"Have a safe flight, Mio-chan." Koko said tearfully, giving me a long hug. "Write to me as soon as possible, okay?"

   "I will, Kochan, bye." I sniffed, crying already. Koko had tears rolling down her face too. "Bye, Michan," she whispered. We parted saying each other's nicknames.

   Akabara Koko was my best friend. She was my ONLY friend. My life kind of . She was the only happiness I got out of life.

   My parents were druggers and alcoholics. If a child cried, they would hit it until it stopped. That's the kind of parents they were.

   After being abused by them for years, they finally didn't come home one day from the gambling casinos. I was 7 years old, and I was promptly put into an orphanage, and I was moved from one to the other over the years.

   Now at age 16, I was being sent from the comforts of hustle-and-bustle Tokyo, Japan, to a small city in South Korea. I knew the Korean language and customs, so that wouldn't be a problem for me, but my only source of happiness Koko wouldn't be there with me.

   Koko was also an orphan, and we grew up together that way. Without her, my life in another orphanage, a Korean one, won't be happy or at least hopeful.

   I would be shuffled from orphanage to orphanage until I was old enough for them to legally kick me out. I would end up on the streets as a e, or worse.

   My biggest fear was becoming a drugger or an alcoholic, like my parents. No matter what happened, I couldn't let that happen. Never.

   The flight was a couple of hours long, and I slept the whole way.

   When I arrived, I waited at the Korean airport for my "chauffeur", some orphanage nurse who will drive me to my next home, one without happiness or a bright future.

   I felt like crying right then and there, in front of everyone, out of hopelessness and despair.

   A hand tapped me on my shoulder, and I whirled around to see a Korean man wearing a fancy black uniform and a driving cap, like the drivers for fancy limos.

   Woah.

   When I said "chauffeur", I didn't mean it LITERALLY.

   "Tomodachi Mio-sama?" The chauffeur asked me in surprisingly fluent Japanese.

   "That's me." I told him in Korean. "And Korean is fine, whichever you're comfortable with."

   "Miss Tomodachi, your car is waiting for you out front." The man shifted effortlessly into Korean, but halfway through he switched back to Japanese. "This way, please."

   Is it weird that a Korean guy likes to speak Japanese more than Korean? I thought so.

   I followed him outside, and my jaw dropped. Right there in front of my face was a fancy black Rolls Royce limo. They made Rolls Royce cars into limousines? I didn't know that.

   The man opened the door for me, celebrity-style. "Please, Tomodachi-sama."

   I crawled in hesitantly. Then I thought better of it and started to get out again. "Wait! Who are you? Since when do orphanages have this much money?"

   "I can tell you that," a woman said.

   I turned around, surprised to find a woman was sitting across from me in the big spacious limo. She was so quiet I didn't even notice her before.

   Taking advantage of my surprise, the driver shut the door and sat into his seat, and started to drive out of the airport parking lot.

   The lady was old but magnificent-looking.

   Her skin had almost no wrinkles in it, and the only sign that betrayed her youthful face was that her hair, piled up in a small beecomb hairdo, was grey and silver.

   Heavy, shining opals hung at , and she wore an ermine fur coat over an expensive-looking black dress.

   I stared at her in awe as she sipped a martini.

   "I am your grandmother," the woman told a motionless me. "My name is Suka Motoko, your mother's mother. I apologize for not seeing you before, but with your parent's -- ahem -- PROBLEMS, I didn't get the chance."

   Who knew my alcohol-obsessed, gambling mother was related to this incredible old lady? "Are you rich?"

   "Yes, I am." The lady said proudly, her martini glass clinking.

   "I am the owner of the brand-name designer clothes SAKURA. Are you familiar with them?"

   I nodded wildly.

   OMG, I'm related to the owner of SAKURA!!! Those were the hottest items to have in Japan and South Korea, not to mention Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan too!

   "Anyhow, I didn't realize you were orphaned until about five years ago, because I was taking a long vacation in France. When I heard the news, though, I spent these last few years finding the proper documents to legally claim you. Now that I have, I am bringing you to come live with me."

   She paused, and cleared . "Actually, you won't be living with me. I'm sending you to boarding school, but you get the idea. Do you accept?"

   A strange but fabulously rich old lady is adopting me and sending me to a boarding school? Hell yes! "I accept," I said, smiling happily. If this was a dream, don't wake me up. I was euphoric at the very thought. After living in orphanages for 9 years, anything sounds wonderful.

   "Suka-sama, we have arrived," the chauffeur said in Japanese.

   "Here we are, Mio-chan. Do you like it?" Motoko-obachan said cheerfully.

   The chauffeur opened the door and ushered us out of the car. I looked out and gasped. "Oh, Motoko-obachan, it's beautiful ...." I whispered. The mansion looked like a white palace, with rose gardens and servants and everything.

   The house was large and decorated with expensive things. We reached a set of double oak doors. "I'm giving you a very, very, VERY special present, Mio-chan," Motoko-obachan said happily. "Look and see..."

   I heard my heart thumping in my chest. I pushed open the doors and.................