Murmurs enter the room once one of the sisters breaks down the news. The billowing black and white clothes of the sisters soon fill the dimly lit hall with a girl hiding behind one of them. Every kid stands up from what they are doing and strains to see how the new girl looks like. The sisters usher the remaining kids out inside the room.

"Gather around, kids, and show your manner. We have a new addition to our loving family. A sibling whose parents have died not long ago," Sister Lila says without censorship and an absurd smile pastes on her wrinkled, worn face even if what she just said is disturbing and sad for all the orphaned kids in the room, making her look creepy. The next words are very familiar to Junhoe; he has been hearing the words ever since the first time he lodged here, and, sometimes, they even echo in his mind, reminding him of his past — though, he really can't remember anything but just bits and pieces. It is just the name that changes.

She clamps her hands in front of her before continuing, "Brothers and sisters, meet our lovely Tzuyu."

She, Tzuyu, shrinks back farther behind the sisters, but they only wrench her out from her iron grip on their clothes. A whimper escapes from the girl's mouth as Sister Lila, clearly annoyed but covering the fact with a smile, successfully wrings her to the front. Flustered and embarrassed, she ducks her head down and rubs the palms of her hands together shyly in an effort to keep the cold away. The colors of brown, dark orange, black, and white mixing in on her vision along the sight of the people — children moving in, circling her. Her head starts to swim, making her feel dizzy, the place seems to double in her eyes. Her stomach seems to have flipped upside down, adding on to her suddenly sickly feel.

What is happening to her?

She takes in shallow breaths to calm herself, but it merely adds to the pain and fire. All the food she has eaten, which is not a lot, threatening to rise in and exit where they first went through. Cupping her stomach, she stumbles back to the sisters. Quickly, they keep her steady by gripping her shoulders so strongly that their nails are digging into her shoulder. At least, that slightly diverts her mind from the internal pain. But she is sure cuts and bruises will decorate her skin thereafter. Her body starts to tremble, a very imperceptible shivering at first until she catches herself likening to a gong that is repeatedly hammered, signalizing the start of some important event. And she finds it fitting to the situation, the most suitable metamorphosis, anything other than will not be able to compare.

The fate of a new start, a new beginning will be ahead of her, all readied on a silver platter. Harder than what she is used to. Harder than how she expects her life to be henceforth. Her future finally in her hands to do as she wishes even at such a young age. She will also not be alone; she will be with all these kids whom she has no intention of communicating to or even allow to let more than five words pass between.

Then comes the sisters.

Tzuyu disliked them from the very moment they took her in. They are selfish and brooding, not unlike the ones you see on tv. They asked her a lot of questions none of which she is supposed to know; she can't remember anything but the occasional glimpses of what really happened, and they got annoyed by it. She wants to tackle them down on the ground.

Paying at least a little homage to the sisters is hard, she thinks, because of their pride and ego, which seems to tower over any of the highest buildings.
Once she has been introduced and the pleasantries given, a flicker of movement sparks in the room. The sound of feet, slippers, and shoes bounces off the walls; laughs, silent murmurings, normal conversations play through each one's ears, starting to fill the silent and awkward void from earlier.

The sweaty and greasy children begin to run to and from the room as the sisters force her to sit on one of the bunk beds by carelessly pushing her bottom down to the bed while shooing and harshly ordering the kids to go back and do their daily duties and errands. The women's spectacled eyes b with feign concern and genuine irritation. It also doesn't falter for her to believe they will be stricter and more stern than her parents have been — and ever will be. At the thought of that, the memories of her family — all four of them: her parents, her brother, and her — begin materializing in her imagination until it expands and erases away the situation before her, albeit unreachable and passing in a blur as if seated in a very fast monorail train.

She is underneath it all.

She tries pinpointing down a memory as the ghost of her second birthday shows itself to her, appearing but disappearing just as quickly as another takes its spot. The monorail suddenly hinges, the train stops, she attempts to hold on to something as the surface starts to topple over her. She tries to run, but she is immobilized, but for whatever reason she isn't sure. Fear clutches her heart and gnaws at the insides of her stomach; the edges of her brain begin to hurt as electricity surges through the twisted lines of the organ, the memories searing through, melting the brain in her skull until it feels gooey, viciously burning all her capabilities in the process and her consciousness starts to weaken. Her mind is blank.

