The next morning sunrise… Mina and others were truly worried about Tzuyu and Sana disappeared into the forest ever since yesterday. Only those students that were at the incident, the chief, and the teachers knew about this. If this news were to be spread, it would just cause unnecessary chaos. It was all an accident so the chief wasn’t to be blamed. His daughter just disappeared into the forest as well to risk finding the student. The schedule for the fieldtrip continued and then Mina went up to the chief to talk to him personally when she had the chance.

“U-Uh…”

“Ms. Myoui is it?”

“Y-Yes. Did you hear anything yet…?”

“…Unfortunately no, but do not worry, I asked the adults to look for them already. We will find your friend.”

The chief was rather calm despite his only daughter was missing in the forest. He had so much trust on her and it made Mina wondered why. She couldn’t help but to ask the chief. She never met a father whom can put this much trust on his child on such a dangerous moment like this.

“You trust Sana so much…”

“Hehe, well, she’s a special child. Even though she might look naïve and innocent, she’s very mature and responsible than majority of the kids in her age. As it said, the more burden you carry, the stronger you’ll become.”

Mina was slightly surprised to hear that from the chief. However, time was running out and they needed to head over to the next place according to the plan. The chief Mina’s head and calmed the student down. Deep down inside he was worried as well…however; he had to trust his only daughter. There was nothing he could do but to believe in Sana.
 

-

“N-Nnnnn…”

“Bear with me, okay? It’s getting better.”

Tzuyu gently brushed the wet handkerchief on Sana’s wound and cleaned it in the river. They both were awake and were sitting at the river together in the morning to clean the shorter one’s nasty wound. Tzuyu strongly insisted to treat Sana’s wound before preceding their journey any further. The youngster had to obey the girl without a choice. After she had done cleaning it, Tzuyu tried to think of anything that could possibly cover over Sana’s wound. However, the handkerchief was just too short to do so. That was when she decided to tear off a strip from her own shirt using sharp rocks that could be found along the river. It made Sana stunned and knew what she was trying to do. She didn’t expect the student to go this far and she tried to stop her.

“Ch-Chewy you don’t have to—”

“Shut. Up.”

Tzuyu glared back and she was already done with tearing her shirt to make a long strip of cloth. She tore it off from the edge of her shirt and at least she got Sana’s shirt on top so she wouldn’t be exposing her skin or anything. The raven-haired girl tied it around the wound so to keep it sterile until they reached back to the village. She tried not to tie it too hard to injure the young savior of hers.

“That should keep us for quite a while.”

“…Thank you.”

“I might not be as strong as you, but I’m not weak. Do rely on me as well.”

“…”

Sana blinked and was stunned with Tzuyu’s words. Then she offered Sana a hand to pull her up from the floor. Minatozaki could feel the kindness through those words and actions, and she couldn’t help but to smile out. She took that hand and got back up on her feet even though she didn’t have to do so. It’s just that she didn’t want to refuse Tzuyu’s offer. Now since it was morning, they would be heading out from this forest together, but it was a matter of where should they head?

“So…now what?”

“I know there’s a path heading back to the village in just few hours…but things changed too much and I don’t want to risk being lost again.”

“…Fair enough. So what do you suggest?”

“We follow the river and it should lead us to the ocean…someone will find us there.”

Sana suggested a very smart idea. Unlike how her naïve innocent side would say, it was as if Tzuyu was witnessing this mature adult side from Sana. Maybe she wasn’t as crazy and naïve as she thought Sana would be…the longer she spent time with her the more Tzuyu realized how mysterious and smart the younger was. As they walked along the downstream of the river together, Sana spoke up and initiated a conversation with her so it wouldn’t be such a silent boring walk for both of them.

“How did your sleep go last night?”

“…I actually had a dream.”

“What dream is it about?”

“It’s a repetitive dream I always had back when I’m young.”

Tzuyu told Sana about her reoccurring dream when she was a child. It felt too real and as if that girl in her dream had her own conscious. So then, Tzuyu told about it to her parents and they took her to meet with the priest of the temple to interpret Tzuyu’s dreams…

“It’s a theory about two peas in the same pod…you heard of it?”

“Ah~ Yes, many calls it twin souls… the one same soul but divided into two.”

