A Tale of Autumn - Endless Love Chapter 1
Hello a reader, this fan fiction is based on the Korean drama Gaeul Donghwa, which translates into A Tale of Autumn or Autumn Story. The show's English name is Autumn in My Heart, and in China, it was renamed Endless Love. I sincerely loved this drama so much, and after I finished it I just had to write a fanfic about it. I have switched the names of the characters and replaced this with your Escaflowne favorites. Since I don't speak Korean and my knowledge of Cantonese is minimal, I'm relying heavily on a translated script and whatever I can remember from what I can make out from listening to the Cantonese version. I've relied heavily on the translated script I found, but the script itself has quite a few wholes, but I think I've filled them in pretty well. If you're interested in learning more about A Tale of Autumn, search for it under Google. Using the name Autumn in My Heart on google will get you the page I got the translations from. They have the episodes in Korean in RealPlayer format for you to watch. Well enjoy!
WARNING! Some of the material in this story may be unpleasant for people to read, in that case, I suggest you don't read it. While this will be a V/H fic in the future, it is in no way incestuous, but if you are uncomfortable reading about these kind of things, I suggest you turn away now. Don't tell me I didn't warn you before. If these things bother you, and you decided to read anyway, and you got mad, you have no on to blame but yourself. Now then, on with the show!
The writer of this story has no claim to the rights or the original ideas of either the Korean drama, Gaeul Donghwa, or The Vision of Escaflowne, and openly admits so. Therefore, if any of the creators of either series wants to sue, they are not entitled to do so (^_^).
Note: I will be using the word "oppa" meaning elder brother in Korean in the story.
A Tale of Autumn - Endless Love
Chapter 1: The Unmistakable Truth
No matter who you are,
What you've done,
Or whom you've been with
I will always love you
Even if the world disapproves,
My feelings won't change
No matter what our next lives will be,
We will always be together
Even to the point of death
And beyond…
***The eyes of a small and curious child peered over the window into the room of newborns with the help of his grinning father. The baby boy, Van, had just become a brother to a newly born sister named Hitomi.Goau raised his son higher so that he could get a better a view of his sister. "Isn't she cute? Hitomi, Hitomi Fanel, she's your new little sister," he pointed at the sleeping baby to his son. He set his son down on the ground, "Let's take some pictures, okay? Now don't wander around while I go grab the camera. Stay right here."
With that, Goau left the tiny Van on his own. Immediately he strolled on in to the baby room after the nurse left the room to get a better view of his little sister, his stuffed toy monkey in hand. Once inside, he waddled his way over to his sister and picked her pink nametag off it's holder and dropped it. He then leaned over to pick it up, but after he did, he got confused and wandered over to the baby girl next to his sister and picked up her nametag as well. One of the nametags then slipped from his teeny fingers and he threw the other one onto the floor along with it. It was then that the nurse came back into the room, and when she saw Van, she took him up in her arms and picked up the dropped name tags and placed them back on their holders. However, she failed to realize that the tags had been switched and did not know the grief that would ensue from this mistake later in the future…***Thirteen years later, Van and Hitomi were in Junior High. Hitomi was thirteen years old and Van fifteen. Hitomi had golden-sun hair, which she liked to keep short, and was very popular. Although she was considered a tomboy, many of the guys still thought she was cute. Van was tall and lean, his dark mass of hair was forever in disarray, and of course, he was the object of desire of many of the young girls. Every morning they rode their bicycles alongside each other to school and passed through a dark tunnel. Even today, people can still see the silhouette of a teenage boy and girl riding in the tunnel side by side.
The art room of Gaea Junior High was decorated in the artwork of its many students. Paintings hung on walls and canvases stood drying along the sides. On the shelves, several sculptures could be seen and the window was kept open so that the breeze could flit in and dry the wet paint. As usual, Van was sitting diligently at his canvas after class when the art room was entirely empty. He was painting a picture of his family's backyard; it was filled with tall trees and led on into the forest. Beyond that lay the railroad tracks, if you followed the tracks west, you would soon reach the ocean shore with its bubbling clear water and pure white sand. At that moment, Van accidentally knocked down his brush. He gave a sigh and reluctantly got out of his seat to reclaim his paintbrush.
All of a sudden, a girl with thick coke-bottle glasses burst into the room in a fit of tears, a hand written letter to the one she liked crumpled in her hand as she cried onto it. "Van Fanel, you idiot…" she continued to sob, unknowing that Van was in the very same room and watching her with concern.
She gradually lifted her head and realized that Van was in the same room, and quickly sniffed away a couple of tears. "Van, what are you doing here?" she asked, trying to restrain her tears.
