"And they have been bickering like this since before I got there," his dad chuckled, sitting down in front of a pale skin pretty Korean women who definitely looked like Dai-Jin too.
She quickly stood up and turned to me, something like hope in her pretty eyes, and… she's definitely about 10cm taller than me for sure, and pretty, really pretty. "Hi, sweetheart," she spoke in fluent Korean and I felt suddenly relaxed, "I've been dying to meet you. I'm Jin's eomma, Aria Moon Nishimura around here, but Moon Hyo-rin at home. You can call me Hyorin."
I bowed 90° in respect, "It's nice to you meet you too, Hyorin-ssi. I'm Choi Ye-ji, aka Mischief Kalina Nosht-Choi, and it seems like I'm also Aleena Seraphine Sutherland Salvatore Solomon. You can call me Yeji."
"Ugh, you're so adorable," she pinched my cheeks softly and I'm sure I blushed even harder. "Come, I want you to meet my kids."
Then she held my hand and walked with me even closer to the immensely long table, where I found appa at the right end, an elder black-haired tanned skinned women at his right, an elder blue-eyed men at his left in facing the women, an elder white and blonde woman at the side of the black-haired women, a younger women around her 40s on the elder men's side, Ari sitting at the elder blonde's side, Silas at the younger women's side, then two empty seats at Ari and Sila's sides. At Ari's side, next to the empty seat, sat a little girl looking like a female kid version of Dai-Jin with no tattoos and in a light green dress, while on Silas' side, next to the other empty seat, sat a boy identical to the girl but with short mushroom hair and in red. Next to the girl was Hyorin's seat, and then Hiro's next to the boy.
All the other seats of the table were empty.
The couple of elders closer to appa are definitely my grandparents from his side, then the younger woman must be Victoria, appa's deceased wife's sister who raised Silas and Ari, and in front of her, the blonde elder must be her mom and Silas' grandmother.
"Ahhhh, did you like the wristbands, eonni?" The girl asked, up from her seat and running to me, and I noticed she was also using green wristbands, but hers are neon. And the closer she got, the more I realized Dai-Jin wasn't messing with me, I am of the same size as his 10-year-old little sister, Jesus Christ. "You are petit!"
Cute way to call me short, yay.
"Hi, noona, I'm Kai Moon Nishimura," her twin brother bowed to me, respectfully, his pale cheeks now flushed. "Moon Min-ho. You can call me Min-ho, noona," and he's taller than me, slightly, almost nothing, but still. For fuck's sake, he's TEN YEARS OLD.
"Ugh," his sister rolled her eyes, "eonni, I'm Moon Ji-ah, but also Kazuha Moon Nishimura," she winked, "you can call me Ji-ah or Kazuha."
"Hi, well, you know who I am. It's nice to meet you," I feel weird.
"We can call you like this, right, noona?" Minho asked.
And I couldn't help but to feel pain in my heart to hear another little calling me 'noona' when the only one who did that was Kit, my precious boy, who was here but now he's no more. "Of course," I said after a breath, doing my best to stay up, to swallow the pain, because I can't break now, I need to stay strong to destroy those who took him away from me. "You look like you're brother," I said before I could filter it.
"That's a compliment, right?" Jiah grinned.
"It is whatever you want it to be, Jiah," I winked at her and turned to the side of the table related to me by blood, feeling the words stuck in my lungs. "I… uh… good morning?"
"Let me take a look at you," the women I suspect to me my grandma from appa's side spoke and pushed her chair back, way too energetic for her age. "My granddaughter," she cried, coming closer, also taller than me by some centimeters. "I'm sorry for you loss, mia belle," she held my face in her hands gently and I almost broke in tears. "I'm sorry we didn't find you before all of this happened," she caressed my skin softly. "I prayed for you everyday, I prayed that Dio would bring you to us. I know it's not the best moment of your life, but I'm glad you're finally in our arms," then she hugged me, and after an awkward second, I hugged her back.
"I'm sorry too… nonna," I whispered, struggling.
