Her nose tingled. The tears that had only just stopped flowing moments ago began to gush out again.

"If you really want to cry," he said, his fingertip caressing gently against her eye, "then just let it all out, Sis."

Him calling her ‘Sis’ was like a key that unlocked all the pain and misery that had been suppressed and sealed up all this time. Unable to restrain her emotions any longer, she yelped and finally cried her heart out.

How long had it been since she last cried her heart out like this? How long had it been since she had to resign herself to the fact that no matter how loudly she cried, no matter how many tears she shed, it would all be useless because she could rely on no one else but herself because her tears were useless?

Yet the moment she heard him call her ‘Sis’, she thought of her mother, she thought of the baby in her mother's womb who would have been her little brother, but who never even had the chance to call her ‘Sis’.

If her mother and little brother had ne