Hitomi approached the art room, several gifts and letters written to her brother by admirers in her hand. She paused at the door, unsure if she should play messenger to all her friends.
Back inside the classroom, the girl with the glasses held her letter up to Van and asked, "Van, did you throw away this letter?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just throw it away, but there wasn't any name on it, so I didn't know how to return it, was it yours?" he asked.
"So… You don't like me?" she asked timidly, her eyes slowly went from the letter to look at him.
His face revealed his perplexity at her question, at that moment he spotted Hitomi at the door with more gifts and letters from his admirers. She stopped at the door when she saw that he was talking to a girl.
Van turned back to the girl and told her, "I already have a girl that I like."
Hitomi looked at him in surprise when she heard this, and the girl turned to look at her. She then got mad and slapped Van on the cheek before she dashed out of the room. Van then started to clean up his art supplies so that he could start heading home. Hitomi walked up to her older brother tentatively.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"This…" she said gingerly, handing him the handful of gifts and letters.
He angrily took them and threw them into the bucket of dirty paint-water, "Don't do this again." He then took his bag and stormed off angrily, leaving Hitomi to look after his retreating back worriedly.
After he exited the room, the two girls that had asked Hitomi to deliver their things to Van started bombarding her with exited questions about his reaction, but all she could do was point to their things in the bucket. As they scrambled to retrieve their things from the bucket, Hitomi couldn't help but let out a small giggle. She soon left them and raced outside to where the students kept their bicycles.
"Oppa!" Hitomi complained as soon as she caught up to her elder brother. "Wait for me, you know that I can't ride that well," she cried as he climbed aboard his bicycle and started pedaling home.
As they rode along their usual path home, Van kept looking back constantly at Hitomi as she continued to swerve with her bicycle, so he decided to stop and wait for her. As soon as she caught up, they both got off their bicycle and continued their journey home on foot. They proceeded to walk through the lush surrounding of nature towards home, but Van wouldn't look Hitomi in the eye, he was still mad about what had happened at school.
Hitomi sighed, "I made you mad again today. I feel bad for you and your situation, but I couldn't get out of it. The older girls made me do it. If you don't want to get any more of these love confessions, why don't you just find a girlfriend? I don't like it either, being the messenger is tough, too."
He couldn't help smiling at her words as he turned around to look at her.
"Well, it's not really bothersome. Not at all," she suddenly smiled, sensing that he had forgiven her.
"Okay, okay," he relented, "I forgive you."
She gave a small sound to show that she was pleased. "Hey, Oppa," she asked, "who's this girl that you like?"
"What did you say?" he said, feigning ignorance. "The girl that you like!" she cried, frustrated. "Well, who is she?" "You're so annoying," he said playfully. "Mind your own business." "Who is it?!?!" she whined.
"It's a secret, but don't go telling Mother and Father," he said. "Hah! I can if I want!" she replied haughtily.
They then decided to settle the argument with a game of rock-paper-scissors. Knowing that Hitomi always picked rock, Van was prepared and easily won the game by choosing paper. "That's strange, why do I always lose?" Hitomi wondered aloud. Van laughed and whispered, "It's because you always choose rock."
Van felt a drop of water land on his shirt, then it started to rain unexpectedly, so the two hurried on and climbed on their bicycles, looking for a refuge from the rain. They rode past the green scenery in the rain, laughing all the way as they reached an abandoned shop with enough shelter to cover them from the rain. They sat beside each other as they waited for the rain to stop.
"Ah, I'm all wet!" Hitomi complained, desperately trying to wring out the water from her school uniform. "Hmm, no one is around, so it's okay!" she said. Without warning, Hitomi began to take off her skirt.
Van watched in alarm and quickly moved forward to cover her from anyone who could be watching. "What do you think you're doing?""It's fine, I wore an underskirt today," she explained.
"An underskirt?" he looked down at her white underskirt and laughed. "When did you start wearing that kind of stuff?"
"What did you expect, I'm already in junior high," she said indignantly.
As she laid her wet skirt out to dry, Van took another glimpse of her underskirt and smiled humorously, when did his sister start growing up so much? She then caught him looking and scolded him with a harsh 'Oppa!' Sticking his hand out, Van felt the cool falling rain against his palm. As Hitomi watched, she followed in the same suit, letting the water tickle and clean her palms as they happily chatted away, waiting for the rain to stop.
