14. 

Backstory 2...

Arrow walks up to his room, only to see in the long hallways their maid Shelly leaning against Astrid's closed door, her face is the look of sadness, but when she sees Arrow walking towards her through the corner of her eye, she quickly begins sweeping, smiling at him as he comes close to her.

"Hello Arrow." She keeps smiling, but Arrow replies with, "I'm not smiling, why are you smiling at me?" 

She stops sweeping saying, "well, what was I supposed to do? I'm happy whenever I see you guys." "Don't be, don't let your job make you a phony, I hate phonies the most, especially when they come from someone as sweet as you."

Arrow opens Astrid's door, walking in her room and then closing the door, leaving Shelly with only his words.

Astrid looks up surprised saying, "you could have knocked?" 

"Why were you crying?" 

"Huh? Crying?" Astrid quickly wipes away her tears with her long black sleeves, almost looks like she's wearing a shirt twice her size, and a boy shirt on top of that, actually baggy pants too, and a grey cap on. 

"I know you were crying, you've been sad like this all day, you do realize that our sign language teacher is coming tonight, act right, okay?"

Arrow starts to leave, but Astrid grabs his sleeve saying, "at least let me tell you why I'm sad, please?" Arrow sits beside her by her bed saying, "I'm all ears." 

"Well...Um..." Astrid lingers on as if hesitating to speak.

"Astrid? I don't have all day." She grabs his arm again, saying, "wait? It's from my dream this morning, I'm trying to recap it, so don't leave yet you meanie." 

"Meanie?" 

"Yeah, like Mrs. Puff, any-who! In my dream, I saw...My sister." She looks at him with sad eyes again, then continues saying, "she and I were walking down a street with lots of stores, people, and signs so bright like a bunch of T.V screens, I think they were actually." 

"So was it like Tokyo, Las Vegas, Times Square, or..." 

"Stop, Arrow." 

She laughs a little, then she continues saying, "anyways, my twin sister and I were with two people, I'm guessing my biological mom and dad. We were happy, and she and I had toys and lollipops, with us holding hands, happily, we probably were Celsius's age."

Astrid starts to look sad again, holding on to Arrow saying, "then everything disappeared after she called my name, my other name, Ma-Wae, so I'm guessing it was Seoul, cause I called her back saying, "Sa-Young, I didn't know how to feel when I woke up, I just got emotional all day, and I begin to cry once we finished schooling, I feel so weird telling you this though, as my brother, sometimes I question if...Sa-Young really died the way mom and dad said she did, was she really that sick? That it killed her?" 

Astrid looks to Arrow with helpless eyes, eyes begging for an answer, all this Arrow can see, but instead, not knowing himself, tells her, "we will figure out what happened to your sister, just like how I was taken from my grandparents, who were willing to take care of me, but, their are a lot of unanswered questions here."

Astrid gives an sly smile, then turns around, in a now crisscross position, putting her hands to her chin, saying cutely, "what about you Arrow? Remember any of your family? Huh...?"

She leans her head back and forth waiting for an answer, then Arrow, as he looks at her, wanting her to stop moving almost, he finally says, "I don't dream about my family, there is no need, even though you can't control what you dream about, I sure can control what I think about, and our thoughts influence our dreams, each and every day. Not saying I don't think about my family....But..." He looks away for a second, then he turns to Astrid, with a strict and stoic face saying calmly, "I keep them in my memories, and my memories are enough to remember how good they were."

Astrid sits next to him saying, "at least memories are reality," She looks at him saying, "I see were you are coming from." 

"I know, I'm glad you get it."

"Thanks for listening, Arrow." Astrid leans her head on Arrow's shoulder saying, "but sometimes your seriousness is a bit much for a kid, seriously, we have got to enjoy being kids."

"Yeah yeah." Arrow says back to Astrid, not able to tell if he's serious or playful.