185 Lily (21)

While considering going to Gale, Iris realized that there was a more important matter at hand. Tears were streaking down Lily's scrunched up face. The girl pulled back from the door frame and tried to wipe them away, but they still continued, not stopping.

"Lily?" Iris asked gently, not knowing whether she was still allowed to come close. Lily's change back then had left many things uncertain.

The girl didn't answer. She just stood with tears on her face, her lip quivering, and tried to forcefully calm herself. But it wasn't working.

With hesitation, Iris wrapped the girl in a hug. Since they'd been sneaking and not standing straight, they were on around the same height. "I don't know what happened, but tell me and I will try to help. What do you say?"

"You can't!" Lily screamed back, wrapping her hands around Iris' neck and starting to sob on her shoulder. "No one can. Don't you see? It's always brother, brother, and brother! Even if he kidnaps me, they come to ask HIM to comeback! They didn't even bother to come and check up on me!"

Lily's voice grew louder and shriller with each sentence, and her grip around Iris' neck tightened, but Iris didn't admonish her. At this moment, she was finally coming to understand something.

"It's ALWAYS him! Whenever I do something good, they say 'Your brother could have done better', 'Your brother did that and that by your age', 'Your brother was already studying that by now, you're two years behind him'. Him, him, and him! Always! Even… even now."

The words soon became indistinguishable from wails, and Iris just held the little girl in a tight hug, allowing her to cry her heart out. Ir pained Iris to see Lily like that, but she had no way to make the situation better. All she could offer was a hug and a shoulder to rest the head.

Soon, her feet started to go numb, but she kept on crouching without moving a muscle. The fact that she was thinking about something as how uncomfortable she was at this moment annoyed her, but reality was always less pretty than one expected.

Luckily, Lily pulled away after a few moments, brushing away the tears once more. "I actually really admired him at first. I thought he was something akin to a god among men. But then he didn't notice me… When parents told me to hide how they were treating me, I knew it wasn't good, and so I tried to reveal it to brother through small hints, but he never looked my way. He never noticed… So how is he better than them?"

Her face twisted with emotion, and it looked positively frightening. Blotchy red cheeks, puffy eyes, and tear remnants glistening on her eyelashes. "You all spout how it's all for my good, but did you once asked if I wanted it? Just once! Of course not. What can this stupid girl know, right?"

"Lily…" Iris sat down on the ground, her legs giving out on her. She wanted to massage them, but it came second to the angry glare aimed at her. "I'm a stranger in this situation, so I won't lecture you on who's good or bad here. All I want to say is that you should not give up just yet.

"Gale, your brother… he's not perfect. He's not the god you imagined, nor the ideal son your parents delude themselves into seeing, but he does wish to be a good brother. Even if he doesn't know how to be one." Iris smiled a little and scooted a little closer to the girl. "Do you want to know a secret?"

Lily didn't look convinced, but she didn't pull away. "Secret?"

"Yes! In truth, before this, me and your brother, we didn't get along at all."

"Huh? Then how come he asked you for help?"

Iris looked around as if making sure that nobody was listening in on them, then whispered, "He wanted what's best for his sister. Although we didn't like each other that much, he knew that you'd have a better time with me than him, and so he begged me to come over, disregarding his own pride."

"Why did you agree? Did he pay you?" Lily asked, her eyes narrowing with sudden anger.

"Pay?" Iris blinked at her a few times. "Why would I care about his money? I had never seen him so distraught over something before, so I agreed to see what was so precious to him. Guess my surprise when that precious person said that she hates him." Iris shook her head in faked wonder.

Not all her words were true, but they were close enough. If a few lies were what it took to give this brother and sister pair a second chance, then she was ready to shoulder the name of liar.

"He really did that?" the girl asked in disbelief.

Just as Iris was about to agree, another voice spoke. "Get out, now!"

The fury in that voice shocked Iris. She turned around, trying to figure out what she'd done to deserve it. But there was nothing? Her words just then couldn't have provoked Gale this much, could they?

When she didn't move, Gale stomped into the room and grabbed her by the arm. Without caring that her shoulder was on the verge of being dislocated, he dragged her out the room and out the apartment.

"Go to your precious bastard and never appear in my eyes again. Ever."

He let go of her with a push. Iris grabbed for the railing to keep her balance, barely managing to catch herself. Once she did it, she heard the door close before her with a loud 'thud'.

"I…" Her head was a little dizzy, but she soon remembered what had happened before her conversation with Lily. There was a mention of backstabbing, and Kyro leaving while saying that in a few hours Gale wouldn't have a part in Dioscuri.

'Argh, what is going on here…'

No one was around to explain it to her, though. Although she didn't quite believe that Kyro would just up and betray Gale out of nowhere, the two of them were acting as if it had really happened. The anger with which Gale threw her out moments ago seemed real.

'Am I thinking too much about this?' She could go back and just ask Kyro. He would tell her the truth. Maybe.

Well, it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go. Going down the elevator, she noticed that she was still in her everyday home clothes and had nothing but her phone with her.

Kyro's number was in it, but she wasn't eager to bother him at the moment. Something was afoot, and nobody thought to explain it to her.

At this moment, she understood Lily's outburst. It wasn't only the little girl that was being treated as a child. Iris was no better, never knowing the full picture.