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Chapter 21:
Karen

Rick's Side

"Yes, a promise. If you are asking me what it is, I will not say it, it is not my place to tell you." the violet haired girl stated.

A promise to Pai? I think I get the idea of what kind of promise is that.

"Y-yuu?"

All of our attention to the blonde, awakening from her slumber. I ran to her side, so is Yuu but in her case it is more of a brisk walk than running. The blonde looked at me with her half- opened and sleepy eyes, I smiled at her and she turned her attention to the little girl beside me. Claire let out a short moan and groan as she tried to get up, seeing her having a hard time getting up, I help her by placing my hand at her back to support her. The blonde groaned again and held her head.

"Aug. My head, it hurts like hell. Wha-" her eyes widened as she see the little girl clearly. "What are you doing here Yuu?! Didn't I told you that you were not suppose to be here until I told you so?!"

The little girl sighed, "Idiot. You value your secrecy than your own health and well-being? Tsk tsk, Miss Claire."

Claire face palmed and asked Yuu why she is here. The little girl looked at me that made the blonde farmer look at me too. My eyes widen and wander between the two young girls, flying. I can feel behind me that Kai is glaring at me with his heart content and I am pretty sure that my little sister is practically boring holes at the back of my head with the dirty look she is giving me now.

Seriously?! I'm cornered now.

"Rick? You two know each other?" the blonde asked.

I tried to answer her question but the words got stuck at my throat so all I could do is nod. The blonde sighed, in her eyes, I can see that she felt betrayed, by me and by Yuu. "Look Claire, I kept it a secret to you because I don't want you to be upset with Yuu, revealing your true you and stuff. I know that you're hiding it and you want that no one must ever know your real identity, so that's why." I said reassuring her.

"S-so..." she looked at her blanket with a hint of red on her face."You basically did it f-for m-me?"

What she said caught me off guard and it made my glasses fall of halfway off my face. I coughed and fix my glasses, "Y-yeah...". As I said that, I felt my cheeks heat up, secretly, I prayed to the Harvest Goddess that Kai and Popuri would not see it and point that out just to make me blush more, including Yuu. At the corner of my eyes, I can see the little girl doing some silent gestures of vomiting and rolls her eyes. "How are you feeling now Miss Claire?" she interrupted.

"F-fine, I'm fine." she replied still blushing. "You know, I just remembered something- no, everything."

Claire's Side

Yes, I remembered now and realized it. Thanks to her, Karen.

Those dreams are not dreams after all, they are memories of my past, what happened to me fifteen years ago. Me being kidnapped, mum and dad fighting, meeting everyone in this town way before I became a farmer, making that promise to him and meeting Rick. It is all clear to me, crystal clear. All of them forgotten and buried in the very deepest part and corner of my brain, every one of them, sad, painful and happy memories, none of them remained until now when Jeff's daughter triggered it.

I finally remembered him completely, the person whom I made a promise with, a promise that I will take over his farm when the time for me to be independent come and make it more and more beautiful than before. Thankfully, that promise remained in my brain.

Pai, he was a caring man and the lover of my personal maid, Willow. He took care of me when Willow cannot because of her constant absence to deal with her family and personal matters. The two of them did kidnap me, I cannot change that fact, but they are not your average kidnapper usually in movies where they point a knife at your neck or point the muzzle of the gun at the temple of your head when you resist them. No, they did not laid a finger to me, except when Pai hugs me, they did not even tried to hurt me.

Most of those memories are happy ones but there are horrible ones. I remembered how many times that I have cried because of my separation to mum and dad. I used to think on how they are doing back at home if they are being hysterical and frantically searching for me or if they are still fighting. While those thoughts filled my mind, even though that I'm still a child, I'm not that dumb to not know what is happening around me. Numerous of 'what if's' floated in my head like; What if mum and dad decided to meet other people and destroy the bond of our family? What will happen to us? To me? Those thoughts made me cry a river.

However, I am thankful that the moment I got reunited with my parents, they patched things up and got along together, again. I can remember the rest of it way before Karen triggered it.

