I’d made Caleb angry. So angry that nothing I did could fix it. Even when I told him I was sick, he wasn’t worried like he used to be. After I got off the train, I called him. “Caleb? I’m in Seaport City for a heart check-up. Can you… can you take me to the hospital?” His voice was a razor’s edge. “Your heart condition was fixed years ago. Leo, stop playing the victim!” A dull ache bloomed in my chest. “It’s just a follow-up,” I whispered. He let out a cold laugh. “Fine. You wait there.” I curled up in a corner of the train station and waited. And waited. Until my heart gradually slowed to a stop. And Caleb… he never came. 01 Before I closed my eyes for the last time, I never imagined I would die so suddenly, so unceremoniously, in a train station waiting hall. All I felt then was a deep, pulling drowsiness. I’ll just rest for a little while, I thought. Just a little while, and then I would see Caleb. I pictured him standing over me, scolding me for not staying put at home, for running off to Seaport City to cause more trouble. I slowly closed my eyes, rehearsing my excuses for needing him to take me to the hospital. Because you were always the one who took me to my appointments. Because all the registration info is on your phone. Because if the doctors ask about my childhood surgery, you know the details better than I do. Yes, that was it. It had nothing to do with how much I missed you. Nothing at all. But when I opened my eyes again, I saw my own body, slumped in the corner of the loud, crowded waiting hall. My head was tilted against the wall, my eyelashes resting peacefully on my cheeks, perfectly still. As if I were just sleeping. Suddenly, my phone vibrated, slipping from my hand and clattering to the floor. I reached for it instinctively, but my hand passed right through it, grasping at nothing. I stared at my translucent fingertips. My mind, slow and thick, finally processed the truth. I was already dead. I had died quietly, invisibly, in the middle of a bustling train station. Died while waiting for Caleb to come and get me. The phone screen lit up, displaying a message Caleb had sent a minute ago. [Still waiting?] [Guess that proves you’re not sick at all.] [Leo, you lied again.] I didn’t lie. I said the words, but no sound came out. It was real. I wasn’t feeling well. I was born with a congenital heart defect, which was surgically corrected when I was six. But for the past three months, the dull ache in my chest had returned, along with occasional bouts of cyanosis—my lips and fingertips turning blue from lack of oxygen. If this had happened before… that incident, Caleb would have been frantic with worry. He would have rushed me to the hospital without a second thought. But he didn’t trust me anymore. He was convinced I was a manipulator, someone who would do anything to get what I wanted. Because I’d been frail my whole life, Caleb had become a surrogate parent by the time he was a teenager. He was mature, serious, and meticulously protective. He worried if I might get hurt, if I might catch a chill. He controlled the thermostat in my room, the layers of clothes I wore when I went out. A single cough, a slight frown from me, and he would be on high alert. I basked in his attention, his care. I was spoiled by it. I would cling to his side and declare petulantly, “I’m never getting married.” Then I’d wrap my arms around his waist, squeezing tight. “And you’re not allowed to get married either, Caleb. You have to stay with me forever!” He would just laugh and ruffle my hair, his voice soft. “Don’t be ridiculous.” But then, seeing my pout, he’d quickly relent. “Alright, alright. I’ll wait until after you’re married. How about that?” I wouldn’t say anything. I’d just tilt my head back and gaze at him, wishing that moment could last forever, but also secretly hoping for something to change. Something did change. Just not in the way I’d imagined. I should have looked at you longer then, I thought, staring at my own corpse. I never even got to see him one last time. People streamed past me, their suitcases rattling on the floor, but no one gave my body a second glance. A person sleeping in a waiting room was the most normal thing in the world. Just then, I saw a small hand reach down and pick up my phone. 02 It was the little girl who had been sitting next to me. While I was still conscious, we had chatted for a bit and exchanged nicknames. She called me “the pretty boy,” and I called her “cutie-pie.” Cutie-pie looked at the lit-up screen, seeming to read the messages. But at only five years old, she didn't know many words. She frowned, then looked at me with her big, serious eyes for a long moment. Finally, she placed the phone back in my hand. “Pretty boy,” she whispered, as if not to wake me, “you dropped your phone. You should hold it tight.” When I didn’t respond, she scampered back to her mother’s arms. A few minutes later, the phone buzzed again. Caleb’s name flashed on the screen. [I’m at City General already.] [If you want to come, take a cab yourself.] But you told me to wait. Why aren’t you coming? A sudden thought