• Chapter 1

    "Good morning, Lily!"

    By that loud and sudden cry, I suddenly woke up from my peaceful dream. From my eyes, it was Ren, my brother, sitting at my bed, peering at me with his wide, red eyes. He looks very excited today for some reason.

    Our names are created from our same mother, Poppy. We were supposed to be representing her garden, which she said our names were flower names. Ryan, our dad, died two years before Ren was born. And yes, Ren is my little troublemaker brother, and I have to take care of him. My mom said he is a lotus, in Japanese, but he somehow does not look like a flower. Not even close. But I still loved and cared for him, which is the most important part of all.

    There was a note next to my table saying that Mom had went to visit her friend, which that person was Jennifer, who is the same age as her. They had met from grade school to high school and so on. To me, her story of how she met her is complicated.

    Also, there was, of course, a major difference between me and Ren. I mean, not because of our gender or our age, but he had fox ears and cooler features than me, which I do not. Plus, he annoys me with his amount of money that he has. But not every time.

    A knock sounded at the door. Then, the door slightly opened, and Mom's head peeked through the crack of the door. "Good morning kiddos! I had just been given a bunch of flowers from Jennifer! Want to take a look at them?"

    Ren's face lighted up. "I want to!" he yelled excitedly, and he hopped down the bed and started to glance at the flowers what looked like white tulips. "They are beautiful!"

    My mom's face was pleased."What about you, Lily? What do you think about these flowers?"

    Looking at the flowers, they were gorgeous indeed. But what makes the sight unsatisfying is the way the tulips are facing. They are kind of drooping, and some of the tulips' front views were completely turned away. Towards my mom. They liked her the most. Not us.

    "Um...they are pretty nice," I started, but then stopped. I did not want to see my mother getting worried and depressed today, so I stayed quiet and not mention about the flowers' positions.

    After this hard-to-handle conversation, my Mom left us alone to cook food for us. Today is Saturday, so we had a day off from school. We usually play board games and stroll through our garden. But mostly, we only eat, sleep, and, you know, use the restroom at times when we need to.

    Ren also decides to leave me alone and went sprinting to the garden. I stayed behind, going back to sleep, catching up to my dreams.

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    "Lily, wake up!"

    I smell overcooked cooking. As I opened my eyes, my mom was staring right at me, in horror. This was very unusual, because I never saw this face. Ever.

    "What happened?" I fretted. I looked everywhere. Everything seemed normal, but somehow very quiet. As if nothing had happened since I was asleep, but without my talkative brother.

    "I-It's about Ren!" she whispered and stammered aloud. "H-He's gone!"