“The priest said that the connection had not disappear after my past life… I’m still connected with another part of the soul, but I don’t have that dream anymore until yesterday.”

“Wow~ that’s really interesting! Twin souls hmm… It’s very rare for a soul to split apart. You won’t know who is the counterpart of your soul either. I wonder I would have a chance that I meet one or not~”

“Probably the same age as me, and same birthday as well…that’s what the priest told me. So you’re also the same?”

“I guess so, the priest told me I have a whacky soul.”

“Pft, you just made it sound so weird.”

“I guess I’m weird after all~”

Sana seemed to be excited with this mystical fact Tzuyu was telling her. That energetic smile showed up once again and it made Chou’s heart lightened up. However, she couldn’t get rid of what Sana said last night…about her sister who committed suicide. Part of her wished to ask the story but at the same time she didn’t want to remind Sana regarding that past at all.

“You know, unnie was about the same age as you five years ago. There was this massive forest flood due to constant heavy rains from the storms.”

“…??”

“I bet your curious right?”

Sana turned to smile at her for a short while and it made her mind froze for a second. Her eyes diverted back to look forward while walking along the river by Tzuyu’s side. Her words were the only thing that echoed inside the raven-haired girl’s ears for the entire time…all her attention was turned to Sana.

“We’re caught in the incident while evacuating…mom saved me, and the building collapse on her and my sister.”

Tzuyu’s heart sank once she heard that story from Sana. She gripped her hand tightly but the story didn’t end yet. There was more and it brought more pain and dread to her heart. She recalled Sana mentioned how Tzuyu was similar to her mother on the first day they met…just recalling that memory just brought a heavy pain onto her chest.

“She was terribly wounded and she passed away in the hospital…my sister survived, but it robbed unnie’s light away.”

“Huh?”

Tzuyu wasn’t sure she grasped what Sana meant and waited for her to continue the story. She wasn’t so sure how the story would proceed, but she didn’t feel good about what’s coming. Something dreadfully must’ve happened to her sister for certain…rather than predicting things, she continued listening to the story.

“She became permanently blind. Dad, the head priest, and I tried to help her but she was dreadfully traumatized from unable to see anything. She changed completely and isolated herself from everyone.”

The youngster looked up into the sky and had that calm face on her. Whether she hid all the pain or not, no one knew what was going through Sana’s mind at that moment. However, Tzuyu didn’t want to push the youngster to tell such a dreadful story further more. She felt as if she was forcing Sana to tell her the story and didn’t want to remind her of that tragic past.

“Y-You can stop now—”

“One day I came back home, it’s too late… she’s no longer alive.”

“…”

“Hmm…it’s been 5 years since then. It still feels like it’s yesterday. I guess being blind is truly scary and traumatizing to people…the worst part is that I don’t understand how it feels at all.”

Five years ago seemed very long for Tzuyu. However, that grabbed her attention regarding Sana’s age. She did not know how old the youngster was despite all these times they were stuck to each other.

“I’m just curious… How old are you back then?”

“Hm? I’m 17.”

“…W-What?”

“Yeah?”

Tzuyu’s mind stumbled slightly and tried to regain her senses back. Sana was 17 back when the incident of her mother and her sister happened. If she calculated the age properly then Sana would be older than her. For all this time, Tzuyu always believed that she was older than her since the girl was shorter and looked much younger than her.

“W-Wait, so you’re 22??”

“Huh? Yeah I am.”

“…EHHHH!?”

She blurted out loud with shock. Obviously Sana looked very young and shorter than her. With addition of her naïve personality just made her look like a child. How ironic, Tzuyu was actually 19 and three years younger than Sana. She always treated Sana as a child for all this time and it just felt awkward all of the sudden after she learned her true age.

“Uh…I’m sorry that I don’t know you’re older than me.”

“Hahahaha~ It’s all cool.”

It went back to the silence awkwardness. Tzuyu didn’t know how to respond to that dreadful past from Sana. No words could be formulated out to express these feelings she was having. That was when she decided to share a part of her to the older girl beside her, as that was probably the most she could repay after hearing such a dark past.

“When I was a kid, I do have a lot of friends… just until that happen.”

“…?”

