Seeing them kiss that night threw my mind into chaos. A storm of emotions, thoughts, decisions—everything mixed together and clouded my judgment.
In that confusion, I shouted them to Stop. I didn't even realize I had said it aloud until they froze and turned toward me.
The moment I understood how naive I had acted, something inside me snapped. I felt like I had gone crazy. When Sophia finally walked toward me, I grabbed her and hugged her tightly… as if holding her would somehow stop time, or stop the future, or stop everything I was afraid of.
Surprisingly, without asking a single question, she rested a warm hand on my back and whispered, "It's just a nightmare, it's just a nightmare." When Ind flipped on the lights, she slid closer and brushed the tears from my cheeks, her voice soft. "It is painful to watch you cry."
A moment later Ind pulled me into a tight embrace, his own eyes watery. "You idiot, you scared the shit out of me!"
I still didn't understand what was happening until I caught my reflection in the mirror, my face streaked with tears. Only then did the truth settle in my chest. All this time it wasn't sadness or guilt clawing at me. It was fear. I had been afraid from the beginning.
I knew how gently Sophia treated Ind, and I knew how good they would be together. Knowing that from the start made me feel uncertain and out of place. I kept imagining that once they became a couple, I would be left behind. That was my worst nightmare. Yet seeing them miserable because of me that day made something shift. I realized how little I had considered their feelings. How immature I had been. Even so, it was still hard for me to accept them as a couple.
Maybe they sensed that I knew about their relationship, because they started acting strangely after that night. At home they barely spoke, rarely looked at each other, as if they were strangers trapped in the same room. Worse, they always seemed sad and lost in their own thoughts.
I knew exactly what they were doing, but I was too selfish and too scared to tell them to stop avoiding each other. It took me nearly two years to finally accept them.
In the meantime, I managed to buy a flat with the money we had saved. I asked Ind to keep it secret from Sophia, because I wanted it to be my graduation gift to her. And on the day of her graduation, he and I took her to see it. The excitement in her eyes said everything. When she hugged me, trembling with happiness, I felt like I had finally done something right, like I had completed my role.
But the flat wasn't the real gift. It was only the wrapping. Her true gift was something she had always secretly wanted, something she never asked for because she knew how I was. Two evening show tickets for her favorite concert, and all the money I had left. I told her to buy a pretty dress and go on a date with her beloved Ind.
She was overjoyed, even cried a little. But she didn't take the money or the tickets. Instead she asked me to go on a date with her. So we did. We went to a movie, then the concert, then the park. We did everything we used to do when we were kids.
Everything except shopping, her absolute favorite thing. When I asked her why, she only smiled, bright and knowing, and said she had already bought a pretty dress for her date with Ind, as if she had expected all of this from the start.
Her answer left me speechless, and the first thing that bloomed inside me was envy toward Ind. So I took Sophia straight to the mall where the three of us had been working.
We had worked in that mall for more than eight years, yet somehow we had never bought a single thing there. So I took her straight to the vintage shop we had always avoided. Our colleagues used to call it "Fantasy shop," as buying something from there was a fantasy for us and for good reason. Even the air inside felt expensive.
I told her to choose anything she liked. She immediately tried to escape, but I caught her wrist and dragged her through every aisle. Even then she kept checking the price tags first, then the items, as if the numbers were more terrifying than the clothes. I tried everything, convincing, teasing, pleading, but she stayed stubborn.
After half an hour of bickering and wandering, she stopped in front of a large glass case. Inside stood a mannequin dressed in a beautiful gown, but her gaze wasn't on the dress, not exactly. Her eyes sparkled with the same happiness she had shown when I first urged her to date Ind.
I called the salesgirl over. I was about to ask about the dress when Sophia gently beat me to it. "Can you show me the necklace?" she asked.
I hadn't even noticed it until she pointed. A simple silver chain with a teardrop emerald pendant, glowing faintly under the lights, elegant enough to be worn by a queen.
"It is a replica of the necklace 'The Great King' placed on 'The Lady' at their wedding," the salesgirl explained. "It costs fifty thousand silver," she added, oblivious to the way my heart sank. That was every last coin we had saved.
Sophia heard the number and immediately backed away, choosing a small, cheap watch instead. The sight of her doing that made something twist painfully in my chest. So I ignored her protests and bought the necklace. Then I slipped it around her neck myself and said, "It is my heart, removing it equals to me dying."
I still don't know why those words came out, but she grew quiet and let me fasten it. And even after that, she never complained.
When we got back to our flat and were about to unlock the door, Ind came sprinting down the hall. He crashed into us from behind, shouting that he had been selected to work for the kingdom's science lab. That night we stayed up talking, teasing, playing games, laughing until sunrise.
When I finally woke at ten, he was already dressed, looking disgustingly handsome. We talked about his date plans, and while we were still whispering, Sophia's bedroom door opened.
She stepped out in a white gown, the necklace I had given her shining softly against her skin. For a second I forgot how to breathe. She didn't look like an Angel, not even close. She looked beautiful then them. She looked like 'The Lady' herself.
My gaze stayed locked on her until she reached me and pressed a kiss to my forehead. Before I could react, she stepped back and twirled, letting the dress bloom around her. Then she turned to Ind, who looked just as stunned as I was.
"Poor Indra," she said, and she kissed him, bold and certain, right in front of me.
Before I could fully process it, they both said goodbye and left.
To my surprise, I didn't cry watching them go. Somehow, I managed to silence the old thoughts, the ones whispering that she would leave me for him, or he would ask her to leave me. For the first time, I felt peaceful. Maybe I thought my responsibility as Sophia's brother and Ind's friend was finally fulfilled.
I didn't want to sit alone in the flat, and I didn't want to risk bumping into them and ruining their first date. So I took a train to another city.
I didn't know where I was going. I just wandered, drifting from street to street. My heart felt strangely light, almost empty. I didn't even feel hungry.
By evening, I realized I was lost. I tried finding the way home, but the thought of returning to a place filled with their laughter made my steps heavy. So I sat on the edge of the road and let my thoughts run wild.
I pictured a future that was both painful and absurdly sweet. Ind marrying Sophia. Sophia holding a baby. That baby calling me "uncle." Another child coming along, both of them riding on my shoulders. Sophia yelling at me to get married while I turned gray.