Quick flash
In kees memory
Kee was sitting near the large window in her cozy room, looking outside. She was waiting for her dad. She had been there since morning, and her mom didn't say anything to her. She didn't want her daughter to start crying. Now the fiery sunset had changed into a dark night, and the sky was full of countless stars and a glowing moon.
Kee looked at the moon, her eyes wet with tears, like raindrops on a windowpane. She muttered while crying, as if singing a lullaby to herself, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder..." She angrily shouted, like a thunderstorm in the sky, "Why is my daddy not coming?" She grabbed a delicate vase that was near the window and threw it at the wall, breaking it into pieces like her heart. The vase crashed and clattered, cracking and crumbling, and the noise echoed in the silence.
Next morning,
Kee was sleeping on her bed when she was startled by a loud voice. It was her father's car shouting at her to wake up. She opened her eyes and rubbed them with one hand. She gave a loud yawn and hopped from the bed.
She walked to the door with an angry face and then she opened the door and stepped outside.
To her surprise, in front of her house, there was a car parked, and atop its roof sat a large stuffed dinosaur toy.
The car door opened, and a man rushed out towards his daughter, who had just stepped outside the house.
Kee just glared at her dad as he approached her.
Her dad dropped to the ground and started doing sit-ups, repeatedly apologizing, "I'm sorry, Sweety. I was so busy. I'll make it up to you. Please forgive me."
Kee couldn't bear to watch her dad doing sit-ups. Her anger melted away, replaced by sadness as she approached him and hugged him tightly. "Don't break your promise, okay? And stop doing sit-ups," she said softly.
Her dad hugged her tightly before lifting her small body and carrying her towards the car.
He opened the backdoor of the car, revealing a girl sitting in the back seat. Kee was shocked to see her and noticed a big cake resting on her thighs.the cake, a towering 60 cm high, was chocolate-flavored, but what shocked Kee even more was the girl sitting in the backseat.
Tears welled up in Kee's eyes as she looked at her dad, planting a kiss on his cheek. Then, she turned to the girl and screamed in joy, "Big sis, you came back!" The girl, who appeared to be around 14 years old, smiled warmly at Kee's reaction.
He gently set Kee down, and the girl in the back seat also stepped out of the car, holding the cake in her hand.
Kee's mom also made her way outside the house, and when she saw the girl holding the cake, she froze. Tears started flowing from her eyes at the sight of her.
The girl she saw looked exactly like her deceased 14-year-old daughter, but something was different. Her ears appeared as if she was wearing headphones, and her eyes were unnatural. Kee's mom's intuition was telling her that the girl was not human.
Kee's father removed the large soft toy dinosaur, which was as tall as him . He turned to Kee, who was looking at the girl with a joyful expression, and said, "Sweety, let's go inside and celebrate." Then, he led the way inside with both girls, his daughter and the girl holding the cake.
While they were heading inside, he noticed his wife standing with a shocked expression on her face.
He whispered in her ear, "Honey, let's go inside. I'll explain everything to you. It's really secretive."
They made their way inside and went to the hall, where Kee's mom had decorated for Kee's birthday. In the middle of the room was a table adorned with beautiful decorations for placing the cake. The girl who was holding the cake went towards the table and set the cake down. Kee's father placed the dino soft toy on the sofa. In their hall, there was a big monitor hanging on one side, and in front of the monitor was a sofa against the wall. It resembled a small theater setup.
Kee composed herself and made her way towards the girl, hugging her tightly. "Big sis, I really missed you," she said warmly.
Kee's dad grabbed his wife's hand and led her to a corner. "She looks like our deceased daughter, you know why," he began quietly. "I'll tell you. She's not human; she's an android that I was researching, and finally, I made it. She possesses our daughter's memories, but she also has her own feelings and free will. Her personality is different from our daughter's, and she doesn't eat like a human; she needs charging, and the port is in her ears. Don't let her go outside. I'm really in a big mess after this; I need to go to the lab. And don't ever let anyone find out about her."
After this, they celebrated Kee's birthday happily, cherishing the moment together as a family.
****
After 9 years
A man in a white suit is standing in front of me.