“I was betrayed and lost everything, horribly…”

Tzuyu told her the story back she was in her 6th year of school in Seoul; she had a crush on a popular senior that was two years older than her. Her friends supported her to ask the senior out and she did… and he was more than glad to accept the relationship. However, as time passed by…she accidentally overheard her close friend’s conversation with her boyfriend. That same friend that supported her to confess to the senior, she was actually dating with him even before Tzuyu asked the senior out, and especially without poor Tzuyu knowing about it.

They were gossiping behind Tzuyu’s back and apparently; her whole group was making a bet on how long would Tzuyu be sticking around until she learned the truth. He even knew it, yet he went along with the flow and enjoyed this. She did confront with her friend with sincere honesty, however it backfired her instantly. Everyone in the whole year knew about it and even her very own best friend since childhood didn’t sided with her…she was humiliated and bullied by everyone, literally everyone.

That’s how Tzuyu started to isolate herself from everyone and ended up have to move out to another school by the end of that year. For all these years she had made friendship with everyone…it all vanished into thin air as if it doesn’t worth anything. Even until now, those memories would still haunt her. However, things just got a little worse when one of her best friends that betrayed her did came to the same school as her…and was still bothering her until now. It was the same girl that constantly asked for a fight with Tzuyu.

“…It’s as you said. I was traumatized by my own past and prevented me from making any friends in this school.”

Sana only listened to the story silently regarding Tzuyu’s past. She lost everything even though she was always sincere and honest to her friends. They all betrayed her as if she meant nothing to them. What really hurt the most was that her own childhood friend ditched her without any concern about her.

“Is it wrong to lose trust in people from that? I do admit…I’m traumatized.”

“We need to understand the feel of being traumatized, to be able to move on forward. I understand how you feel.”

It made Tzuyu wondered whether Sana was also traumatized with her past about her mother and sister’s death or not. However, it’s not a proper question to bring up. The only thing she could tell was that she must’ve have a rough time as well. She only had her father as her family member left after that incident.

“…I wonder how it feels to be blind.”

Sana was caught off guard before she turned over to Tzuyu. That instant, Tzuyu had a feeling she was being rude and apologized back. She didn’t realize she accidently blurted out of blue while thinking about what Momo went through. To be unable to see anything when you used to do so…it must be very scary to be in the complete darkness. As for Sana, she just giggled out as she was surprised for Tzuyu to blurted out her thoughts so innocently like a child.

“Haha~ I’m just surprised you speak out of blue!”

“Okay that’s embarrassing, I-I’m just wondering about it…”

“Hmmm, I don’t really have the right to say whether I understand it or not. I guess people are terrified by that fact.”

“Ah…I would be really scared too.”

“Haha~ I won’t be surprise!”

They kept walking along the river while they were having a conversation with each other. After that night in the cave together, it seemed Tzuyu was more opened to Sana than before. It was no longer one-sided talk anymore. Chou replied back and told many stories about Seoul to her. About school, lifestyle, shopping center, and food. It just made Sana very interested to go to Seoul for once in her lifetime.

“Eh~! That’s so interesting!! It’s such a good place to go around~”

“But personally I prefer a place like this. I like interacting with nature. Not much things to see in Seoul aside from buildings and lights.”

“Hehe~ same, I love it here…how about we stargazing tonight~?”

“Hm? Oh right…it’s still during the festival thing?”

Apparently Tzuyu still remembered about the 5-day festival that Sana told her on the 3rd day of the fieldtrip. Sana was grateful that she remembered and told her that as festival days passed by, there would be more stars in the sky. Since this would be the 3rd day, tonight there would be more stars than the first day and yesterday. While Tzuyu took her time thinking. If it was the same as yesterday, she would reject Sana already, she wondered how did her feelings changed so quickly like this.

“…Sure.”

“Yay~!! It’s going to be so fun tonight with Chewy~”

First time ever Tzuyu accepted Sana’s offer and it just made the girl giggled with excitement. That innocent smile on her face just touched Tzuyu’s heart and it made her face flushed slightly. It just reminded her that no one ever have acted so selfless for her like how Sana did, no one ever cared about her as much as Sana did. She was actually happy to make the shorter one beside her smiled out of h