Nobody Like You

Stop Talking About Romeo

Lia

Dinner at home is as awkward as ever.

For the entire meal, the dining room is silent, except for the clinking of our utensils. Occasionally, Yeju chuckles whenever she digs out an ugly dumpling from the plate, but the tension in the air stifles her laughter as soon as it releases.

My stomach clenches with guilt. I asked Yeju to come home with me so that my visit would be easier to deal with. But after screaming at her, things might have gotten worse.

Why did I snap like that? I don't know what got into me. Yeju getting along with my brother is a good thing, I know that, but perhaps seeing them together—two people from two very different parts of my life—messed up my mind.

I guess I also didn't like to see the attention I've always gotten from Yeju taken away. Especially by the same person who has stolen all my parents' attention.

Maybe I shouldn't have come back home for Thanksgiving after all.

After the excruciating dinner, I pull Yeju back into the living room. "Yeju, I'm... sorry for snapping at you like that just now."

"Hey, don't worry about it." She glances toward the kitchen where my parents are before lowering her voice. "You told me you didn't have a good relationship with your parents, but I didn't know about your brother."

My shoulders slump. "I don't know, we... we actually used to be close. Something changed, I guess."

"What happened?"

What happened indeed? I recall the good old times: watching cartoons with Romeo, building Lego sets together, and singing next to each other in church. And then, there is a block in my memory. The next thing I remember is my mother fussing over Romeo—Romeo and only Romeo. The help she offered my brother that was never offered to me. Her lackluster reactions to my achievements.

The reminiscence ignites another memory in me.

"You know, we have a photo album in the storage room," I say. "Wanna go check it out?"

Yeju raises her brows. "You mean my room? Are you trying to sneak into my room now, Miss Lia Choi?"

"Oh, shush it."

I drag Yeju down into the storage-turned-guest room. It takes a couple of minutes for me to find the box of photo albums. Brushing the dust off the covers, I sit next to the bed and begin flipping through one of the albums.

Yeju gasps when she sees a photo. "Lia, is that you?" she coos, leaning into me. "Oh my god, you're adorable."

I giggle. "Yeah, that's me. I think I'm six, and Romeo is three."

In the picture, the younger me is hugging my much smaller brother from the back. We are both grinning and showing a full set of baby teeth.

I explore the rest of the album, explaining the context to Yeju. Romeo and I are always photographed together, smiling widely, holding onto each other. We were inseparable back then.

"This is the first and only time we went skiing. My mother—I call her Umma, by the way—she hated it, so we never went back. And this is us folding mandus again. We do this every holiday. It's kind of a family tradition. Umma doesn't like non-Korean food, so we never got to try any of the regular American holiday foods."

My explanation trails off when I turn to the last page. We've been growing older throughout the album, and the last photo is of me in middle school. And instead of my brother, I am now next to Eunice. Something twists in my stomach.