Later that night, while her mother Varie was washing her back in the tub, Hitomi told her mother about her brother's secret crush and how he wouldn't tell her who it was. Varie and Hitomi shared an unbreakable bond; no two people loved each other the way they did. As the gossiped about Van, Varie asked if there was anyone that Hitomi liked. She said there was, and Varie asks whom and Hitomi answers that it's her oppa. She laughs and begins to tickle her little girl and they started to laugh, but then Hitomi bent over slightly in pain.
"What's wrong, Hitomi?" she asked, worried.
She slyly replied, "My breast are hurt."
"What breast?" she asked jokingly, "Turn around and let me see!" She examined her little girl and realized that she was already growing up. "When did you start becoming a woman?" she asked proudly.
"I don't know," she said, as she started to wash her mother's back.
"Hitomi, when you find someone you like, will you tell me first?" Varie asked.
Hitomi agreed, as she continued to wash her back, Hitomi fingered her mother's earlobe. She points out that she has large earlobes and Varie explains that her grandmother had large earlobes as well.
Hitomi fingered her own ears questioningly, "Hmm, why are my earlobes so small then?"
"Really?" Varie asked. She inspects her ears and asks, "Why are your earlobes so small?"
"Maybe I'm not really your daughter?" she made a mock sad faced, then laughed at her own joke.
"What, how could you not be? Our lovely little Hitomi," she said tenderly as they finished up bathing.
***
"Ahh, Mama, I'm too full," Hitomi said, patting her stomach.
"Keep eating, dear, your breast are growing," she ordered, taking in another mouthful of rice. "Darling," she said, addressing Goau, "our little girl is already a woman."
Both Van and Goau turn in surprise, as Hitomi looks on, embarrassed.
"Ah, our little girl is now a full grown lady," Goau exclaimed proudly.
"Yup, she even has the chest to prove it!" Varie said teasingly.
"Let me see," Van said, as he got up from the table and started moving towards her. She then jumps out of her chair as he starts to chase her around the house, crying 'Let me see, let me see' as the rest of the family laughed heartily.
The next day on the way to school, Van holds the handles of Hitomi's bicycle as they ride together. At first Hitomi warns him not to let go, because she's afraid she'll fall, but he does anyway and she goes back to swerving. They continued this way all the way to school and through the tunnel. Hitomi then practices her candidacy speech in front of Van, saying that she'll eliminate homework and add a holiday ever other week. Then she promises to do her best and asks her brother his opinion of her speech. He says that it's okay, considering her grade, but then she starts to doubt herself. Another girl, Millerna Kanzaki, was also running for class president. She was the number one student in class, and she tells Van that she is her rival.
"Rival? What, are you worried that you'll lose?" he teases.
"Nope!" she says confidently.
As Van enters the building, a blond girl is waiting for him in the hall with her friend. They run up to him and stop him. He asks if they came to see him, and she says yes.
"My name is Millerna Kanzaki, and I have a favor to ask. You like to paint, right?" she asked as they follow him.
"Why?" he asked suspiciously as he opened the window to the art room.
"Would you mind painting a picture to go with my poem for the poem contest?" she asks expectantly.
Van stops and turns around. "This is the first time we've met, right?" Millerna stops and looks a tad nervous as she nods her head. "Then why are you asking me to paint for you? I'm sorry, but I'm really busy."
Millerna bites her lip, and quickly runs out of the room, her friend calling her name to her back. She starts running after her, but Van suddenly remembers where he's heard Millerna's name before. He stops Millerna's friend and asks if they are first year students, like Hitomi is.
In class, the teacher, Ms. Aston, is counting off the votes for class president. Hitomi wins by a landslide of thirty-two votes to Millerna's fifteen. Everybody in class applauds as the teacher announces that Hitomi has won the election. They both stand and take a bow as everyone claps. The teacher announces that there will be a poem contest next month, Millerna smiles, knowing that she'll be the one sent to represent the class in the contest. Then to her surprise, the teacher says that since Millerna was the representative before, they should send Hitomi instead. Both of their faces fall at the sound of this new piece of news. The teacher tells Hitomi to have Van paint a picture to go with the poem and asks if Millerna has any objections. She says no, but her face is downcast and sad. As if to add more salt to the wound, the teacher announces that Hitomi's mother will be providing food for the entire class next week, everyone applauds, but Millerna just looks on in jealousy. She should have been the one to be elected, she was the smartest, and Hitomi was just popular. As the class changes for PE, Yukari, Hitomi's best friend, takes notice of Hitomi's new underskirt. Everyone soon crowds around it, complimenting on how cute the underskirt is and fawning all over Hitomi.
One of Millerna's friends sudden spoke up, mimicking the teacher about how Hitomi's mother was going to provide food for the entire class. "That's strange," she said, sarcastically. "Now, how did the little baby Hitomi get chosen as president over the number student, Millerna, in our class?" she said, the hint of malice in her voice was apparent as she sits herself back down next to a bummed out Millerna.