She is aware of the commotion around her, but her eyes are set on the dangling of the train above her, her ears attuned to the loud creaking and sound of metal on metal. It locks with each other, producing a very awful screeching noise piercing through her eardrums as the vehicle's first car darts at her almost as if it knows she is its target. Tzuyu remembers closing her eyes, the glaring of the object fading out of her vision, and waiting for the fall to happen, for the oncoming of an insufferable pain just like how her dead family must have felt. The pain they should have shared with her and she should have felt.

But it never comes.

Instead, she feels herself fall on a soft mattress and cushion as water starts to enter her lungs, scorching her insides. A drowning sensation overcomes her, the water covering every stretch of her skin, soft sloshes against her bosom, seeping through her shirt. opens as she struggles for breath.

A dark, lenticular cloud forms before her, the filtering of light through her closed lids going away. The cloud amplifies its size until it swallows her whole.

Then nothing.

***

"Junhoe!" Tzuyu yells, sticking her head in the doorway, her hair framing her face like a curtain around her. She is all the time energetic and cheerful, oozing innocence in her acts and movements that draw people of all ages to her as if emitting a magnetic force field that is unbearable to just ignore.

On his stomach, Junhoe elicits a muffled grunt, the tangle of sheets safely protecting him away from the sharp morning light seeping into the room through the windows.

Tzuyu sighs as she enters, noticing the drop of the temperature even with the glaring morning sun. She sits on the bed and sticks her fingers in his unkempt hair. The tip of her index finger slowly trailing circles on his scalp, she hovers over his ear and whispers, "Junhoe... Junhoe..."

It increases in volume by the minute until she shouts in his ear, "Junhoe!"

ing his hand on her face, he faces her and flutters his eyes open. Tzuyu grabs ahold of his wrist with both hands and wrenches it from her face, returning to her previous sitting position.

"You ruffled my hair," she mumbles condescendingly and glares at him. He gives her a lazy grin and a throaty laugh slips past his lips and into the air between them.

Pushing himself from the bed and leaning on the wall, he lets the grogginess bleed from his body and mind. He imagines himself welcoming the day with open arms. Somehow, his imagination helps him with coping up. He stares at Tzuyu's stature, absorbed in fixing her hair, repeatedly combing through, straightening the ends, and clipping her bangs between the inside of her thumb and the edge of her palm. Everything about her is neat and tidy, not a thing out of place. The same rhythmic thudding drums in his chest as he stares longer at her figure. Felinity embodies Tzuyu, graceful as a cat, silent and deadly. And charming. Adrenaline and endorphins surge in his veins, assisting him more with waking up than his weird imagination. He pushes the feelings away.

Inconsequential, he breathes.

At last, her fingers effortlessly glide through the strands, evoking a cheeky smile from her. Contented, she turns to Junhoe and throws a pillow at him. For a girl as slim as her, Junhoe doesn't expect the impact to be so hard. Caught off guard, his head connects to the wall. The place seems to have shaken in front of him.

"Aw," he drawls, his tongue exaggeratedly rolling the last letter. He rubs the back of his head, the part that suffered the most. Tzuyu has her hands clamped on , her eyes widen for a moment then her body shakes with laughter. She didn't mean to hurt him that badly; she just wants to give him a taste of his medicine.

"Oh my god," she manages to breathe through the giggles. The bed starts to creak as her laughs get louder and soon Junhoe finds himself smiling, sharing the hilarity as if contagious. There is nothing more refreshing than hearing her laugh. Quickly, he pounces at her, closing the gap between, their faces standing opposite each other, noses almost touching, every measured breath mingling, taking in the scent of each other. Altogether, she stops laughing, the smile fading from her face, curving its way out from , lips slightly parting open.

Out of nowhere, Junhoe suddenly grows conscious. His morning breath might disturb her. Did he brush his teeth last night? What did he eat? He cannot remember. But their nearness holds him on spot, not daring to move, not wanting to let this slip past his fingers. Most of all, the way their stares hold each other captivates him, learning one another's features, sliding over the forehead, nose and then the lips. Tzuyu bites her lower lip. He returns his gaze back up in her eyes, they glint and a mischievous smile spreads, the lines around deepening. She claps his face between her hands. Smoothly standing up, she sticks her tongue out at him and traipses her way to the door as he curses her under his breath, the stinging sensation dallying.

Only Nayeon stands waiting on the other side, a veiled expression of anger crossing her face. Jinhwan ducks his head down, looking sorry for the both of them.