Return Of The Outcast

|014| The necklace will make you feel close to her.

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{Following Mia} 

Mia, now in her bedroom, took out the large, purple and dusty suitcase she hadn't used in years from her closet. She laid it on her bed, opened it up and began packing the necessities, which included her k pop posters and albums of course. Then she got her school bag and begun packing for Mylo too. With the basics out of the way, now she had to pick out her most valuable items to take with her, which was harder said than done as everything in the small room had value to her.

How could she choose which one to keep and which one to discard?

This was her home. The place she was raised in. The place she'd run to on a rainy day.

Each item, whether big or small, represented a moment in her life. Like the painted little rock on her window sill that had "BFFs forever" scribbled all over it was a momentum of when she and Vanessa were still friends.

They all held memories. Memories she couldn't throw away

But in the end, she had no choice but to pick out the most important items. One of them included an old picture she suddenly found tucked away at the back of her closet. It was covered in dust from all the years it's been left untouched but she could still make out the faces of her mother, father and her younger self.

In the picture, she was in between her mom and dad, her little 4-year-old arms wrapped around them both and they all wore their best smiles. The perfect family.

tears started to well up in her eyes the longer she stared at it. Suddenly she remembered why she hid it in the closet: because it hurt to see a picture of her father smiling knowing that she'd never get to see it again. Now it hurts to see a picture of her mother smiling for the same reason.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Angela, the social worker said as she leaned on the door frame.

Her voice reminded Mia that she wasn't alone in the room and somebody was watching her.

Hurriedly wiping her tears, she stuffed the picture in the left pocket of her pink zip-up sweater and went back to packing without responding to Angela.

"This must be hard for you". Still no response. "But I'm you'll be safe with Mr. Takahashi. He's a good man. After all, your mother did leave you with him"

"Huh?" Mia questioned, finally turning around to face Angela.

"Yeah. She put down Mr. Takahashi as your next guardian if she wasn't around. So I'm sure she's worth trusting" She explained "and by the looks of it, I'm guessing you two already know each other?"

"Umm...we only met a couple of times when I was younger," Mia said, remembering how back then, when they first moved to Canada he'd come by often, only to discuss  with her mom in private. So they were never close, but he was nice enough to her and would even bring her gifts sometimes.

Then suddenly her mother started telling her to stay away from him and he eventually stopped coming altogether. That's why Mia was a bit shocked when Angela said her mother put him down as a possible guardian

"Though... I don't know him that well" She felt like she had to clarify, but Angela didn't see a problem with it, saying how this could be their chance to become closer.

"This could be a new start for you...and I promise, things will get better" She reassured her and all Mia could do was give her a weak smile.

After finishing up packing. She dragged her heavy suitcase down the stairs to the living room where the man was sitting on the couch. He stood up as soon as he saw her.

"Mia," he said happily with a large grin "it's been a long time, hasn't it"

She nodded.

"It's unfortunate we have to meet in this circumstance"

She nodded again, with the lack of response making things feel awkward. Usually, she was a talkative girl, but with everything that was going on, she felt so detached from reality and didn't know how to respond to anyone.

Soon enough the room fell into an uncomfortable silence as no one said anything before Angela broke it. "So you guys can just talk while I go  complete the documents to finalize everything". With that, she left them alone.

The room fell silent once more, but this time Mia noticed how Takahashi was intensely staring at her chest area. Feeling uncomfortable, she brought up her hand to her chest to cover it "E-excuse me!" she tried to shout, but her voice came out shaky from the discomfort

He looked up at her confused and a bit worried at her sudden shout until he realized how his staring might have seemed to have a perverted intent. "Oh N-no. It's nothing like that I swear...sorry. I didn't mean anything like that" he frantically tried explaining himself "I was looking at your necklace"

"My necklace?" she questioned, looking down at it. She forgot she even had it on.

"Yeah....it's pretty" he complimented the thing but for some reason had a look of anxiousness while doing so.

"It's from my mom" I replied and he  gave me a weak smile "Yeah, I know. She'd always have it on"

 The awkward silence started again for seconds that felt like an eternity.

"So~..." Mr. Takahashi started like he only spoke just to break the silence and was thinking on the spot  "...are you ready to go?"

Mia thought about her response to this question. The answer was "no" obviously, but maybe she should say yes just to be nice and stop him from asking questions about it.

"No" She blurted out, going against her previous thoughts. Now she knew the next words he was going to say were questions, and she was right.

"No? why?"

She sighed at his predictability. "well...I'm not ready to leave all this behind. A lot of memories me and mama had are in this house. Being here makes me feel close to her" she explained and he just looked at her.

"That necklace can help you feel close to her," he said, pointing at it.

"Huh?"

"ya. Keep it on and you'll become just like her"

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