chapter 03: My responsibility

Kaino's POV

I wake up suddenly and look at my surroundings to find myself sleeping in a dark room with no lights or whatsoever. Sitting up on the bed, I rub my eyes and climb down in search of switches. With my hands on the wall, I take wide steps and when I trace the switch board, I turn on the lights. They shine brightly, illuminating the room. My eyes blink at the sudden brightness and I take a minute to adjust to my surroundings. When I finally open my eyes, I see Parker still sleeping with tear strained face.

I sigh before approaching him. Sitting beside him, I bring my hand to his face and remove the traces of dry tears. A frown appears on his face and his eyebrows come closer to eachother. I press a finger on his forehead and ease the pain. Once his face regains peace, I get up and leave to the bathroom. I brush my teeth and walk out of the room. Making my way towards the kitchen, I grab the milk carton from the refrigerator and heat some milk. Pouring the now boiled milk in a glass, I add a spoonful of honey and head back to the room with a thought of waking him up so that he can drink some warm milk.

By the time I reach the room, I witness Parker waking up from his sleep and letting out tedious cries as he sit up on the bed. I walk to him and sit by his side as I keep the cup on the table and pull him to me. He cries even with me trying to console him and knowing I can't stop him, I just sit with him in my arms as I wait for him to calm down. It takes time and after what seems like hours, he finally calms down and parts from me while wiping his tears away.

"Are you okay now?" I query while lowering my head to see him because he hang his head down.

He nods at me and that's an enough answer for me.

"Go and fresh up, I'll warm the milk again." I tell him and get up from the bed, giving him way to the bathroom.

Climbing down the bed, he takes small steps and goes to the bathroom. I take the glass from the table and leave the room. Going to the kitchen, I warm the milk again and turn to go up but stop when I see Parker walking towards the kitchen. He sits on the chair and I take two steps to reach the dining table. Placing the glass in front of him, I take a seat opposite to him.

"Here, drink some milk." I offer him while pushing the glass to him.

He doesn't listen to me nor bothers to look at the glass. He silently stares down in his own thoughts. It's not good for him. I know he lost his lover and it's not even been a week. It's been just two days but the trauma he's going through, I have to put a stop to this and bring him out. I should stop him from always thinking about Zayn and to start thinking about himself. Because if he continues to mourn, I'm scared he's going to lose himself. I know it won't be easy for him to forget but if it's for his own good, I'll have to do it. If there's anything he remembers, it should be those happy moments he spent with Zayn not his death and drowning himself in pain.

"Parker." I call him and he looks at me, "drink the milk. You didn't eat anything from yesterday." I remind him.

He stares at me while I wait for him to drink. I get confused as he looks at me without blinking until tears gather in his eyes. What's wrong with him? I think and stand up, moving to him. His eyes follow my move and we come face to face when I stand in front of him. He gazes up at me and now his tears are falling down his cheeks.

"Parker, what's wrong?" I ask while bending down until I reach his eye level and wipe his tears.

Placing his hands on mine, he holds my hand firmly and gives it a small squeeze. I frown thinking what's wrong with him. Just as I go to ask him the same, he suddenly stands up and hugs me tightly. My eyes widen as he nestles his head in the crook of my neck while his hands go around my waist in a tight lock.

"Why did you do it Zayn? Didn't I tell you not to go?" He cries while mumbling into my neck.

Though I don't get what's actually happening here, I understand that he's thinking me as Zayn. Maybe my resemble to his lover making him see him in me. Or he's just venting his anger and pain on me. Either way, I first need to calm him. With that thought, I bring up my hands around him. With one hand on his back, I gently pat his hair with the other. Silent sobs fill the room as he cries and I whisper smoothing words to make him stop.

Few minutes later, I feel him slumping on me and I realised he slipped off of to sleep. I sigh before lifting him in my hands and taking him to the room. Laying him on the bed, I brush the hair that's falling on his face and cover his body with the blankets. I take a last look at him before walking out. As I step out of the room, I hear some noises at the front door and a second later see our parents walking in. They all look tired with red eyes and swollen faces.

