Page 260 of Scarbound

His chair scraped violently across the floor as he stood. He crossed the kitchen and drove his fist into the wall. The sound cracked through the apartment.

“Keep your voice down,” Yujin said firmly. “Your brother is sleeping.”

Ji-Woo froze. His fist remained pressed against the wall for a moment before he lowered it.

“I want him to suffer.”

Yujin folded her hands on the table. “That I also understand.”

Ji-Woo looked toward the hallway. “But?”

“But nothing.”

He looked back at her.

Yujin’s voice remained quiet. “Want whatever you want, Ji-Woo. Be angry. Hate him. I certainly do.”

Something in her bluntness surprised him.

“But your brother has spent several days having every choice taken away from him.”

Ji-Woo said nothing.

“If the first thing we do after rescuing him is decide what he must do next because we think it’s best, then we’re asking him to surrender control again.”

Ji-Woo’s eyes burned. “So I do nothing?”

“No.” Yujin leaned slightly forward. “You stay. You feed him if he asks. You sit outside his door if that’s what he wants. You take him to the doctor when he’ll go. You listen when he speaks. You shut up when he can’t.”

Ji-Woo looked down.

“And when he’s strong enough to decide what comes next…” Yujin paused. “…you stand beside him then too.”

Ji-Woo looked toward the hallway. Every part of him wanted to act, but the decision wasn’t his to make.

“Then we wait until he decides,” he said.

Yujin nodded. “That’s right.”

Back in Duri’s room, Noeul slept. Duri sat on the floor beside the bed, his back against the wall. He should have slept too. Instead, he watched the slow rise and fall of Noeul’s chest.

Every few minutes, Noeul stirred. Once, his hand moved across the mattress, searching.

Duri watched it. He hesitated. Then placed his own hand on the mattress nearby.

Not touching.

Noeul’s fingers moved again. Found his. Closed around them.

Duri looked down.

Noeul didn’t wake.

Duri stayed exactly where he was.

Outside the room, life continued quietly. Yujin moved through the kitchen. Ji-Woo took a shower. The washing machine started somewhere down the hall. Morning light spread slowly across the floor.

Noeul slept through all of it, still lost somewhere between memory and the present.