The Only Delicacy - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Wait, jealous?” Kevin was now utterly shocked with his path of thoughts.

As a matter of fact, Kevin was never jealous of his elder brother, Kyle, for they were always on par with each other in everything. Literally, everything.

Except their personal fashion styles.

Despite Kyle being the eldest by one minute and despite their huge differences in personality, Kevin wholly accepted him for what he was, because their differences served as their identity.

Yet here he was, jealous of his own brother for the first time he ever lived.

He did not know whether to cry or laugh. To be sadly or angrily affected because of it, he did not know. Complicated and mixed feelings stirred up within his mind, seeming as if it would explode at the next given second.

However, what he did know was that he absolutely hated this feeling.

Jealousy was not a game; it was absolutely not something to play with.

Jealousy was a selfish emotion that disregarded the feelings of others, especially the significant other. Without a person even realizing it, his or her jealousy would reveal the ugliest and filthiest parts of his or her soul towards his or her loved ones, thereby making them achieve nothing but a mere sad ending.

This was a fact Kevin knew of, because he and his brother had lived their entire lives witnessing that loathsome emotion first-hand. To accurately put their whole experiences into one sentence:

They were one of the victims of it.

In a family filled with pretentious family members who would do anything just for the sake of money, Kevin would secretly hide in the background as a child with the help of his own brother in order to not be caught dead on the next second.

In their usual hiding place, the twins would witness up close the disgusting, filthy, and ugly actions those so-called ‘family’ members would do at any given time of the day, thereby polluting their innocent and pure minds as a children and forcing them to mature at a young age.

As they who were born from that wholly corrupt and wicked environment, Kevin and his brother were almost deeply sucked within it, thereby almost shaping their personalities for their own greed and lust even though they were just children

However, before they would never see the light again, an old man, who they had came by once on the street, told them his lifelong lesson despite them being children.

The old man did not take their situation or the twins seriously and just said anything that would come out of his mind, thinking that such young children would not understand him anyway. Yet since the twins were both born geniuses, they understood every word he said and those deliberate words were still currently engraved to the deepest parts of their hearts, for they knew those words of his were wise old sayings.

When he thought back to the past, Kevin remembered what the elder had said:

“Jealousy is simply the fear that you do not have value.”

“It is a viscous beast that would scan for every kind of evidence just to prove the point the point that they are better than you; the point that they are valued, and you, are nothing.”

Kevin also remembered that old man telling him that the only alternative to jealousy was ‘self-value.’

That old man continued to chat and then laugh at the twins, as if he was telling them a joke, but with a hidden meaning.

“As a matter of fact, if you could not believe you have value, how would you be able to love yourself? And if you could not love yourself, how would you be able to believe that you were loved by others? Or that you love someone else? Or even believe in the thought of ‘Love’?”

Back then, those were the only words of his that the twins did not take seriously. They did not believe in such childish dreams like, ‘falling in love,’ or even ‘loving someone else,’ not even their own family, classmates, teachers, or that old nurse. Well, why would they when they never experienced such feelings in the first place?

They only took the elder’s thought as being able to love themselves, nothing more and nothing less. Because, that was what they were meant to be alone, for the rest of their lives.

Hence, they placed those wise but also idiotic words into a small wooden box, locking it and hiding it within the deepest parts of their minds.

Never realizing that it would creep out and explode someday, slowly but surely.

After he said that while laughing, the old man turned serious and looked them in the eye, as if he was not talking to children, but grown-up men. Kevin thought the old man looked funny when he displayed such a huge change in attitude, yet what absolutely gave him a deep impression of that old man were exactly his next words.

“Take your eyes off others and turn the beast-like scanner within.”

“Scan and find the seeds of jealousy hiding within; use the beast to clear out all the old voices and experiences hindering and crushing your other seed the seed of growth.”

“Then, put all your energy into that small seed by growing it fully into a tree of your own personal and emotional security, instead of seeking trouble with others or stealing something that could never be yours.”

“It is only through that small seed that you could destroy the beast, the fear, and the jealousy deeply hidden within.”

What Kevin had learned from the past explained why he never bothered to take the inheritance or acquire the tempting position from his elder brother. Ever since the old man had said those words, he discovered he had always been a free individual since the beginning, unconfined by these so-called rules while making a legacy for himself.

On the other hand, his brother had to face his destiny and act as the ideal inheritor and successor of the company, because it was his responsibility and destiny as the first-born son. Therefore, he spent his whole life diligently striving and facing other people’s rotten jealousy head on in order to not let them abuse their rights and seize what was never theirs to begin with, thereby forming him into what he was today.

A reserve, cunning, and aloof young man.

This also explained why the brothers were like the sun and the moon, completely like yin and yang. Never envious of the other, because there was no need to.

Moreover, Kevin thought he had to thank that old man for bringing out the ‘perfect gentleman’ within him.

Indeed, it was ironic how these twins had learned an important lesson from an old man, who was nothing more but a stranger. They had not even learned his name! So how could they even thank him? That past old man’s carefree but wise words would simply be a debt they could never repay.

Another ironic thing was that Kevin had never expected that those wise but idiotic words to actually become a reality. The small wooden box he had locked up and hidden within the deepest parts of his mind was actually wide open!

He had actually fallen in love. Moreover, it was with the same girl his brother liked all this while! Indeed, ever since his brother banged the door open, Kevin had realized his brother’s feelings and had also immediately seen his upright manhood standing exactly like his.

While looking at the two culprits hugging and staring as if they had just landed on planet Venus, Kevin felt the burning and raging beast within him, ready to prowl towards anyone and anything that comes on its way.

Kevin mentally sighed upon himself, “What a dilemma.”

Even though he was currently a man blinded by love, his morals and his code of honor and pride were not one bit blinded, for these were all part of his manifestations with love.

While he thought back to the past, Kevin strengthened his inner resolve. He absolutely did not want to end up succumbing to jealousy and become ugly in the eyes of his beloved sweetheart.

No, jealousy must not become his downfall!

He had way more ambitions, hopes, and dreams in store for the future to even have the time to succumb to such weakness. This kind of weakness was useless, because it would only force him to give up all he had planned as a consequence.

Moreover, that weakness was entirely against his code of honor and pride as a man!

If it came to his beloved sweetheart, he absolutely did not know what would happen to him at the next moment. He had to be mentally prepared in order to not be caught red handed, he mentally reflected to himself.

While clenching his fists that were holding on to the medical instrument as hard as he could like he was using up all the energy within every part of his body to calm down, Kevin finally controlled his surging, rotten, and intense feelings hidden deep within him and came back to his usual self:

The perfect gentleman.

Right now, Kevin’s main priorities would be to separate these two oblivious love birds who seemed to be in their own little world and to steal his beloved sweetheart back to his arms.

However, before Kevin could say or do anything, the next move that his brother, Kyle, had made left him unable to utter his next words, while seating on the chair and holding the medical instruments that were currently and mindlessly used to treat the air.

Me: “Pshhh, you? A perfect gentleman? Hahahah!”

Kevin: “Want me to punch you and leave the novel like my brother?”

Me: “…..”

I immediately gave up bullying him.

It took me one whole night to convince Kyle to come back.

Do I have to experience that same suffering again?

I’m not that stupid, you know?

Thank you for reading!