Jet was barely halfway through his third year being the only child of the Tanaka couple. One night, he was playing with his robot set as usual after dinner.

His mother sat beside him on the carpeted floor, and pulled him into a hug. He scrunched his little face, feeling a tad annoyed at her interruption. He almost finished transforming his car into an awesome robot after all, the transformer set was his latest birthday present from his parents.

But as it was his mother who disturbed him, he obediently relaxed in her embrace.

"Jet, my lovely baby," his mother cooed. Jet disliked being called a baby, after all he was almost three-and-a-half. Even in his pre-kindy class, his caretakers always praised him for being the most mature. He was the big brother of the bunch.

"You will have a little brother... or sister," his mother softly grabbed his little hand and put it on top of her still-flat abdomen, her silk pajamas soft to the touch.

Jet's eyes widened as he spun his head around to look at his mother's stomach, then at her face.

"... I will have a little sister?"

"Or a little brother," his mother corrected. After all, it was still much too early to know the gender of the baby.

Jet caressed his mother's stomach, his fingers trembling a little, his face broke into a wide smile as he whispered to himself,

"A little princess... ."

*** *** ***

When his parents asked him what he wanted for his fourth birthday, Jet confidently answered,

"Just my little princess will be enough, mom."

As his mother's stomach swelled month after month until she could barely walk, Jet kept his habit of talking to his unborn little princess every day after pre-kindy was over.

"My baby sister, my princess, you will be prettier than Sophia in my class. She is the prettiest girl there, but I bet my little princess will be much, much, much prettier than her."

"Sophia is annoying. She thinks she's so cute, buzzing around me like flies all the time. When you are born, my little princess, I'll show her."

His mother was highly amused as she chuckled to her husband, sitting by her side on the sofa. She was laying sideways, her head on the sofa's arm, her legs on her husband's lap. Mr. Tanaka was massaging her aching feet.

Jet was still busy chattering to her swollen stomach.

"Is this how four-year-olds speak nowadays?" She rolled her eyes.

Jet's speech was eloquent and structured, even for children his age. But his array of chosen words was flabbergasting and highly amusing to the couple.

"Shouldn't we tell him that his little princess is actually a little prince?" Mr. Tanaka glanced at his wife.

Mrs. Tanaka giggled, "Nah! let's keep it a surprise for him. I'm sure he'll love the little prince all the same."

*** *** ***

Jet accompanied his father to the hospital when his mother was due for a C-section. She could not give birth normally as the baby inside was upside down, the head was not in the correct position for normal delivery.

Jet was not sure what was happening, but all the doctors and nurses were suddenly frantically running around, bringing all sorts of devices inside the room his mother was in.

He faintly heard something about the baby not breathing.

Then one of the doctors started to yell orders around, holding an ironing-looking device in his hands¹A defibrillator. His father carried Jet in his arms from outside the delivery room, to bring him away from the horror-like scene. However, before he was carried away, Jet could see - through the glass overlooking the room - a tiny body jerking a few times every time the metal device touched its skin.

Jet did not understand what was happening still, but he knew for the first time in his young life, what fear was.

Fortunately, the baby started breathing after the doctors' and nurses' efforts. However, his little princess was put inside the aquarium-like glass compartment he had seen being brought in before²An incubator.

That night, his parents and the monitoring doctor allowed him to get close to the glass aquarium.

The baby was naked, and Jet saw that his little princess had the same genitalia as his.

At that moment, he understood; his little princess turned out to be a boy.

Jet was definitely disappointed back then. Not only the baby was a boy, the little person was not pretty at all. The alien looking thing in front of him was red and small. He wondered if all babies were supposed to be that tiny and ugly.

He had bragged to Sophia and his friends that his little sister would be the prettiest in the whole world.

The baby suddenly yawned. The nurse by his side smiled at Jet, "Do you want to touch your new baby brother?"

Before Jet could say his consent, his father gently grabbed his hand and rubbed some disinfectants on him, before putting his right hand inside the opening of the incubator.

Jet was about to jerk backwards, however the next second, he stilled.

 

The little monkey inside suddenly grabbed his hand, holding his index finger with his own tiny skinny fingers. The still-closed eyes looked like a pair of straight lines; but Jet swore that the baby turned his head towards him and smiled a little, letting out a small gurgle.

