The way life used to be-II

That year Olivia worked her ass off so that she could get her own smartphone.

At first, it seemed so hard to focus on class lectures, but she reminded herself repeatedly of her goals and everyday she would repeat the same lessons again at night so that she doesn't forget any. She would even pull all-nighters during the exams. Soon focusing on something for a long time became a bit easier, and she discovered that she was learning a lot of new things from her surroundings too, which included kpop and her other hobbies.

That year she ranked fourth in the final exam. Everyone was shocked. But soon it became normal to others as she continued to do well and gradually stood at the top of her class.

Jean kept his promise. The day when the final result was out, he took her to the best gadget store in the neighborhood in the night and bought her the phone she chose with the money that he had been saving up through the year. That night Olivia cried a lot, not because she got her long awaited phone but because she felt so loved by her brother that she had never felt before.

From her childhood she has always seen that her parents would shower Jean with love and care but act rather cold towards her. She never knew what she did wrong all through her childhood.She would always try to please her parents in so many ways but to get nothing in return. She never hated Jean though, as she knew Jean had nothing to do with that. Jean was just a normal big brother who would bicker with her all the times and make her annoyed. But that didn't fill up the hollow that was created within her heart for the yearning of overshowering love that she never received.

 It was that time when she gave up fighting for her parents' attention as she overheard her aunts talking about the matter why her parents are rather indifferent towards her. It turned out that her parents only wanted one child. They thought their life was complete when Jean was born. But just after three years, Olivia's mother was pregnant again with Olivia. Both the parents were fighting the decision- whether to abort the child or not. But in the end they chose to keep her at the doctors' advice. As she was an unwanted child, her parents never felt the bond with her as they felt with Jean.

Discovering this truth hurt her so much that from that day onward, she sort of folded herself to her own and became way too much introverted which affected her lifestyle and the way she acted at school. She gave up on the thought that she would ever be loved by someone and that was also one of the reasons she never felt interested in men or in building a family.

That was until Asin came in her life, which made her come to the point she was standing on that night. This event changed her life a lot and made her realize that her brother actually cared much for her, not just now, rather he was the only one throughout her life who never changed his attitude toward her no matter what she did or how she behaved. He was the bratty annoying brother from day one till the end. This event of him showing love and care towards her let her see the past clearly, and she realized that there was always someone in the earth who genuinely loved her, she just didn't realize it in the past, and it gave her more confidence that in future she could be loved by others too.

That night Jean treated her with a lot of delicacies and bought her many other things to soothe her. Jean was quite at a loss as to what to do with an emotional Olivia, his baby sister. Jean loved Olivia a lot, but he was a bit tsundere type who felt shy at expressing love. He was in the same school as Olivia and would always keep an eye on her. He would even secretly beat up the guys and intimidate the girls who ever tried to bully his baby sister. And the number of those type of people was quite high at the beginning as Olivia was a quiet and introverted student before. But the number decreased dramatically because of Jean's intervention and ended up others leaving Olivia alone. Olivia never knew how she was able to keep herself like she used to, but it was actually because of her brother that no one dared to provoke her. Jean's entrance exam was soon to be held. As he was about to leave the school he was pretty worried about Olivia because if he leaves the school, there wouldn't be anyone to protect the quiet and introverted Olivia from the bullies. So when he noticed that Olivia was becoming much open and started to interact with people more often after Asin came, he felt relieved. And the matter of the phone and her kpop addiction wasn't unnoticed by him either. He understood that giving the phone to Olivia would make her more connected with her friends and thus would make her less prone to be bullied. That's why he worked extra hard on his part-time jobs to get her a good phone. Also, it was his first ever gift to Olivia that he bought with his own money, so he wanted the phone to be expensive, durable and useful. The tsundere Jean acted as a loving big brother for the first time that night. Although he went back to being the annoying brother the next morning, Olivia became more understanding and felt less annoyed than before as she realized it was Jean's love language. In fact, she was still annoyed but turns out that when you discover that someone cares for you dearly, even their annoyance would feel more normal than before.

However, that was Olivia's turning point of being a bit more normal yet special as she continued to do well in school and made her relationships with her classmates and teachers better than before. Although her parents saw her good result as Jean's credit, as Jean was the one to propose that if Olivia ranked in top five he would buy her a phone, Olivia cared little about that because she already got what she wanted and got to experience her brother's care in the process. And Olivia doesn't belittle Jean's influence either because had Jean not placed that condition, she wouldn't have tried to study so well, though Jean placed that condition for totally different purpose. Jean has always believed in Olivia that's why he let her be all those years. But he knew that their parents didn't believe that Olivia could do so well which made them accept that condition plus even if Olivia did meet the condition they won’t have to spend anything as Jean would be the one to buy the phone for Olivia. Jean took that chance to persuade them in Olivia having a phone during school and in the end their parents had to accept it.

Throughout that year, Asin had a huge effect on the whole school and became best friends with Olivia but turns out that her getting transferred to this school had a backstory. Her father and mother was parted as a result of some family issues and because of that they agreed on keeping Asin for one year each by turn. She came here to live with her father for the year and would go back to her mother again. Olivia hoped that Asin would come back after one year, but that went in vain as Asin's father moved to the USA. Olivia felt heartbroken at this parting with her bestie, but fate gave her another one which happens to be Nora, who was one of the newly admitted students in the following year, along with Kirin, Nina and many others. Though Olivia and Asin has contact through the internet it still feels so distant compared to when they were together. But both of them have developed a special space in their heart for each other and that's why their friendship continued to grow despite the physical distance.

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