(I had to divide this chapter into two parts since it turned out being a little longer than expected. That means, this is basically a double-update. I hope, you'll like itt)
"I have to warn you though" Sana handed her purse over to Mina who was sitting on the passenger seat for her to hold so that she herself could fully concentrate on driving. Mina on the other hand seemed to sink into her seat even more as she placed Sana's purse on her lap and stared strainedly over her shoulder to make sure, there were no other cars in the way that Sana could crash into while parking out.
Whereas, Sana started the engine carelessly and continued her sentence. "My grandma is weird and scary. Especially with strangers." Mina clenched the seatbelt even more in between her hands to hold onto it. Sometimes, she nearly started disliking Sana's spontaneous and outgoing personality. While she needed a few hours to mentally prepare herself to attend events with multiple unknown people, Sana had stated this morning that she wanted her sister on time to accompany her to her grandmother's birthday party.
Accordingly, the warning about a certain weird- and scariness came way too late in Mina's opinion. "You shouldn't have told me that. Now I am even more nervous." Her voice sounded accusing but also slightly worried. It was a matter of interpretation though if the last one was caused by her own nervousness or simply by Sana's reckless style of driving.
The mentioned one pulled out of the parking space abruptly, nearly getting in the way of a clueless pedestrian. Sana on her side just answered with an eye-rolling. "Mina, don't act as if you were my girlfriend or something who is about to meet my family for the first time. There is nothing to worry about."
Then, she glared at the pedestrian as he seemed to make his way over to their car and skillfully ignored him while driving past, as well as pretending not to notice that Mina slightly blushed at the word "girlfriend". The younger one hid her face behind her palms but was forced to hold onto the seatbelt again when Sana stepped onto the brakes sharply as a black roadster got in the way. Yet, she forced herself to look outside of the window, observing the happenings on the street.
In the meantime, they had reached a chicer part of their city, making her feel inevitably reminded of her home in Japan. The street was framed by chestnut trees in various sizes that were neatly lined up on each side, somehow symbolizing a border between the, mainly white, mansions or pretty houses behind them. The leaves were colored in orange and brown shades and every time when a gust of wind went through them, a smattering of them fell off, gliding through the air elegantly until laying down on the grass softly.
"Is it there already?" Mina pointed towards a relatively small house next to a huge, old looking chestnut tree.
"Yes, it is so beautiful. Especially during fall." Sana backed into the parking space in a surprisingly smooth way and surveyed the tree in more detail while getting out of the car.
"I might be taking some chestnuts with me later so that the children can be creative with them tomorrow." Sana's voice sounded thoughtful and more to herself than to Mina who got out of the car as well.
The younger one felt a weird kind of nervousness increasing inside of her again. Especially, since Sana had mentioned that strangers were actually not that welcome at her grandma's. But both kept quiet on the way of a few meters towards the house, highheels clattering on the stone surface of the parking lot until they arrived at the door where Sana rang the bell and immediately took a step back after.
A short, grey haired woman opened the door. Even though Mina had never seen her before, she felt immediately that the woman in front of her was a different kind of grandma. Not that kind whose favourite free time activity was knitting scarfs or mittens and reading out goodnight stories to her grandchildren. She just didn't give off this certain kind of warmness that you might know from grandparents.
Additionally, Mina couldn't help but admiring the fashion sense of that lady in front of her. Spontaneously, she couldn't think of any person that age who dressed so modern and chique at the same time. In short, Mina felt intimidated and really hoped for Sana to say something since her grandma seemed to wait for one of them to start a conversation.
"Happy Birthday, granny!" Sana saved Mina from the sudden uncomfortableness, rising inside of her. "Mom and Dad were sadly not able to come. You know, it has been quite a lot at work lately. So I decided" Sana patted Mina's back and smiled at her fake enthusiastically. "to bring Mina with me. She lives at our house at the moment so yeah. Just thought it would be-"
The elder woman nodded and replied shortly. "Thanks." Then she surveyed Mina with a nearly unreadable expression. The named one started feeling a little nervous again but smiled friendly "Nice to meet you."
Sana's grandma nodded again. "Nice to meet you too. Feel free to enter." Mina felt nearly stupid for expecting that woman to either not reply anything or to throw her out of her house. Of course, a polite way of talking was more than normal and even though Sana had described her as weird and scary in the beginning, it wouldn't have made any sense for her to act that way.
The house was as pretty from the inside as it had already appeared from the outside and Mina kind of admired how stylistically confident and elegant the corridor was furnished. And once again she started rearranging the images in her head that had characterized grandparents before. She couldn't identify any personal decorations such as photos on the walls and all in all, everything looked somehow like a designed holiday flat. At the end of the classy enlightened corridor, there was a slender, glass door leading towards the living room.
"Thank you so much for the invention, granny.Your birthday parties are always-" Sana's sentence was cut off by her own sharpexhaling at the sight of the other birthday guests who were already sitting politelychitchatting around the dining table.
"Is that-" Sana clung to Mina's arm inshock, holding onto it that tight that the younger one nearly gasped.
Her grandmotherseemed to observe the happening with a certain complacency before she startedtalking with an innocent voice."He seemed to be so sympathetic last time whenI met him so I wanted to rejoice you by inviting him to my birthday for you."
Sanagave her an are-you-fucking-kidding-me-glare but forced her lips into a slightsmile. "That's so nice, granny. I- I'll just sit down here and greet him laterthen."
"No way." Her grandma shook her head and clicked her tongue accusinglybefore fluting towards the guy who had watched the happening with a smug smileon his face. "Mark, some here for a second. Sana finally arrived." She somehowmanaged to make the last sentence sound reprimanding.
Mina on her side foundherself looking back and forth between the guy who was standing up, the grandmawho seemed to be really content with herself and Sana whose fingernails drilledinto her upper arm. Those were acrylic nails. The middle and pointer a littleshorter but all in all pretty painful in Mina's opinion so she shook her arm alittle, signalizing Sana that she had to face the situation.
The said alsoseemed to realize that. Anyhow, she took a step towards her ex-boyfriend,hugging him in a distanced way with a forced smile on her face just to stepback again after a few seconds to link arms with Mina.
"Alright, let's seewhat's for dinner."
"No, no, no." Sana's grandma seemed to be trulydisappointed by the reasonable way her granddaughter had handled the situation."You two just sit down already and Nina and I will check that, right?"
Mina whoalready regretted even coming with Sana to that family gathering cleared herthroat silently. "mina, it's Mina."
"Whatever" Sana's grandmother dragged herwith her, leaving Sana at the table with her ex, not being sure if she shouldfeel worse for Mina or for herself.
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Satzu - reliable
Fanfiction"And you think, you can hurt my feelings? I have been disappointed too many times to even have believed you in the beginning." -------------------------------- Chou Tzuyu grew up in that kind of family which everyone would be secretly admiring. They...
