4.
Damn her brother for signing her up for a series of exam to get her high school diploma. Damn her for getting into the accident and fell into a coma before she complete high school. Damn her for too embarrassed and old to get back to high school. Damn her for not have a chance to even spent a day in third grade of high school. Damn it for only have a month or two before college admittance.
At least, her brother had hired personal tutor for the occasion and filled their fridge with chocolate when her head want to explode. It was a relieved her tutor taught her only the point that expected to appear in the exam. Thanks god for the fact that she was quite smart before. She only had to review the first and second grade material. The third grade didn't have too many materials, either.
For all of this mind numbing work, she was actually quite welcoming it. This burden was reminding her she is a normal student that still has a long way to the future. This hard work would gave her a nice result, too.
But that didn't mean, she did not expect at least a week off studying when she finished this diploma exam.
5.
Minako was a bit surprised herself when she find her call, or simply said her chosen major. Theo didn't give her a hint that she likes to do this and great at this. It was at the end of March, in her self-appointed holiday after exam. Sakura was still blooming, giving the world a needed color to make people smile. She, too, was one of those people who enjoy a lazy picnic day under a Sakura Tree.
The hanami was relaxing and the way Theo making weird assumptions of every modern thing was more amusing than annoying (she had a lot of practice at that). Two hours to their picnic date and Theo's weird question, a man near them was becoming drunk. Minako then asked Theo to wrap up their picnic—they could do it again the next day if he want—so Theo didn't pick the bad example from the drunk man. How amusing is that the amnesia girl had more sense than the normal one, except Theo wasn't exactly normal. They, or rather Minako, hurried along and walked home.
In their journey home, they picked up a few things—takoyaki for sure, white radish and fish Theo want to eat, a doll from crane game that was named Jack Frost, toiler papers, book titled 'Lovely Man', and a few kitchenette tool for baking. She also nagged Theo to buy them an oven which he quickly agree due to his curiousity –for some reason he never heard an oven in his pitiful life.
During their visit to the bookstore which has the art section, she got curious with color paint. Theo saw her and made her buy a set of acrilyc and oil paints, and the rest of the equipment (even the stand). Theo was adamant to but it for her ("The way you looked at them is like you found your love") and she felt anxious about it.
The moment they got home, Minako carried it upstairs by herself. For some reason she felt not right asking for Theo's help. This thing maybe connected her to her past and Theo didn't know ("Actually, I lived away from you until four years ago and we didn't really meet before that. I only knew you for a year before it happened."). She quickly set it up in her own room and yelled at Theo to bring take-out because she didn't feel like cooking for them—they lived on take-out until Minako bravely tried to experimenting at the kitchen and deemed it as a success.
She sat on her vanity bench that was a bit too low for her stands and stared at the blank canvas. For approximately half an hour, she only inspected the white background. Then she started to uncapped a few of her oil paint tubes. Everything went downhill from that.
The moment she became conscious of the real world again, she heard a light snore from Theo who apparently snuck to her room for watching her. Chinese takeout was laid on her study desk. The clock told her that it was too early to be called morning and too late to get a good night's sleep. Her stomach grumbled, so she didn't have any choice but to eat. When she observed her painting, it revealed a pictorial of humanoid figure playing harp in a baroque style room with checkered floor.
Her imagination must be really strange to be able producing that. She also had a feeling the humanoid girl is her greatest ally in the past. Maybe she had some imaginary friends before.
6.
A few months living with an older brother, who rarely left her alone, granting her a new set of questions to ask. Theo was strange but good-looking. She couldn't imagine him doing some activities normally. The guy couldn't even cook or cleaning.
"Hey, don't you go to work or college, or something?" It was Friday on the starts of summers. She was in the middle of preparing for her art major exam—thank god, she didn't really have to study math again.
"Hmm?" Theo was fiddling with his laptop; she was surprised he knows how to operate it and it turned out he only know to run a few select software. "Oh. I used to work for uncle." He answered.
