Forelsket

49: Tochigi Prefecture Shinkansen ride

Sakura's POV:

It was now the afternoon and we've packed our bags yet again. We are on our way to Tochigi Prefecture, Tomi's hometown. Oton and Okan got home early to drop us off at the train station. Obaasan packed us some snack bento boxes. Though I declined her already the previous night, it still didn't stop her from making us some snacks for our travel. She kissed everyone in the forehead and hugged everyone tightly. Kenshin cried on  our way out of the house. My brother clinged to me, refusing to let me go. It hurt my heart to be away from him, I was devoid of the times I should be taking care of him as his Onechan, it had to be him versus my job. If I were to choose, I know I'll be far away from him and my family still, I wouldn't trade my life as an Idol Star, because as much as I wanted to stay and be his Onechan, my heart and my mind were already set for the stage. The stage where I get to be loved by everyone and be an important part of my chosen family. It is selfish, maybe vengeful because my parents didn't quite have the time to be with me as I grew up with Obaasan. My parents' life doesn't include me now, they have built a family with out me in the picture and I built my own chosen family of twelve.

Kenshin and I are affectionate with each other. He loves me, I can feel it. But because he was born twelve years after I was born and by the time he came, my life with my family had begun to shift and has already become irreparable. I became seemingly more distant from my parents and their actions last night further caused me to grow fonder with my chosen family, IZ*ONME. It hurt to see Chaeyeon cry, asking me why does everyone thought she was a lunatic. I can't bear to see her so hurt by everyone around her. If I could, I'll take her to another country and start over with our lives, far away from everyone, far from the questioning looks of our staffs and families. Somewhere she could be free to celebrate the lives of her fallen Unnies. Somewhere only we know, somewhere we could live together in peace and harmony. Just us and the team, in our own little bubble. My Obaasan accepted Chaeyeon, she even joined us for dinner one time, when it was Skylar Unnie's day, we cooked like usual at Chaen's Condo Unit, where Obaasan and Kenshin was invited, she joined the All Filipino dinner we've prepared. Obaasan were all ears with the story we had of how this tradition was started by Chaen, in her attempt to deal with the overwhelming loss of Skylar in a concert bombing. 

Obaasan had the tendency to sympathize with everyone, no matter how absurd their situation is and how ridiculous everything was. I learned from Obaasan a long time ago to be nice with everyone and to be compassionate with everyone I meet. Something that both my parents didn't quite do, they thought these honoring of the dead and all the remembrances were unnecessary. We've had a long day yesterday with all the travelling, exploring, crying and of course the meeting last night for Kang-chan and Minmin-chan. The team is a bunch of chaotic kids, often making noises enough to get us kicked out of the dorm the company has rented. Like last night as I spoke what the meeting was about, they all shouted and screamed at the top of their lungs as they were all surprised with Kang-chan's boldness announcing that she and Minju were already girlfriends, the romantic kind. So noisy that my parents and Obaasan Emiko came into the room and checked in on us, cause they honestly thought that one of us were getting either robbed, stabbed or raped, they're really that noisy and chaotic, often it was Yujin and Ducky who were so loud that I honestly think Chaen could be right about banning everyone from teasing and talking above whispering threshold. They're so crazy and I allowed them to do whatever they wanted after that meeting, Kang-chan and I started to play the first release of Sega Saturn, we played a game called Alien I, killing aliens and whisper screaming at each other to kill the alien, something Kang-chan and I are used to doing whenever we play games. I was brought out of my reverie when I heard Chaeyeon's voice.

"Aegiya, Wonyoung was asking me to come with her to a store, over there. We'll be back I promise." She said to me.

"Okay, I'll just sit here and wait for everyone of you to come back, be quick, the train will come anytime soon." I replied to the both of them.