This is the story of when they first met five years ago.

Now we'll know why Yukari has become a bad girl and why Akari likes her so much.

I hope you will forgive our main character who speaks harshly in this chapter, too. But I think she will continue to do so... However, her way will keep you cool little by little. So I want you to cheer her up until she gets through this ordeal.

Hope you enjoy it :D !

It's a warm sunset-drenched park, but in the cold of the midwinter that making her heart cold, Dad said,

"Yukari... How would you feel like if you had a sister?"

Yukari, who was forced to walk with dad's hand in hand, thought.

'Is he think about having a baby now? Are you seriously out of your mind?'

Because Mom wasn't in a position to have a second child. She doesn't look like that at all, but she's already over 40 years old, and she doesn't had time to have a child because she's a busy lawyer at a famous law firm. But there's one important reason why it's big enough to put it on the back burner: Mom believes that this bear-like man cheated on her out of the blue.

That's why she went to work on the weekend and on her daughter's birthday. But in this atmosphere, Dad was just talking about "sister." Is he think that's the only way he can hold on to his wife, who no one knows when she'll disappear from home? Why is a man so selfish? She's never going to be taken hostage because of her child. Yukari is sure he know that. He is her only dad, but she can't understand how could he have such a pathetic idea at all.

Yukari shook her head to disperse the continuing miscellaneous thoughts and asked back, pretending not to have heard, because of the noise of the glow-in-the-dark fountain, which works in this chilly weather.

"What did you say?"

But she really didn't have the talent to hold out if Dad said same rubbish. It was hard to even take a step because she drove her bike so hard yesterday. Moreover, it was too much to control her mind, understanding this pathetic dad who made mom heard the rumor.

Was it because of her reproachful way of speaking, Dad couldn't reply for a while.

But he soon whispered, looking only ahead as if he were talking to himself.

"I'm so happy... that you're my daughter."

Oh, please. He's changing the subject again. Yukari, who was going to complain, looked up at Dad's face and paused. Dad stopped walking and looked down at his daughter with eyes that seemed to be red maybe because of the sunset.

"Yukari."

"..."

The silence grew longer. After stalling for time, Yukari replied, "Yes," but in fact she didn't want to hear anything.

She didn't want to see Dad's sad face, but Dad smiled with a look that was about to flow tears. Then he fell to his knees and hugged his daughter without saying a word.

The arms were still warm and warm enough to want to be hugged at any time, but after a while the warmth and dependability were likely to dissipate. The more he hug her, she was afraid he'll go somewhere. She was afraid maybe he's not entirely hers. Or maybe he wasn't hers from the beginning. And she was afraid she's going to hear that now...

Beyond Yukari's frozen shoulders, Dad only spoke long after.

"Even if you hate me... I understand it."

Listening to such incomprehensible words, Yukari wished her dad were a pathetic person who thought about having a baby in this situation. Then she wouldn't even have to hate him in the first place.

Unfortunately, however, he is the extremely sweetest person in the world. How horrible it is, until the moment he says that, she wants to believe him, and in the end it makes her very disappointed.

If you're going to be that sweet, why aren't you sweet until the end?

You're such an idiot...

She had to notice it from the moment he tied an unwanted yellow star balloon to her wrist.

That it was just the beginning of the annoying things to come.

If she knew that, she wouldn't have raise the balloon on her wrist, grumbling, 'How old do you think I am?' even though she was twelve years old. Then she wouldn't have seen a purple moon balloon on someone's wrist, nor would she have eyes met with a peer girl with such a thing tied to her wrist.

But that had already happened, and the girl with white hair braided in pigtails smiled broadly.

With looking fixedly at Yukari.

'What, am I funny?'

Yukari, who thought so, frowned. Then she soon noticed that a woman, who seemed to be the girl's mother, was also looking at Dad. As she looked up at him with a puzzled look, Dad was smiling softly as if he had finally found someone.

Is this why Dad kept saying weird things?

No matter how hard she looked at him, Dad couldn't even make eye contact with her, but he didn't let go of her hand. She wanted to shake off his hand, but she couldn't. Yukari, succumbing to confusedness, muscle pain and Dad's strength, looked over the two strangers with a wary look.

"It's been a... long time."

