A/N: So I think I figured out Minami's and Akito's... 'relationship' or how they 'relate to each other' and how she's not effected by the curse. But of course I can't tell you guys. "Spoilers" Another character driven chapter, getting into Minami's head and her feelings.

Kisa and Hiro arrived the next morning and Minami was greeted with a big hug from Kisa that she happily took.

"Neglected…" Hatsuharu said as he drunk some water from his canteen.

"Neglected… Neglected…" Momiji teased happily as he leaned onto Haru.

"SHUT UP! THE LONG RIDE HAS ALREADY WORN ME OUT! TAKE ME TO MY ROOM!" Hiro yelled.

"My room is this side. While the others live on the other side." Minami explained to Hiro who was doing his best to ignore her.

"Why not Kisa and Minami stay in the same room! Hiro, you can stay with any of us!" Momiji said happily.

"What?" Hiro said. "Can you not decide it all by yourself? I don't want to share room with the others!"

"You just want to be in the same room as Kisa… You matured really fast huh…" Haru said which caused a big blush on Hiro's face to form.

"I never said that…" Hiro said embarrassed. "And, why me? You are all much older than me, so why can't you be more considerate?"

"Hiro, shouldn't you be the considerate one, you're the youngest here." Minami said and Hiro blushed angrily, and his mouth shut.

"Minami's magic has worked on Hiro too." Haru said.

"SHUT UP HARU!" Hiro yelled, the silence apparently wasn't for long.

"Hiro-chan…" Kisa said sadly as she leaned onto us.

Ah… Welcome!" A familiar voice called and Minami looked over and saw Yuki wearing a dark red Chinese style shirt and white pants. He stood in the doorway. "You guys were quick!"

"Ah… It's like this…" Haru muttered making everyone confused. He put an arm around Yuki. "Then I will share a room with Yuki."

"Ha?" Yuki said confused.

"It's settled then…" Haru said.

"Settled!" Momiji cheered.

"Wait a minute.. What are you all talking about?" Yuki said confused.

"The rooms' issue is settled…!" Momiji cheered and pumped his fist into the air. "MInami, you can take Kisa to your room!"

"Sure thing." Minami said and took Kisa's hand. "Come on Kisa."

"Okay!" Kisa said. Minami could put on a happy smile, at least for Kisa. Though she would be lying if she didn't hope she would get the room to herself. Minami placed down Kisa's luggage on the end of the bed.

"That.. Just now.. Hiro-chan…" Kisa said. "Sor… Sorry…"

"It's nothing you should be apologizing for Kisa." Minami said to the little girl and placed a hand on her head. "If Hiro does something wrong, you shouldn't feel the pressure to apologize for him, that's a bad habit. Sometimes you have to let others fix their problems." Kisa looked at her and seemed she wanted to say something, Minami could already guess what she wanted to say. "Yes, try not to be too much like me, okay?"

"... Okay…" Kisa said and looked around at a photo of Minami's former family. "Who are these people?"

"Just old family." Minami said and took a seat on the ground. "Though they're all gone now."

"What about…."

"My other family?" Minami asked her and she flushed red and looked like she was about to apologize. "It's fine Kisa. All of them… they're too far away to reach."

"I-I'm sorry…" Kisa said and Minami looked out their large window to the clear blue sky.

"Nothing to apologize for." Minami told her as Kisa took a seat down beside her. Minami could feel eyes on her but didn't say anything as Kisa laid her head own on her shoulders. Half an hour passed and Momiji came over to their room with Hiro. Momiji dragged them along into the large forest that surrounded the summer villa.

"This way…" Momiji said happily as he walked ahead.

"Why are we in the forest for?" Hiro asked.

"We're going to try and catch stag beetles." Minami explained to both Hiro and Kisa.

"... is that fun?" Hiro asked.

"I'm not sure." Minami said. "Momiji thinks it will be." Hiro locked eyes with her for the first time, and looked at her confused. He sped up the pace so that he was matching hers and Kisa's.

"Found it! A sawtooth oak…" Momiji said.

"There's no… stag beetles…." Kisa said.

"By applying 'something' to this tree, then the stag beetles will gather here! And that 'something' is…" Momiji said and looked over at Minami, wanting her to finish his sentence.

