Desire [Brothers Conflict]

💎 Chapter 1 💎

Karina was silent as she followed her elder sister out of the train, having reached the part of Tokyo that was far away from the apartment that they called. Or rather, they used to call home. That apartment was now vacant, stripped of its belongings as its two inhabitants prepared themselves to move across the city to their new home, replacing that humble abode with a much larger house.

From now onwards, it was not going be just Karina and her elder sister, Ema, and their two pets. Now, the two girls were going to be joined by thirteen stepbrothers. It had been a surprising news to the two of them when their father first informed the about them about his decision to get married.

Change was not new for Karina. She had undergone such changes before, although of not such a degree, but in the past decade, the girl had gotten used to it being only her and her sister alone.

It was true that Ema was not her sister by blood – one could tell by mere sight alone – but Karina had always considered her so. No one else had been as constant in her life as Ema had been.

Years had passed since Karina had joined the Hinata Family, and with her adoptive father being away more often than not, only Karina and Ema were the rocks in each other's lives. They were like twins.

Both Karina and Ema were the same age, although they looked drastically different. Ema was small and petite, a brunette with short hair and big brown eyes. In contrast, Karina was tall and slender with long black hair and crystal blue eyes. Even the uniforms they wore were different.

Ema was a Second-Year student at the Hinode High School while Karina attended the Bright Centrair Private Academy, thanks to her scholarship-worthy hard work.

It was not easy to enter Bright Centrair Private Academy based on scholarships alone, and Karina had been such a rare case that it drew a lot of attention – both positive and negative.

Throughout her First-Year, Karina had been relentlessly bullied by her classmates until she worked hard to become the Student Council President and became slowly more accepted as she joined a sport and a cultural club at the academy. Life was a little better now.

And just like that, the normalcy in their life was thrown askew once again, and now Karina had to get used to the fact that she had thirteen stepbrothers, ranging from thirty to ten years of age.

"Chii-Chan, Kiku-Chan, make sure you two are really careful around those males," spoke up Juli, a rather talkative squirrel that belonged to Ema. "There's a whopping thirteen of them, after all,"

"Come on, Juli," Ema responded as only she and Karina were able to under the squirrel. "That's all you've talked about since it was decided that we were moving,"

"When you get down to it, what were Rintaro and your new mother thinking?!" Juli burst out, twisting around in his pink-and-white polka-dot bow. "Tossing you two alone into a horde of males while the two of them go live in a different house?!"

"It cannot be helped, Juli-Kun," Karina spoke up softly. "You cannot blame them – not only are Papa and Miwa-San busy with their work, they are also newlyweds. They need their privacy,"

"But that means putting you both in danger!" Juli insisted, causing the girls to look at each other.

"Juli, you keep talking about harm and danger," Ema said, trying to control her pet. "But the people we're going to live with are all our brothers, you know?"

"Even if they're your brothers, it still doesn't change the fact that they're males," Juli told them. "However, as long as I'm here, I won't let them mess with you!"

"Thank you for that, Juli-Kun," Karina said just to appease him before reaching down to her cat, Nero, who was looking around from his carrier. "We are almost there, Nero-Kun,"