Jet was suddenly mesmerized. The little boy was suddenly the most beautiful thing he had ever laid his eyes upon. He felt a surging love and warmth, that he had never even felt towards his father and mother.

He decided then: he must protect his little prince from now on.

Back then, he was full of reverence towards the doctors and nurses that had brought his brother back to life.

He decided, he would be a doctor when he became an adult.

*** *** ***

Lee grew up healthy and was close to his older brother as one could be. In the other hand, amongst Jet friends, Jet was known as the ultimate bro-con.

Jet had some relationships with girls, even with Sophia who had grown to be quite a beauty. That happened when he was fifteen.

The relationship did not last long though, as Jet always cancelled his dates with Sophia at a drop of a hat everytime Lee needed something from him. The same thing happened with his other girlfriends.

Lee needed a new backpack? Jet would accompany him to the shopping center to choose one. Nevermind their parents who had also gone shopping with Lee that they did not really need Jet to be around.

Lee felt bored? Jet would stay at home to play video games with him on the weekends.

A girl had a crush on Lee? Jet would pester him to meet the girl.

None of them had ever passed Jet's standard: too ugly, too short, too pretty, not pretty enough, too tall, not smart, et-cetera.

Yet, Lee never complained despite Jet constantly hovering around him like a mother bird.

Jet's male friends constantly mocked him for being so attached to his little brother.

They would be more understanding if it was a little cute sister.

Viva le Moe! Yay kawaiiness, little lolita! But a little brother? Yuck!

But when Lee also entered the same high school as Jet, all the seniors - Jet's friends - suddenly understood why Jet was so protective of his brother.

Some of Jet's past girlfriends had even plotted to get close to Lee, despite some being older.

Lee was tall, polite, elegant - if such a word could ever be bestowed to a teenager - flawless, smart, great at sports. And his face just screamed hunk. He bore a resemblance to Jet somewhat, but his face was more defined. If Jet exuded a kind gentle scholar, Lee was sharper in his facial features. It seemed that God truly had gone overboard when designing the two brothers.

In shrieking female teenagers' terms, during that era when J-pop and J-dramas were highly popular in their school that had quite a number or Asian students, "Kakkoiiiiiii desuuu~!³Kakoii, in Japanese, means 'cool'."

The duo became the most famous pair of siblings in their school and neighborhood.

Girls wanted to be their girlfriends, young male teenagers came out of the closet for them.

Jet became more protective of Lee, more than ever.

*** *** ***

They graduated high school safely; both had their fair share of girlfriends, nothing long lasting.

They chose their majors in different universities, much to Jet's dismay, as that meant they had to be separated.

Jet went to medical school. Lee chose law as his major.

Jet could not understand why Lee would choose law. The only thing he found interesting from thick law and legislation books was the possibility of killing someone with it if he was to bash their head.

But of course, a doctor was to save lives, not do the opposite.

*** *** ***

When he heard about Mia Simmons via James, he was skeptical and was ready to once again shield Lee from a vain woman's clutching claws.

But James stressed again and again, that Lee was the one who was smitten, not the other way around.

Jet loved James like a little brother; much less than his love for Lee of course, but he was not going to trust James just like that. James was much too gullible. Jet sometimes wonder how the hell the younger man ever got his law practitioner qualification.

Nevertheless, Jet had to meet Mia Simmons.

When he met her though, he could not find fault with her.

But he had to admit that he was a bit offended. Her manner towards Lee was only lukewarm, and Lee had to try hard to get her attention.

"How can you not be head over heels with my brother?" Jet thought back then.

Despite that, there was something about Mia that just fit perfectly with Lee - Jet could not quite put his finger around his intuition.

He remembered a stupid line his ex-girlfriend once told him,

"Two people that are meant to be, share the same soul."

He could only give his blessings, and pray that Mia would reciprocate Lee's feelings.

*** *** ***

Did Jet hate Mia Simmons?

Yes, he hated her. Because of her death, Lee wasted away.

Because of her death, Lee ended up dying in his sleep. The cops and paramedics ruled it as premeditated suicide, but Jet knew Lee better than that.

He knew it was accidental, that Lee would never ever kill himself. But nevertheless, deep down, he knew, Lee would sooner or later follow Mia in death. He had become just a shadow of his past self after her death after all.

"Two people that are meant to be, share the same soul."

