Chapter Eight
I close my eyes and hug my knees closer to my body as I sit on the floor of the living room, listening to Ezra playing his new piano. It's insane how he can force emotions onto someone and get a point across so well with just patterns of notes that he makes by pressing keys in a certain order. I will never understand it. I open my eyes a crack and see that Dad is smiling proudly, Xander is listening intently with a broad grin and Jase is… Texting, as usual.
Ezra reaches the end of the piece and glances over his shoulder to look at us. He beams when he sees how much Dad, Xander and I enjoyed it. His smile falters slightly when he sees that Jase isn't paying attention, but he looks away from Jase in a way that makes me think he's trying to put it out of his mind.
"Why don't you do a duet with me, Korin?" Ezra asks quietly, and I slide backwards across the floor.
"No way. You're so much better than me. I'll just end up embarrassing myself." I say, and Ezra widens his eyes pleadingly.
"Come on, Korin. Please! We can play an anison…" I sigh and stand up. I walk to the piano and sit down on the stool beside Ezra.
"We're playing Heat-Haze Days." I say, and he nods.
"Shall I do the accompaniment and you do the tune?" he asks, and I nod. He reaches out his hands and his fingers begin to glide over the keys. He plays it perfectly. When he reaches the right bit, I come in with the vocal line. I speed it up as Ezra does the same, and we keep sharing playful looks like I can play it faster than you! We continue to get faster and faster until our hands collide and we burst out laughing.
We stay like that for a few minutes, Ezra, Xander and I laughing, Dad shaking his head at our antics, and Jase texting. Then, the almost perfect family is shattered by Dad standing up.
"Right, it's past everyone's bedtimes. Off you go, all of you. I expect to see all lights out in no more than thirty minutes." he says, and the four of us get up and make our way out of the living room.
I run to the kitchen and grab some of the leftover roast chicken, making sure no one is around to see me. I shove it onto a plate and walk as quickly and quietly as possible back to my bedroom. When I get in there and close the door, I let out a breath I hadn't even realised I was holding in. I set the plate down on my bed and walk into my ensuite bathroom. Hanako is nowhere in sight. I knock on the door.
"Hanako-chan! Where are you?" I ask, glancing over my shoulder. Hanako appears, laying on her side with her head resting on her hand.
"Hey, Korin-nee-chan. I was getting bored all alone in here." she says indignantly with a small pout. I raise my eyebrows.
"So you went to freak people out?"
Hanako shakes her head, "I was just exploring. I wanted to see what the other bathrooms here were like," I shake my head at her antics. "It's not my fault someone came into one of the bathrooms while I was in there. He was so mean to me! He wouldn't even tell me his name! He just screamed and ran out when I tried to start a conversation!" I gasp, my eyes widening.
"How old was he? What did he look like?" I ask, and Hanako frowns.
"He was maybe a year older than me, and he had hair and skin like yours, but brown eyes." I nod, before groaning and facepalming simultaneously.
"That's my little brother Xander. He completely freaked out just from going into the forest. He didn't even see a Yokai that day." I explain, and Hanako chews her lip nervously. A tear begins to form in the corner of her eye.
"I didn't mean to scare him," she says quietly, "I don't like scaring people." I nod and pull Hanako into a hug.
"I know you don't. I know." I hear a soft knock on my bedroom door, accompanied by the sound of whimpering. I pull away from the hug and give Hanako's hand a reassuring squeeze. I walk out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me, and walk across my bedroom to the door. I open it to reveal Dad and Xander. Xander is visibly shaking in Dad's arms. My heart instantaneously melts, and I hold my arms out. Xander pulls away from Dad and falls into my arms, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably.
"What happened?" I ask Dad, and he shakes his head.
"I don't know. He wouldn't say. Ezra said he ran out of the bathroom screaming, but he couldn't get anything out of him. You're much closer to him than the rest of us are." he says quietly as Xander trembles in my arms.
"Okay, I think I can handle it." I say, and Dad nods. He closes the door after glancing between me and the plate of chicken that is still on my bed.
I lead Xander over to the bed and the two of us sit down. I rub little circles on his back and stroke his hair slowly until I think he's calm enough to talk.
"I think I know what it was that scared you so much, but can you tell me just to make sure?" I ask, and Xander looks up at me with tears in his eyes and on his cheeks.
"I-I w-went into th-the bathroom a-and th-there w-was a girl i-in there… Sh-she was s-sitting next to th-the t-toilet and singing a-and it w-was r-really s-scary a-and th-then she s-saw m-me a-and s-started t-t-talking t-to m-me…" Xander manages to choke out between sobs, before lapsing into another round of shuddering, rasping wails.
A choked sob, clearly trying to be concealed, comes from behind my bathroom door. Xander tenses in my arms.
"You can come out, Hanako-chan." I say, and the door swings open quietly. Hanako steps out, avoiding making eye contact with me as she fiddles with the strings of of her hoodie. Xander turns his head slightly and his eyes widen when he sees Hanako. "Xander, this is Hanako-chan. She's about as dangerous as a cushion." I say, and Hanako frowns at me.