"Leave her to me too, mia cara, I'm her nonno too," her husband came to me and swapped me into his arms, being as tall as appa and Silas, and taking me off the ground as if I was a doll. "Ay, ay, ay, you smell like coffee and jasmine, I love it. You have my eyes," he beamed as he put me down, and I felt like smiling again. "And you are astonishingly gorgeous."
"Seems like I got the good part of their genes," I chuckled.
"Oh, that is for sure," he winked. "You're older than Abby, right?"
"By 25 minutes," I nodded.
"See, tesoro mio? You're still the youngest," he beamed at her, and then back to me. "Welcome home, mia belle, you will stay with us, right?"
"In Chicago?" I asked, feeling a bit anxious.
"Yes, yes," he nodded, eyeing me with hope, so much hope it hurts.
"I…" I pressed my lips together, "For now I'll stay. I can't promise stay in the city forever, because I have some things to take care of in Sofia, but I'll try. Ah," I looked around, "where's my uncle?"
"He's sleeping," Dai-Jin exclaimed behind me. "He went on a full night speaking you're your aunt Sofija about business, apparently."
"Aunt Sofija will remain in Sofia, she's starting her family soon. But aside from her, uncle Daniel is all that's left from my… family, from mom's side. We may not share blood, but he's like a father to me, though don't tell him I said that, or his ego will go up to the skies. If he decides to move here to Chicago, then I… I might stay here too."
"Aye, that ahjussi will stay in the family?" Dai-Jin growled, but something told me he was actually happy with uncle staying here. Maybe he began to like his company while messing with him.
"How do we do that?" My sister jumped from her seat, excited.
"Get him a good honest boyfriend," I tilted my head. "He's quite the hopeless romantic at the core, but he has a terrible radar. If he finds his match here in Chicago, he might stay for good. Though he'll still go from here to Sofia because he's taking care of my family's business with aunt Sofija for me."
"I told you he was gay!" She shouted at Silas, as if they had bet on it. "He's too adorable to be straight."
"I… I'm Victoria," she finally talked to me. "And don't worry, I'm not your dad's wife, in case you may have thought we were together."
My eyes widened, because I did think that, "Oh…? I see."
"Mama likes girls," my brother winked at me.
"And papa only had his mind on our mom," my sister added.
"Come, seat down, darling," Victoria's mom told me softly. "I'm Vanda Larissa Hamilton, Victoria's mom, and the kids' grandma. It's nice to finally meet you, you look like your dad and your brother."
I sat down and everyone sat down too, Dai-Jin in front of me, 'cause of course they would make him seat in front of me, "Seems like I got you wrong… uh… how do I call you?" I blinked at Victoria. "Calling you by your name feel awfully disrespectful."
Her white cheeks blushed, "Zia is good."
"Zia Victoria then. I'm sorry I got you in the wrong light. When I hacked your systems to find out who appa was, I wasn't really patient to get through your details. I was shocked when I found out that Ari was here all this time, and I just kind of wanted to get over with it. No offense to any of you, I was just overwhelmed, when I saw that you have adopted her and Four, I thought you were together with appa. I mean, shit happens. And as you thought eomma had runaway pregnant with us and deliberately cut you off, I thought appa could have moved on," sighing I stared at the banquet of a breakfast, instead of at any of them.
"Eomma made me promise to find appa and Ari, so, when I found out you were together, I thought I had done my part and I could…" my eyes fell to my wrists, and I clenched my jaw. "I didn't expect you to send any person after me, definitely not someone like ahjussi," I held the urge to side-glare Dai-Jin. "And I thought that, if you managed to find the crumbles I left behind, you would see my criminal record and realize I wasn't worthy of reaching out, of the problem, and,"
"I would have done worse if I were you," appa finally spoke, and I instantly turned my eyes to him. "You should have burned them alive, not just their cars and houses and gardens. And you are worthy, I don't know what Licy said when she was angry and losing her shit, but you are worthy. You're way more than worthy, Yeji. You're precious, and it hurts that you thought I wasn't looking for you, when that's all we've been doing for all those years. For you and your mom. I… I was too late, and I'm sorry for that, I can't only ask you not to hide away from me, because I want to be to you what I've been to your siblings. I want a chance to be your appa."
