~Chapter 7~

“Mama! Mama! Look over there! I found some cute bunnies!” 

For a little seven year old she had so much energy and was running to catch up with the bunnies. Meanwhile, Asako tried her best to catch up with the little girl’s quick pace. “Hanako chan don’t go too far! Remember you need to stay close to me so that I know where you are.” .

“Ne mama.” right after Hanako went chasing after the bunnies again when she came across a huge field of flowers. The bright colors, fluttering butterflies and wonderful aroma had gotten her full attention and she started smiling from ear to ear. 

“Hanako chan! Hanako chan! Where did you go?” Asako’s frantic gaze turned calm when she spotted Hanako playing in the flowery field. The little girl was just dancing around with the butterflies and dragonflies before she tossed some flowers into the air and it all cascaded and some were even stuck to her hair but she didn’t care. 

Hanako finally noticed Asako by her side and quickly bunched up a bouquet of flowers in her tiny little hands and handed it to Asako. 

“Mama! Look! Aren’t these beautiful? Some of them even look like my hair!”

“They most certainly do. You know what your name means right?” Hanako shook her head clueless to the significant meaning of her name. “It means ‘flower child’. That fateful day when I took you in, the first thing that caught my eye was your beautiful bright pink curls. I’m happy I gave you that name instead of what Choji or the other children insisted on naming you.”

“Then does that mean I’m a flower? Are these flowers my family?”

The girl’s eyes brightened when she thought of the flowers as her family but Asako looked at her with a sad smile before chuckling at her silly but cute question. “No but everyone at the manor is your family and later when you grow up our family might grow so you have to take care of them like how the others take care of you.” 

“Yes mama. But if my name means flower child, how come I’m not related to any flowers?”

“That’s because you’re a person and a flower is just a flower but I have a feeling you’ll grow up to become a beautiful flower and stand out amongst a field of other flowers.” 

Hanako tilts her head totally confused with what Asako was saying, “What are you talking about mama?” 

Asako immediately shakes her head, not ready to explain to a seven year old about being an adult when the girl just discovered flowers. “I’ll tell you again when you’re older. But now let’s head back?”

Hanako pouts because she didn’t want to go back just yet. “Aw but I wanted to play with the flowers a bit more.” 

“You can play with them tomorrow. Dinner is going to be ready soon and we need to head back home before it gets dark. You don’t want to be here when all the bad men come out at night do you?” 

Hanako quickly grabs Asako’s hand more frightened of the dark and takes one more look  at the flowers before they headed back. As they walked back. Hanako couldn’t take her eyes off the stray patches of flowers along the side of the forest path. She was tempted to pick some up when her eyes widened and she roughly pulled her mother away. 

“Watch out mama!”

“What! What?! What’s wrong?”

She points her tiny little finger towards an ugly looking plant that grew along the base of a tree next to Asako. “That plant looks dangerous. It might kill you!”

Her mother chuckles recognizing the plant Hanako pointed out, “No no Hanako it won’t kill me. In fact, this plant is quite harmless. It’s not even poisonous.” 

“It’s not?” 

“No see?” she grabs the plant with her own two hands making Hanako gasps. She watched her mother touch the plant and like Asako said it didn’t hurt her at all. “It may look like it’s a bad plant but this plant actually helps people. It’s used to heal common colds. So it’s a good plant.”

“But why does it look like it’s a bad plant?” 

“Well have you ever heard of the saying never judge a book by it’s cover?” Hanako shook her head “This plant makes its appearance look like it’s poisonous to fool other animals that might eat it. It may not look like much on the outside but it’s a beautiful flower on the inside.” 

“Then if I eat this plant right now, I won’t catch colds anymore! I’ll be invincible!” 

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that Hanako. It can heal you when you have a cold but it won’t make you invincible but that’s good that you’re taking an interest in these kinds of things.”

“There must be so many more different kinds of plants that can cure me when I’m sick or when you’re sick!” 

“Well the world is still waiting to be discovered so who knows you might find a plant that hasn’t been discovered yet.”

It was at that moment little Hanako had made an impairing decision that would change her life. “When I get older, I want to find all sorts of plants like these but around the world. That way when I collect them all, I can use them to heal everybody in the entire world!”

Asako was surprised hearing such a big declaration from a little girl but her heart clenched just hearing Hanako spout out her new dream. “Yes. I’m sure you can do it Hanako. But remember to never give up even when you feel like you want to. Ok?” 

“Ok!” 

“Hanako? Hanako!”

“Huh?” 

“Are you ok? You look like you haven’t slept in days.” Akira rested the front of her hand against Hanako’s forehead to check if she had fever and luckily she felt fine. “Maybe you should rest. I can be in charge of all the cleaning today.” 

