Chapter 5

The winds were howling, and the sun fell just like this part of the country's economic status. The lamps hanging on the canopy tent were roaring with light. Dinner was already set on the table and the family was ready to stuff food into their mouths. The two siblings were waiting for Kanor to finish setting up. A whole rice cooker, four plates of grilled fish, a whole bowl of salted sliced tomatoes and four bottles of carabao milk. Dinner couldn't get any better.

"Thank you for the food!" Betoy went straight towards the fish, but Tina instantly halted him with his palm. She gave him a death stare,

"Pray first kuya!" She grunted.

"Oh right."

They sang the family prayer, this time they sang it together. It sounded horrible. Not because, Betoy had a hideous voice, but because his voice overwhelmed the other two voices, and also he was singing way too fast. Betoy was either making fun of it or was too excited. Tina thought it was both. She was about to get him a piece of her mind when even Kanor was snickering throughout the song because of Betoy's failed attempt of singing. Betoy was clearly disrespecting the family prayer but if Kanor was okay with it, she was okay with it too.

Betoy had his eyes on the grilled Tilapia and wet his lips aggressively. He looked around and the only main dish on the table was fish. Shwouldn't like eating her own kind, and thanks to Kanor, the only food served on the table was grilled Tilapia. Betoy gave an asking stare to Kanor, pointing at the food. Kanor only answered with a facepalm while mouthing the f word.

"What is she going to eat, tomatoes and rice? Not a bad combination but still!" he mumbled. Betoy reverted to the fish he was looking at earlier only to see it was gone.

"You want some?" Tina asked, offering him half a plate of grilled fish. She stuffed a slice of it inside her mouth.

He was stunned and stared at the plate for a moment before making eye contact again, "Yeah, sure. Would you also pass the milk please, thanks!"

Betoy poured the milk unto his rice, he poured a little bit too much, it overflowed and the milk spilled on the floor.

"My milk!" He cried out in the most dramatic way as possible.

Tina formed a smirk. She didn't want to pass the opportunity to say,

"There's no use…" She snickered a bit, "There's no use crying over spilled milk!"

She then laughed to her own joke.

The big brother gave a defeated smile to his little sister and didn't say anything. He sat properly and continued eating. The little sister's laughter faded away, ending it with an awkward cough. She turned to her sibling in silence before she went back to her plate.

Silence kicked in.

A familiar awkward silence that Betoy didn't want to encounter ever again.

His hands clenched and his teeth gritted. There was an inwards shiver over his head.

"You know who you remind me of?" Betoy asked.

"Who?" Tina replied, knowing that she recently made a horrible joke.

"You remind me of my waifu!"

Tina gave him a deadpan stare in reply.

After Dinner, the two siblings crashed inside the sleeping tent with chest flat on the ground. The tent was so spacious that it had enough space to include Betoy's favorite anime merchandise inside and even more for him to set up his laptop, the tent nearly represented his room back inside the house. Betoy paused the video they were watching, exactly to the frame of an anime girl with pigtails, identical in appearance to Betoy's favorite big-headed action figure, favorite stuffed-toy, favorite love pillo—

He turned toward his sister, "repeat after me." Betoy gave a stern look. Tina nodded.

Betoy glanced at the anime girl for a second and reverted to his little sister. He gulped some air and,

"Onii-chan, say it." He ordered.

"Onii… -chan." Tina followed.

Finally, the girl spoke the language that is destined to her! Betoy was at least a little satisfied, he managed to get his little sister to say the words a real little sister would say.

She looked like someone who would say Onii-chan millions of times without it sounding stale.

But…

Her voice didn't fit at all.

She sounded like a 40-year old mother trying to appeal to her seventeen-year-old son.

…

…

…

Disgusting…

"Say it again, this time try to make your voice squeaky." Betoy gulped some air, "Onii-chan!" Betoy tried to make his voice as high as possible, sounding like a real 12-year-old girl.

Tina rolled her eyes, "Onii… Onii-chan."

"Onee-chan daisuki desu, repeat!"

"Onueeee-chan?"

"Oooneee-chaaan! Say it like that!"

"oOnEe – Cha--" Tina then coughed until her lungs came out, "What's the point of all this anyway?" She scowled.

He dashed his finger and pointed it at the screen with intense energy, "Because you look like her and now you have to speak like her as well!" He said.

Tina furrowed her brows in utter disgust. "Don't you dare compare me to that wannabe."

"Wannabe?" Betoy replied.

"Nobody, in God's name, would refer to themselves in third person every damn time! She's trying too hard to be ADORABLE it's sickening!" Tina stuck out her tongue in disgust.

