Rain was no one special. She was hardworking and talented, yes, but so were countless other people.
In fact...
Hadn't their first ever encounter been strange, to begin with?
Because even back then, in the nameless convenience store in NQSC, her teacher had already known her name.
Rain raised her head and looked at him intently.
"Teacher..."
He smiled faintly.
"Yes? Are you ready to take a look at those Memories? I've worked really hard on them, you know!"
Usually, Rain would have been mesmerized by the promise of receiving new Memories, but today, she did not even spare them a second thought.
Instead, she asked:
"Why did you offer to teach me?"
He stared at her silently for a few moments.
Then, her teacher scoffed.
"Haven't I told you? It's because I am your long - lost brother."
Rain sighed.
"And I told you that I would have remembered having a brother."
He studied her for a while without saying a word.
Then, he shrugged nonchalantly.
"Weren't you adopted?"
Rain nodded slowly, not knowing what that had to do with anything.
'Wait...'
Her teacher smiled.
"Well, I was your brother before that. There... you have my permission to drop the 'teacher' and start calling me 'older brother' instead."
Rain froze.
'Before... that?'
She had no memories from before she was adopted. After all, that happened when she was very young - three years old, at best.
Her parents had never made a secret of the fact that she was not their biological child, and had never treated her differently because of that. That was why Rain had never really felt a need to learn where she had come from...
However, she had tried to find out eventually. Her parents helped her, and her dad even pulled some strings at work.
But there was nothing to learn. There was no robust centralized database that contained the records of every person living in the outskirts - in fact, many of them had no digital trace whatsoever. They weren't citizens, and so, the government did not care to waste manpower on keeping records of them.
All they found out was that Rain's parents were both deceased, her mother passing away last due to illness - even that was only a rumor an orphanage worker heard from the person who had worked there before him.
And that was all.
She had been a little disappointed to have learned nothing, but not too much.
So why... why did Rain feel like she was forgetting something?
It was as if she had just thought about it, but the thought slipped away.
Looking at her teacher, she asked evenly:
"If you are really my brother... then where have you been? Where have you been all this time?"
His smile dimmed a little.
Strangely, Rain found it hard to focus on what he was about to say.
Her teacher lingered for a few moments, then looked away.
"Rotting in the outskirts, at first. And then... well. I can't really tell you, and you should not ask."
Rain looked at him, stunned.
He was not joking. He had not been joking, from the start.
She felt... some strange, inexplicable emotion rising in her heart.
She thought that she had never cared about her original family and about her past. But now, it seemed that she had been wrong.
Or maybe she had simply forgotten.
Looking at the young man sitting in front of her...
The familiar, insufferable, whimsical, caring, strong, funny, unreliable, dependable man who had been her companion, confidant, teacher, and protector for the last four years...
Rain took a shaky breath.
Then, she said tentatively:
"B... brother?"