Fire & Flame

Chapter 4 : Bittersweet Memories

“What? Are you not excited to see your twin?”

Konnor shook his head furiously. “On the contrary, actually. It’s been a while since I met you. How have you been?”

Rachel raised her hand and slapped Konnor’s right cheek. Hard. Konnor stood stupefied. That was the first time his twin has ever laid hands on him.

“Rachel! It’s been so long since we’ve last met, and this is how you greet your twin? Mind you, I am 3 minutes older than you.”

Rachel looked at him dead in the eyes. “Oh so you do know you’re older. I thought you completely forgot about it.” Rachel sarcastically retorted.

“Rachel, are you out of your mind?” Konnor asked in horror.

“Yes, Konnor! Do you know how difficult it was to live with the thought that your only family member is highly possible, dead? Do you? And you call yourself older than me? Where the fuck was your sense of responsibility, you fucking nicampoop?” Rachel roared.

Then, there was a loud thud above them. “Shut up, for God’s sake!” Konnor’s neighbour yelled again.

Konnor yelled back, “I’m sorry sir! I won’t do it again.”

Konnor looks at Rachel and motions the door. Then, he grabbed his hoodie.

“Oh, so now you’re leaving again?”

Konnor rolls his eyes. “No, silly. Let’s go to the rooftop. Otherwise, the neighbour to the right would report me, and I will be forced out again.”

Konnor grabbed Rachel’s arm and walked out his apartment.

【At the rooftop】

“Okay, Rachel. Let it all out now. Hit me or whatever, I deserve it,” Konnor says as he closes both his eyes, getting himself ready for impact. It has been a while since he last saw his twin and she has gotten much stronger than ever.

Just as he was contemplating on the issue at hand, he felt two arms engulfing him into a tight and warm hug. Konnor opened his eyes and saw Rachel leaning into his body, providing him a sense of familiarity and warmth. Konnor hesitated a little, but proceeded to stroke Rachel’s hair gently.

“I hate you, Konnor.”

“I hate myself too.”

“I want to drown you, but at the same time, I really miss you. If I drown you, then you’ll be really dead.”

Konnor sniggered. “And you’ll be a murderer.”

Rachel balled her fists and lightly hit his chest in a joking manner. “You’ll have to bail me out then. Dead or not.”

Konnor shook his head. Him? Bailing his twin out of jail? In your dreams, Rachel.

“By the way, how did you find me?” Konnor asks as he lets go of Rachel.

“I saw your little endeavour with 6 police officers, and might I add, you have a really good stamina. I still remember how you’d always complain when we had to climb a flight of stairs when we were younger.”

Konnor shrugs. “So you followed me? Even to the dumpster?”

Rachel widened her eyes in shock. “Dumpster? Wow, you- Amazing. Bravo.”

“When you came looking for me, you weren’t followed by anyone right? I’m kinda- not, I mean, to put it bluntly, a lot of people don’t like me at the moment.”

Rachel shook her head slowly. “I wasn’t. Unless you have a secret agent assigned to you.”

Konnor sighed in relief. Thank goodness for that.

“Quick question, how did they not make a connection between me and you? We share the same last name, don’t we?” Rachel asked as she fixed her hair into a bun.

“Why would they need to make a connection?” Konnor asks, intrigued at his sister’s curiosity.

“Konnor, you’re a criminal. And don’t say no to that. Because how would you explain the police officers?”

Konnor pursed his lips. “Criminal’s a bit far-fetched. But, I’ll just leave it at that.”

Rachel clicked her tongue. “Understood.”

Konnor smiled gratefully, and proceeded to sit on the ground. Rachel took a seat beside him instantly. While looking at their shadows formed on the ground, she asks, “How did you hide the fact that I am family from the police forces? Normally, they would be looking for family members, you know.”

Konnor looked at Rachel tenderly. “I know a person, who’s excellent in removing traces of an individual’s past life. So, he did that, and I changed my last name to mom’s last name.”

“Fumiko?”

“Yes. And the person also created a faux identity for me, as well as a random family background.”

Rachel scrunched her nose in confusion. It seemed like her brother wanted nothing to do with her. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Of course I need to. I can’t be an asshole of a brother and implicate you, can I?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Yeah, apparently you could think of throwing our last name ‘Marita’ away, but couldn’t care less with how I’ve been these years.”

Konnor smiled sheepishly. “Well, from what I can observe, you’ve grown into an excellent person. So, my care is not necessarily needed in this case.”

“Konnor, I still can hit you. And I’m not kidding.”

“Sorry, ma’am.” Konnor saluted.

Rachel pinched Konnor’s muscular arms. Although it was just like an ant’s bite and hardly affected him, Konnor yelped in pain.

“Rachel, you have crab fingers.”

“Good to know.” Rachel deadpanned.

Konnor laughed. Oh how I miss annoying the shit out of her. 

“Well, Rachel. I think they would know that I’m related to you soon.”

“They?”

“The police. Because they’ve been hot on my tail for two years now, and unless they are genuinely dumb, I think they would figure it out soon.”

Rachel nodded. “Interesting welcome gift.”

“When that happens, I hope you remember to deny all relations with me. I don’t want to bring trouble to you, especially since we’ve just met again.”

“That won’t be necessary, actually. But thank you, for finally being an actual brother again.”

Konnor squints his eyes due to the ray of sunlight shining directly at him. 

“What do you mean? Do you want to be annoyed by those police officers?”