She's a 40-year old alright… That foul mouth of hers should be cleansed with holy water.

Betoy frowned, "You're lucky to be compared to such an angel, you should be thankful!" He jutted out a finger at Tina, "I have you know, she had votes to be 'best girl of the year' last year."

"How many votes did she get?"

"One thousand two hundred thirty-four."

"And how many times did you vote?"

"One thousand two hundred thirty-four…"

Betoy shifted his stare to his beloved angel, smiling, winking at him from his laptop screen. He gazed at each one of his merchandise which were actually made by a talented friend, and were not bought in stores like other figurines, stuff-toys and body pillows. As if companies would make something out of someone so irrelevant.

He reverted to his semi-cute little sister, "I had no choice, she was handicapped before the waifu wars even started."

Tina's slight tilt of the head made it look like she was curious. Somehow, she already knew what 'the waifu wars' was, just like how she knows about other things she shouldn't have known, like how to adjust your seatbelt. "How is she handicapped? Besides mentally of course."

Noticing Tina's curiosity and ignoring her insult completely, Betoy's narrowed eyes moistened. His hands were clenched as he looked down in agony. "She only has one episode of screen-time."

"Good Lord how terrible." Tina didn't even try to hide her sarcasm.

"Yes, it is. If only she had more screen-time, then she'd win best girl of the year for sure." Betoy faced the screen again and gave a half-hearted smile. "But I think it's better this way." His tears started falling. "The anime is already great as it is. I don't reeeally know what'll happen if she got the screen-time more than she already got…"

As her big brother continued rambling, Tina opened her mouth as if she were going to say another sarcastic response, but nothing came out. Betoy was full of emotion. Every word that came out of his mouth were filled with sincerity as though he was talking about something so serious. The still-existing half-hearted smile on his face, his moistened eyes, his fingers fidgeting, not to mention his breaths every time he makes a pause that reaches her ears, were all saying that she should take this conversation seriously. She zipped her mouth shut and continued listening.

Betoy directed his eyes upward at the tent ceiling, as if looking at the sky. "Have you ever heard of the saying 'You don't know what you've got until it's gone'? I should've appreciated her more while she's there, little did I know she won't be appearing next episode."

Tina's gaze fell to the laptop screen where the girl in question was.

"Did she… Die?"

"Huh, die?" He spat out in bewilderment. "N… No, you've got it all wrong, she's not dead." Betoy said bluntly as he waved his hands in response.

Because of his weird body language, Tina was even more confused.

"What happened to her then?"

"Someone else took the spotlight." Betoy said.

Just by looking at her face, she wasn't satisfied with the answer. He scratched the back of his head and turned away as if thinking of a way to explain. A few seconds went by and he shifted back to his little sister.

"This anime focuses on characters who experience dreams that would change their lives forever… There was an episode where the main focus, spoiler alert, slept only for a night but experience a whole life in a body of a dog!" He paused, thought of what to say and then continued.

"In these dreams the main characters are having, the main characters experience phenomena such as seeing or living through their future, switch bodies with another person, experience other presents, being sent back in time, cross to another world and other weird things that would lead them to become a better version of themselves."

"There was no need to continue her story since she was already developed enough." Tina concluded the long explanation.

"Right!" Betoy sighed in relief. Usually, explaining the complicated premise of his favorite anime would take minutes, but Tina understood like she had already heard of it before. His little sister showed a sweet smile.

"This is the kind of anime I would want to watch." She said.

"Not now." Betoy wiggled a finger, "We have something reeeally reeeally important to do." A grin present on his face. He glanced to the laptop screen to look at his beloved angel again.

Betoy cleared his throat,

"Repeat after me."

"Oh my heavenly God not this shit again."

"Onii-chan!"

"Oh knee-chan!"

"Onee-chan!"

"Oh neh-chan!"

After a few more 'onii-chans', Betoy's grin on his face slowly disappeared and it gradually turned into an unsatisfied frown. His little sister who is actually a 40-year old mother is not qualified to be the wind chimes to his ears that he really wanted. That voice of hers… Damn that voice of hers really was a pain to hear when heard coming out from the mouth of a 12-year-old girl who looks like a 9-year-old.

But he shouldn't give up…

'If life give you lemons, you make lemonades.' They say.

Life gave him a little sister.

Then he should train this little sister of his to be a little sister.

A real one.

"Obviously your voice doesn't fit…" Betoy turned his laptop off and crawled out of the tent,

"But I know where it does fit."

Tina rolled her eyes and groaned, "What is it this time?"