I.
Mom died when we were very young but not too young to get through the feeling of losing someone whom we loved so much. We’d been
through the darkest moments of our lives.
We had to learn and got used to a life with out mom.
Father Shuto often cooked too much food for the meal. Little brother Sora still
had the habbit of looking for mommy’s treat after getting home. And I'm still dealing with the feelings of emptiness, the hole in my heart. Father used to say, mommy is now at some place where happiness arrived
and she always watches us from above every single day in our lives. I just
wonder, whether mom is truly happy if she’s not here anymore with her beloved
family.
Therefore, I know how I feel to live a life without mom.
And it must hurt more than a thousand times when someone suddenly loses both their parents. Yuuhi
came into our lives with a heavy heart.
It was a hot mid-autumn day when Shuto got home earlier
than usual. He brought home a girl whom was at the same age with Sora, with a
mournful face.
“Sora, Hiyake. This is Yuuhi. From now on, we are her
family.”
Yuuhi’s parents died last week. They’d been in a car
accident on their way to the hospital. In a moment, Yuuhi was left alone. She
lost her parents, even her little sibling her mom was about to gave birth.
“Doesn’t she have any relatives?” Sora asked, he doesn’t
seem to like Yuuhi to become part of our family.
“Sora, from now on, Yuuhi is the sister of you and
Hiyake. Yuuhi is a member of this family.” Father said while cooking dinner.
Yuuhi said not a word since she got here. She just sat
quietly with her eyes staring at the memories that were gone too fast. She has such beautiful long black hair and dark brown eyes.
“I don’t like having any sisters. Also, this tiny
apartment has no room for her.”
“I’ll make her a new room. But, until I have time to do
that, you guys have to share your room with her.”
“I don’t want to share my room with a girl.”
Yuuhi seemed to be more mature than Sora. She had no
comment on sharing a room with two teenage boys. Or maybe, she just had no choice.
“Just use my bed. I’ll sleep in that sleeping bag on the floor.
Sora will give you one of the drawers to keep your things. And if Sora made you
sad, you would tell me, okay?”
She nodded her head lightly. Then, she started unpacking her
stuffs in a small suitcase. It seemed that she didn’t prepare anything to live
a whole new life. She only brought with her some clothes, a scrapbook and a
sleeping lamp.
The first night she spent with us, Sora couldn’t stop
complaining. Yuuhi left the lamp on at night. The light drove Sora awake and
crumpy even though he slept on the top of the dunk bed. When Yuuhi fell asleep,
Sora crawled down and turned the light off.
I didn’t care, well, at first. I’m not a light sleeper
like Sora. The sound and the light have no affect on me at all. After
everything was settled down, I quickly fell asleep. I dreamed walking along the
beach while the strong billows dashing on the shore. Then I heard someone
crying but I cound’t be sure where the sound came from the wide ocean or it
just wandered around me.
I woke up as someone shouted out loud. It was Yuuhi. My
eyes didn’t get used to the dark so I couldn’t tell what just happened. Sora
woke up, too. He quickly turned on the light.
“What just happened?”
Father opened the door. In our room, all the lights were
on. Yuuhi sat in front of me, her hands were holding my arm tightly. She cried
and seemed frightened. At that time, though I couldn’t really understand what
was her problem, I felt like the darkness had frighten her.
She scared to remember the bad memories that took away
her beloved family, father said. The cops came into her room at night telling
her that both her parents were dead. The darkness scared her. It reminded her
of the painful memories she wished to forget. We left the light on that night
for her. Sora also started to take her as a member of this family.
II.
Yuuhi was surprised when father Shuto said he would take
her to school. She had never been to any school before. Whether it was because
of her health or knowledge, her parents never took her to school.
She was in the same class with Sora. Due to some not-so-friendly introduction from her teacher, the classmate seemed to dislike her. They
looked down on her because she had no family and was adopted by us. It is said that we took her
in because we felt sorry for her. For the worst, she did believe all of that
although it was clearly not true. She started to feel ashamed of herself.
Sora didn’t protect her. He didn’t want to get involved
because it could affect his hounor of a student council. Also, Yuuhi’s study
result was bad, really bad. She was under lots of pressure in studying which
made her really tired. I still didn’t understand why her result was that bad
because she’d been such a hardworking students both at home and in class. Sora
said it because Yuuhi was stupid. But I knew that was not true.
Her strong point was all about picturing. She was good at
art and she had the ability to communicate with pets. It took us a whole year
for the neighbor’s dog to get used to us. But Yuuhi only needed a week to be
friends with all the animals in this neighborhood.
Father Shuto, from the day the members of the family
started rising, worked overtime to take care of us. He’s a surgeon at the city
hospital. He often spent some nights working instead of going home. The
household chores were equally divided for the three of us. The only problem was
Sora, who seemed to have no interest in doing “housewife’s responsibilities”.