Yukari defends her friend, saying that Hitomi was voted president because she was the people's choice.
The girl smirked, "What are you? Princess Hitomi's servant?"
"What did you say?" Yukari cried.
"It must be so nice to your Prince Oppa do the painting for you?" she said contemptuously.
Hitomi smiled, "Yup, it's very nice, and since you called my brother a prince, that must make me a princess then! Thanks for calling me a princess!"
Hitomi goes up to Millerna and offers her hand to shake. "Let's do a good job as the class president and vice president," Millerna swivels her head to look at her and glares. "If you have anything to say, tell me, and I'll listen to you," at that, Millerna turned her head away again, and Hitomi feels a little down since her efforts were fruitless.
During PE, everyone is playing Dodge ball and having fun, but inside the classroom, Millerna sits at her desk, a book in front and tears streaming down her face. When the rest of the class returns to change, Hitomi discovers that her underskirt is missing.
Yukari then came racing into the classroom. "Hitomi, come quick, your underskirt is hanging of a tree outside!"
Everyone then races out to the quad and discover her underskirt hanging off the limb of a tree. Yukari tells Hitomi to stay put while she goes and gets help, but Hitomi told her not to bother and starts heading for the tree, a determined look on her face. She then swings onto one of the branches of the tree and starts climbing towards her underskirt. The Third-year boy's class watch out from the window.
One of the boy's beckon to Van to come to the window and he points to the tree, "Isn't that your sister?"
His eyes widen in shock as he hurries out of the classroom towards the tree. As Hitomi continues to climb the tree, all Van can do is standby on the ground and watch with anxiety. Hitomi sits on a branch and reaches her arm out to grab her underskirt, but her arms are a bit short. She reaches again as the people below her encourage her. She wavers a bit and everyone hold their breath, but she quickly grabs the underskirt and sits down on the branch, waving her victory flag as Van watches in dismay.
***
"Oppa, are you mad?" Hitomi asks, she, Van, and Yukari were walking home together with their bicycles in hand.
"Yeah, Oppa, I'm mad too," Yukari said.
Van kept silent as he wheeled his bicycle out of school, his silence expressing his quiet anger.
"Oppa!" Hitomi cried, trying to get him to talk to her.
Finally, he turned around; "Who did it?"
"I don't know," Hitomi said, even though she clearly had an idea of who did it.
"It's Millerna Kanzaki!" Yukari cried. "She's always trying to cause trouble for Hitomi."
At the mention of Millerna's name, Van stopped. "Millerna? Millerna Kanzaki?" he asked.
"No, no, it wasn't," Hitomi said, trying to undo the damage that Yukari had created.
"What do you mean?" Yukari asked. "Of course it was Millerna."
As they walked down the path to the more urban street, Van caught sight of Millerna a half a block away, talking to her friend. Hitomi desperately tried to shut her friend up, but Van had already mounted his bicycle and was riding in Millerna's direction. She caught sight of her brother riding towards Millerna and began to panic; she didn't want a big confrontation to happen.
Quickly, she got on her bicycle and started to pedal towards Van, wobbling all the way. "Oppa, wait!"
As she continued to try and catch-up to her brother who didn't seem to notice that she was riding behind him, a truck was coming down the alley in their direction. As the truck was driving across the street, poor Hitomi couldn't control her bicycle and the truck ran into her!
Van stopped his bicycle in front of Millerna, ready to confront her about what she had done to his sister, but her attention was focused on the scene behind him.
"Hitomi!" Yukari cried in panic, causing Van to turn around.
When he looked behind him, all he could see was Hitomi lying on the ground; the wheels of her bicycle beside her were still spinning while she lay quiet on the street.
***
Varie and Goau had just arrived at the hospital, fear and panic written across their usually joyful faces.
Varie ran up to her son who was sitting outside in the lobby. "What happened? How's Hitomi?" she asked anxiously.
Tears rolled slowly down his cheek as he opened his mouth to speak. "It's all my fault. I should have waited for her. It's my fault that that truck hit her! Now she's hurt, what can I do now?" he asked in desperate sadness.
Varie turned toward her husband, not knowing what to do. She quietly took her sons face in both her hands and gave him a hug.
At that moment, the doctor walked into the lobby and asked to speak with Hitomi's parents. Varie and Goau walked silently toward his office.
