A Shadow From The Past

Mika's P.O.V.

I sank to the grungy, shadowed alleyway with a sigh of resignation. My blonde hair flopped in my face. My stomach growled. My life was difficult, but I was used to it. I'd learned to survive by scrounging through trash cans and dumpsters. That had been the way I had live for about eight years. I could still remember the seven happiest years of my existence. When I lived in the Hyakuya Orphanage before the founder died of the plague that, curiously, hadn't seemed to affect the children or royalty. It hadn't mattered to me that my parents didn't want me, because I had a new family: the castoffs of  the orphanage. And Yuu.... it had been so long since I had seen Yuu...

My body trembled, recalling the heartbreaking moment of witnessing the founder fall to the ground, clawing at her throat as the disease took over her body.  The gut wrenching moment when I knew that I was going to be foisted off to someone else that didn't want me. The creepy, lewd smile of the man, the king, who was going to be my father. And the woman who was posing as my mother.

"Isn't she a little young?" I had asked innocently when the royal officials handed me to her.

The woman, Krul, as I had learned her name to be, had simply chuckled as if she knew something that I didn't. "Of course not. I only look young."

They were supposed to be reliable. They were supposed to be respectful. Above all, they were supposed to be kind, loving, and diplomatic. But it never worked out that way. Instead, they ordered me around like second-hand merchandise, until I just could't take it anymore and I decided to run away.

After that I realized that I could only depend on myself from then on. Parents and adults would always let you down. In the end, they would all go, and you would only be able to rely on one person:yourself. I had learned that the hard way.

I cast my light blue eyes to the ground, squashing those thoughts and focusing on the more important problem. I definitely needed food, or something to sustain me. But the only thing that I could see in the deserted alleyway was the fleeting shadow of a grumbling teenager as he stomped away.

Desperation pulsed through me and I scrambled after the figure. My legs shook, but I managed to stay upright until I burst into the violent and dazzling light of day.

"Hey!" the figure shouted at me, his green eyes glaring at me disdainfully. "Could you try not to plow into anyone once in a while? Or is that too much to ask?"

"Uh, s-sorry." I stuttered nervously.  But I was too stunned to actually be sorry. Was that how frail and empty I was? So weak that I couldn't even feel my body anymore?

The boys eyebrows scrunched together in frustration in a way that made him look familiar in some way: the black hair, the green eyes, the unrestrained irritation. Suddenly, everything clicked.

"Y-YUU?" I exclaimed.

He looked startled. "How do you know my name?"

"Yuu! It's me! Mika! From Hyakuya Orphanage! C'mon, Yuu, you've got to remember me!"

"Mika? What happened to you?" Yuu's face softened and he looked regretful. His eyes watered, and he turned away from me, looking ashamed.

"It's a long story..."