Should he be happy that his approaching Mi Rae had worked or curse that his brother was now calling him and nagging at him?Shaking his head,Ah Hai stared at the phone and looked at it in wonder.Of course his expressions did not reflect his feelings and neither did his tone,when he said,"Did you call me in the middle of the night to nag at me?"

"Ha!So you know it is the middle of the night and you are still not sleeping!Ah Hai,you really need to sleep.With your ugly mug you need all the sleep you can get or no girl will look at you!Or are you already with some girl?Are you cheating on your little fiance?Let me tell you I am going to punch you Ah Hai Long if you are fooling around!"

​​

"You are awake as well.",came the reply.Of course Ah Hai ignored the comment about his looks and fiance..He was in fact enjoying the fact that his brother was teasing him.Oh, Neil always teased him but never in private.For the last ten years his brother had no private direct conversation with him.There was always a buffer in between..be it Matt or Ryu or even Ru.

Neil stopped mid thought at what he was about to say and instead answered,"I am older than you!"

Ah Hai raised his eyebrows at that, just like his big brothers and said,"Brother,I am not a randy teenager anymore!"

This single unknowing comment changed the converation from light hearted banter to awkward.A little pause later,Neil cleared his throat and said,"Uhh..I need you to tell me how to break eggs..I have cooked Ramyeon and I want to make fried eggs for Mi Rae to eat with that.Can you help me?"

"Why did you not call big brother?"There was no way Neil would turn to him for help first.

Neil pouted at that and answered,"I did but he was busy so he told me to starve!"

Ah Hai took that in and smiled knowingly.His big bro must have known that Neil was desperate!And like Neil,Matt knew next to nothing about cooking so he would not be of much help!Looking up at the ceiling Ah Hai said,"Hit it on your head slowly."

Neil stared at his phone and said angrily,"Do you want my head to get splattered with egg?I only have 4 left after trying many times and I am telling you that if even one breaks I am going to make you deliver home made food to us!"

Sighing,Ah Hai said,"Brother,your head is the safest place to break eggs.You will be realllly careful.Other places you might use too much force."

"Fine!I'll risk it!And if I am hit with even a drop of egg,you better be prepared for an egg bath!I am putting you on hold.Wait until then."

Placing his phone on the counter,he picked up the egg and lightly tapped it on his head.And Lo behold,the next thing he knew the egg broke perfectly into the bowl!And then by the fourth,Neil had succeeded in mastering the art of breaking eggs with his head!Happily,he picked up the phone and said,"Thank you little brother!I owe you one!And Now take some free advise and start sleeping early."And Neil hung up the phone.He needed to prepare the perfect mid night or early morning snack!

Ah Hai who had just been woken up from a deep slumber by his brother stared at the ceiling!He smiled at his brother's nagging and his heart felt as if a 1000kgs had been lifted from it!Ah Hai thought back to the phone call he had with Alicia a few days back.She had been urging him to come back soon and he had been trying to find reasons to avoid doing as she said.

Though his service had been completed,he had been thinking of renewing his commission.But being the silent observer she was,she had been calling him daily to tell him to not renew his commission and come back home.Ah Hai had finally relented last night whenshe told him that his second brother had found a woman.To be precise Alicia had announced,"Your stupid brother has found his light!You really need to come back."After that,she had given him all the details of their relation and he had hurried home,driving through the night to meet his new sister in law.

He closed his eyes and savored the feeling of freedom that he had just tasted.He was almost tempted to cancel his plans for going to Country A.Ever since he realized tha his family wanted him to come back from the army,he had been considering whether to continue or set up his own business.Finally after much consideration,he had decided to open his busniess in country A.That way his family would also be satisfied and he would have some distance between them.The biggest need for distance had been Neil.Though Neil had always behaved well with him,Ah Hai had always felt an existence of a wall between them and he did not like to feel it.Atleast from another country he could fool himself that all his brothers adored him.So he had planned a small interlude here and then sent his business partner ahead to start the procedure.But now he wondered if he should stay close by still!

Hmm,maybe he needed to put a pause on those proceedings for now.He turned his head and saw that soon the sun would rise.There was no way he could go back to sleep so he thought maybe he should do some working out.

Getting out of bed,Ah Hai freshened up and went for his workout and planned to reap some more benefits of his new sister in law.