#4: Toren, Chel, and Suzu Hanaki
Suzu Hanaki returned from the mailbox with an envelope addressed to ‘Manuel T Hanaki’, and a confidential stamp upon it. She placed it onto the glass-top coffee table where the fraternal twins, Chel and Toren, played poker with chocolate eclairs as the prize. Though the sender was unknown to the average person, the Hanaki family anticipated this letter. She sat down, smiling, waiting for his reaction.
Suzu was the eldest at 25, so she babysat her preteen siblings often, with pay each time. Jo and Karu - mom and dad - owed her five days of pay this time. She resembled Karu, with Jo’s round face and body frame.
Chel was the eldest twin. She was albino with long curls and oval glasses, and a round figure like Jo, though in terms of face, she looked like Karu’s mother.
Toren was unmistakeably a Hanaki. Tall and brown-skinned, with blue curls. The one difference was Jo’s bright blue eyes.
They were a quiet pair, but Toren could bite when he wanted. Suzu, mom, and dad pulled him up for it, but it worked in his favour each time.
Toren lifted the envelope seal and read through his letter without skipping a word, keeping the result out of his sisters’ sight. The more he read, the more a smile grew on his face. “I’m in.”
The girls cheered and patted his back. This was better news than Queen Meina’s funeral ceremony, whose national broadcast was half an hour away. It was a royal duty to attend it in some capacity, but Suzu couldn’t care less about her cold, uptight great-grandmother - that was a personal opinion. Chel and Tor never met her, so they felt guilt should they turn off the flat-screen TV and jam in the basement instead.
The twins were to begin high school next year. That made Tor the youngest attendant of this prestigious traineeship in Minarin Studios’ history. Any older sibling would worry about their pre-teen brother’s safety, but safety was already around Tor - she felt it in and around him. It was too bad mom and dad were in Kerangi. No way would Suzu interrupt their trip with this news, though - she promised dad not to spoil them until they returned.
Toren submitted a video of him playing the drums to Chel’s singing and guitar playing - for this submission, Chel had to be out of the shot. She wasn’t applying, anyway.
While waiting for the march, commentators recounted the great things Meina did in her reign. Suzu rolled her eyes - everyone knew the truth that she cared more about her crown than the whole country.
“She conducted a treaty to end the East-West Bung’ke War,” they droned.
If only Meina hadn’t declared the war in the first place.
The march began, and everyone’s eyes lit up at the sights of their parents and grandparents. They marched behind the pallbearers, without a tear in their eyes. In fact, they looked brighter than ever, their lips lifting at the corners, despite the attempt to hide it.
A smile crept upon Suzu’s face when she set upon the matching white and yellow uniforms. The commentators made a rude comment about the uniforms, and she laughed out loud. “That’s the greatest up-yours I’ve ever seen.”
Tor’s smile was bright seeing them on the screen - if the kids wanted to see their grandparents, they had to visit East Bung’ke, but their grandparents were forbidden from visiting the West. Now that they’d become the new king and queen, perhaps they’d visit the West more often.
There was no cause to watch the whole march aside from sight-seeing - they’d seen it. Instead, they listened in to the backhand commentary. It was a wonder the channel station allowed that propaganda on TV, after the person who led all of Bung’ke to war could wage hostility no longer.
Tor laid down his cards. “Royal flush.”
Chel pushed her chocolate eclair bet his way. “How are you doing that?” While she shuffled the deck, the twins watched the TV.
The march reached the Malaki-Beren temple, and everyone in attendance sat down. The priest began his sermon, but that drowned out when an indigo-haired figure appeared behind him, gazed into the pews, turned, and disappeared.
Chel paused her shuffle. “Was that a ghost, or someone from the church?”
Suzu shook her head. “That was a woman. Malaki-Beren convents are for men, so they don’t allow any women to be priests. That looked like Meina, come to think of it.” She frowned, haunted and disgusted.
But a spirit visiting their own funeral was nothing new - the Hanaki-Venu clan of Ohta, Wita Region knew this well. If their screen showed a ghost and everyone in this room saw it, that meant the whole public could catch it. Suzu had to ask about it when mom and dad returned.