"Well, the good news is, Hitomi should be just fine," he told them happily as Varie and Goau let out huge sighs of relief. "However, just in case, we may need to give a blood transfusion…" the doctor briefly looks at Hitomi's file, "Now your daughter's blood type is B so--"
"Wait a minute doctor," Goau stopped him, "both my wife and my blood type is O, how could Hitomi's blood be type B?"
"Well that's strange," he commented, rechecking Hitomi's file and finding that her blood type was indeed B.
"Well, let's just get a blood test just to make sure," Varie suggested.
So both parents went into a medical room and lay down on the beds as a nurse extracted blood from their arm with a needle. They wait nervously as watched a doctor approach them with the results in hand. As the doctor reported, both they blood types were undeniably O. Varie quickly grasped her husband's arm in disbelief, question filling her perplexed eyes.
As the couple approached Van, he quickly notices the tense atmosphere surrounding his parents and assumed the worst.
"How's Hitomi? Is she worse?" he asked, frightened.
Varie quickly collapsed into an adjacent chair, the perplexed look never once leaving her face, she became more and more distressed.
"No, don't worry, just you wait and see," he told Van in a calm voice, even though his face revealed a sort of uncertainty.
That night, Varie and Goau left the hospital to head home while Van stayed to make sure everything was all right. All through the trip home, Varie and Goau remained in silence, their faces expressing their fatigue and distress.
Goau bit his lip as they entered the driveway, "Dear, we have to talk."
"What's there to talk about?" Varie asked nervously. "There's no question about it, Hitomi is our daughter, do you even have to ask?" she said, pleading him to end the conversation then and there.
"But what are we going to do?" he asked, "How are we going to fix this mess?"
"What mess? There's nothing to talk about!" she said angrily.
"But Hitomi's blood type is B, and we're both type O's. It doesn't add it up!" he argued.
By now, Varie was close to tears, "Are you saying you want to give her up? Is that what you're saying?"
"No! I would never give up our daughter!" he said, averting his gaze as his wife broke down and tears and covered her ears.
Back at the hospital, Van sat apprehensively waiting next to Hitomi's hospital bed, his hand holding hers as she slept.
He looked into her face and began to speak, "Hitomi, are you going to wake-up? I can't stand just watching you sleep right now. Are you in pain? Does it hurt a lot? If it does, I'm sorry. I know I'm the one to blame here…"
"Well, in that case, I forgive you then," came Hitomi's voice, her eyes still closed but her mouth was moving.
"Hitomi!" Van cried happily in relief.
Hitomi laughed and sat up in bed, "Why couldn't you act like you were sorry before?" She then turned and asked, "Was Mother and Father really worried?"
"Yes," he admitted. "Mother went back to get you a change of clothes, she'll be back in the morning."
"And what about you?" she asked him.
"You now I can't leave you alone," he said.
Hitomi shook her head, "No, I mean if you were scared, too."
"Nope," he said smugly. "I never doubted you would come out of it okay, you have a head as hard as rock."
Hitomi frowned, upset, "Geez, you're too much!"
"Hehe, my heart nearly stopped when I saw you lying on the street," he joked, half seriously with a smile on his face.
Hitomi returned his smile, "Okay, I forgive you then."
Back at home, Varie and Goau are in bed, discussing the situation once more.
"We can't let Van or Hitomi know," Goau said.
"It doesn't matter," Varie exclaimed, "Hitomi is my daughter."
"But what if her mother wants her back…?"
At that, Varie became so distressed that she turned around and faced the wall, closing the pain by shutting her eyes tightly. "I'm not letting her go, she's our child! Ours! She's our lovely little Hitomi!"
In distress, she exited the room and began to back some clothes for Hitomi to change into. As she looked through her closet, she came upon Hitomi's baby clothes and she hugs them dearly as she cries away her sorrow, her husband peaking in from the doorway wearing the same perplexed look on his face.
The next day, at the hospital, they talk to the doctor about what could have happened. His explanation, however, offered no comfort.
"When Hitomi was born, she was placed next to another little girl that was born on the same day. When Hitomi was first born, we recorded her blood type to be type O, but the baby next to her had type B blood," he told Goau.
"So Hitomi is supposed to have type O blood?" he asked, the grief was suddenly overcoming his face once more.
"It seems that the two were switched at birth," he told them sadly.
Suddenly Goau could no longer contain his anger and grabbed at the doctor's collar, "How could you guys let this happen?"
"Dear!" Varie cried, trying to hold back her raging husband.
All their hopes had now vanished, and the couple collapsed into a fit of tears.
"It seems that the baby next to her was named Millerna Kanzaki," the doctor told them.
Quietly, the couple turned and looked at each other, not knowing what they should do next.