struck me. Is Caleb the one who’s sick? The thought propelled me upwards. My spirit shot through the air, and in an instant, I was at City General Hospital. The first person I saw was Caleb. He was wearing a dark gray, bespoke suit, his back to me as he stood by a glass wall, talking on the phone. He looked as handsome and composed as ever, completely unshaken. I floated closer, planning to give him a little scare, when I heard him say, “The doctor is examining Finn now. It should be nothing serious, don’t worry.” Finn? What’s he doing here? The next second, the door to the examination room opened. Caleb hung up and walked over. “Are you okay?” he asked the person who came out. “Caleb, the doctor said I’m fine,” Finn said, grabbing Caleb’s hand and frowning. “But I still feel sick. Will you stay with me?” That drama queen. He’s faking it! I thought, so furious I could have screamed. I swooped forward to throttle him, but my hands passed straight through his neck. I was trapped between them as I saw Caleb’s lips curve into the faintest of smiles. “Of course,” he said, his voice gentle. Caleb was tall and built, with sharp features and intense, cold eyes. When he wasn’t speaking, he had an intimidating air about him. But whenever he smiled at me, I felt he was the kindest person in the world. He hadn’t smiled at me in a long time. “But,” Caleb’s gentle expression faded slightly. “Leo is coming over later. I need to be here for his heart check-up.” A flash of resentment crossed Finn’s face before he quickly masked it with a smile. “Caleb, you’re the best, kindest person I know. Leo isn’t even your real brother, and after how he lied to you, you’re still so good to him.” The mention of me seemed to trigger something in Caleb. His face darkened. “This is the last time,” he said. “If he ever pulls a stunt like this again, I’m done with him.” I hovered in the middle of the stark white corridor. A cold draft from the window passed right through me. Strange. Why does my heart still hurt? “It really is the last time,” I murmured to the empty air. “Caleb.” “I won’t bother you again…” Because I think I’m already dead. Finn, satisfied with Caleb’s answer, tugged his arm toward the exit. Before they reached the door, Caleb’s phone rang. I floated to his side as he answered. “Hello, Mr. Kane,” a voice on the other end said. “I was wondering, have you heard from Leo?” 03 “Leo is no longer my brother.” Recognizing the voice, Caleb’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “I hope you’ll stop using him as an excuse to contact my family.” The caller was my birth mother. Maybe it was the illness, or maybe it was the guilt, but she was silent for a moment before her voice came back, weak and choked with tears. “It was my fault. I never should have… switched Leo and Finn all those years ago. But Leo is innocent. Can’t you… can’t you treat him like you used to?” It was a cliché straight out of a soap opera. I was the wrong son, the cuckoo in the Kane family’s nest. I was born with a severe congenital heart defect. My birth mother, afraid I wouldn’t survive, had secretly swapped me with the Kanes’ newborn son. It wasn’t until she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer that she confessed the truth. She had dragged Finn to the gates of the Kane estate, kneeling and sobbing. “I was wrong! And now I’m paying for it! I’m giving Finn back to you… please, just let me see Leo. He’s my real son!” But when she finally saw me, she’d said, “The Kanes paid for your treatment, so you didn’t lose out. You had twenty years of luxury. Now it’s Finn’s turn.” I wasn’t hurt. She was right, after all. The second night after Finn moved in, he came to my room, feigning reconciliation. He said he would beg our—his—parents to let me stay. Like a fool, I blushed and told him, “I want to stay too. But… not as Caleb’s brother anymore.” And so, I confessed to Caleb. I told him I was both heartbroken and relieved. I told him I’d known for years that what I felt for him was far more than brotherly affection. I told him I wanted to be with him forever. I watched him, my heart pounding with a mix of terror and hope. But his face was a mask of cold disappointment. “Hah,” he sneered. “Be with me forever? You mean you want to stay in the Kane family and live a life of comfort forever.” He pulled a small voice recorder from his pocket. My voice filled the air, speaking words I’d said to Finn the day before. But they were all wrong. It was my voice, but twisted into something ugly. “I have a way to stay. If I can get with Caleb, the Kanes will never kick me out. I was always so close to him on purpose. Now, it’s finally time to use him.” The wail of an ambulance siren outside the hospital doors ripped me from my memory. An ER doctor rushed past, accidentally bumping into Caleb. “Sorry,” the doctor said over his shoulder. “Got a cardiac arrest coming in, sorry for bumping you.” Caleb paused for a second, then shook his head, accepting the apology. He turned his attention back to the phone. “You want me to treat him like I used to? You mean watch him pretend to