"South Korea?"
"That fool just made a bigger fool out of himself."
. . .
"Hide and seek is over."
. . .
"I won."
. . .
"I already found her."
~~
In their backyard, Momo was watering their plants in the early evening as a punishment (given by Mina) because she forgot to wash the dishes.
Just as she was doing it, a tall man wearing strange, dark clothes and a face mask walked over to her. Momo stared at him questioningly. "Uh, hello?" She greeted hesitantly but the man just stayed put and quiet.
"Ahh maybe you don't understand Korean." She said while scratching her head and trying to think of something to say in English. "Uh so... umm, where are you from?" She asked.
"Who are you?" The man asked in Japanese. Momo had her mouth open in realization. "Ohh, you're Japanese." She said while holding her hand out. "I'm Momo, Kanai Momo." She awkwardly pulled her hand back when the man didn't even shake it.
"You didn't have to tell me your last name. I already know." He said. Momo furrowed her eyebrows. "You do?" She asked him, he was already starting to freak her out. "I know your uncle." The man revealed.
Momo felt very uneasy. "My uncle? Kanai Takejiro? Did you work together before?" She asked. Until now, the man didn't even reveal his face or at least move an inch. From first glance, Momo already found him weird and he was really creeping her out. Now, she regretted opening up a conversation with him.
"He was an old friend of mine." The man answered. Momo gulped from anxiety. As far as she knew, her uncle never really associated with a lot of people before. But Momo thought that maybe that was before their uncle adopted them.
She knew that the only way to escape this was to run fast back inside their house and lock all the doors and windows and never coming out for a few days. As ridiculous as it sounds, she thinks that maybe it was helpful.
She was about to do that but the man spoke again. "Where's your sister?" Momo really wanted to run already. It was already a mystery for her on how he knew their uncle and now he also knows she has sisters? Why would a middle aged man even ask a teenage girl where her sister was?
The only way Momo could get out of this was to lie. "I don't have any sisters." She told him. He sarcastically laughed and with that, she had goosebumps. "Mina? Sana? Does that ring a bell?" He asked. Momo just shook her head. "No I don't know anyone with those names." She denied.
"Your mind says otherwise." The man said. Momo knew exactly what he was saying. She just hoped that it wasn't what she thought it was.
"What do you mean?" She asked him. Momo could see the bad intentions in his eyes. It scared her to death. She just wished someone would come and interrupt them. She wished this was all a stupid dream.
"Witches? Wizards? Sorceress? Sorcerer?" He walked closer to the frightened girl. At the same time, Momo took a few steps back to avoid him.
"I hope you don't think that the three of you are the only ones existing."
Momo's eyes widened in shock. With just a blink of the eye, the man disappeared, or so she thought. She looked back and she saw him.
He was inside their house.
~~
"Momoring! Mina wants you to order food!" Sana called while she headed downstairs to look for her sister. But instead of Momo's face, which she expected to see, she saw the man Momo was talking to a while ago.
She flinched with his sudden appearance. Since when was there a creepy man inside their house? She knew Mina wouldn't have let someone like him get in. The only option left was Momo. But she wanted to think positively. She smiled a little while kindly asking him.
"Hello, how may I help you?" She was still bothered at the fact that there was a man inside their house. He just stayed quiet again and Sana figured that maybe he didn't understand Korean, so she tried Japanese.
"Hello? Do you need anything?" She asked him. She was also trying to look for Momo with the corner of her eyes, but she wasn't lucky.
"You look so much like your mother." The man said. Sana didn't expect to hear that. She was frozen in her spot. She was confused and she wondered why the man said such thing.
~~
After finding out that the man went inside their house, Momo ran up quickly to Mina's room. There, she found the penguin-like girl peacefully sleeping. She didn't want to wake her up but she had to.
"Mina! Wake up!" Momo called her. Mina groaned in frustration and she rubbed her eyes. "Momo, aren't you supposed to be watering the plants?" That was what she said when she got up.
"I was, but then I met a strange old guy. And he's now in our house!" She shook her sister to keep her fully awake. "What the?!" Mina yelled while running down the stairs, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw the man confronting Sana.
She pushed Momo back, who was following behind her, and hid somewhere where they can't be seen but where they can still listen to Sana and the guy's convo.
"Why'd you invite him inside?!" Mina half yelled and whispered at Momo while gently smacking her head. "I didn't!" Momo used the same tone and pitch. "Apparently, he claims to be one of us and he invited himself inside." She continued.
"Didn't I tell you to be careful of strangers?" Mina scolded the older girl. Momo looked at her in disbelief, and she snapped back at her. "Chaeyoung used to be a stranger to you and lookie now... she's your girlfriend."
Mina blinked her eyes rapidly, processing whatever Momo just said. "That's different! We're schoolmates, of course there will be a time when we'll meet each other. Same goes to you and Dahyun." She said.
Momo pointed at her. "Don't drag me into this." She said. Mina face palmed. "You're the reason why this guy was here in the first place."
~~
"Ehh?!"
"My mother? I don't have a mother." Sana said while furrowing her eyebrows. The man shrugged. "Maybe not anymore, but you used to have one before she had a tragic death." He said.
Sana's eyes widened. How could he possibly know that? She stared at him, confused. "You still don't get it, do you, sweetie?" He asked her.
That made Sana even more confused and uncomfortable. "Why are you calling me 'sweetie'?" She took a step back. The man lowered his mask to reveal his face.
"Is that how you'd speak to your father?"
~~
"Father?" Mimo said at the same time. They looked at each other. Then, they looked back at Sana and the man who claimed to be Sana's 'father'. "But our parents our dead." Momo faced Mina.
"Maybe that's not the real story."
~~
"That's impossible, my father is dead. He took his own life after my mother died." Sana said, not believing that whoever was standing in front of her, was her real father. The man leaned closer to her.
"That's not the real story, dear. He lied to you."
"And your purple eyes... I chose that color for you, Minatozaki Sana."
She gasped when she heard her birth name coming from him. Then she remembered that she wasn't wearing any contacts. He picked that color for her? How would he even know that it's her real eye color, not unless he's also...
No, it can't be.
"If you're really my father, why did you only come for me now. After 18 years?" She nearly yelled at him. "I did, Sana. I did. But your idiotic uncle wouldn't let me." He told her.
That was the last straw. Sana grew angry. She was angry at her uncle for not telling her the truth. She already lost everything and her uncle couldn't even tell her the truth about her real parents? She was very conflicted.
"Get out of our house now." Sana commanded to her father. "I'm not going anywhere if you're not coming with me." He said while taking a step forward.
"NO!" They heard Mina yell.
"She's not going anywhere, especially not with you." She told the man in front of them while she and Momo (who was already summoning fire in her hands) guarded Sana.
"You all can have a life better than this one if you'll all come with me." A look of fury crossed his face. "No!" Sana immediately spoke up. "We have a million reasons why we don't want to."
"Okay." Sana's father said while looking at each one of them. He slowly walked away. "Just to remind you..."
"Your uncle ruined your lives before it even started." He said while he was about to head out.
"Where are you going?" Sana asked him. The man turned back around. "Just like what you said, away from here. But don't think that I won't come back." That's what he said before he disappeared from their sight.
"So he has powers too?" Sana asked her sisters. Momo shrugged. "Probably, he was able to read my mind." She answered. "And he knew about your purple eyes." Mina added.
Sana stayed quiet and headed to the door. "I'll just be outside for a while." She told them. Mina and Momo didn't stop her. They knew she was just shocked with everything that had just occurred, so were they. They just let her go.
______________
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