Chapter 7: Shadows and Doubts
Yunseo had always been good at keeping to himself. But ever since the night he learned the truth — that Minjae was his half-brother, the result of betrayal — something shifted inside him.
He couldn't look at Minjae the same.
Every small action now felt heavy with meaning.
When Minjae laughed too freely with his father, Yunseo saw it as arrogance. When he offered to help set the table, it felt like he was trying to replace him. Even when Minjae knocked on his door and asked, "Do you want to play something together?" Yunseo's chest twisted in a knot.
He answered coldly, "No. I'm busy."
But what really began to sting were the accidents.
Like the time Yunseo's favorite basketball vanished. A week later, he found it—muddy and torn in the backyard.
Minjae had been out there that day, tossing a ball. A different one.
Yunseo jumped to the worst conclusion. He stormed inside and snapped, "Did you ruin my ball?"
Minjae blinked, confused. "I didn't know it was yours. I thought it was mine from before—"
"Of course you did," Yunseo muttered, voice sharp. "You think everything belongs to you now."
Minjae's shoulders sank. "I said I didn't know."
But Yunseo wasn't listening.
Another time, Yunseo found his sketchbook — the one he never showed anyone — lying open on the living room couch. A small doodle was circled in pencil with the words "Cool design!" scrawled beside it.
Minjae's handwriting.
Yunseo flushed with embarrassment and rage. That book was private.
He shoved it into his backpack and avoided Minjae all day.
But if he had waited… if he had looked in the trash bin nearby… he would've seen a crumpled note Minjae had written to go with the compliment:
"Sorry, I opened it by accident. Just wanted to say I liked your art. I won't touch it again."
But Yunseo never saw it.
He only saw invasion. Jealousy. Replacement.
Everything Minjae did, even when innocent, felt like a threat.
He didn't know that Minjae cried at night too.
That Minjae missed his old home, and didn't understand why Yunseo hated him so much.
That Minjae had begged his mom not to "ruin anyone's family."
But Yunseo had already built a version of the story in his mind.
And now, he was playing the lead role in it — the betrayed son, the invisible boy, the one being slowly replaced.
He couldn't see yet that maybe… Minjae wasn't the villain .