A young looking woman to be a mother opened her mouth first. But should she have spoken in such a shy voice? Dad, you'll get in trouble if you don't answer her in a proper voice. When Yukari sharpen a knife in her mind, Dad answered.

"Yeah..."

She clenched her fists. What the hell are you both doing? What are you two going to do in front of kids? And that girl who is smiling proudly next to her is what?

There were many things she wanted to say, but she couldn't speak, as if she had a nasty cold. Meanwhile, Dad pointed to a nearby outdoor restaurant, asking, "How about we feed the girls first?" The woman nodded with a smile, and the girl nodded more vigorously. Seeing the girl's bright face, Yukari shook her head. What is this situation? What the hell is that girl? And why do I have to eat something with that annoying sunshine?

As if nobody cared her mind, the three went toward the same place, and Yukari was forcibly taken by Dad's hand. Even though she tried to rebel little by little, Dad looked at Yukari with a look of "Please hold it a little bit..."

So Yukari gave up. She might have been rashly misunderstand them. As meekly dragged by him, Yukari thought.

'There must be something valid reason. Even if it seems like a scene of some crazy drama. What if that young-looking woman is insurance saleswoman? But her sales figures are terrible, so she might be trying to sell to her husband's uncle's uncle, whom she had seen only once a long time ago. Yeah, maybe I'm getting a big misunderstanding.'

But she couldn't find even a little valid reason of them.

"This was a little girl who lived in the same neighborhood as me when I was young. She has grown up very lonely and hard, so I cared about her a lot as if she's my youngest sister. Ririna is innocent and smart, and at first we met, she was wary of me for giving her candy. Isn't it so cute? I can't believe the little girl is already a mother. Time flies. Her daughter looks just like her mother when she was young. Besides..."

So what are you want to say? Whatever it is, Dad always talks a lot when he makes excuses. While she heard the story of the woman and child who she didn't even want to know, Yukari was speechless. Then, the woman, named Ririna or what, said, smiling shyly.

"Brother... she won't be fun to hear about the story."

Of course I won't. There's no one who would want to hear about the childhood of a woman who seem like Dad's mistress.

As Yukari's eyes grew sharp, Dad began to make useless excuses again.

"Oh, she know your name, because..."

"Because you told her."

Yukari blurted out so, and then walked forward, putting Dad's hand.

Behind her back, Ririna made a small apology in a careful but intrusive voice.

"I'm sorry, brother... I must have made a slip of the tongue..."

Yukari bit her lips.

'If you know, stop calling him brother.'

But what really upset her was Dad's answer.

"It's okay. It's just because she's mad at me..."

Near her, where sighs spread like smoke, the girl that closely resemble her mother, who is not sensible, followed.

It was a pity that Yukari hadn't been able to pop the yellow star balloon tied to her wrist earlier. Parhaps, it was an easy way for them to recognize each other from afar.

'Am I the sign of love between you two? It wouldn't be cool even if they cheated on someone secretly...'

However, the two were drinking tea at a nearby table and smiling fondly, seemingly unrelated to the insurance business.

The short child, sitting side by side on the bench, only smiled naively whether she knew or not what was going on.

"Yukari, can you look after your sister? Buy her what she want to eat with this."

Yukari didn't even answered Dad, but she got pocket money from him, and she was already sitting next to the girl. Whenever Dad saw girls around that age, he wanted to do something for them as if they're his daughters.

'Who's my sister? He's so blinded by love.'

When Yukari muttered into her mind, the girl suddenly spoke to her.

"Sister."

Yukari didn't want to answer, but she looked at her to hear what the girl was trying to say.

"Hi, my name is Akari," she said, smiling brightly.

"I'm not your sister. Don't call me that. Don't even say hi. I don't even want to know your name. And don't smile."

Yukari kept adding one by one, and then thought that if someone saw them, they would be misunderstood. Sure enough, an unidentified photographer, who was passing by just in time, smiled, raising his camera.

"It's nice to see your family are so harmonious. May I take your picture?"

Then Yukari rose from the bench immediately.

"They are not my family. I've never seen these two before!"

Yukari, who was shouting at him pointing fingers at the two, walked somewhere, leaving everyone in a silence behind. Dad didn't say anything but apologise, "I'm sorry... My kid's a little sensitive today..."