Theo was a difficult man when he didn't really want to honestly answer a question. The way he kept spinning the truth make her head hurt.
"You say, uncle was a businessman. In what industry?" Minako called her adopted father as uncle, because she heard it so many times from Theo. Remembering the way Igor congratulated on her recovery via phone, it would be really weird to call that voice as father.
Theo didn't answer for a while. Minako remembered he stated he was quite foreign with laptop and it required his full focus to operate it. So, she waited patiently until he slowed down. The wait was quite long if she didn't have anything to do.
"Sorry." He bend his neck so he faced her. "The only thing I could tell is uncle offers a very specialized service with select customers that cost quite pricey. Most of the customers are a long term one. They ask for his assistance nearly daily."
"Very vague." She clicked in annoyance. It didn't clear anything about their uncle's occupation. It only heightened her assumption of black market businessman. But he clearly said a service not a product. "I assume you cannot tell me directly what his job really is?"
Theo smiled thinly. "I am sorry but no. We will tell you if you want to join the family business." He chuckled when he caught a clear rejection from the brunette. "In fact, you already know what he do and you have been to be his customer."
Minako slack-jawed at that truth.
"What?! I am?" She tried to gather all the fact he told her. "Wait, is this before or after adoption?"
"Before, of course." Theo seemed amuse at the confused expression the red eyes girl made.
"I couldn't think anything that a elementary or middle schooler might have need of an assistance from your uncle. You are not pulling something, are you?" No matter how hard she thinks, the answer did not come.
"Of course not." The douchebag said to her with not a little amusement
A few moment of contemplating, she knew she couldn't find the real answer.
"I give up!" Her excalamation met with a full out laugh from the her so-called brother. "You! You didn't answer my first question?!"
Theo only stopped laughing to answer. "Oh, that. No, I guess."
"Then, what do you do?!" She was still a bit annoyed at him for not outright answering her question.
"You could say, my obligation right now is to take care of you." The guy had a nerve to said that without blushing or stuttering.
Minako wanted to face palm at the simplicity and somehow naivety of her brother. She knew he was anything but. "So, tell me how we get money for living? Shortly I will go to college, too. And it was quite expensive."
"No need to worry," he comfort her. "I have a lot of money from working with uncle and I also do stock trading regularly. I'm quite good at this guessing game."
She just stared and stared incredulously at her good looking sibling's face. Trust him to assume stock trading was just like a pachinko game and succeed to get a jackpot. Honestly, this kind of conversation with Theo tired her more than studying.
7.
"I'm in! I'm in! Look at that, Theo! I'm officially a college student!" It was a bit out of character for her to jump up and down like a little girl. But the occasion called for it. The October and November came and went like no one business. Suddenly, she took her college entrance exam and received her result.
She was a bit scarred to see the announcement alone. She had less time to prepare than the rest of student hopeful. That was why Minako snatched her blonde brother to her future college. The said blonde was observing college like a child get his new toy.
"Congratulation." He said solemnly and sincerely.
Minako spent a millimeter seconds to smile widely at her savior before hugged him to death. "Thank you! Thank you! I couldn't do it without you! Thank you!"
The man now was choked in her hug while contemplating the meaning of 'hug to death' was partly true. He was in panic tried to release her hold so he didn't actually become death.
"Minako! I am sure you want me to stick around for your graduation, so please release me so I don't die from hug." His manly voice was yelping in a funny way.
Combine with exhilaration, she couldn't hold her laugh. The fact that this was one of rare moment he called her by name, she allowed herself to smile as widely as possible. "Moron, that is a phrase. No one really died from hug."
The exclamation from him 'Of course, I know that' was tickling a good memory from her forgotten past. But right now, she didn't care she didn't remember a thing. Her future was shining and she knew it. She had a family, too, albeit adopted one. All she cares was how to live in the presents.
"Theo, come on! Let's take a photo!"
