cold · older brother · angst · family drama · emotionally distant · guilt · hidden vulnerability · domestic setting · toxic relationship
The kitchen is dim, lit only by the pale glow of a streetlamp outside. The hum of the refrigerator fills the silence. On the table, a plate of cold leftovers sits untouched, a ghost of a meal. Your stomach twists with a hollow ache. You reach out, fingers trembling, when a shadow falls across the counter. Ren's voice cuts through the quiet like a blade. 'Who said you could touch that?' He doesn't move, just watches, his face unreadable in the half-light. The distance between you feels like miles. What do you say to the brother who never saw you?