It's the worst birthday ever. She can't believe he's seeing a married woman and her daughter on the pretext of his only daughter's birthday. Also even while Mom's working. Yukari fiddled with the cell phone in her pocket. She was hesitating for a long time whether to let Mom know about this or not, but Akari's voice kept interrupting her from behind.

"Sister, where are you going now?"

"I've never had a sister like you, okay? Please, go away."

Still, Akari followed closely and pulled Yukari's hood sleeve.

'What kind of star is she from? And where on earth does this courage come from? Or didn't she still understand this situation?'

But Yukari tried to ignore her calmly because she didn't want to vent her anger on the innocent girl.

"You don't like me being your sister...?"

Unless the girl only said such strange things.

"What?"

"You don't like..."

"Not that one! What do you mean by you being my sister?"

As Yukari shook off her hand and shouted, Akari stepped back and cowered. Nevertheless, she didn't stop answering.

"Dad didn't tell you...?"

"Dad? Whose dad? You speak so weirdly. It sounds like our dad. So you and I are sisters? But mothers's not same, so we're half-sister, huh? Why don't you say that your name made by his idea? I can't even imagine how many dramas you've watched!"

Yukari shouted sharply, then looked down at Akari, who wasn't saying anything.

"...why can't you say?"

Akari just wriggled her hands, and then carefully met the eyes she had avoided from her.

"Not half sisters... Can't we just be normal sisters?"

You'd rather give me an excuse, why are you talking such nonsense...? No way. She don't look much younger than me. So he have been cheating on Mom since I was crawling? No... he couldn't do that. How could such a terrible thing happen? What about my mom who has lived without knowing anything for almost 10 years? Crazy. Even disappointment is a waste to him.

The more those thoughts continued, the more Yukari gasped.

No matter what Mom said about him, I believed him. So I even said something harsh to Mom. But how could he do that? How could you live like a family man ever since you did that? How could you even smile? How could you breathe even for a day? What happened to your brain? It wouldn't be surprising if you're trash from the beginning. I understand if the other trash did, but how could you... Why did you...

"Sister..."

With eyes as if she saw something dirty in Akari's approaching hands, Yukari backed away. Why... why...

"...why were you born?"

At her words, Akari froze and tears flushed. Even if you cry with such a small breath as a poor puppy, I don't feel sorry at all.

"Sis..."

"Please stop calling me that! Don't even cry! I really want to cry, okay? Don't come after me any more."

Yukari turned her back quickly and unrolled the yellow star balloon thread tied to her wrist. Then she took a long walk towards a quiet, dark place.

Akari's cries didn't stop, and still Yukari heard footsteps approaching, so began running without looking back. Akari's steps quickened and she repeated, "Sis," as if on purpose. Her uneasy trembling voice grew and rose, then stopped with a short scream and the sound of falling on the grass.

Yukari paused, looking ahead, but she could hear the sound of her getting up from behind. Thinking that she was so persistent, Yukari started running again.

The pink sunset faded away to dark purple. The two, who had been running for a long time, had already reached the edge of stream. Yukari managed to jump over the stepping stones that were placed at precarious intervals that elementary school students is hard to cross. When Yukari stopped halfway, Akari, who had been chasing her, stood in the edge of stream, and took turn looking at the stepping stones and Yukari with a wandering eyes.

'Now she'll go back on her own.'

Yukari thought, but it was too hasty to judge her. Akari, who seemed to turn, turned her back again and began to run all the way to the edge of the stream, and jumped over the water without time that Yukari could stop her.

'She's a real nuisance.'

Turning around and trying to jump over again the stones, Yukari hesitated. The gesture of Akari, who had landed on the stone and stumbled a little while ago, seemed precarious. But Akari stretched out her trembling arms to both sides and threw herself over the stream.

Yukari turned around and jumped over the water. As she expected, the girl, who had sprained her ankle after almost falling down earlier, lost balance, and Yukari, who was running as fast as she could, grabbed Akari's wrist that the purple moon balloon tied.

Yukari hold the frightened girl, then was falling backward. With her one hand tightly wrapped around the girl's small head.

Akari's startled eyes reflected her sister's closed eyes, which seemed to be ready for whatever happened to herself. The moon-lit water soon curled around her eyes with the sound of a splash.