All the chores that Sora left undone, Yuuhi did every of that. I had the
feelings that Yuuhi was afraid of something. She was trying her best for us to
accept her. I knew how it felt.
“You’ll need to concentrate more on studying. I couldn’t
understand, you were in the same class with others, but why couldn’t you be
like them? You’re not disable, you just didn’t try your best, Yuuhi. I don’t
want to see this horrible result in your studies anymore.”
Father didn’t realize, Yuuhi was dyslexic. Even though she
once told me that she’d read lots of novels, her speed of reading is extremely
slower than I could expect. She couldn’t remember the letters, the words, and
often misunderstood some letters. Numbers were not also her strong point.
Mathematics drove her crazy. It took her hours to solve an easy math problem. I
thought this was the main reason she was not sent to any school during her
childhood.
Yuuhi seemed desparated when she couldn’t pass the
mid-term examination. The teachers forced her to come to school and study more.
Sora and her classmates started to make fun of her. But somehow, Yuuhi didn’t
give up. She studied harder and improved little by little. Still, she wanted
not be ignored by anyone.
“Dad, Yuuhi has dyslexia. She couldn’t study in our type
of school.”
“Yuuhi is completely normal. She just didn’t try her
best.”
Sometimes I wish father was a therapist instead of a
surgeon. Because if he were, everything would be different.
I wanted to help Yuuhi. She’d been trying so hard and it
scared me that she might be too stressful trying to achieve something that was
clearly not made for her. I went to the library, studying about dyslexia.
Dyslexia is not too serious, of course. But it did cost a lot to get
through.
I started working part time at a small café in our
neighborhood. At first, Sora often made fun of me for being a waiter. Well, I
didn’t care if it was that funny to someone because I knew what I do, the
reason I took this job, I had nothing to be ashamed. On the bright side, when
Sora finally knew my reason, he started to help.
In a month, Sora raised enough money from the help of all
the students in my school. Being a member in a student council did had its
perks. The classmates started to like Yuuhi. As she
told me, everyday, she loved going to school because there were friends waiting
for her. I was so happy to know that.
III.
Rakuen hated the fact that I kind of dumped her for the
past four weeks. Rakuen is my girlfriend. We studied in different school and
met each others on a date with our mutual friends. Rakuen was not really my
type. But she was such a sweet, friendly and out going type of person. I liked
Rakuen because of her opposite characters which occurred everytime I was with
her.
“You seems to take too much care on your sister rather
than your girlfriend. I didn’t appreciate that.”
She always acted childish at some usual things in our
lives. Sometimes, I found it lovely to have a girlfriend asking for some love
but otherwise, it could be really annoying. Rakuen didn’t seem to like Yuuhi,
or it was just what I thought. All the time she spent visitting my house, she
usually brought up some topics that Yuuhi would never interested in. Such as
these topics about idols, bands, beauties and datings. Yuuhi had no time in
doing what teenager loved. I sometimes wondered, how could Yuuhi have no
boyfriend or whether she had a crush on someone. Yuuhi is a type of girl
everyone would fall in love with. A girl
who is sincere, simple and takes good cares on others.
“When will your dad separated your room for her? I’m
worried that the three of you sharing one room with a girl.”
“Why did you have to worry about that? Siblings in a
family share the room. It’s normal.”
“It’s abnormal when Yuuhi is not related to either you and Sora.”
I was kind of insulted when Rakuen reacted like that.
Although, everything she said was true. We sometimes found it kind of weird
when sharing a room with a girl. The three of us were going through purity, and
Yuuhi was not related to us. I could understand what made Rakuen worried so
much.
Rakuen wanted to prove all her worries has its reason. When
Yuuhi is around us, Rakuen always acted romantically which she never used to. I
was always the one taking the lead and I had to admit, it felt great when your
girlfriend switched places with you. Yuuhi was like somekind of drugs driving
Rakuen to act romantically. Sometimes, I felt wrong making Yuuhi a part of the
game that satisfied me.
At first, Yuuhi didn’t seem to care. But as the time went
by, Yuuhi was trying hard not to care. I knew it because she was not an expert
in hiding her feelings. I knew she didn’t enjoy watching these romantic actions
that Rakuen gave me. Somehow, I started to feel annoyed when Yuuhi was around
in the middle of our time.
I caught Yuuhi wearing the most beautiful dress I
had ever seen in my entire life. She always dressed simply but everything
looked great on her whatever it was. She was standing in our room, looking at
the mirror and didn’t seem to expect someone to see her. Her face turned lovely
red.
“You are beautiful, Yuuhi.”
I complimented her without second thought. It made her
embarassed. She didn’t know how to react as if no one had ever complimented her
like I did.
“You look nice, Yuuhi. You'll be the best wing man I've ever had.”