I am currently in a room that is pure white, with no objects. It's oval-shaped, like I'm trapped in an egg, with only one door in and out. I don't know who I am; it's like I've forgotten something important.
The man looked at me as if he were disappointed. Then, he opened his mouth and said something.
"Dear son, you've disappointed me. It's like instead of becoming a super-intelligent being, you've developed this weird illness."
He took out a walkie-talkie from his pocket and said, "Mission is a failure. Discard the mission. Wipe all memories of me from my wife and daughter."
Then, he turned towards me. I know this person looks familiar, and I feel something discomforting. I've forgotten something, someone very precious. What is it?
The man took out an injection, glowing green. He came towards me and softly said in my ear, "Sorry, Ren. Forget about everything that happened and live a new life. I don't need you now until you find your friend."
He pierced the injection into my hand, and my eyes started shutting down...
****
"Wake up! I said wake up!" Someone was slapping me nonstop. I didn't know what was happening or where I was.
I opened my eyes slowly. There was a woman in her thirties slapping me. Her face looked either really upset or angry, but I'm not good at reading emotions.
I screamed arrogantly, "Stop slapping me, you... don't disturb me."
Then I looked around and realized I was in class. The other students sitting at their desks looked shocked, like I had said something really bad to this person in front of me.
Then, I looked at her. She grabbed my ears with both hands and twisted them.
She was still twisting my ears, and with a really angry look on her face, she said, "Ren, is that how you talk to your teacher?"
Teacher? I don't know her. Who is she? First, she slapped me nonstop, leaving her handprint on my cheeks. Then, she twisted my ears, and now she's grabbing my collar and shaking me side to side.
She said, "Wake up! It looks like you're half asleep." Someone kicked my bench from behind. I looked around and saw a girl. I recognized her; she's my sister, Mia. She kicked my back. The teacher was about to fall when the desk hit her, but I grabbed her. My one arm was around her slim waist, and the other was holding her hand, while her other arm was around my neck.
What is this cliché romantic position in a novel? Wait, I remember everything now...
I'm in 9th grade, and I recently transferred here to Japan from my previous country (let's say it's the same as your country). Oh no, and this woman, her name is Tsuhe Kanako, she's my homeroom teacher. What in the world happened to me? How am I in this position?
Our eyes met, and her previously angry face now turned into a shocked one. I could hear the bickering of my classmates.
The boys were saying, "Hey, we're seeing a live teacher x student moment."
The girls were saying, "How romantic! We thought he was a bookworm, but look at them. They look very cute together."
As my classmates kept arguing, some whispered excitedly, while others looked surprised. One student whispered, "I never knew Ren had it in him," which made nearby classmates chuckle. Meanwhile, Tsuhe Kanako, still in my arms, seemed to be calming down, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment as she moved away a bit. The classroom was filled with curiosity and amusement, as everyone eagerly waited to see what would happen next.
From behind me, someone was laughing, "Ha ha ha ha, hee hee hee... ho ho... hu hu."
When I turned around, it was my own sister laughing.
Shit, she's like a little devil, always creating weird situations around me. I don't know how I always end up falling into her traps.
My sister stopped laughing and said, "Sorry, teacher. We forgot to tell you that Ren has a memory illness. Sometimes he forgets parts of his memories, so if we want him to remember forgotten things, we need to create weird or absurd situations."
She's really insistent that my memories are just jumbled here and there and that I have this absurd illness. I was just sleeping; what she's saying is totally nonsense.
I want to deny it completely because it doesn't seem true. But when I look back at the situation, it does seem to make sense. And then there's the pain in my cheeks and ears. When I saw my reflection in my phone's screen, I noticed handprints on both of my cheeks. How did that happen?
The teacher was looking at Mia and me with a sorry look, and all the students started laughing. Oh no, am I really that comedic?
Then the school bell rang, indicating that class was over. Students started packing their stuff into their bags, and the teacher apologized, saying she didn't know about my illness, so she thought I was a lazy student, leading to the slap. Then Mia went off with her friends to lunch. Yes, it was lunch break.
I pondered for a moment about what I should do. Then I got an idea: let's check out the school's library.