Detecting Falsehood

I lower my head until it's touching the table, and my sister chuckles at me, gently hitting me on the top of my head with the menu, not knowing that it hurts a little. "Don't be such a drama queen, Tae. It's just a question."

I look up to glare dramatically at her, pouting slightly. "There's no need to hit me, noona," I complain, and she shrugs.
"That wasn't enough to hurt. I know my own strength, Tae," she counters, and to my surprise it's Jungkook that replies to that.

"You haven't seen his injuries," he says quietly, and she frowns in concern, the look in her eyes much more serious now.
"Injuries? And did you say bandages earlier?"

I nod awkwardly. "I was a blackmail hostage," I explain simply. "The company decided to back out on part of the deal and he decided the best way to solve the situation was to have me beaten."

"Two broken ribs, bloody nose, severe damage to both legs, bruising on the stomach, high chance of internal bleeding. Some nasty hits to the head. And then a panic attack," Jungkook lists quietly. "I couldn't stop the beating, but the moment he started to panic, I couldn't stand by any longer. I hacked into the systems and ran down to help calm him back down again."

"Is this true, Tae?"
"Yes, noona. Every bit of it. But you've got to realise. His brother was like an idol. It doesn't matter who he really was. It's the impression he created on his own twin."

Taewa takes a deep breath, clearly struggling to wrap her head around what Jungkook had to deal with as a child. "Okay," she says quietly, nervously. "I can understand that. It'll take me a while to get used to, though. I think that's fair."

Jungkook nods quickly. "Of course. It takes time to figure it all out, I get it. I had the same problem, even though it was my situation to navigate."

The waitress appears with our food maybe a few seconds after this, and we pause the conversation to just eat for a while. My sister seems surprised by our desperate need to have food in our stomachs, until I casually inform her that we've been on the run from the gang for maybe a day and a half now. We haven't been able to do something as simple as eating for about thirty six hours.

Sure, it may be selfish of me to say it, but when I finally get to fill my stomach after so long, I think it's fair that I'm focused on that action. I know that others have it worse. I'm not an idiot. It's just strange to me that other people have so much self control.

And then I look up from my meal to see that Taewa is quietly crying, ignoring her own order completely, and I forget that desperate hunger. It doesn't matter as much as she does.

"Noona?" I ask nervously, in an almost gentle voice. She lowers her head, the tears streaming faster down her face at the sound of my voice, and for a moment I don't know what to do. How to help her. "What's wrong?"

She chokes on a sob, looking back up at me, her eyes finally revealing the unguarded truth, and my heart shatters. "Noona," I mumble, standing up and scooting round to her side of the table to hug my sister, who nearly breaks down in my arms. "I'm sorry, I really am. If I could've gotten out any faster, I would have."

I bite my lip, glancing over at Jungkook, worried that he's judging us, only to see that he's avoiding all eye contact, choosing to stare down at his plate instead with an intensity that could probably break the poor thing. His eyes are red, and there's a familiarly guilty expression on his face.

Of course. He blames himself for all of this.

"I just can't-" Taewa stops herself before she lets everything go, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to remain calm. "It doesn't matter. I'm glad you're alive. I really hope you can come home, little brother. We all need you. They wouldn't believe me if I told them that you were back. They'd think I'd gone insane."

Her hand reaches out, brushing over the bruises still faintly visible on my face. "They've changed you, somewhat, I can see it," she says quietly. "What did they do to my little brother? Why did they need to hurt you? I just don't get it, Tae. I really don't understand why anyone would want to hurt you, of all people. It makes no sense."

I smile sadly, shaking my head and making my way back to my seat, picking up a mouthful of food. "I'd rather me than you, sis. I wouldn't be able to cope without you. You're so strong, you know that, right?"

She chuckles slightly, her eyes still brimming with tears as she finally pays attention to the plate in front of her. "I don't feel strong," she confesses after a few seconds of silence. "I just did what I had to, in order to make sure that nobody else broke. I'm at the end of my tether."

"This is all my fault," Jungkook says hollowly, pushing the plate away from himself, and for a moment my sister frowns at him, trying to see if he's lying. Then she collects herself and leans over the table, wiping the single tear from his cheek. He just looks up, shocked.

"It's not your fault," she tells him simply. "It's okay to feel guilty, but don't blame yourself. You didn't know that all of this would happen, even I can tell that. You're one of us now, Kook. I'm your new sister. Let it out, because otherwise you will shatter. Tae and I both don't want it. You're with family now."

For a moment, Jungkook can't breathe, and then he buries his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking, his whole body curling inwards. I lean over instantly, wrapping my arms around him without even thinking about it, almost protecting him from the outside world, pulling him forward and holding him tight and safe. He just cries harder into my chest, seeming to almost revert back to the thirteen year old waiting for instructions from a dying twin.

My sister watches us for a moment, settling back into her seat to give us space, and then suddenly her face changes. It's an expression I've never seen before, something warmer and more genuine than anything she's ever expressed in such a way. I don't really know where it's come from, or what it means, but at this point I don't really care. My focus is on the breaking twenty year old in my arms.

When we finally pull apart again, Jungkook immediately hunches into himself, clearly not used to allowing himself to put his faith in another person like that after so long. Taewa nods to herself.

"I think I understand it now," she says softly, ignoring the confusion on both our faces. "You've been through a lot together, haven't you? Even with the whole misunderstanding and the connection to the whole genes thing, even with the fake name and all of that. You have a connection."

"A what?" Jungkook mumbles, baffled.

"A connection," she repeats. "You almost need each other now, I can see it in your eyes. If Jungkook slipped out of your life tomorrow, Tae, you'd hate it. You'd miss him. And he'd miss you. I don't think you can call yourselves acquaintances anymore, or even friends."

"Then what are we?" I ask her, leaning forward, placing my forearms on the table, and she shrugs.
"I don't really know. I only know that you haven't had a chance to notice it. You've been too focused on staying alive, which makes sense given the danger of your situation. But I can see it, as an outsider. And I won't be the only one."

She bites her lip, looking around the cafe nervously. "We've drawn too much attention with our emotional outbursts, I think. We need to move out of here before we start getting questions that we can't answer. I don't want to part with you yet, I need to figure some things out and convince myself that I'm not going insane."

She calls over the waitress a few minutes later, when we've finished eating, telling her that we would like to pay now. I watch my sister pay for the food, and for a moment her unbothered stance surprises me yet again. She doesn't seem scared of being found. She's calm, composed.

But then I guess she's had to learn how to pretend. These last few months have been so difficult, and in order to get anywhere in life she's had to at least appear to be sane. She can't be unhinged in a workplace. And if our parents really stepped out of their jobs for a while, she was the only source of income for the whole family.

In a sense, she never had any chance to do anything other than pretend, for the sake of others. And I understand that.

I've been doing that my whole life.