"I'll have you know I'm a fearsome Pokémon Master!" she says indignantly. Her eyes flicker towards the plate of chicken. "Can I…?" I nod. Hanako smiles slightly and sits down on my bed. She begins to eat the chicken. Xander stares at her with wide eyes.
"K-Korin… What's going on? Who is she? W-why is she here?" he asks. Hanako looks at him and frowns.
"Stop talking about me in a language I don't speak." she says, pouting. Xander giggles.
"You're funny," he says, wiping his eyes and nose on his sleeve. "You're not scary like I thought you were." Hanako smiles brightly at him.
"Why don't we try again?" she asks, then sticks out her hand for him to shake. "I'm Suzumiya Chiasa, but everyone calls me Hanako. What's your name?" I raise my eyebrows, feeling slightly hurt. How come Hanako told Xander her real name, but not me?
"Alexander Belododia, but everyone calls me Xander or Xand because Alexander is an old person name." Xander's voice trembles slightly as he speaks. It's obvious he's still wary of Hanako. Hanako giggles.
"All English names sound like old people names. English family names sound funny, too. 'Belododia' is really weird." Hanako says, and I smile at Hanako's naïvety. Belododia is a Romanian surname.
"Belododia isn't English, silly." Xander says with a teasing smile. Hanako tilts her head to the side in confusion.
"But I thought you were English?"
"Our father is half English, half Romanian, and our mother is Greek." I explain, and Hanako nods.
"That's so cool!" she says, then glances nervously towards the door. She scoops up the rest of the chicken. "Someone's coming!" she whispers, and I nod. She runs back into the bathroom and shuts the door. I run my fingers across the grease on the now empty plate and rub some of it across my lips to make it look like I was eating. Moments later, three soft thuds land on my bedroom door.
"Come in!" I say, and Dad opens the door and steps inside. He smiles kindly at Xander.
"Feeling a bit happier now?" he asks, and Xander nods with a small smile. "Do you want to tell me what it was that scared you so much?" I feel my body tense. Xander doesn't know that Hanako is a Yokai. Will he tell Dad about her?
Xander shakes his head, "Korin showed me that it's not scary, and I'm not scared of it anymore because it's actually really pretty and nice." I giggle, and I'm sort of glad that Hanako doesn't speak English, because it means that she doesn't know that Xander seems to have developed a crush on her. I know she's listening, and she's probably becoming irritated because she doesn't know what Xander's saying about her. She's probably scared, too, because of the all too real possibility that Xander might tell someone about her.
"This sounds interesting," Dad says with a contemplative smile, "Off to bed now, both of you. And stop taking food out of the kitchen, Korin. You should just ask for more when we're at the table."
I shrug, "But then everyone else has to wait while I finish eating my extra portions." I say. Dad nods with a small sigh.
"I suppose that is a valid reason. Bed, now. Both of you." Xander jumps up from my bed and runs out of my room. I hear his footsteps disappear down the corridor. "Something's changed about you since we got here, Korin. I'm not sure whether it's a good change or not, but there's definitely something different about you. Goodnight, Poppet." He walks across the room, places a kiss on my forehead as I try to squirm away, and leaves the room. I get up and begin to change into my pajamas. Hanako slides the bathroom door open and comes out. The grease from the chicken is all over her face, and there is a little bit of chicken in her hair. I snort as she comes over to me.
"What did Xander-kun say about me, Korin-nee-chan?" she asks, clasping her lower lip between her teeth.
"He didn't tell our dad about you. Don't worry." I say, then reach out and pull the bit of chicken out of her hair. "How did you manage to get it in your hair?" I ask, and Hanako blushes.
"I didn't mean to… It just sort of… happened." she says embarrassedly, shrugging slightly. I let out a light laugh. Hanako wrinkles her nose.
"You sounded like Yuki-chan. That's not a good thing. She's weird and creepy and doesn't appreciate a good Pokémon trainer when she sees one." she says, and pokes her tongue out in disgust to illustrate her point. I take off my socks and throw them at her.
"That's such a nice thing to say about someone, Hanako-chan." I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I have to go to bed now. Leave me alone and let me sleep. You should get some sleep, too."
Hanako nods, "Sure thing, Korin-nee-chan! I'll wake you up before your alarm goes off tomorrow morning so that you have no excuse to be late for your orienteering thing! I wish I could go. It sounds like fun."
"I wish you could, too. Remember, though. If you head out to the forest tonight, let Yuki-san or Mariko-san know about my orienteering trip so that they can get everyone to stay out of the way. Megumi and Takeshi are both on the trip, and I don't want anyone getting hurt." I say, letting Hanako hug me.
"Goodnight, Korin-nee-chan!" Hanako says cheerfully.
"Night, Hanako-chan." I say, and Hanako runs back into the bathroom and shuts the door. I put the empty plate on the floor, turn off the lights and climb under the covers, pulling them up over my head and holding my Chibi Russia plushie tight in one hand and my Chibi Kakashi-sensei in the other.