𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕜𝕖𝕟 𝕄𝕒𝕤𝕜 [𝓜𝓪𝓷𝓪𝓶𝓲 𝓞𝓴𝓾𝓭𝓪 𝓒𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓬]

Side Story: First Meeting

Manami's POV:

I splashed around in the puddles, trying to mess up the dress that had been bought for me recently by a rat.

My new father isn't the best. Not from what I know. He beats me up. I barely have time to work with my chemicals, and I have to wake up early (around six in the morning) to train.

He told me I had a spectacular talent for killing and wanted to make me an assassin. That's not really a good thing...is it? I was always told it wasn't.

I sat down on a soaked bench, not caring that it got my dress damper. I was in front of the orphanage. My orphanage. I don't know why but I always end up here when I'm walking alone at night. It's like an instinct.

I didn't stay there for long before I got adopted into the Maiya family, but the house caught on fire, and then they died. No one knows this, but the house actually burnt down because one of my experiments went wrong.

Of course, I was a bit upset, but I got over their death quite quickly.

Though nowadays, I find myself missing the two much more... As I said, the guy who adopted me isn't the best at parenting. At least Rai and Nariko met the bare minimum.

"Um, excuse me!" A shrill and uncertain voice startled me out of my trip down memory lane.

My head immediately spun in the direction of the sound, and my eyes met with a pair of bright, amber ones. Their eyebrows were also scrunched in what seemed like worry. Why were they worried? It was then I remembered it was still raining. Pretty heavily.

I pointed at myself with a confused face, wanting to confirm the girl was talking to me.

She was.

The girl ran over to me, and I chose that time to evaluate her appearance. She had wavy, black hair that had been bunched into two low ponytails, and now that I look closely, her eyes weren't amber but more of a golden hazel.

Though, as soon as I looked at her pink, strappy tank top and poofy skirt, I instantly recognised her.

Mase Haruna, a famous child actress that had started her career at the young age of four. I often used to see Nariko sit in front of the TV, binging her movies.

"What are you doing here at this time, and where are your parents? Also, why don't you have an umbrella with you? It's raining super hard, you know!"

I had to restrain myself from slapping my hands over my ears, wanting nothing more to block out the annoying voice of the girl in front of me.

Of course, I couldn't. It was impolite.

After a long silence, when Haruna realised I wouldn't be answering anytime soon, she hesitantly sat down on the (soaked) bench next to me. I raised an eyebrow at her actions. She seemed like the type of person who wouldn't want her clothes wet, no?

She ignored my questioning gaze and just stared ahead at Fresh Hope Orphanage, where I was looking before.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Don't you know it's basic manners to give your own name before asking for someone else's?" I told her, knowing full well I was being a hypocrite.

The girl huffed in annoyance. "Try following your own advice about 'basic manners'. My name is Akari Yukimura, but I'm also known as the famous child actress, Haruna Mase! Beat that!" She puffed up in pride.

I stared at her for a solid five seconds before replying, "I'm Manami Oku-" I paused. "Manami Taru."

Yukimura's eyes widened considerably. "Taru?! Wait, does that mean you're the president's daughter?"