Jae-sung had long noticed he was being followed and decided to face whoever it was head-on. He left the hospital far behind him and used various confusing paths, trying to make the person focus on following him only and lose his way and it had worked really well.
Jae-sung stood in silence, waiting for his stalker to show himself, and after a while, he finally did. The sounds of someone walking on the stone pavement was abnormally clear in Jae-sung's ears. There was a streetlight that had turned itself on in front of Jae-sung which allowed him to see his stalker. A tall, burly man, with his hands in his pockets came to light, he wore a baseball cap that covered the top half of his face and only his mouth and chin could be seen.
Jae-sung studied him from a distance, making sure that he was at least 10ft away from the man at all times, though it wasn't easy as the man kept trying to come closer and closer to him, eventually causing Jae-sung to back into a wall.
Even when he was cornered, he didn't feel scared at all and bravely asked, "Who are you?". He was met with silence as the stalker paused in his steps. Jae-sung tried asking another question, "Why are you following me?". Still no response. The man was completely still for what felt like hours until finally, he took action.
Lunging at Jae-sung, the man's hand, glowing due to magic, was curled up into a fist and was heading straight for Jae-sung's face. Just before the fist could connect with Jae-sung's face, he smoothly turned his head to the left, dodging the man's blow. Before the man could turn around and make an attempt to strike Jae-sung once more, Jae-sung had already grabbed hold of his arm and flipped him over his back.
The man landed on the floor with a heavy *thud* and was obviously in pain. Jae-sung used his magic to make the man levitate high in the air and then dropped him. A human-shaped crater had formed in the ground where the man had fallen. He hadn't had the chance to catch his breath when Jae-sung, swiftly followed up the previous attack by rising him high in the air and dropping him repeatedly until the man was begging to be spared by him. Jae-sung listened to his pleas and momentarily stopped his flurry of attacks.
Taking him even higher in the air than all the other times, he asked coldly, "Who ordered you to take my life?". The man's mouth that had been begging and begging to be spared, immediately stopped moving. Jae-sung was about to throw him to the ground, when he happens to catch a glimpse of the man's face. His baseball hat had of course, flown of his head at some point which left his face in full view.
By now, it was extremely dark, though that didn't affect Jae-sung as he had exceptional vision, that normal people didn't have and could very clearly, see that on the man's face was an expression of sheer terror. Not only that, but his body had also begun to shake, and his eyes were glazed over. Jae-sung widened his eyes in surprise.
"What person could make this man so frightened?", he thought. Jae-sung's father had showed him various kinds of people, and how they reacted to certain situations, but never had Jae-sung see someone react to being asked such a simple question and for a moment, he didn't know what to do and he became a bit distracted.
It was in this moment of carelessness that the man, still very much floating in the air, took a pill out of his pocket, and swallowed it. Almost immediately, he began to have very violent convulsions, it was then that Jae-sung noticed the man's strange behaviour, but it was already too late. The man's body limply floated in the air and white foam spewed out of his mouth. The man had just killed himself.
Jae-sung frowned at this and quickly withdrew his magic to stop the man from floating. This time, the man landed lightly, and his body lay flat on the ground. After confirming that the man was truly dead, Jae-sung took out his phone from his pocket and dialled a number.
"Hello, father".
In the hospital, Tsukiko slowly opened her eyes and had just woken up. When she fell asleep, both Jae-sung and Miyuki and already gone home, but there was someone else in the room with. She waited for her eyes to clear up before she saw that it was her brother that had been with her. Tsukiko heaved a sigh of relief and felt much more relaxed. Originally, she thought an intruder had broken into her room to kill her, and as out there as that seemed, Tsukiko, for a moment, truly believed that was what happened, so she was relieved that what she thought was just a product of her imagination which had run wild.
Hirano sat down on a chair that was right beside Tsukiko's chair and he now laid his head on her bed, sleeping. Tsukiko watched her brother sleep until he also woke up. He slowly raised his head and made eye contact with Tsukiko.
For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating and stared blankly at his sister, who was lying down on a hospital bed, smiling at him. Almost like he suddenly realized that he wasn't hallucinating, and this was in fact, reality, he instantly shot up from his seat and held his sister's hands while throwing at her, a barrage of questions like:
"Are you okay?" ,"Are you hurting anywhere?", "Should I adjust your pillow?".
Tsukiko smiled helplessly at her brother and could only be subjected to her brother's inquiries. Suddenly, he stopped questioning Tsukiko and sat back down on his seat and quietly apologized, seemingly because he had realized that he was probably being a bit much with the way he asked her so many questions, which is what Tsukiko assumed. Though, he had realized his mistakes, he was apologizing for something completely different.
"I'm sorry, I should have been here sooner". Tsukiko widened her eyes before smiling at her brother.
