Chapter 1 : weeds
Kids in high school called me Weeds. I never corrected them. It was easier to be a thing than a person. A thing doesn't mind eating lunch alone in the library. A thing doesn't need friends.
The final bell was a release. I navigated the river of students in the hall, their laughter and plans for the weekend washing over me without leaving a mark. My only plan was to beat my brother home, which wasn't hard. The house was always empty.
I let myself in, the silence greeting me like a physical presence. I dropped my bag by the door and went through the ritual: check the fridge for a note (none), check his room (bed made, perfectly untouched), and finally, start the rice cooker for dinner—for one.
My name is Jin Reeds. I was seventeen that winter, and the countdown to adulthood felt less like a celebration and more like a sentence. My brother, Seo, had become my guardian when our parents died. I was three. I don't remember them, or the accident. All I remember is Seo's face, a constant, tired mask of responsibility. We lived in the same house, two satellites in separate orbits, connected only by a shared past we never talked about.
That night, as I ate alone at the small kitchen table, I stared at the empty chair across from me. The emptiness in the house was a quiet hum. But the emptiness inside me? That was a roar. I just didn't know it yet. I didn't know that in a few days, a girl named Carla would walk into the library and turn my silent world into a symphony.