Before Akira could do anything, Hanako quickly stopped her from doing anything just yet. She tries to smile to hide the fact that she was feeling stressed and tired. “I’m fine Akira. Don’t worry about me. You should worry more about the others.”

“But-”

“I’ll be fine. If something happens to me it’ll worry the others too and I don’t want to do that.” 

Akira couldn’t stand when Hanako did this to herself. Sure she was the oldest amongst all of them so she felt like she had to hold most of the responsibility around the manor but Akira was the second oldest so that made her the second in command and always assured Hanako that she was here to help if she couldn’t handle so much in her hands. 

Of course she respected Hanako. She respected her a lot. Her, Usagi, Hanako and Fuuto grew up together and between the four of them they formed a bond to always be there for each other.

Then when their family grew bigger, they got older and they felt they needed to look after the little ones cause no one else would. The four of them had nobody except themselves and of course their mother. However, Akira sometimes wished that Hanako could shed some of the weight she carried all the time onto them because even now she could see Hanako would break sooner or later from all the stress that is starting to pile onto her back.  

Suddenly, Akira and Hanako heard rapid footsteps coming from upstairs. Then Usagi came rushing into the kitchen. Her eyes were wide and pale as if she had seen a ghost. Hanako and Akira’s first instinct was that something terrible must’ve happened to either the kids or worse their mother. 

“Usagi what’s wrong?” 

“Mama….Mama she’s awake!” 

Akira had never seen Hanako clear the kitchen and find the phone to call the doctor to come right away. For her she stood still and felt relieved but at the same time anxious. Why did she have this bad feeling that this may be the calm before the storm. 

“That’s right just take a deep breath and then exhale” 

Asako weakly breathes in and out as the doctor tentatively listens through his stethoscope for her heartbeat. Hanako was right beside her tightly clasping her mother’s hand and once in a while kept looking at their entwined hands to tell herself that this was all real and that mother was actually awake. 

After a few other checkup procedures, the Doctor put away his equipment and puts together his prognosis. “I checked your heart and I’m hearing it’s a bit weak and slow but I’m thinking it’s because you were unconscious for so long and haven’t gotten much nutrition. I’m still not sure what the main cause of you collapsing might be because you had a heart attack or but there seems to be no signs that you have any problems like that. So my best suggestion is that you stay in bed and don’t do anything extraneous. Depending on how you’re doing in a couple of weeks, we’ll see if your condition stays the same.”

“Is there any medication that can prevent this from happening to her doctor? Maybe there’s something I have in my shop that can do something-”

“Hanako I’m fine. You heard the doctor. I just need to rest. Although it'll be boring just doing nothing but rest. So don’t bother the doctor anymore. I feel fine now.” 

Hanako hesitantly smiles but listens to her. She gets up and offers to walk the doctor out. When they left Asako all alone in her room her smile disappeared and she put her left hand over her heart. She could feel this same pain rushing in her body like on that night at the ball. “I know I don’t have much time but I have to do something.” so she carefully bends over to her night table and grabs a pen and paper and starts writing a letter knowing that they were the only hope she had that would save her family. 

“Thank you doctor for coming on such a short notice.” 

Mr. Yama had been their family doctor for a long time and he sympathized with the girl about their mother being in such a poor condition. “I’m sorry if I couldn’t help much. This is a strange case. One I haven’t encountered.”

Hanako shook her head, “You did your best Mr. Yama. All I can hope is that it won’t happen so soon.” 

“Wait. There might be something that can help your mother’s mysterious condition.”

There was this little surge of hope stirring inside of Hanako and she couldn’t help but to know what this solution was. “What is it?”

“Well…..I..It’s a bit of a risk but amongst our great twelve kingdoms, have you heard of the kingdom, Tamburan. They’re known for having an incredible supply of medicine. They say their medicine can’t be found anywhere else and has the power to cure all kinds of mysterious diseases.” 

“So are you suggesting that we travel to Tamburan? That would take many days to get there and I can’t leave everyone and mother just woke up-.”

“No, no you don’t have to. I have a friend who lives in Tamburan. He specializes in making their medicine and I can deliver a message to him if he can help send some medicine that can help your mother.”

“Do you think their medicine will be able to help her?!”

“Yes but at the same time we may not know but their medicine doesn’t come for free since nowadays kingdoms outside the Great Twelve are highly demanding for it.”

“It’s alright I’ll come up with the rest.” Hanako didn’t hesitate and would do anything to get this medicine. 

“Are you sure? I know you maintain that apothecary but do you have enough to pay for it?” 

