end of the couch to talk, as if I weren't there at all.

And with just a few words, they had my mother laughing, no longer caring in the slightest that the one who'd gotten hurt was her own daughter.

By the time I finished washing up and came out, their call had ended.

Tim handed me the phone.

"Auntie says there's no rush on Sophie finding work. She'll stay here for now, and you should look after her more when you can."

I looked down at my leg, at the crutch, and found it almost funny.

He glanced at it too.

"It's nothing serious. I asked. Just a pulled ligament and some scrapes. Rest well."

The next second, Sophie, in the middle of drying her hair, cried out.

"Ow, that hurts!"

Tim spun around and went straight to her, dropping the hair dryer to the floor.

There was a crack, and the casing broke.

That was the dryer he'd bought me once, after I happened to mention my hair felt dry. He'd looked it up, asked his coworkers, picked it out for me. I'd always treasured it.

"Careful."

Then he pulled a stack of medical supplies out of the cabinet, disinfectant, burn ointment, and dabbed it onto her hand bit by bit, worry and tenderness spilling out of his eyes.

Sophie shrank back.

"It's fine, it was only for a second."

He blew on it gently.

"Even a second can burn you. Be more careful. Next time I'll dry it for you."

Tim gathered everything up and tossed the broken dryer into the trash.

There was a thud, as if it were my heart that had been thrown away.

My phone lit up. I opened it. A message from my mother.

【You should learn from your sister, be more cheerful, stop moping around all day. Men don't like that.】

Something in my chest went bitter.

Ever since my aunt died, my mother had taken my cousin into our home.

I was no longer her most beloved daughter. Every time I felt jealous, she'd say you're the older one, she'd say your aunt is gone, you have to feel for your sister.

So everything of mine had to be shared with her.

Her personality was easy, and it made the steadiness I'd had since childhood look withdrawn and difficult instead.

Everyone started comparing us.

Little by little, my mother came to feel that I wasn't as likable as my sister.

When I finally won Tim over, she was happy for exactly one second before saying, if only your sister could find someone like this.

Half a year ago, she sent my sister here to look for work, gave her living money every month, mailed her treats. And for me, all she had was, you earn your own money now, take care of yourself.

My eyes stung. I turned off the phone and went back to the bedroom.

In the early hours, I woke up in pain, my throat parched.

"I want some water..."

My hand groped across the bed for a long moment and never found Tim. I switched on the lamp. The space beside me had long gone cold.

I climbed slowly out of bed and opened the door.

Sophie's bedroom door was open, the light on.

Tim stood by her bed, letting her lean into him, gently stroking her hair.

"Don't be scared. It was only a nightmare. I'll sleep on the floor and stay with you."

Fighting through the pain, I made it to the water dispenser, not noticing the water on the floor.

The crutch slipped, and I went down with a thud.

After a while, footsteps came from the hall. He walked toward me and held out his hand.

"Keep it down, she just fell asleep."

Sophie's soft crying drifted from the bedroom.

"Tim... I'm scared."

In an instant, he let go of my hand and hurried off.

"Your leg's bad, so stop moving around. Just go rest."

My hand hung frozen in the air.

In that moment, I suddenly felt how pointless it all was.

A man with no room in his eyes for me. I didn't want to love anymore.