Prologue
It started with a phone call.
It was a rainy day and school had just let up for the summer holidays. I was in bed, whatsapping my friends, deciding on what to do for the holidays. Rikka, Mei, Tetsu, Hiro, Kai and me; we had planned to trek the entire Tokyo for fun. Mei was so excited that she started writing incoherent messages, a mixture of Japanese, English and Chinese, her first language. Kai had started to bombard the group with comical photos. Rikka and Tetsu kept ranting and raving about food and cosplaying. And Hiro being Hiro, had went diving somewhere deep in the Pacific Ocean, occasionally resurfacing and commenting here and there.
I was so absorbed that I barely heard the phone rang.
Someone would answer it, I thought to myself as I rolled on my bed. Or it can just ring on until the called decided to hang.
Likewise, there was just no way in hell I was going to leave my cosy lair and answer that call.
I continued our little group chat until I heard a knock. Poking my head from under the duvet, I found Mom standing at the door looking grim with the phone still in her hands. Judging by the way she kept shifting her balance from one foot to another, I could tell that something was wrong.
No, correction. Something was indeed VERY WRONG.
Shit, did I do something wrong?
I mentally went through all the little things I did that might have angered her, but I couldn't find anything. My thoughts quickly went to my other siblings. Dad was at work; Jay was out with friends; the twins, Bree and Benji, should be having swimming lessons in the local swim club… so what could it be?
"Arisu," My mother finally spoke her voice quivering as if she had difficulty in saying whatever she was intending to say. "We need to talk."
A million thoughts flashed at the back of my mind and judging by the ominous voice of my mother, I wanted nothing but to just flop back onto bed and stay there. In the end though, I only sighed in resignation and got out of the fort I had made with my pillows and duvet. I gestured to my mother, indicating her to continue.
"It's just that…" Mom began to stutter as she took a seat at the edge of my bed. "Well…I got a call from your Aunt Kana… Midori misses you… and well their family is doing great in Iwatobi…"
"And?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Your father…"
Dad? What about him…?!
NO WAY!
"Did something bad happen to Dad?!" I lunged forward and clutched Mom's arm, eyes bulging so big they look like two saucers.
"It's not your Dad! No, what I mean it's your other Dad."
"Oh."
Oh. So this had to do with BIO Dad and not Dad.
"Your father… Hayabusa… He's dying of cancer."
Oh.
Realization finally kicked in.
My biological father was dying of cancer.
He was DYING-