She hesitates since she knew that she didn’t have enough to pay for half, “I’ll figure something out.” Even if she had to work longer hours at the shop, she’ll do it. She was doing all of this so that her mother would never have to experience this pain again and she made a promise that she would protect her family no matter what.

Hiiro in the morning was beautiful. The capital was usually peaceful and quiet. You can even hear the sound of a morning dew drop on the cobblestone road. As soon as the sun rose, the villagers of Hiiro got up too. Everyone began opening up their shop or did their everyday chores. 

One old lady opened her windows breathing in the beautiful morning mist and listening to the birds' lovely chirping. Then she notices some of her flower pots started to shake. At first she wondered if there was an earthquake when she almost experienced a heart attack from two horses sprinting by. 

“I’m so going to win this time!”

The other rolled his eyes knowing that was never going to happen. “Oh come on this will be what? The sixty seventh time I’m going to kick your ? Just admit that I’ll always win whenever we race. Admit you at riding Chanyeol!”

“Hah! The day I admit that is when I see any of you guys flying. So you best be prepared Baekhyun cause I’m dead serious on winning! Today is the day I win and that day you’ll be eating my dust and coughing on it for weeks.” 

“Geez even I make better comebacks than that Chanyeol.”

“But guess what? I’m in the lead now.” Chanyeol just sticks his tongue out playfully before he took another route towards the finish line which was the front gates of Suho’s castle. 

Yeah they knew it was too early to be causing trouble but their logic was that if they raced around before all the villagers were out, they wouldn’t hurt anybody. Of course they approved of their plan but they never actually approved it to the one important person who should have permitted it and it was the person who ruled this kingdom. Well they assumed that Suho would be ok with it. Assumed was the key word. One way or another, having two of them or Chen included just meant trouble. 

“Good morning Joseph!” The baker, Mr. Sun greets the cobbler as he starts opening up shop for the day . 

“Lovely morning today isn’t it?” Joseph took a deep breath in and sighs with utter delight, “Do I smell your famous honey cakes?” 

Mr. Sun chuckles and affirms his suspicions, “If you like I’ll let you get the first piece once it’s done baking.” 

“Like I would refuse that! If you keep tempting me with pastries every morning, I think my belly will be as big than my wife’s.”

“How is she doing by the way? Is the baby healthy?”

“You know you think it gets better after the third child but her cravings get worse and this baby is proving to be a challenge. It just does as it pleases which means that kid you are going to be one stubborn bean. Just like me.” Mr. Sun laughs glad to see Joseph excitedly looking forward to his fourth child coming on the way. 

“You should take it easy Joseph. Don’t want you to spend all day breaking your back in the shop and then having to help take care of your new baby at home. Maybe it’s time to hire a second help for the shop.`` 

“Oh come on. How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t need any extra help around the shop.”

“It’s only a suggestion! Your shop get’s pretty busy nowadays. So I think you should at least consider it.” 

Joseph at first was against even thinking about it but then wondered would it be so bad to have some second hands around the shop? He stops thinking about it for now when he spots a familiar face coming in to open up her shop.  “Good morning Hanako!” 

Her blank and sad expression went away once she heard Joseph’s voice. She looked over at the two men and greeted them a good morning. “Morning Mr. Fu, Mr. Sun. How are you today?”

“Still feeling old but that’s nothing new. I wish I could go back to being a young adolescent like you Hanako.” 

“Eh? I think you still look wonderful Mr. Sun. Why I think you’re the perfect vision of health.”

“You know sometimes I wish I had a daughter as kind and beautiful as you Hanako instead of two rambunctious boys that cause me to feel old all the time.” 

Hanako chuckles at Mr. Sun’s sweet compliment and shook her head. “Be careful. Your sons might hear you saying all these things and might get mad.”

“Ah but it’s the truth. My wife was right, a girl is so much easier. Night and day those two boys won’t stop running around and getting dirty or rough house each other.”

“Oh by the way how’s your mom doing Hanako?”

Hanako’s smile went down a little after Joseph curiously asked about her mother. “She’s finally awake and we called the doctor immediately. He said that she can’t leave the bed for another few weeks since her vitals are a bit weak.”

Joseph sadly smiles, pitying the poor girl. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through or anybody in that manor, “Did the doctor suggest any medicine for her?” Joseph asks furthermore.

“He did but it’s a bit complicated. He thinks there’s something that can help her but it’s all the way in Tamburan and it’s a bit of a cost. I know I don’t have enough to afford any of it so now I have to figure out a plan to secure extra money besides working at my shop.”

