Her birthday was on the coming weekend.

Ara gave a comforting smile to herself as she crossed out yet another date on her calendar. She was again one day closer to her birthday, but she didn’t exactly look forward to it. The day seemed like a personal checkpoint in her life, in which it would mark her eighteenth year with no cards. It’s not like she really celebrated her birthday anyway, since it seemed like none of her family members and relatives bothered to remember the day she was born. Even if they did, they wouldn’t celebrate it with her.

The soon-to-be eighteen-year-old had yet another long and boring day ahead of her. She didn’t have any plans, and she didn’t have to attend any classes either. But that didn’t stop her from waking up early at 7 in the morning to prepare breakfast for her aunt and uncle.

Aunt and Uncle Chae were well-known Dealers in the Dealer world, recognised for the number of battles they won and the number of high ranked cards they possessed. This explained why they could be so successful with their Training Centre that was right smack in the middle of town. The Centre served as a place where Dealers could train their cards and maximise their potential through weekly sparring sessions. It’s said that whoever enrolled there would come out undefeatable.

Ara was putting out the plates when her Aunt strolled in all freshened and dressed up for the day. A casual ‘morning’ was thrown over the seventeen-year-old’s shoulder as she was pouring out glasses of orange juice, knowing that her Aunt preferred it to milk.

The woman with greying hair only acknowledged the greeting with a nod before sitting down. While eating her pancakes, she didn’t even bother to make light conversations with her niece that sat across her. They continued to eat in silence until Uncle came in dressed in a suit a tie, an outfit which only indicated that he had an important client today. Usually he would be in a white button-up and jeans.

Ara took his entrance as her signal to start making his coffee since he always liked it freshly brewed. Ara pursed her lips in thought as she brewed a pot of coffee.

Would they remember this year? Ara thought. Then she shook her head. Nah they wouldn’t. But what if they did?

She shook the thought away again. No, no. why would they when they’ve never asked her about it the last few years?

What if I reminded them? Damn. No, they wouldn’t bother, Ara. Remember what they said last time? Why are you still so pathetically clinging onto hope?

The chestnut-haired girl sighed.

Uncle Chae seemed to have noticed her movements even though he was reading his paper. “What are you doing?” he raised a brow as Ara slightly jumped and turned around sheepishly. Her Aunt kept a straight face as she sat there staring at her niece, with a now clean plate in front of her.

you, Ara.

Ara her lips. “Uhm, do you know of any important events later this week?” she managed to utter the words, and she could hear her heart pounding against her chest as she nervously waited for an answer.

Uncle Chae lowered his paper from his face with furrowed eyebrows, thinking. Aunt Chae began drumming her fingers against the table top as she tried to recall. Ara could feel her heart thumping faster with every ‘tap’ she heard.

“Not that I know of, no. Is there supposed to be an important event?” Aunt Chae finally said after about five seconds. She faced her husband. “Is there?”

The man ran his hand over his stubble, a habit he had when he was thinking about something. Ara watched as he traced his fingers down his chin.

“No, I don’t think so. Even if there is an event, if we don’t remember it, it just means its not important enough to be remembered,” Uncle Chae shrugged his shoulders and went back to his paper.

Ara could feel her heart drop at his comment. She wanted to laugh at herself.

Of course, why would my birthday be important? Shame shouldn’t be celebrated.

Aunt Chae seemed to notice the obvious disappointment on her niece’s face. “Is it something important Ara? You looked…hopeful.”

At this, her uncle put down his paper, finished with an article about the Academy. The man looked at the seventeen-year-old with a questioning gaze.

“Uhh..” Ara was at a lost for words. Should she tell them? Would they remember this time? She was in a dilemma for three seconds.

Oh whatever.

 “Oh well, it’s…it’s actually my- “

Just at the right time, the shiny new phone next to her uncle’s plate buzzed. Uncle Chae picked it up and left the dining room, leaving the teenager at the table with her words stuck at the tip of her tongue.

Aunt Chae sighed at her husband’s actions. Then she turned her gaze back to the flustered girl. “So?”

Before she could answer, her uncle came back in with his phone in his hand as he adjusted his tie. “The client is early. And he doesn’t like waiting,” The fifty-year-old said.

His wife raised an eyebrow at the girl before her, annoyance slightly seeping through because the girl still hadn’t told them after three minutes. She didn’t like waiting either.

Ara decided to cut off what she wanted to say. “it’s…it’s nothing important actually,” the teenager let out a nervous laugh.

Why did she even bother? So long as they didn’t have the common topic of cards to talk about, she and her family members weren’t going to hold a proper conversation for more than three minutes. She suddenly recalled that she did in fact tell them about her birthday in previous years. She still remembered their responses vividly.

 ¤ • ¤ • ¤

“Oh, it is?” the then ten-year-old felt her shoulders slump, partially from disappointment that they forgot and partially from relief that she finally let the words out.

