Chapter 67 - The Relationship Between Them
"Ne Chan, do you really have to stay with him? It's too dangerous." Kousuke repeated his famous line when he saw Ming Yue packing her bags. Since the renovations were over, she presented her plan to move to Wisteria gardens, scaring her brothers all at once.
"We can still track the police team even if we stay here. There is no need for you to stay with that police officer." Kousuke added as a matter of fact. No matter how hard he tried to understand their situations and the necessity to associate with the police force, he couldn't agree with Ming Yue's decision.
"Yes, we can. But I need to go, Kousuke." Ming Yue said as she picked up her clothes from the shelves and placed them inside her suitcase.
"Why?" It was Yojiro who asked the question unlike the usual. He was someone who never raised his voice against his beloved Nechan, but this time he was ready to take Kousuke's side no matter what happened.
"Why do you have to stay with him?" He pressed on the issue while sitting on Ming Yue's bed, like a person who was in deep thought.
"Yaa...It's because of you two..." Ming Yue, who got annoyed by their questions pointed at them and said in a frustrated voice. She knew that moving into wisteria gardens would obviously raise questions from her brothers but didn't expect them to be bothersome.
"If you haven't got yourself into that murder, we wouldn't have to chase him in the first place."
"If you are doing this for us. Then there is no need, Nechan. We have talked to that investigative officer and cleared our side of the story."
"Yes, that officer even promised that he will keep our names secret." Kousuke seconded his brother's claims and tried to stop Ming Yue from getting herself into trouble.
"To be very honest, Nechan...I think you are too much invested in this case." Yojiro pointed out while his eyes glinted in doubt.
"Just because you have spoken to that police officer, that doesn't mean that they proclaimed you innocent. We need to make sure that-" All of a sudden, Ming Yue's words were interrupted by Yojiro, who picked up her phone that kept on the bed as if it was a natural thing to do.
"Ne Chan, please." Yojiro let out a small scoff as he kept his eyes glued to the phone that Wan Yi Jun had given to his sister. He was getting a bit dubious about the sudden friendship that started between Ming Yue and Wan Yi Jun that resulted in the full freedom to visit the Wisteria gardens anytime.
"I know that you care about us, but the reason why you are getting associated with that officer is something else."
The moment Ming Yue heard those words, her bicoloured eyes shook a bit in shock. She never thought that Yojiro would pick up the hints very soon, unlike Kousuke.
"There is nothing else." Ming Yue flatly refuted his claims and hid her face away from him.
"Nechan, don't lie to us. We got solid proofs."
"What proofs?" Ming Yue's shapely eyebrows knitted together in doubt and she unknowingly expressed a part of her vulnerable side to her quick-witted brother.
"Back at home, everyone treats you like a queen. I have never seen big brother or sister in law, allows you to do any house chores. But here you are, working hard like a slave for someone who is an absolute threat to us. Do you think that's normal?" Yojiro cut the chase and asked the very first thing that came into his mind. It was an unbelievable sight for them to see Ming Yue, who didn't have to lift a finger and take part in house chores, working hard in someone else's house dawn to dusk.
"There is nothing." Ming Yue once again denied his claims and almost threw her clothes into the suit before zipping it up.
"If it is nothing, then why your photo is on that officer's phone?" Yojiro who was scrolling on the phone raised his hand and showed the screen to Ming Yue and Kousuke, who was left in puzzlement.
"Which photo?" Kousuke immediately lunged forward to grab the phone before Ming Yue could make a move.
It was the picture of a girl with bi-coloured eyes and silver hair, holding a husky puppy.
"This is-" Kousuke whose eyes widened in the similarity the girl shared with his sister, looked alternatively at the photo and Ming Yue as if he was comparing them.
"That's not-"
"Don't say that's not you. It's clearly you." Kousuke corrected her without any hesitations. "And why is your photo is on that captain's phone?"
Watching their actions, Ming Yue lost her cool and gritted in frustration.
"Yaa...not everyone with a weird pair of eyes is me." She made a vague effort to deny the truth. But still, the men in the room was not ready to believe her as they argued that the girl in the photograph was Ming Yue with no doubt.
"Yes. But you are the only person with heterochromia and silver hair that we know, and Nechan, didn't you used to say that bicoloured eyes are extremely rare?" Yojiro asked with a faint smirk adorning his face. The moment he noticed the aggravated look on Ming Yue, he was sure that her sister was trying to hide something from them.
"We thought you trusted us," Kousuke added hot oil into the pyre and engraved Ming Yue once again, "But you...you...cheated us-"
"Kousuke, don't play your emotional blackmailing card on me." Ming Yue who regained her bearings, quickly warned her young brother, who was trying to take advantage of her situation and snatched the phone from him.
"Even I'm seeing this picture for the first time. Where did you find it, Yoji?"
"It was on the phone. I saw it when I checked whether your Wan Yi Jun planted any bugs." Yojiro emphasized the word, "Your" while throwing bait at Ming Yue who refused to share how her childhood photograph ended up in a police officer's personal phone.
"What else did you find in it? Anything helpful?"
"Nothing. There were only two photos, one was a photograph of a dog, and the other was this girl."
"Hmm." Ming Yue let out a heavy sigh and plopped onto the bed as if she got no strength to argue anymore.
When they saw the signs of Ming Yue submitting before them without any protest, Kousuke climbed onto the bed and asked in a soft voice while keeping the phone next to her face.
"There are only slight similarities if we look closer. But those eyes, hair and smile clearly just hammer down the fact that it is you. Are you gonna still deny that it is not you?"
"It's me, and my dog Mooney." She stated in a barely audible voice and closed her eyes.
"Are you kidding us, Ne chan? How can this be girl be you?" Kousuke popped up a question that contradicted his previous actions so far.
"Kousuke..just a moment ago, you were accusing me of breaking your trust." She said while snuggling into the pillow as if she was trying to hide away from reality.
"So both of you know each other from childhood?" Yojiro asked an obvious question.
"But how? Did he also grow up in Daisun? Does he know that you are a clan leader?" Kousuke who was at the peak of his curiosity shot a bunch of questions all at once.
"We were born and brought up in Novaria." Ming Yue admitted as if it was no big deal. But the people who were listening to her words almost jumped in bewilderment.
"Novaria? You grew up in Novaria? But I heard that you and your mother lived in Kitahashi before coming to live with your brother." Kousuke sounded surprised when he heard something unexpected. As far as they know, Hayami Terada, their beloved Nechan was the step sister of their clan leader Hiroki and grew up with her mother in some other city, without any knowledge about her real family. Once her mother died and she was left alone, Hiroki brought his sister home and treated her like a princess enough to make everyone jealous. Even after getting married, Hiroki's love for his sister never decreased.
"Hiro Chan is not my brother." Ming Yue took a deep breath and the secret that she hid deep in her heart. "But my uncle."
"Uncle!!!! What are you saying? Aren't you Big brother's step-sister? The great Hideki Terada's only daughter?" Even Yojiro was shocked to listen to her.
"No. that's my mother." Ming Yue corrected them.
"But big brother and other elders in the clan said that you are his step-sister Hayami Terada and-"
"My name is not Hayami either... It's Mizuki."
"Mizuki?" Yojiro and Kousuke asked in the same tone.
"Hmm. My father was a third-generation immigrant in Novaria and met my mother there. Yi Jun's father and my parents were classmates." Ming Yue monotonously mumbled in a barely audible voice,
However, only Yojiro could pick up the way his beloved Nechan addressed Wan Yi Jun,
"Yi Jun."