be innocent and pitiful while he uses me all over again?” A cruel laugh escaped his lips. “I guess cheap tricks run in the family. Otherwise, how could he even think of confessing to his own brother?” A nurse’s voice suddenly cut in from the background of the call. “Bed 3, if you don’t pay the hospital bill, we’re going to have to stop her medication…” Caleb heard it, and his voice became hard with certainty. “He didn’t come here for a check-up. He came to get money from me for you, didn’t he?” Without waiting for an answer, he hung up. He immediately opened his messages and started typing. [Leo, don’t bother coming.] [I’m not giving you a single cent.] I didn’t come for your money. I’ll never ask you for money again. Even though I knew he couldn’t see me, I took a step back. I wanted to put some distance between us. Because I could feel it. He truly, deeply disliked me. So much that he could only imagine me as the worst kind of person. “He’s not coming. Let’s go.” When he got no reply from me, Caleb stalked out of the building, fuming. As he got into the car, the ambulance screamed past them, pulling up to the entrance. A gurney, covered by a white sheet, was wheeled inside. Caleb saw it in the rearview mirror, frowned, and looked away. The Rolls-Royce began to move, but just as it reached the hospital gate, the driver stopped. Someone was knocking on the rear window. Caleb lowered it to see the same ER doctor who had bumped into him earlier. “Can I help you?” he asked. 04 “Excuse me, I think this might be yours?” The doctor held out a cufflink. Matte platinum framing a perfectly cut piece of black onyx. It was the birthday gift I had given Caleb last year. He recognized it instantly. “Yes, it is.” He took it. “Sorry about that,” the doctor said. “It must have caught on my coat when I bumped into you. It fell right into my pocket.” Caleb closed his fist around the cufflink, nodded his thanks, and raised the window. The car moved on. On the way, Finn chattered away, trying to make conversation. Caleb was mostly silent, offering only short, clipped replies. The hand holding the cufflink never opened. I sat on the far side of the back seat, looking past the babbling Finn at Caleb’s profile. I wondered if he was remembering his birthday last year. The cufflinks were from a famous independent designer, and they were absurdly expensive. I wanted to buy them with my own money, so for six months before his birthday, I had worked day and night, painting and selling every piece I could create. At the stroke of midnight, I snuck into his room. He was frowning over a financial report, but his face broke into a smile the moment he saw me. “Be serious. No smiling,” I commanded, standing before him. I ordered him to close his eyes. He obeyed, but the corners of his mouth were still turned up, refusing to be contained. The room was silent. I stared at his handsome face and felt my mind go blank. My ears roared with a sound I couldn’t place—his heartbeat, or mine. “Leo?” Caleb’s voice was soft. He must have gotten tired of waiting. Flustered, I thrust the velvet box into his hands. “You can open your eyes now.” He opened it, and his surprise was genuine and bright. “Help me put them on,” he said with a grin. I took one out, but my fingertips were trembling. I shoved the box and the cufflink back into his hands, mumbled, “Happy birthday,” and fled from the room. Back in my own bed, my mind replayed the scene over and over. One moment I was sure I hadn’t hidden my feelings well enough, the next I was convinced I’d acted like a clumsy child. A soft knock came at my door. Caleb came in, pulled me out from under the covers, and said fondly, “What are you running for?” I looked up at him, wanting to say, You have no idea, but the words wouldn’t come. He handed me a large gift box. Inside was a custom set of paints I had wanted for ages, along with a vintage paintbrush. Either one was worth far more than the cufflinks. Outside, the spring night air of Seaport City drifted in, carrying the rich, heady scent of magnolia blossoms. It was so thick it felt like it was smothering me. “Do you like it?” Caleb asked, playfully messing up my hair. His eyelashes cast long shadows on his cheeks. His gaze was so pure, so unguarded. “I love it,” I whispered. The Rolls-Royce pulled into the Kane estate, driving down the long, tree-lined lane to the main house. Mom was waiting at the door. “How is he? Is Finn alright?” she asked, her face etched with worry. Caleb assured her he was fine. Finn put on his act again, clinging to Mom and complaining that he still felt awful. She offered a few awkward words of comfort before sending him off to rest. But Mom’s worried expression didn't fade. “Mom, is something wrong?” Caleb asked. She pressed a hand to her chest. “I know Finn is fine, but… my heart is racing. I have this terrible feeling.” “Do you think… do you think something’s happened to Leo? The place he’s staying now… it might be cold. That’s not good for his heart. Caleb, please, will you go and bring him home?”
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