"you're home, are you okay junnie? I was so worried about you, you always worry me." were the first words that came out of the older woman's mouth the minute she spotted her son walking through the front door of their home. she had gotten jun's call last night, but that didn't change the fact that she had been beyond concerned knowing that her son had stormed out of the house and could have been anywhere else. she hugged jun tightly, breathing in the familiar scent of her son in happiness now that he was finally home. she didn't question the vanilla undertone of his scent though, instead she let go and waited for him to speak so that she could listen to him for once. listening to her children was a skill she needed to get better at, why not start now?

"yeah I am. I feel better than I've ever felt in a long time mom." jun smiled and in his eyes his mother spotted something different. it was as if the night he had spent at joshua's transformed him because the purple haired teenager seemed to be more relaxed. jun had spent the days after his hospital stay in misery and anger, but now he seemed to have gained back the colorful happiness that made being around him so delightful. "I want to apologize to you and dad for how I've been acting lately, but I think I should talk to jia first."

"she's in the yard." jun's mother smiled up at him while pinching one of his cheeks gently. she just couldn't get over how happy her son looked. it was a complete 360 from how he was just two weeks ago when he had despised both her and her husband. obviously she wanted to sit down as a family and talk things over because there was a lot to be said between them all, but it was better to have jun patch things up with his sister. she was well aware of how upset jia had been for the past few weeks and the two siblings needed to make up before the strain in the relationship started affecting their younger brother, jackson. as jun left towards the yard, his mother spotted her husband just about to leave for work and he was stunned to see her smiling. "our boy, he's back."

the purple haired teenager closed the sliding door that led to their backyard behind him before making his way to the large oak tree. he had known exactly where jia was sitting under it; it had been the same spot he came to when he needed some space. sure enough there she was sitting under the tree, well aware of her older brother's presence as he effortlessly took a seat next to her as if they hadn't had a huge argument the night before. "you know this is my favorite spot in the whole house. you can't just steal it when I'm not here. I claimed it as mine a long time ago, way before you were born."

"what do you want jun?"

"I want to say sorry, for real." jia turned her head to look at her older brother. he let out a big sigh as he looked up at the clouds above them. jun wasn't exactly sure on how to deliver his apology.bhe had a lot in mind before but now his head was empty, so he just went on to saying whatever came to mind first. "I wasn't trying to hurt you at all jia, I didn't even think it would because you were right; I am selfish. I tried for so long to ignore my disease and I thought not taking my medication would help me forget. I was so driven by that and the idea of being normal like other kids my age that I forgot all about my promise to you and my responsibility as an older brother. I'm supposed to take care and worry about you, not the other way around. and I don't deserve it at all, but I hope you can at least try to forgive me for being such an idiot of a brother."

"I'll forgive you if you forgive me for acting like such a brat. I already know I was being lame, mom and dad kept me up all night to let me know." jia looked up at her brother with a sad smile after trying to discreetly wipe tears from her eyes. her brother's words weren't complex, but they were clearly well thought out. she could also tell by the sad expression on his face that he genuinely felt saddened by how he made her feel, even if he hadn't intended to do so. honestly jia had been also planning to apologize to jun, but unlike her brother she had no idea how to go about it. she was glad he came to her first and was more than willing to put this whole ordeal behind both of them. "I was just so angry with you for breaking the promise and for putting yourself in danger. you're my big brother, how do I not care about what happens to you? especially when I thought something happened... I can't even imagine a world where you aren't around as my annoying big brother. we're supposed to be in this together or whatever right?"

"wow, that was pretty lame of you to say." jia looked up at her brother, furrowing her eyebrows in response to his statement. he laughed, holding his hands up to show that he meant no harm and that he was just joking around with her. "you are right though, we're in this together. it's not only about you or me, it's us. from now on, whenever we have something going on that's bothering us let's promise that we can tell each other what it is no matter what. this time I mean it jia, I won't break this promise for the world."

"alright. you better mean it this time for real or I'll kick your ass." jia held up her pinky to jun for old time's sake. the two siblings joined their pinkies in solidarity with one another and this time jia noticed that jun didn't have the same sad look in his eyes like he did the last time he had promised her he would cease skipping his medication. with that the two siblings softened up, no longer wound up by the tensions between them. this time jun meant his promise, he wasn't going to hide anything from now on. hiding things only caused for both him and those around him to suffer, jun didn't want that anymore. "by the way, I heard you slept over at joshua's house. did anything interesting happen? by interesting I mean did you two have-"

"sex? of course not! what the hell jia? when I was your age I didn't know anything about sex!" jun's cheeks flushed at the mere implication of the three lettered word, which satisfied jia. she couldn't count how many times her older brother teased her about weird things so it was nice to get back at him every now and then. "I used to believe in that whole stork delivering babies to doorsteps business."

"well I'm not as stupid as you were when you were my age." jia commented, earning herself a short-lived glance from her brother. jun pretending as if it were an absurd idea for her to think him and joshua would do anything like that was amusing. she had seen the way jun looked at joshua when she had first met the brunette and she saw the way joshua looked at jun when he visited their house. there was no question about it that there was something brewing between the two, she was just surprised it had taken this long for something to happen. "and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you have a thing for the brunette."

"if you were right, which you aren't by the way, it would be no use knowing. I suck at all things dealing with love, I've never even had a boyfriend before!" jun stubbornly kept up his act, although the unimpressed expression on his sister's face refrained him from going further with it. she was just too clever for her own good, even if it was deadly obvious that he liked joshua. he wondered if joshua knew as well. joshua was easily the smartest person jun knew so the purple haired male figured if anyone could figure out his crush it would be him. "I have no clue where to begin when it comes to dating people."

"even I have a boyfriend, are you really that hopeless?!?" jun opened his mouth widely out of shock as his sister boasted about her relationship. she was only twelve, almost thirteen, and already she was beating him in the love game. he tried not to let the idea of her dating bother him too much, which is why he didn't catch the slight hesitation in her voice while she spoke, and instead focused on the positives.

"what? that settles it then, you need to teach me your ways jia!"

"leave it to me to be the only one in our family with some common sense." jia shook her head. jun wanted to retaliate against that comment, but then the loud banging sound of jackson walking into the glass door that connected their house to the backyard stopped him from refuting that claim. it had been the third time that week that jackson had mistaken the door as anything but a door. "I'll help you in exchange for protection, you have to promise for real this time that you won't tell mom or dad about me and my... boyfriend. "

"alright, but don't forget you'll also need protection from me because I'm going to pummel the boy who thinks he can get away with making a move on my baby sister!" jia rolled her eyes as she sighed into her hands. jun smiled, not affected at all by his sister's sour mood. he opted to stand up and throw his fist in the air, yelling out a warning to all those who could hear him which included their next door neighbors who were also outside with their pet husky. the middle aged couple chuckled at the chinese male as he continued to shout, they had learned to grow used to jun's playful antics during the ten years they lived next door to the wen family. "nobody's allowed to corrupt my precious sister!"

"you're so embarrassing to be around, I'm going inside before you give me a full-blown migraine." jia stood up from the ground to retreat indoors. it took jun a minute to process that his sister had left him outside and only took him another minute to go running after her as she tried to make a break for it towards her bedroom. "no wait, you have to give me love advice you little gremlin get back here!"

= = =
I'm really just so tired of this school business and of my teachers. I get that they're having trouble adjusting and all but maybe don't assign a mountain of work if you aren't going to grade it at all. I swear they only grade the one assignment I don't do and ignore the ones I do complete haha.