VAMPIRE SITTER
03. The Child's Strangeness

Hina clasped the hand of a man lying weakly on the hospital bed. On his wrist there is a hose when he was doing dialysis as one of the efforts to treat his disease.

"We can stop this" Yamanaka Naoya, Hina's father, said.

"Can't," Hina replied shaking firmly.

"Hina, don't push yourself. We don't have much money to keep doing this."

"I will gather it as soon as possible" said Hina clasping tightly onto Naoya's hand. "Papa don't think about anything else. Leave everything to me. I just want Papa healed."

"But..." Naoya felt sad and uneasy about the decision given their economic situation that was not comparable to this expensive treatment.

"I work as a nanny and the pay is pretty big. Maybe from my job it can help pay for medical expenses."

"Thank you to always be with me, Hina," Naoya said, smiling gently at the princess.

"Father, maybe after this... I'm gonna start living there. But I'll occasionally see you here. So you keep going on your medication. Okay?"

"You're gonna stay at your employer's house?" ask Naoya curiously.

"Yes. The house is quite far if you have to continue to take a taxi from here. The cost was quite expensive, so I decided to stay there so as not to go back and forth. They have always been nice to me. So maybe... It doesn't matter to me to be there."

"alright. Just do what you think is right, Hina."

"Thank you, Papa."

As a result, Hina came back to the house in the afternoon. He decided to stay, although his heart still felt unbearable for having to leave the father.

After the taxi left, Hina just stood around in front of the house thinking, "Is this the right decision?"

Chequek!

Door opens. Hina turned her attention to Yuki who came out and walked over to her. The child looked up, observing Hina's face as if investigating something.

"Why?" ask Hina.

"You're gonna stay here?" ask Yuki.

"Looks, yeah. I decided to stay here while being your nanny."

Yuki. Without Hina knowing, her blue eyes that were similar to Shun were looking at something behind Hina. Like a screen showing the shadows of Hina and Shun hugging, then there Yuki was grasping the hands of the two of them to walk together.

A strange look, but it managed to make Yuki feel something that had been buried deep in her heart.

Blissfulness.

"The right decision" Yuki said as she held Hina's hand and brought her into the house.

"Is your father still not home?" hina asked curiously because she did not see Shun welcome her.

"Dad always comes home late at night" Yuki replied as if it didn't matter if her father came home late at night. "Hina, let's play hide and seek. I always wanted to play that with someone."

"Friday?"

Yuki nodded enthusiastically. "I'm hiding and you're looking."

"All right."

After being approved, Hina did not expect if it turned out that Yuki invited her to play in the forest, not her home. As a result, the range to find Yuki was vast especially Hina did not know about the forest area.

"YUKI, DON'T HIDE TOO FAR!" hina shouted with her eyes closed while continuing to count to twenty in her heart.

Silence is created. There was no laughter from Yuki because the boy had disappeared to hide.

"Yuki?" call Hina to start walking. He stepped on the dry foliage around with his eyes constantly circulating looking for him.

"God. It's forest. What if Yuki was attacked by a beast that was here?" thought worried.

"YUKI!" call Hina start screaming. But there is no truth until Hina begins to get tired of looking for it.

"Dude!" call Yuki, but his figure is nowhere to be found.

"Yuki's? Where are you?"

"I'm up here," he replied making Hina look up, staring in shock at Yuki who was sitting on top of the tree while giggling.

"Why are you there? That's hazardous. You will fall" said Hina in a panic. "How's this? You stay right there. Okay well? L'm... I'll figure out a way to get you down."

"Hina, do you want to go up?" yuki asked innocently without any fear.

"alright. I'm going down" Yuki's mouth started to move.

"Wait on! You can't-YUKI!!!" hina's screams panicked peerlessly as Yuki dropped down from the tall tree.

Brakk!

His body fell down. Hina galloped over to Yuki who was lying on her back without moving.

"Yuki?" Is he dead?

Hina sat down because her legs were limp like jelly. Both of his hands trembled, staring at Yuki's completely motionless horror.

"It's fun!" yuki chirps turned around and then woke up as if he did not feel pain or even experienced a dangerous event just now.

...----------------...

Yuki was just speechless receiving a tight hug from Hina who was crying loudly near her ears. They've been doing this long enough.

When will Hina release me?

"Hina, I'm hungry" said Yuki, who made Hina's loud cries slowly stop. But he still sobbed with moist and watery eyes.

"Why did you do such a dangerous thing? I thought..I thought you were okay," whine Hina sat down while crying like a child.

"I'm fine. See?" Yuki ran around Hina to show her condition. "I'm doing fine. I won't get hurt."

Hina instead returned to tears because her heart had been in tremendous shock, thinking that Yuki would die because Hina was careless in looking after the child. As a result, instead of earning money, Hina imagined herself to be thrown into prison by Shun.

"No. I won't die" Yuki said as she wiped away the tears streaming down Hina's face. "You have a good heart. That's why I can smell you from a distance."

What is this boy talking about?

Hina tried to stop crying while standing up. "Let's go back. I don't want to play hide-and-seek like that anymore."

"But I still want to play," Yuki's whine held onto the edge of Hina's shirt, preventing her from leaving.

"You said hungry. I'll cook for you."

"Cooking?" Yuki felt that she did not need to be given cooked food. He's even weird if Shun cooked for breakfast yesterday.

Even so, Yuki let Hina cook her potluck in the kitchen. He looked at the woman's back with a smile.

"Mother," called Yuki just like that which made Hina turn her head.

"You called me?" point it at yourself that Yuki is embracing.

"May I call you Mother?"

Hina thought for a moment before finally shaking her head. "No. Just call me Hina. I don't want to make any misunderstandings later."

"But you'll be my mother later" Yuki chirped and made Hina turn around with a tired breath.

"Why am I going to be your mother?"

"Because you're gonna fall in love with my dad. I've seen all that."

Hina chuckles. "Are you a psychic?"

Yuki blinked innocently. He groaned slightly as Hina pinched his cheek just like that while serving her homemade food to the table.

"Don't like to joke like that. I already have someone I like."

"Who?" yuki asked after taking a glance at Hina's artificial omelet decorated with a smile from the sausage.

"Mh, secrets!" kekeh Hina's. His heart said that he liked Keiji, a long time ago.

"Keiji?" yuki's chirps made Hina's body freeze.

"How are you..." Know that name?

"You're thinking about it. Eat it I know Keiji."

"Huh?" Hina tilted her head with a puzzled frown.

"I can read human minds. I'm great, right?"