Saora seemed satisfied.
He told me that Yuuhi will be his bait at the prom tonight. With her beauty,
everyone would be envy. She would make all the girls jealous and that would be
the moments when a girl need a compliment which will come with Sora. Sora just
used Yuuhi to get what he want.
The bait was a huge success. Yuuhi became the center of
attention and lately, a person sitting alone in a corner. Sora dumped her to
firt with other girls following his plan. How about your plan, Yuuhi?
She turned down everyone wished to have a dance with her.
But when I asked whether I can have this dance with her, I sweared that I could
see sparkles in her eyes.
We danced. Our steps and rhythms went perfectly together.
She danced beautifully. For the first time in my life, I saw her smile. The
most charming smile anyone could have. Why did she hide it for such a long time
before?
Her toes were hurt because she barely wore high heels.
She refused my care whenever Rakuen was around. I didn’t know why, at that
time, Yuuhi was everything to me. Rakuen was only a friend of mine. Yuuhi was
much more important.
“Hiyake, you have to choose, right now. Me or her?”
I had no second thought. Yuuhi said not a word, just kept
silent while I was carrying her on my back. I left the party with Yuuhi, left
the girl who was once my girlfriend standing crying out loud.
IV.
Yuuhi didn’t talk on our way home. She was lighter than I
thought. She was always skinny which worried me sometimes. I tried to start a
normal conversation but Yuuhi did not replied. She was mad at me, I guessed,
because I chose her instead of my girlfriend.
She did ignored me. She refused everything I do for her.
It hurt my feelings. Then, we got involved in a cold war with each others. I
didn’t mean to hurt her feelings but too bad, I did. I blamed myself for being
such an idiot. I wanted her smile on her face.
I stopped the fight to prevent any painful feelings I
could throw at her. I left the room and walked to the balcony, hoping that the
cold wind could come and ease my soul. Later, Yuuhi walked to me. She shared
the feelings that she’d been hiding all the time, which almost drove her
insane.
She loved me. She never took me as her brother. She was
really happy when I chose her instead of Rakuen. But along with the happiness
she had, she felt guity for stealing someone’s boyfriend. She blamed herself
for being selfish wanting me to be hers and only hers. She appologized for
turning our relationship a mess.
I took her hands. Somehow, right from the beginning, I'd never taken her as my sister.
Father Shuto got angry when we told him our feelings
toward each others. I knew he wouldn’t accept us right away. He took Yuuhi in
because he wanted all the good things for her. Her little hands squeeze my arm
as if she was shivering. I hold her hands tight because from now on, I’ll
protect her.
I came across Rakuen a few years later. She didn't ignore me but instead, gave me her blessings. She smiled and kissed my son on his cheek. Yuuhi took his for some sweets so Rakuen and I could talk. Rakuen said that right from the beginning, as she saw Yuuhi, she knew right away that Yuuhi and I were meant to be. She got jealous and tried to win over my heart but deep down from her soul, she knew that we were zinged, and there's nothing else she can do.
"People spend their entire lives finding true love and somehow, forget to love truly. I'm really glad that you guys find each others." Rakuen said.
"How have you been, Rakuen?"
"From the day you left me at the prom?"
"Sorry about that."
"I'm just kidding. I'm good. There are so many things going on with my life lately. I've been traveling a lot. You know, just living my life. Enjoy it while I'm living."
"That's nice to hear."
"How about you, papa?"
"Still struggling with my dad."
"About your marriage?"
"Well, no. That's not it. Dad keeps asking us whether we're ready to have another child, he wants a granddaughter."
"Keep working, papa." She laughed. "So, um... how's Sora doing?"
"He hardly come home before midnight, working as a bartender keeps him very busy. Oh, and last week, he said that you were in town. Have you guys met?"
"Actually, I'm here today because Sora wanted to take me to the Mid-autumn Festival. But he's late, as usual. He'll never change, right?"
"I'm not surprised about that. So, you guys have been seeing each others, huh?"
"Well, I'm not saying that there's something between us, but we won't know right away. This is not some kind of love at first sight which I had with you."
"You had love at first sight with me?"
"You didn't see it, did you? Never mind, then." She paused, and "...about Sora, would it be okay for us if we started dating?"
"My ex dates my brother? Well, it might be weird, to be honest."
"You dates your sister. You married her. How come that wouldn't be weird?"
"We're not related."
"Neither do we."
"You haven't changed a bit, Rakuen. Fine, good luck with my brother."
"Good luck with your next child."
We laughed as we passing by each others. Yuuhi gave me a cone of cotton candy. She smiled, the smile I had fallen for. My little family, the lifelong treasure I would cherish for the rest of my life.
From the distance, I saw Sora waving and Rakuen smiling. The two of them held hands and wore matching tees. There's another happy ending to this story, are you thinking what I'm thinking?