Jet could only believe in that line. He could not find any other reason to justify it otherwise. With her death, Mia had taken part of Lee's soul away.

Did he hate Mia Simmons?

The answer was a resounding 'yes'.

But more than that, Jet hated himself.

He should not have gone to ER duty, no matter how urgent.

Yes, other people needed medical attention. Yes, he knew he had his code of duty; he was oath-sworn to save people's lives when he received his qualification as a doctor.

But... .

He could not even protect Lee.

The one person who mattered the most in his life.

He could not save him.

Jet Tanaka hated himself for that.

He felt anger, remorse, all the things that finally made him unable to hold his head high as a doctor.

He should have not left that night.

He should have checked every nook and cranny of Lee's apartment.

He should not have let Mia Simmons leave on that goddamn plane, as nonsensical as it might sound.

*** *** ***

Lee unsurprisingly had a will, one thing that was expected from a law practitioner after all. Of all people, Lee would know the importance of a will, even when he was still healthy and happy.

The will mentioned about the trust fund under their parents name, that Jet also co-shared. Any other belongings and assets Lee had, would go to Jet and a few charities Lee had specifically mentioned on his will.

James was surprisingly also mentioned. He inherited Lee's small bachelor condo, a substantial asset in expensive London. That made the young man bawl his eyes out for weeks.

Both Jet and James, they had lost a brother.

*** *** ***

Jet quit his job at the hospital one year after Lee's death.

Despite his parents' effort, flying all the way to London, begging him to go back with them to Japan,

"Jet, let Lee go. You have your own life to live. Come with us. Start anew."

Jet knew his parents were much much stronger than him, but Jet felt an unspoken anger that his parents were ready to move on from Lee's death.

Jet did not know if he could ever do that.

Still having his practitioner licence, he applied as a volunteer doctor to be dispatched to disturbed countries.

Countries ripe with war, famine, and poverty.

There, he had never felt more alive ever since Lee's death.

Surrounded by deaths, he felt close to his brother.

Surrounded by deaths, he felt needed.

But that was still not enough to fill the emptiness and wash aside the regret inside his heart.

Sometimes he wished for death itself, but death never came. Day by day, he continued breathing, eating, living.

One day, in a small village somewhere in Africa, Jet was mundanely doing his task of distributing rations to the villagers at the post he had been assigned to. The village could not even be called as a proper village; the numerous small structures people called as houses were run down, and the entire area was smelly. More over, the smell was mixed with the stench of decaying rotten flesh of what used to be living people. It was not an uncommon occurrences to see corpses by the side of the roads.

The village was also filled with strife; the villagers were at constant wars with other surrounding tribes or territories. Jet never knew why, nor he wanted to know where those men ever obtained their weapons from, but gunshots were as common as the flies and maggots.

Only a madman would volunteer to be assigned to a God-forsaken place. Jet was such a person.

One day, he was called by his supervisor to the decrepit medical tent they had set up, and Jet was assigned to a baby boy who was only born a day before.

The boy was born prematurely. His colleagues - other volunteers - merely asked him to monitor the boy until his death. They did not believe the newborn would live. His mother died during birth, they had to cut her open to take the boy out of her. His bones were misaligned and deformed, resembling a hunched baby ape.

One look at him, Jet agreed with his colleagues' sentiment. The boy would not pass that day.

But when he was cleaning the little baby's body off some dry blood and dirt, he was stunned.

The little boy lifted his deformed hands, reaching out for him despite being weak and wheezing his breaths with difficulty. Then he grasped Jet's little finger.

Jet broke into tears.

Even when he found out about Lee's death, he was unable to cry.

The little boy was as similar as Lee as earth and heaven, but Jet was suddenly reminded of that particular night, long ago, when Lee was born, just a tiny vulnerable existence.

The very first time Lee held his hand. 

Perhaps at that very moment, Lee had claimed his existence.

Back then, Jet had sworn to protect his brother. He had sworn to hold dear all the things Lee loved, supporting him and always watching over him.

All of a sudden, his colleagues shouted at him to run. Chaos and gunshots soon followed their warning, clear signs of mayhem.

People screamed, smell of blood, death.

Jet smiled at the little boy, his little finger still grasped inside his palm.

The pain that came afterwards was not as bad as he thought it would be.

Then everything went dark.