My eyes went from his to my empty plate, and I hugged my own arms, unsure of what to say to that, of how to react. "I'm sorry I screamed at you and Ari that day," I whispered after some time. "I didn't mean to blame any of you, I was… angry. I am angry. I'm always angry, if I'm to be honest for once, but I was… I was so angry I couldn't control myself, and for that, I'm sorry. That's why I didn't want to meet you now. Because I didn't want to throw my pain on you, because hurt people hurt others, and I'm hurt. And," I swallowed, feeling cold, "I didn't want to make you as miserable as I am, by popping up in your life, at the broken state I'm in. Just to tell you that my family is totally dead, and… ugh," I swallowed.
Clenching my jaw and shoving the tears back in, I felt Dai-Jin's long leg touch my under the table, as if to try telling me he's here, and I had to do everything not to look at his pretty face. So, I just touched his legs back, in a silent 'thank you'.
"I thought you wouldn't want a ticking bomb arsonist-wannabe like me to mess with your looking-perfect life," I finally said it, and I swear all of them stopped breathing. "But it seems like you're weird as fuck," I added to break the ice I threw between us, finally looking at them, at appa. "You not only don't seem to care that I'm technically a criminal, with trust and anger issues, and an unchecked volatile mind, and also really fucking weird, as you seem to enjoy me setting fire on others' possessions, and to also be as mentally fucked as me if you think what I did was a minor issue."
"I mean, no complaints on my part," I exclaimed, hands raised as if in peace. "Eomma say you were fucking weird in her last audio, and that it could why I was such a freak. Though I doubt any of you could be more of a freak than me," I mocked self-deprecatingly.
"You are in for a surprise, ajumma," he chuckled anxiously.
"I doubt that, ahjussi," I kicked his feet under the table.
"No bickering in the table," nonna exclaimed, side-eyeing Dai-Jin. "You little troublemaker, mia belle barely got here and you're already on her shoes, provoking her."
"Nonna," he gasped dramatically, "she started it."
"Now that," Victoria chuckled, "is a childish argument."
"Childish but true," he cracked a grin, "ajumma did start it."
I glared at him, "Not my fault if you're infuriating, ahjussi!"
"Have you looked in the mirror today, ajumma?" He croaked.
I kicked him again, "What? Can't handle my beauty, ahjussi?"
He pressed his hands over his chest, where his heart lies, like the fucking drama Queen he seems to be, "Ah, I can't even look, ajumma."
"And why is that, ahjussi?" He can't be quoting Kenji.
"Too pretty," he leaned back on his chest, as if an arrow hit him, after quoting Kenji fucking Kishimoto from Shatter fucking Me, casually like that, as if it was nothing.
"Then don't look, you might turn into stone, ahjussi," it was a little joke, referring to Medusa, a play on words with me and the snakes and all, just to see if he would get it too.
"I just need to avoid your eyes then, ajumma," oh, he got it.
"And now, they're flirting!" Four growled, pushing him on his side, since they are sitting side by side in front of me and Ari, "Stop flirting with my sister, you annoying dumbass."
"This is not flirting," we snapped at him, at the same time.
It's not just flirting, I mean. It's an intelligent kind of flirt. I still can't believe he knows Shatter Me, that he read the books and quoted Kenji when he was with Nazeera. Or was it spontaneous?
Well, he got the Medusa one, and he made the Boku-no-Hero joke comparing me to Bakugo because he's all explosive with his quirk, and I did explode lots of things with my anger and fire. Which is dangerous, because it means we might have the same sense of humor, and I'm weak to that, to that and to smart hot men who READS.
I never even met a smart hot men who reads, damn it.
I read about them.
He's… unnervingly dangerous, that's for sure.
Which automatically makes him even more magnetically attracted.
["Morning, Morning, Missy! How are you feeling today?"]
I instantly looked up, putting down the chocolate croissant I had just began savoring, recognizing the familiar dark and deep voice, "Lok!" I beamed, not giving a shit if they think I'm Batshit crazy, because I'm not going to avoid talking to those who actually have my back so selflessly, to fake being put together mentally. I'm not.
I did warn them I was weird.