The next day at school, Van approached Millerna once more. "Hey, Millerna, will you still let me do that painting for your poem?"
"Why?" she asked suspiciously.
"Please let me paint it, you said you liked my artwork."
"What about Hitomi?" she asked.
"Hitomi's been hurt enough by this already, leave her out of this."
"Are you calling me a bully?" she asked angrily.
"If you're not a bully, then leave Hitomi alone," he said, then his expression turned stony, "If you hurt her again, I won't be able to just stand by. I'll do the painting for you as long as you promise not to hurt her anymore."
"That's funny, who would want you stupid painting anyway?" she asked. "That's not enough." She sudden gave a small smile as an idea crept into her mind, "However, if you get down on your knees I just might forgive you."
Reluctantly, he dropped his bag and fell to his knees. "Are you satisfied now? From now on, don't mess with Hitomi," he said.
Millerna looked around nervously; she was really starting to come off as a bully now. When Van repeated his question, she turned around and ran off to her class.
As Van got up and patted his knees, he spotted his parents' car driving by. He wondered what they were doing as he watched their car drive down the road, and he decided to follow them.
Varie and Goau had dressed in their most pleasant clothing, but they stuck out in the poor and dirty neighborhood markets where the Kanzaki's restaurant was rumored to be. When they stepped up to the tiny shack of a restaurant that doubled over as a house, they could only wonder how anyone could live in such conditions. The Fanel's were fortunate, they were blessed with money and had lived a good life, but it seemed the Kanzaki's were a different story. The couple nervously stepped into the one table room and sat down, but before they could even sit comfortably, Ms. Kanzaki came running out from the back, chasing away an old hooligan who frequently liked to steel from her kitchen.
She tossed her dirty bucket of water out at him, "And don't you ever come back, you bastard!"
The Fanel's stood in shock at the table as she returned into the house. All they could do was grimace at her loud voice and her coarse behavior.
"I'm sorry, I was a little busy, what would you like to have?" she asked, but then she took note of their fine clothing and change her question. "You're not here all dressed up like that just to eat here, are you?"
Goau was the first to speak, "We came here to ask about your daughter."
"My daughter?" she asked in surprise, "Why, are you her teachers? Did she do something wrong?"
Goau shook his head as he wife remained remote, "No, that's not it. Your daughter was born October 4, right?"
Ms. Kanzaki eyed them wearily, "How do you know that?"
"Can we please see her?" Goau asked politely.
"What is this all about?" she asked, becoming confused.
"Please, let's just go back! I don't want to be here!" Varie pleaded to her husband, her brow was creased in worry. "You shouldn't have dragged me here!"
"Varie, please be reasonable!" he demanded, trying to quiet her pleas.
"I'm going to visit Hitomi right now!" she said, getting out of her seat.
"Why must you be like this, dear?" he asked in annoyance.
"Why do you have to be like this?" she exclaimed.
"Are you two listening to me?" Ms. Kanzaki cried. "Don't just come in here and start arguing! What is this all about?"
Varie continued her way to the door; "Sorry to have bothered you, but it's nothing."
"What?" Ms. Kanzaki sneered in an arrogant manner.
Varie was already heading out the door, but her husband suddenly let it out before she could leave, "Our daughters were switched at birth!"
"Goau!" Varie cried in distress.
Ms. Kanzaki stood in silent surprise as Goau continued to explain.
"They were accidentally switched at the hospital."
"No… No… No…" Varie moaned, collapsing back into the chair.
From behind the dirty window of the house, Van could be seen watching the entire scene, hiding behind the wall. As he watched the adults, his eyes started to brim with tears at what he had just heard. Turning around, he walked away from the restaurant in silence. As he wandered, the clouds grew darker and darker until they could hold in the rain no more.
The soaking rain drenched Van in his uniform as he continued wandering, lost and unsure. He kept shaking his head, mumbling, "No… No… It can't be…"
Varie and Goau drove in silence in the pouring rain. Not a word was spoken, for if they did, they would have surely broken down once more.
"Take me to Hitomi, now," Varie said.
"Let's go home first," Goau replied.
"No, take me to see our Hitomi, now," she demanded. She turned away, "How could you be so cruel? How could you do this to me and Hitomi?"
Goau's only answer was silence as he turned towards the hospital. When they pulled into the parking lot, Goau moved to unbuckle his seatbelt, but Varie stopped him.
"Don't, I want to see her myself," she coldly unbuckled her seatbelt and walked into the hospital alone.
As Varie entered the room, Hitomi gave off a brilliant smile. She was happy to see her mother.
"Why did you come just now?" Hitomi asked. "I thought you were busy today."