Karen. Now I know it. Even just from mentioning her name in my mind made me sad and hurt. She did talked to me back then, she even mistaken me as a boy and treated me as one, in a good way. But, our talk are nothing but a constant 'hello' and 'how are you', when I answered that question, it's 'bye bye' time and 'see you later' as if she's avoiding me.

I admit it, I was not a conversationalist one, well until I hit puberty but I wish I were fifteen years ago. It's really silly complaining and regretting stuff in my head, it is not healthy.

"Were you thinking about that woman named Karen?"

My random train of thoughts disappeared when Yuu asked me about Karen. I nod and heard her sigh. I can hear Popuri said 'Karen's a jerk.'. I sighed.

I was the one who is at fault, she was right, if had not come here, none of us are not experiencing the prickling pain in our hearts. If I had not been born, she is not hurting like that. It is all because of me.

"If you're blaming yourself, don't Claire." I looked at the person who said those words. Rick looked at me seriously with his crystal blue eyes. "Karen acting like that is not your fault. She is at her own fault. That woman let her delusions, desires, her unrequited and unconditional love blinded her to the reality."

As always, he saw right through me.

"Big bro is right!" Popuri butted in, "It was time for someone to give that woman a piece of reality and it happened that my dear idiot for a brother was the one that gave her." she leaned to my ear, "And that's just go to show that my brother can be terrifying sometimes." the cotton candy haired girl whispered. I laughed at it.

"Aren't you gonna say something Kai?" Rick asked at the tanned man.

I totally forgot about him.

He sighed and scratched the back of his neck, "Nah... You took all the words I want t'say from my throat." I laughed.

Popuri's Side

It hurts me when I see Claire blames herself. I can see it in her eyes, maybe so does my brother besides me. To be honest, some of my memories from the past is foggy and fuzzy but I do feel that me and the blonde had met way before she arrived here last spring.

I actually blame that woman. Karen, being bitch to Claire, blaming her and such.

She should blame herself!

I wanted to say those words to Claire but I know those are not the exact words that will help the blonde to ease the suffering she is having right now. It is a good thing that my stupid brother is here. He may be incompetent and a doofus but he really knows what to say to lift up yours spirits. I agree to what my brother has said.

Karen's love for Rick made her blind and it led her astray from reality. Love is truly blind, literally and figuratively. That woman, she always puts her heart with everything and so is Claire and that made me jealous of her and Karen.

"Aren't you gonna say something Kai?"

"Nah... You took all the words I want t'say from my throat." he said.

Was it just me or his left eye twitched?

That was not an imagination, after he admitted to me and to himself that he loves the blonde, I know that he is having a hard time to hide his jealousy, scratch that. His jealousy is so obvious way before he admitted.

'Liar.'

I wanted to say that to him.

'You cannot say anything that will make her feel better because the one can make her spirits lift up is my brother.'

Half of me is mad at him and the other half is a mixture of happiness and sadness. I'm mad at him because he's doing now what my brother is doing which annoys him but the difference is that he already admitted to himself that he loves Claire while my brother, oblivious than ever.

I'm happy for him because he finally found someone that he really love and sad for him because there's no way in hell that Claire will ever look his, not tomorrow, not ever. As for me? I ain't like Karen. I know how to accept the fact that Kai never looked my way, I know that there is someone out there, waiting for me to come to him. There is no harm in waiting for someone to love and accept me, I'm still young anyway.

Yes, admit it. I became like Karen, but only the delusional part. I was like that when I was young, when I am not fully aware of what love is but, as I grow up, I realized something, that my love for the tanned man is not really love at all, it's just infatuation, admiration or in kid's term, crush.

I wish that Karen realized those by now.

Honestly, what entered in her pudding called brain? Blaming Claire of all people. It was not her fault that my brother fell in love with her, even though he would not admit it and it was not her fault that she had been kidnapped and brought here in Mineral Town years ago, it's not like Claire wanted it to happen. Geez.

I am having this feeling where my brother has his suspicious eyes boring a hole in my head and piercing my soul, just like what I had felt earlier. I dared myself to make an eye contact with him. What do you know! I was right. Rick is being suspicious about something.

I know what it is.

Sorry for the short chapter .

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