Suddenly Joseph had the most brilliant idea and thought how convenient it was, “Say Hanako, why don’t you work in my shop then? I mean since my wife has been at home preparing for the baby’s arrival, I’ve been maintaining the shop on my own and it gets tiresome going back and forth retrieving customers orders while checking on my wife. I don’t have anybody besides myself running around to take care of the shop so I could really use an extra set of hands. That is if you don’t mind?” 

“Y-you would do that? Are you sure?”

“Of course! I trust that you’re a hard worker and can learn on your own how to help around and plus if it’s to help Asako get better then count me in.” 

Hanako almost could feel herself crying and jumping for joy. So she rushed to hug Joseph instead who stumbled back from the sudden force before he reciprocated the hug. “Thank you. I really do appreciate all that you’re doing for me, really.” not only did this give Hanako a newfound hope but made her feel like she was a step closer to gaining that medicine. 

Meanwhile, Prince Chanyeol and Prince Baekhyun were neck and neck with each other. They were still a few miles away from the castle so it could be anyone’s game.

“You know if we weren’t racing through Hiiro, I think I would’ve loved the view of Suho’s kingdom right about now. I’ve never noticed how pretty it looks in the morning.”

“Well in that case, I hope you enjoy the view of my behind cause I’m taking the lead now.” Baekhyun taunted Chanyeol as his horse went ahead and Baekhyun gained the upper hand. Chanyeol clicked his tongue in annoyance thinking that he was going to lose another time. 

Most of the citizens of Hiiro were awake by now and were careful to not get in the way of the prince’s when they raced by. They definitely caught everyone’s attention as they passed; especially the young maidens of the capital who swooned and awed at them as they passed by. 

Two young maidens sitting by their windowsill just stare dreamily at the two princes as they flew by. “*sigh* Isn’t Prince Baekhyun just charming?He looks like a knight in shining armor while riding his horse.” 

“I think Prince Chanyeol is quite handsome too. He looks rugged, built and so serious whenever he’s riding.” 

“Well one thing we can agree on is they both look so handsome when they’re riding a horse.” 

“You know I wonder what it feels like losing so many times to me Chanyeol. Don’t you get tired of it?”

Chanyeol growled and ignored Baekhyun. He was starting to get really annoyed that he wasn’t catching up. “Well you know the saying, the more you talk, the more dirt you’ll eat.”

“What? That’s not an actual saying.” Baekhyun chortled before Chanyeol’s eye lit up when he saw an opening. 

He took that opportunity to finally take the lead and leave Prince Baekhyun with a gaping expression. Meanwhile Chanyeol pulled one of his eyes down and stuck his tongue out. “How’s the view back there?”

Chanyeol then decides to take a different path that wasn’t usually the way back to the castle while Baekhyun went the opposite way. The prince felt thrilled and confident that he was finally going to win and looked back to see if Baekhyun had followed him. When he turned around he didn’t react fast enough to stop his horse when one villager went to the middle of the street. Prince Chanyeol tried to pull the reins of his horse back to make the horse stop and the horse stood on its hind legs causing Chanyeol to hit his head on one of the shop’s signs. Even though Chanyeol had tried to stop the horse from almost running over the villager, it still had it’s large front hooves right above the frightened and helpless civilian’s face. Everyone that was there was frightened to even watch what would happen next.

“Joseph watch out!” 

In a split second, someone had stood in front of his horse. Chanyeol’s eyes widened even more when he thought his horse was going to come down and hurt somebody but suddenly his horse calmed down and paced its hooves against the cobblestone road. The person who stood in front of his horse backed up to give the animal some space before Chanyeol’s eyes met with hers. 

It was like time had stopped and it might’ve been the injury sustained on his head that made him just solely focus on the girl in front of him and nobody else. He thought she must be insane to stand in front of a startled horse. She could’ve gotten herself seriously injured or worse killed. Then he wondered how she even got the horse to calm down like that when suddenly he catches a whiff of a peculiar smell that he recognized. 

All this commotion gathered a bunch of villagers wondering what had just happened. 

After Hanako sees that the horse is fine she rushes over to check on Joseph. “Mr. Fu! Are you ok?” Joseph thought he had seen his life flash before his eyes when he saw those large hooves about to come down onto his face. He was lucky that Hanako pushed him out of the way but the fall caused him to land in an awkward position.

“I’m ok. Oh gosh that scared me. I thought I was about to die.” 

Hanako just searches Mr. Fu’s body for any signs of major injuries and breaths a small sigh of relief before helping Mr. Fu up. Chanyeol was worried about the old man but felt most relieved that he didn’t hurt anyone. Then his eyes darted back to the girl and watched as she helped the man up to his feet. Her