"You don't have to apologize, it's not your fault", she said in a comforting tone. Hirano had always done his very best for her, then and now.
Once when Hirano was still a baby, he had been attacked and almost kidnapped by an unnamed necromancer that was sent by a secret organization that tried to use Hirano as leverage for his parents, trying to make them bend to their will. Luckily, Hirano's parents saved him just in a nick of time, though there had been some damage done to Hirano that affected the source of a person's magic which was their core. Somehow, the unnamed necromancer, had managed to seal Hirano's magic before it even had the opportunity to fully manifest. His parents did all that they could to unseal his magic, but to no avail.
Whatever Hirano's almost kidnapper had done to him, or perhaps whatever spell he had cast, could not be found anywhere and could the spell that could undo it. So, they ended raising him as a normal boy and though his parents tried their very best to be there for him and he loved them dearly, he still felt lonely and wished for a sibling so that he'd have someone to play with. His wish was answered when he was 5 years old.
His mother had just given birth to a beautiful baby girl, with white hair and gorgeous pale blue eyes that resembled fragile glass. She was born on a full moon, so her parents named her Tsukiko, the child of the moon who wouldn't be inferior to its beauty. Hirano was so happy that he was finally getting the sibling he had always wished for and excitedly went up to his mom, hoping to see the baby. Hirano's mom smiled and showed him his new baby sister.
She looked at Hirano curiously before breaking into a wide, toothless smile. It was at this moment that Hirano's love for his sister started. He was a very dutiful older brother and always protected her in spite of his lack of magic and always wanted only the best for his sister. He even bragged about how cute she was when he got to school and all the other kids at school would always follow him home to see if he was saying the truth which of course, he was.
So, he continued to take care of her and watch over her. Even when she had gone haywire after she heard that their parents were missing, he still took care of her, even at the expense of his own safety. So, Hirano would always take care of Tsukiko, until the day he would cease to exist.
So now, in Tsukiko's hospital room, Hirano felt extremely guilty and still apologized even after his sister tried to comfort him.
Tsukiko sighed at her brother's behaviour. She was genuinely not upset that her brother didn't come to the hospital earlier and instead, was very grateful. Hirano, at the time of her accident, was probably at work, which was very far from the school's hospital, but he still came.
"Brother, you did your best to be here to take care of me, you even came all the way from your workplace for me, if anything I'm very grateful that you even came at all. And now you're here, in your work clothes. Have you even eaten yet?".
Hirano raised his head up and stopped apologizing. He felt Tsukiko was right and managed to squeeze out a smile.
"I haven't you're right".
Tsukiko coaxed him into looking for some food to eat, but before he left, he saw that Tsukiko had gotten out of her bed. Hirano hurriedly supported her. He was just about to scold her a bit for being so reckless, when Tsukiko hugged him.
"Thank you, for always being there for me."
Hirano hugged her back and supported her back to her bed and laid her down. He smiled worriedly at her, and the rims of his eyes were red.
"It's my pleasure". He left the hospital room and closed the door quietly. Tsukiko at that moment felt very happy and proud that Hirano was her brother. She couldn't imagine him not being there for her, not protecting her and simply shuddered at the thought. She shook her head vigorously, trying to shake those thought out of her head. Deciding to rest a bit more, Tsukiko closed her eyes and let her mind drift off. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that as she suddenly remembered her and Jae-sung's plan. She had forgotten all about it!
As she was beating herself up for not remembering something so important, an idea, a dangerous one at that came to her mind.
"Was the thunderstorm....planned?". This was a bold assumption, but if it was true, that would mean that somebody, with very strong powers that specialized in making storms and controlling weather had just intentionally mapped out a thunderstorm but for what reason? Just then, an even more dangerous idea popped into her head.
"What if this person, was coming for me?". Not that many people knew that Tsukiko would become extremely affected by unnaturally formed weather, particularly, unnatural thunderstorms and would faint a lot. But a storm of this calibre, that was so strong and daunting, had of course managed to make Tsukiko become ill. Although she was only ill, there still possessed the possibly that had the storm grown stronger, she could have died. So, it could be assumed that someone was out for her life, and it could very well be the same person that had threatened both her and Jae-sung which probably meant, she wasn't safe right now.
Once she realized this, she instantly got a foreboding feeling in her heart and felt very exposed. Suddenly, the room felt very quiet, so quiet that even the machines that were beeping just fine a minute ago, were soundless. Tsukiko opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She kept trying to speak but nothing happened. Suddenly, Tsukiko turned her head towards the direction of her window and widened her eyes in terror.
Outside the mirror, a dark looming figure tried to open the windows, and was about to succeed in doing so. Tsukiko stared wide eyed at the figure and opened her mouth wider. Although she couldn't make any noise, she mouthed out of the word:
"What...?"