Chapter 0: The Picture's Background

For me... This world is strange. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. It's kind of confusing. But I guess, I have already given up on trying to understand it, a long time ago.

"Hmmm." *yawn* "It is already morning? That's fast.." she thought, then mumbled, "Oh well."

She started getting up from her bed.

"What time is it now?" she wondered and stared at the clock. The clock is only beside her bed, at the right side, above the table cabinet where she always study. "6:01" she whispered.

She walk down the stairs only finding her own brother walking towards her direction. It seems he is coming for her.

"Sigh.. I wonder what it is again." in her mind indicating that she already predicted what this 9 year old boy needs from her.

"Oh good timing!" he exclaimed.

"What timing." she replied immediately. Her face shows that she's uninterested on what he is going to say.

"I have a question." he said seriously. But she knows too well what kind of brothers she has. That's why without a second thought she said:

"Another useless question, right?"

"Hahaha.." he laughed to brush of her sister's conclusion.

"Congratulations, YOU are WRONG!" he said with a smug face that made one of her eyebrows rise.

"Erika, do you know what is 1×1?"

"I knew it." she said to herself with a confident voice. Then she replied to him with sarcasm " I don't know Mike, I wonder what's the answer?"

Mike already know that she is being sarcastic, but of course, his goal in his everyday life is to annoy his sister. Not a single day must pass without him annoying her.

"Hah, weak.. I thought you were smart. But it's only in my thought. It's okay, Erika, I understand the capacity of your brain.." at this very moment, Erika got angry for a split second.

"Well, we can't blame anyone, BUT YOU, for that matter. Even how hard you try your best, you can never be as smart as me."

"Oh, is that so?" she said mockingly.

"Yes. So let me enlighten you, since you're so pitiful, I will tell you the answer of my super easy question that even babies can solve." he said annoyingly and then put his right hand to Erika's shoulder. "It is..... 2, Erika." he said, then form a letter "V" using his hand with a striking pose. With that pose, he continues, "Pathetic. You are utterly pathetic. You can't even multiply 1 to 1, uh, you are so, haaa..."

"Wait what???" Erika question to herself. She doesn't know how it is even possible to make such a mistake. She hoped she heard that wrong. But NO. What she heard, is what exactly he said.

"Huh?!! That's wrong, the answer is 1 you know." she corrected.

But Mike's goal is to annoy her so he ignored what she said and continue talking.

"Erika, don't try to out smart me. Because you're just not smart enough. But I understand, your too young after all. It's hard for a child to just accept it, and admit their wrong. Oh, sorry about that, maybe, since you're too young, you can't even understand what I'm talking about. But please, know your place and just learn from the expert. If you want, I can also teach you the basic alphabet. It goes starting at 'Y' and ending it in to 'X'."

Erika was left speechless.

If you were Erika in this situation, what will you do?

Choice number 1: Punch him

Choice number 2: Kick him

Choice number 3: Punch him or kick him

Choice number 4: Go back to choice number 1,2, and 3

But since Erika is much more older, and supposed to be much more mature, she will end this conversation in a peaceful way. And that way is to ignore him. After all, with the mix emotions she is feeling right now, she don't know what she'll do if that brother of hers is still in front of her.

"What? She didn't get angry?" "Oh well, I guess I'll try again later." Mike said to himself while looking at Erika walk away. He then started to walk where Erika headed.

This is how Erika's everyday life starts.

At the living room, Erika lay down on the brownish yellow coach. It's soft and comfortable, which is enough to make Erika feel relax when suddenly,

"Erika, Mike, get ready." a voice of their mother telling them what they should do.

"Eh, why" Erika asked.

"We're going with your aunts and cousins in a flower garden near at your Uncle's place. Just opened up!" her mother said happily.

"I see." Erika said with a slight smile, she then started to get ready.

Then a few minutes past, after they ate their breakfast and finished readying, they're good to go. As her mother said, her cousin's as well as her Aunties are coming. They decided to ride a bus. And they're here, in their destination. All of them started to greet the uncle also known as Uncle Eric. After doing so, they all immediately went to see the so called garden.

"Wow, cool. It's beautiful." Erika said in her mind because of being amazed.

All of them said and thought so too. What else can they say? It's really incredibly beautiful, this fact make them to start to taking pictures.

"Erika, come here and take a photo of me." her mother told her with excitement.

"Okay." she replied and took the phone. In her mind, "Taking a picture, huh.." then she started to take the first shot.

"It's blur." she mumbled disappointedly. "I guess I'll just try and take another." she thought and started to take pictures of her mother with the background again.

But, little did she knew. In this day, is when she will encounter the people whom she's fated to meet in her journey throughout her future. This day is the day, when she will meet, the people who will become a big part of her upcoming life, just like a stranger passing by, will soon vanish from her memory, until the day they will see each other again. The meeting of her and the people who will change her's and their lives too.

To Be Continued..

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