"Kaino, how is Parker?" Mother asks as she walks to me hurriedly and I hold her before she could loose her balance.

"He's not really in a good state. All he does is either crying or sleeping. He has nightmares in his sleep and woke up while crying. I had to calm him but once he calms down, he's slipping into sleep." I tell them as we all take a seat.

"I think he really needs to stop thinking about Zayn and come out of his thoughts. It's literally taking a troll in him. We might lose him if we let him continue to be the same." I state earning gasps from them.

"We can't let that happen, Kaino." Father says and I nod, acknowledging it.

"I know but I don't know what should we do to get him back." I sigh at the sad truth.

And silence surrounds us after that as no one utters a word. It's not easy of a task for us to get Parker to normal. Even an attempt seems hard.

"How about you take him to America?" Father asks and I look at him surprised.

"What?" My mom questions shocked, infact everybody here are in shock by his words.

"I'm asking if you guys would take him to America with you?" He repeats.

"Father, I have no problem to take him but do you think he'll agree to come with us?" I put forth my doubt.

"It's hard, Kaino. I know but if you say you'll take him then I'll convince him. It's not for long, though. Just until he forgets everything that happened and pulls himself back together. Once everything is normal, he'll come back. Now that Zayn is no more, we would like him to stay with us. And you, you can marry someone you love and live happily." He says while trying hard not to cry at the thought of Zayn.

"It's not about me now, father. First we'll think about Parker." I reply, brushing off his last sentence.

"No, Kaino. You married him without saying another word when Zayn asked you to promise him to marry Parker. You have your own life, Kaino. You would want to fall in love and marry that special person. You have your dream life and you should live up to it. Life is short, no compromises or sacrifices for anyone. You already sacrificed alot to marry Parker because you could not ignore the last wish of Zayn. But you don't have to continue your life at someone's words, Kaino. According to the rules, you can divorce Parker after an year. Till then, take him with you. Hopefully, he'll recover within the year." He explains and we all listen to him.

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with what he said but I won't divorce Parker and leave him unless it's what Parker wants. Because I promised Zayn that I won't leave Parker. But if it's what Parker want then I have no choice but to do so. I never liked a person in my life as it's been busy with work and other things. Father doesn't have to think I'm sacrificing myself by marrying Parker as I was going to marry whoever my parents asked me to. So, father doesn't really have to worry about me.

"We'll talk to Parker and see if he'll agree." I say, letting the topic about our divorce slide away, "he just slept now, we'll wait until he wakes up."

With that we sit and wait for him to wake up. As we sit, I think about work for the first time after coming to Thailand. My parents are partners in a hospital business in America and we live in states. We hardly come here as we're always busy with work. My father acts as a co-director while my mom and I work in the hospital as doctors. As we work as doctors we don't get much time to visit Zayn and his family here. In the past 30 years, I visited Thailand for hardly countable times.

But that was different because mother and father had Zayn and Parker with them. However, it's all different now, I think maybe I should ask them to come along with us if Parker agrees so that they won't be alone here. If Parker doesn't agree, then I'll have to stay here as well atleast until he's back to normal. And send my parents to states.

It's funny how my parents were the ones without children and mother and father gave me to them immediately after the birth. But now, they lost Zayn. Fate really plays with lives. My mom and mother, who gave birth to me, are sisters but my parents couldn't conceive children even after many years of marriage. My birth mom, who I came to address as mother, decided to give one of us to her when she realised she's going to have twins. So, immediately after Zayn's and my birth, I was given to them and was taken to states.

It would have been kept as a secret but it turned out that we're identical twins. As we grew, our resemble made us think how and why we're alike. Though, we don't visit them or they visit us but we always facetime eachother. As children we never questioned them but as we grew up, no one could deny our similar features. So, one day our parents revealed us what happened during the birth without us asking them. However that didn't change a thing. We just came to know the secret behind our resemble and we left it there. Our lives were perfect as they were until two days ago.

But now, it's a chaos. I can't leave mother and father alone. It's either all or none. It's not just Parker that's my responsibility, now they're my responsibility as well. And this is a promise to myself.