Tsukiko could feel the weight of the text message she had just received, the plan that could possibly kill them and their loved ones would start tomorrow, not next week, not next month, tomorrow. She sucked in a deep breath before slowly letting it out to calm herself down before replying to Jae-sung's message. "Okay. I'm ready to do my part, I promise". Tsukiko hit the send button and stood up to lay on her bed, feeling even more drained than she was before and let out a fatigued sigh. As she was in the middle of sighing, her screen lit up and a 'ding' was heard. Jae-sung had already replied to her message??, so fast?!!
Tsukiko made a grab for her phone and opened her chat with Jae-sung and saw the message he had sent, and she was stunned silly immediately she did. He had sent her a sticker of a dog, excitedly giving a 'thumbs up' gesture with its tongue sticking out.
Like that wasn't enough, there was a very cheesy dog pun under the image. Imagining Jae-sung sending such a message with a straight face was too beautiful. Soon, laughter filled Tsukiko's room, somehow, the fatigue she had just been feeling had disappeared and her heart felt lighter and for the first time, she didn't have to constantly remind herself to have courage.
Though the journey ahead of her would be perilous, it didn't seem so bad now, especially since she wouldn't be alone. Tsukiko finished laughing and texted Jae-sung: "Thank you". Jae-sung almost immediately replied with a 'no problem'. Feeling like this was probably the final exchange of messages, Tsukiko threw her phone onto her bed, changed her clothes and went downstairs to enjoy the dinner her brother made with her face full of smiles.
Hirano saw his sister coming downstairs with a pep in her step as she smiled at him and happily walked into the kitchen. Hirano smiled back confusedly. "Tsukiko didn't look very happy when she got home, so how come she's so smiling so brightly now?", he thought. He propped his right elbow on his left hand and held his chin for a moment, trying to come up with a reason for his sister's mood changes when suddenly, a frightening possibility crossed his mind, "Could it be....a boy?".
I know some of you may be thinking "So what if it's a boy? that didn't mean anything". Well, it definitely meant something to Hirano. You see, as any other older brother, Hirano had grown quite overprotective of he's sister and had an even stronger overprotective nature when it came to the males Tsukiko interacted with.
Ever since kindergarten, boys would always confess their undying love to her at least 4 times a week and there would always be gifts piled around her shoe cubby all year long, even now, things had not changed in high-school and could have possibly gotten even worse. I mean it was no secret, Tsukiko was extremely cute, which was why her brother was always on high alert. If a boy was within ten feet of her, he would quite literally, stuff her under his arm and run.
Tsukiko never minded and even enjoyed the thrill of being scooped away like chicken, so Hirano never stop doing so and had somehow deceived himself into thinking that his little sister would never be interested in boys, but now, he wasn't so sure anymore, so he decided to ask her about it.
At the dinner table, as Tsukiko was telling her brother how her first day of school went when right in the middle of the conversation, Hirano raised a question. "Tsuki, is there anyone you like in school?". Tsukiko looked at him blankly for a moment before smiling very widely while saying, "Of course, I like everyone in school, they're all so nice!".
Hirano didn't know whether he should laugh or cry, Tsukiko had completely misinterpreted what Hirano was trying to ask her. He then gave up and instead smiled as he watched her go on and on about all the people she likes in school. After finishing her food, Tsukiko told her brother goodnight and climbed up stairs to her room, she wanted to get a good night's rest so she could be charged up and ready for action.
She climbed into her bed, turned off the lights and covered herself with her blanket. It didn't take long before she fell asleep, it also didn't take a long time before she had another dream. It was exactly the same as the one she had last night only this time, there was someone new in her dream. She tried to run towards the person, but she felt like she was moving in slow-motion. She had gotten very close to the person when suddenly, blood splashed everywhere and the unknown person she had tried so hard to reach, fell to the ground, dead. He had fallen on his back, so Tsukiko was able to see his face and once she did, her blood ran cold.
The person who she just witnessed dying was Jae-sung and suddenly, she could feel his lifeless eyes staring straight into her soul. She woke up immediately this happened and in a pool of her own sweat, no less. She breathed heavily, trying to calm herself down, but it barely worked. With a shaky hand, she poured some water from the pitcher on her bedside table, into a glass cup and slowly sipped on the water.
This managed to ease her nerves a bit and the shaking had subsided. Finally, being calm enough to notice, Tsukiko realized that it was already dawn and hurriedly got out of her bed to get ready for school.
Once she was finally ready, she speedily climbed down the stairs and saw her brother making breakfast. Noticing her arrival, he smiled at her, "You're up already Tsuki?". Tsukiko tried her best to respond to her brother by nodding her head and putting on a smile. She didn't want her brother to worry about her too much, after all, he also had a lot of important things he had to do.
Although she tried to hide how she was actually feeling, Hirano knew right away that something was wrong. Putting aside his smile, Hirano walked to his sister with a worried look on her face. He didn't ask what was wrong with her and only looked into her eyes.
Once she also looked into his eyes, almost as if she couldn't take it anymore, she hugged her brother very tightly, so tight that one would think Tsukiko would never see her brother again. Hirano simply patted her back to comfort her while her grip on him loosened slowly until she finally released him from the hug. "Do you feel better?", asked Hirano.
Tsukiko nodded her head. Hirano smiled once more and said, "Then let's go have breakfast". Tsukiko readily followed her brother into the dining area and took a chair to sit on. Hirano then slid two some pancakes onto her plate and handed her a bottle of syrup before also sitting down as well to eat. They both talked about various things while eating like what they wanted to do that day, the people they wanted to meet and other things like that.
The siblings loved each other very much and would always have conversations like this when either of them were down in the dumps and it had always worked. Tsukiko would have loved to talk to her brother some more but the time for school was fast approaching. Finishing up the rest of her pancakes, she grabbed her bag and hugged her brother goodbye.
Tsukiko was now on a mission, a mission to protect those she loved, and she was more than ready, to take part in this mission. No matter how slim of a chance they had of success, they would still try for those that were worth fighting for.