After having been told that they were going to have dinner at her mom’s coworker’s place, Saya is left standing in front of her closet, blankly staring at the hanged clothing with nothing in mind, literally. As she looks for what to wear, Saya decides to multitask by tying her silky hair into a messy, top knot bun. Looking into her vanity mirror, Saya notices her blunt fringe was a bit uneven. Slumping, she takes a black bobby pin lying on her desk and pins back her uneven bangs.

 

“One more minute!” Saya’s mother suddenly yelled from the living room, causing the 18-year-old girl to panic, as she has not even changed out of her Badzt Maru pajama set. Saya was never the type of person to rush, she had always, well most of the time, taken things slowly as she was a bit more laidback compared to her peers, so it frustrated Saya when she could not conjure up a simple outfit to wear.

 

“Kay!” Saya yelled back whilst frantically running her hands through the hanged clothes, trying to find a suitable attire for tonight’s dinner.

 

After a long 5 minutes filled with her mother’s impatient nagging, Saya finally came out of her room wearing a pair of black, acid wash skinny jeans, an oxblood-colored, oversized cable knit sweater, and a pair of neon-green ankle socks. At the shoe rack next to the front door, Saya takes up a bit more time, as she can’t choose between her black combat boots or her black, low-rise converse.

 

Her mother, who was standing out the front door, clearly annoyed, says, “Just pick one!”

 

As one can see, Saya and her mother are quite the opposites of each other. One being an impatient hothead and the other being a laidback slacker, but both complimenting each other well.

 

“Okay, okay… jeez.” Saya says, irritation evident in her tone.

 

In the end, Saya decides to wear her converse sneakers, as she just literally needs to slip it on her feet.

 

~*~*~

 

“Who’s coming over again?” A young man lying on the living room couch asked.

 

“It’s a coworker of mine. She’s also bringing her daughter, so act nice.” A tall, middle-aged man said as he sat on the lying boy’s calf. The boy let out a short grunt as he felt the weight of his old man on his legs.

 

The lying boy sits up. “Get off~” The boy says, pushing the aged man onto the hard wooden floor.

 

“This kid!” The man gets up and slaps the back of the boy’s head. “Oww” The boy groaned, rubbing the sore spot on his head as he shortly glared at his father.

 

~*~*~

 

“I didn’t know you’d be here?” “Am I not supposed to be here? I mean I do live here.”

 

It was an obvious surprise to see that their parents knew each other, let alone that they would be having dinner together.

 

“Oh, really? You should’ve told me.” Saya said sarcastically as she followed Tao to his room.

 

After having finished a wonderfully delicious meal, their parents had gone out to the backyard for gosh knows why seeing as to how cold autumn nights can be, though Tao and Saya did not question their parents’ actions.

 

Looking around the seemingly neat room, Saya comes to a conclusion that Tao must have tidied up knowing that guests would have come. “Nice room…” She says, walking around the reasonably sized bedroom.

 

Tao watches the wandering girl carefully. He mentally takes note on the way Saya’s head would tilt to one side as she examined something that caught her interest; the way she’d suddenly lose balance when being idle; the way she’d furrow her eyebrows as she tried her best to read the characters drawn on the walls – although she may speak fluently with occasional grammar mistakes here and there, she still lacks in the reading department.

 

“What’s this medal for?” Saya asks, looking at the gold medal hanging on the white walls.

 

Tao snaps out of his thoughts and walks over to the curious girl. Looking at the framed medal, Tao slightly smiles as he recalls the good old days filled with nothing but his passion for wushu, a form of Chinese martial arts.

 

Having torn a muscle after practicing for an upcoming competition, Tao was forced to resign and later on forced to quit practicing wushu altogether.

 

“It’s just something that I won when I was younger.” Tao said, walking away a bit solemnly.

 

He sat on his black, leather office-like chair, slowly spinning around until his vision blurred. Saya, on the other hand, made herself comfortable by sitting cross-legged on Tao’s disheveled bed, which was left that way since the late morning.

 

~*~*~

 

“It’s already 12 in the morning.” Tao tiredly says. He swivels around in his chair. He gave out a small chuckle as he sees Saya asleep. Not wanting to get up, Tao rolls over to the sleeping girl.

 

“Wake up.” The tired boy weakly shakes the sleeping beauty from her slumber.

 

Saya’s eyes shot open at the shaking. Her breaths come out heavily as if she had a bad dream. She looks up only to be blinded by the ceiling light. Her eyes adjust only to see It in front of her. It has its hands around Saya’s thin arms.

 

Tao looks at Saya worriedly. “Hey, are you okay?” He releases his grip on her arms, putting his hand on her shoulder.

 

“G-Get” Saya trembles. “What?” Confusion engulfs Tao’s head.

 

“S-Stop…” Saya looks down to her right should where its hands rest. She stares at the silhouette of the hand.

 

Tao stands as his free hand reaches out to Saya.

 

Saya sees its other hand slowly creeping its way towards her. With a sharp intake of air, she strongly pushes It away. Saya has never done anything to defend herself from It, so this being the first time stuns her.

 

After being pushed by Saya, Tao stumbles and hits his head on the wall. “What the hell!” Tao rubs the back of his head as he stands up. “What was that for?!”

 

Saya’s momentary blankness comes to an end once a screeching scream comes from It. Saya stumbles off of Tao’s bed as she sees It walking towards her. She runs only to trip on her own feet.

 

Alarmed to see Saya fall, Tao rushes over to her. “Are you okay?” He reaches out a hand for her take.

 

Saya sees its hand. She starts to cry. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She loudly cries out. “I’m sorry!” She cries some more. “When will you forgive me, Minako?”

 

A jumble of thoughts erupted from Tao’s mind. He was in a state of shock and confusion, and maybe a bit afraid of Saya’s sudden outburst. He takes a step back as Saya continues to hysterically cry. The beat of his heart accelerates as she continues to cry out a certain name, Minako. Just who is this Minako?