"You are a curse!" a woman shouted.
"No...please, don't…" A little girl was sobbing.
The woman slapped her hard on her cheek. "Why? Why did you do this? You destroyed our family. You ruined everything!"
"Mom…"
"Shut up. Don't call me that!" The woman cried, with tears rolling down, "We loved you so much, and you gave us this! Betrayal? He was your father for God's sake! Why…? Where did we go wrong? Tell me!"
The woman looked at the little girl with disgust.
"Get out! Today, I disown you from my family. You will have nothing to do with my family from now on! Stay away from my sons and me."
The image of that woman got farther and farther away.
"NO!!" Nana gasped loudly as she suddenly woke up, her hand stretched out as if she was trying to stop someone.
She was sweating hard and breathing heavily. She looked around to see everything dark. It was still five-thirty in the morning.
Dream...It was that dream again...
She absent-mindedly touched her cheek. The memories came back to her as if it was just yesterday.
Nana started to tremble. A tear trickled down her cheek, and she laid there, silently crying her heart out once again.
---
"Yukito! Yukira! Tell me, what did you do this time?" Nana sighed and asked her brothers after listening to the nth complaint from her neighbor Mrs. Fei. She so wanted to cry but lacked tears to shed.
Her twin brothers were a notorious bunch of rascals who never let her have a peaceful day. They were 17 this year and already second-year high school students, but their childishness could rival even a five-year-old child.
They were happily munching on their delicious serving of dumplings when they heard her. They pretended as if nothing happened.
"Nee-chan [1], what are you talking about?" The twins asked together innocently like they were the sweetest angels of brothers one sister could ever have. She wanted to clap for their acting.
"Oh, you both know very well what I'm talking about! Just look at Mrs. Fei's mouth. Her teeth are now dyed in green because last night you sneakily put some green dye in her toothbrush. She was so horrified, looking herself in the mirror. Now tell me, why did you do that?"
The twins looked at each other for a second, glanced back at her, and then Yukira said, "Fine Fine yes, we did it. We only wanted to have some fun. We swear the dye won't harm her teeth."
"Although it would be nice if it really did," muttered Yukito.
"What did you just mumble, Yukito?" Nana glared at him.
"Nothing Nothing Nee-chan! Anyways just like Yukira said, we were only having some fun."
Nana stared at them for some time and sighed.
"Tell me the truth already."
The twins hesitated a little to tell her. They didn't want her to know and get sad over it.
"Say it already. I have an inkling as to what Mrs. Fei would have said or done something to make you both angry and pull such a prank for revenge. So spill it out."
"Hmph! Mrs. Fei was gossiping about you. Remember how two days back you had to make a late-night delivery to the hospital because Grandpa Hu was admitted? But she accused you of having a secret affair or something." Yukito said.
Nana had opened her restaurant - 'Natsukashi, ' meaning nostalgia in Japanese. And she had a good reason for its name. Food has always been able to touch people's hearts, and she wanted to bring back those happy memories to the customers through her cooking.
It was the annual Spring Festival, and Nana had to deliver Old Hu's dinner at the hospital.
On her way back, she found a little boy crying very hard. He got separated from his parents. She couldn't leave the boy like that. So, it took a while to console him, bring him to the lost child booth, and wait for his parents to pick him up. They thanked her profusely and insisted on treating her to a small meal which she couldn't refuse, and as a result, got late in coming back.
She was brought back to the present when Yukira said,
"She said that you were probably earning money doing some unspeakable shameless work and beautiful girls like you only know how to use their pretty face to seduce men." Yukira continued as he balled his fists in anger.
Both were so angry, listening to those insults. So, last night they went to her home and secretly added the dye in her toothbrush.
And as expected, their plan worked. The dye won't harm her teeth, but it won't go away that quickly either, which was enough to stop her from talking nonsense to others.
Nobody can make their sister sad. And if they do, they would have to face her two adorable devil bodyguards.