Her uncle clucked his tongue as he absorbed the information. He didn’t even look guilty at the fact that he forgot his niece’s birthday. He had a sparring session that day, and he couldn’t afford to miss it.

“Birthdays are just any other ordinary days. It’s not anything special.” The then forty-two-year-old commented. Her weak, emotional ten-year-old self felt her heart slightly crack at his words. Tears threatened to fall, but she was at least strong enough to hold them in. She didn’t want to show the weak side of her to those that didn’t care.

“It would be special if you at least had a card,” her aunt added in as she placed one of her decks in her bag. The couple was going to run late if they dragged on any further.

It would be special if I at least had a card.

The broken hearted girl finally established from then on that power was everything, and that could only be wielded through cards.

¤ • ¤ • ¤

Ara thought that they would soften up a bit after all those years, but turns out they were still as insensitive as ever. But that didn’t mean she was going to give up trying to prove herself.

The seventeen-year-old just slammed the door after the two left. No goodbyes, no waves. She went back into the kitchen to clean up.

Ara looked at the freshly brewed pot of coffee. She rolled her eyes.

Shouldn’t have wasted my efforts.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

She spent the next few days before her birthday combing large grounds for any signs of a card. After that day, with Ara realising that her Aunt’s prompt on her birthday was just to make it look like she cared, the teenager had newfound determination to find a card before her birthday. This is so that she could slam that card in their faces on the actual day and prove that she was not useless. She also promptly decided that her relatives were maybe really just s.

She felt herself grow a little stronger that day. Still powerless and weak, but stronger. Her quest to find a card was not just to prove herself to her relatives anymore. It was also to prove to herself.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧

Ara body slammed herself into bed.

It was just five minutes before her birthday. She looked high and low, but it seems that everyone had claimed all the possible cards already.

Ara sighed. Was her luck really that horrible? She didn’t manage to find anything. Not even a C-rank!

Maybe she really was destined to be card-less forever.The girl could feel her resolve weaken a bit at the thought.

She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. The second hand ticked softly in the quietness of her room, and after five soft ticks, the hour hand, minute hand and second hand aligned perfectly at number twelve.

Happy birthday to me. Another year, another card-less me.

The now eighteen-year-old sat Indian style on her bed as she faced her window completely, finding herself being comforted by the full moon and the brightness of the countless stars that dotted the night sky.

She could see the trees outside her window rustle as a light breeze past by. Her room was just beside the backyard, and behind that was a beautiful, seemingly endless forest.

Ara was about to pull her curtains when she saw that the light breeze was turning into something stronger. The branches were pushed back even further, but the trees’ roots still held them firmly in place. She thought it was no big deal, until she saw countless leaves blowing by her window. And in the midst of everything, something shiny suddenly flew against her window.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion, as the now wide-eyed girl stared at the rectangular piece of material that was temporarily glued to her window. It was silver in colour, with many intricate lines twirling and twisting from all four corners to form a Heart, a Spade, a Club and a Diamond in the centre. The four symbols arranged themselves in a circle like formation that rested comfortably in the middle of the object.

Ara could not believe her eyes.

It was a card.

And not just any card. It was an unclaimed card!

Ahra didn’t realise she was ogling until it flew past.

.

The teen literally jumped out of bed and threw her door open, flying downstairs to her backyard. She slid open the glass doors that led to her backyard and raced outside, her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

Following the reflective card that flew in the sky above her, Ara didn’t realise she had chased it all the way to the opening of the forest. She didn’t care that it was dark and she had no source of light. Kim Ara was going to get her card.

“No, wait!” Ara found herself screaming over the harsh wind as she ran after the shiny object.

As if hearing her plea, the wind around her calmed down a bit. But that didn’t stop the card from flying away.

“Oh god,” the girl mumbled to herself as she pumped her legs faster to catch up.

How could an inanimate object be faster than her? Ara almost wanted to laugh.

After what seemed like endless running, the card fluttered closer to the ground, until it didn’t anymore.

Ara stopped in her tracks, out of breath. She felt like she ran a marathon, but it wasn’t the finishing line yet.

The girl spent half an hour combing through numerous bushes and digging her hands into miniature flower fields. She screamed in frustration as yet another search proved futile.

“I’m ing hopeless,” Ara grumbled to herself as she ran her dirt covered hand over her hair, ruffling it. She was about to head back until she realised she had no idea how deep in the forest she was.

“ me. All this way and still lost it,” the frustrated girl cursed as she tried to figure out which part of the forest she was in. “Not the only thing I lost either.”

Ara was about to retrace her footsteps until she saw something shimmery a few feet to her right. She rerouted and found herself before two trees,

and a nice silver card resting snugly between them.

Frustration was instantly replaced by happiness. The relieved eighteen-year-old broke out into a wide smile as she picked up the delicate object.

Finally.

♤ • ♡ • ◇ • ♧