"Well, it's raining right now, and I know how you don't like to be alone when it's raining, so I came here to protect you," she said as she sat down on the bed next to Hitomi.
Hitomi smiled, "You know, I'm not a child anymore."
"What? You're no longer my little child anymore?" she said, enveloping her in a hug. "Mama will be protect you from everything," she said sadly.
"Mama?" Hitomi questioned, but she ignored her questioning tone and continued on.
"Hitomi… Our Hitomi… My Hitomi. Mama will watch you grow up and become a beautiful woman. Then Mama will watch you go to college, and she'll screen your boyfriends, too," she said tenderly while stroking her hair as big tears rolled down her cheeks. "And when you get married, Mama will help you pick out a beautiful wedding dress, and when you have children Mama will-"
"Mama?" Hitomi asked again.
Varie brushed away her tears as she released Hitomi and looked her in the eye, "Hey let's have some udon, I know it's your favorite."
"Really?" she asked happily, hugging her mother back with all her might.
Van watched his baby sister through the room as a child
"Isn't she cute? Hitomi, Hitomi Fanel, she's your new little sister," his father pointed at the sleeping baby to his son. He set his son down on the ground, "Let's take some pictures, okay? Now don't wander around while I go grab the camera. Stay right here."
With that, Goau left the tiny Van on his own. Immediately he strolled on in to the baby room after the nurse left the room to get a better view of his little sister, his stuffed toy monkey in hand.
Goau entered his wife's room in the hospital and stole the camera off the table, he turned to his wife and said, "She's very cute."
"Really, and she's perfectly healthy?" she asked.
"Yup," he opened the camera, "I'm going to take some pictures of her right now. I love you."
Once inside, Van waddled his way over to his sister and picked her pink nametag off it's holder and dropped it. He then leaned over to pick it up, but after he did, he got confused and wandered over the baby girl next to his sister and picked up her nametag as well. While playing with their name, drops them. It was then that the nurse came back into the room, and when she saw Van, she took him up in her arms and picked up the dropped name tags and placed them the name tags on the wrong babies…
As the nurse stepped outside, Goau came back and took his son back up in his arms and thanked the nurse as they turned to go visit their mother. As they rounded the corner, another woman was walking down to visit the baby room as well. Her hair was in disarray, she had just given birth to a healthy baby girl a few hours prior, but she had to see the baby now. She peered through the window and the baby looked back at her, and she smiled.
"You poor little baby," she said, "You are without a father, and look at this pathetic mother of yours. My little Millerna, I'm so sorry you had to be born into the world like this…" Hikari Kanzaki said sadly.
Hikari Kanzaki sat at the single table in her home/restaurant, reminiscing the day she gave birth to her only daughter. She thought of how unlucky she had said her little baby was, and it was all true…
"Our daughters were switched at birth!"
Goau Fanel sat near the fireplace, his drink in hand and his eyes red. He turned his head to look out the window, and sitting there at the white table outdoors was his wife, looking lost and forlorn. He then moves to join her outside and pulls up a chair beside her and hands her a drink.
Van wandered the final stretch towards his house. He had walked all day in the pouring rain, pondering the fate of his family. When he reached the gate of his house, he spotted his parents talking at the table outdoors.
"That place is a mess," Goau said, as Varie remained silent. "That woman is a mess too, everything there is a mess! I'm sorry, I love Hitomi too, just as much as you do."
After a long pause she let out, "I know…"
"But when I think about someone living in that kind of place…" Goau trailed off.
"Dear, do you remember that offer?" Varie asked, wiping away at a tear at the corner of her eye.
Goau looked at her silently and nodded his head.
"If we continue to stay here, there are going to be problems," she turned to him and clasped his hands. "Let's just all go to America! All of us, you, me, Van, and Hitomi, together. How about it, huh?" she asked, desperately seeking some sort of answer to the grief.
Goau nodded in fierce agreement as he struggled to end his tears.
Van watched on from behind the bushes and lowered his head as he walked around them and headed for the hospital on the same road that had only one solitary light shining upon it.
Back at the hospital, Hitomi is happily reading her favorite manga, The Vision of Escaflowne when Van enters her room.
When she sees him come in, she wonders out loud, "Hmm that's strange. First Mama, and now Oppa have come to visit me."
She moves to get off the bed and offer her brother some juice, but he tells her to sit back down. He sits down on the side of her bed and looks away.
"Okay, Hitomi, I'll do it…" he said.
"Do what?" she asked.
"Okay, Hitomi, I'll do it…" he said.
"Do what?" she asked.
"I'll tell you my secret," he said mischievously.