"Sugar water." Minami said. "Though we'll have to wake up early tomorrow to get them." As Kisa put on the lemon water.

"Uh! I will try to wake up early!" Momiji said. "Wait for me! I will go and see if there are other sawtooth oak trees!" He then dashed off.

"Hey." Hiro said and Minami looked back.

"What?" She asked confused.

"Do you even want to be here?" Hiro and Minami paused. "Not just looking for these bugs, but being at this villa in general? It seems that all you ever do is listen to what other people tell you to do. I don't understand you. You're able to back-talk against me but when everyone else wants to do something you say silent. You can change your mood in the blink of an eye and smile even though you don't feel like smiling. Are you depressed? Are you angry? Don't you want to do something you want to do instead of just following us kids? Are you afraid that if you say no to what everyone wants to do that they'll just leave you? You couldn't find your biological parents and were found in the middle of Tokyo alone right?

"You stayed in an orphanage and got adopted, but now you're all alone. Your adoptive family passed away right? Most people would be upset or be sad, but I don't even know if I've ever seen you cry or show a sign of weakness. Do you have borders built up around you so you don't get hurt again? Do you just live your life doing what others tell you, because you've been forced to do it since you were found in Japan? You don't even act like a normal high school student, you act more like a adult or a parent then Shigure, Hatori, Ayame and even our own parents. Doesn't that get tiring?"

Minami paused for a second and looked over at Hiro. "You think found out my secret Hiro, congratulations. Does putting me down make you feel any better?" Minami asked him coldly, feeling tired. "Stop acting like you know me, when I'm just some random stranger that was placed in a messy circumstance because of your family's problems. Before you go off spouting your ideas of my problems, why don't you go and fix yours? Because for some twelve year old kid, you don't seem very happy."

Minami paused "I'm going to go find Momiji, so I can take you two back. Because in case you haven't noticed, you're still children and I do have to watch over you as the oldest. Stay here. I'll be right back."

And Minami did exactly that. Momiji seemed to pick up on her bad mood easily, because he didn't say a word to her. Minami couldn't help but feel grateful. As the day slowly turned into night, Minami took a seat down on the couch with Momiji, Hiro and Yuki.

"Did Kisa and Hiro have a fight?" Haru asked.

"Hm…" Momiji said confused.

"They didn't talk during dinner and now they went straight to sleep… I… do not understand what happened either…" Yuki said.

"When lovers quarrel, it's better that outsiders don't get involved in it… Might as well leave them alone…" Haru said.

"Should I say you are being considerate or cold…" Yuki asked as he walked away. Minami took that chance to go upstairs to her shared room and took a seat out on the balcony, watching the beach in the distance. Feeling very much like a hypocrite. Or course she couldn't tell Hiro that he was right, mostly… About her feelings. Minami couldn't help but think about Tohru… and about Akito… They weren't very different protagonists and villains down to their fears.

Minami didn't sleep well that night. Perhaps that worst part about having issues, is having someone else telling you about your issues. Did she want to be at the villa? Did she want to meet Akito? Did she even feel like spending time with the Sohmas?

In reality, no she really didn't, but she came anyway. Because she was afraid of change, afraid of messing something up, afraid of the curse not being able to break because she didn't come, afraid that is she distanced herself or backed away from the plot…

That she'd be that same, pitiful little girl that cried in that orphanage.

The stories that spoke about being inserted into your favorite show, being happy or ecstatic because you got to meet these fake characters that are now real.

Minami couldn't help but feel cheated by fate, because her one wish that would never be achieved, was to return home the same girl from before.

Minami had issues, she knew she had issues. And as Hiro said:

Abandonment issues, was definitely one of them.

A/N: Honestly I liked that Hiro called out Tohru in the original manga, because he helped show the audience and Tohru herself some of her issues. This was a good chapter. College is starting back for me... Tomorrow August 17th, so we'll see how that goes. I'm all remote, so I'm still at home, I still plan on updating.

Updates will probably happen every 7-14 days. So either weekly or bi-weekly. I think it will help build traction for this story too. Thanks everyone, you're all amazing. Tell me your thoughts down below. What do think is going to happen between Minami and Akito? Akito arrives at the villa next chapter.