"Secret…?" she asked incredulously.
"The person that I like," he reminded her.
"Oh, really?" she asked excitedly. "What's she like?"
Van closed his eyes and thought hard. "Well… This girl, she's not really smart, and she eats like a pig. He turned and watched her, her mind scurrying around trying to figure out who the girl was.
"Well, is she pretty?" Hitomi asked brightly.
"Not in the least," he laughed. "Her hair is about the length of yours," he said, touching her short blond locks, "her eyes look like yours and she's about the same height. She's really not a pretty sight."
Hitomi paused and fingered her own hair and looked at her brother questioningly.
"She's also a real baboon," he laughed. "Ever since I can remember, she liked to pick fights with me and she always treats me terribly."
She looked on, confused. "Yup, she's so annoying, and she can't ride a bicycle either!"
Hitomi thought for a second quietly, then exclaimed, "You're talking about me! What are you talking about, you're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not joking," he said seriously, shaking his head. "I we weren't brother and sister, do you think we would have ever met?"
Hitomi thought for a second, then smiled, "Of course we would have met. It's fate!"
"Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right…" Van said doubtfully.
"Yes it does! It's fate!" she insisted.
"Alright then. Let's play rock-paper-scissors to decide who's right here," he said smiling. "If you win, it's fate, if I win, then it's not."
Hitomi agrees and the start to play…
Van's mind fled back to the last time they were talking about his crush, and how they decided not to tell their parents by playing rock-paper-scissors. Of course, Hitomi lost, Van knew that she always picked rock, so he got ready to play as well…
"Rock-paper-scissors…" they chanted at the same time, then they revealed their choice.
Van had picked scissors and Hitomi picked her usual rock. Hitomi claps in joy at having won the argument and Van just smiles at her.
"Yeah, I won this time! It's definitely fate then!" she announced proudly.
In the morning, Varie and Goau head to the junior high to see the poem contest and to inform the school that their family is leaving for America.
"Okay, let's make this quick," Varie said as she climbed the school steps.
Goau looked at her tentatively, "Are you sure you don't even want to see her once?"
"I don't want to," she said defiantly, "but maybe… you do?"
"No, we won't see her. It'll just make this whole thing more complicated," he smiled at his wife, "The only daughter I want is Hitomi."
All the parents and students gather excitedly outside to take a look at the students sample poems. Many parents came bearing flowers for their young ones; they shined with pride as they looked at their child's work.
When they came to Hitomi's class' poem, the teacher told their parents that Van had painted the picture for the poem of the girl who submitted a poem in Hitomi's place.
Varie looked at the name on top of the painting; "The girl's name is Kanzaki?"
"Don't even bother asking," Van said, earning him a mean glare from his sister.
"Millerna Kanzaki, yup, I used to talk about her mother. She's in my class," Hitomi said.
"Oh, really? Where is she now?" her mother asked.
They look around at the people around them, suddenly Varie's eye lands on the face of Hikari Kanzaki who was climbing up the steps and being greeted by the students at the top. Varie held her breath and she watched the woman talk to one of the representatives. Van notices his parents looking at something, so he turns to see what they're all looking at.
From where he was standing, Van could hear Hikari Kanzaki asking the young girl where Millerna Kanzaki's work was. Suddenly a sharp voice calls out to Ms. Kanazaki calling her Mama.
All of them turn at once and watch and angry Millerna stomping her way in fury to her mother, "What are you doing here? I told you not to come!" Millerna said.
Van watches nervously as the mother and daughter continue to argue. Hikari takes Millerna's hand when she catches sight of Varie and Goau. She stops dead in her tracks and stares at the family around them. Hitomi turns and looks at her and Millerna, wondering what is happening. In return, Millerna shakes free of her mother's hand and turns to where her mother's gaze was. Her eyes landed on Hitomi and her family, everyone but Hitomi and Millerna stand there in the tense atmosphere, unable to move. Van looks at Millerna and suddenly realizes who his real biological sister is.
All six of them stand still, frozen. They couldn't take their eyes off each other, and they stayed that way, even as all the parents and students left the school grounds.
To Be Continued...
Thank you for reading everybody. It was a little difficult writing this story, pretty much what I'm doing is adapting a TV show into a story. Hope it turned out well, please review and tell me what you thought of this. I hope to be able to add new chapters on every other week or so (note, I hope to, but I doubt it will happen, sorry T_T). This first chapter here is pretty action packed, but the roller coaster ride has only begun. Things will definitely get more turbulent as the story progress, so stay tuned! If there are any questions, you can e-mail me at kiches_sarjilian@yahoo.com.