Lara fell asleep on the couch while hugging her teddy bear, waiting for her sister, Aster. When she woke up, she heard someone in the kitchen and immediately ran towards the sound, thinking it was her sister.
When she got to the kitchen, Lara saw her sister cooking breakfast for them both. She lunged towards her sister and hugged her. “Aster, when did you come back? I have waited all night for you.” She said while pouting.
“Sorry, I was working late again. Don’t worry, today I will not go to work.” Aster said, while her face seemed unmoved.
“Really?! Yay! Then what are you going to do today?” She asked curiously.
“Today we'll go have fun. Where do you want to go?” Aster said unenthusiastically.
“Hmm. How about we go to an amusement park? The last time we went there was when Mom and Dad were alive.” She said with a hint of sadness.
“Sure. No problem. Let’s eat breakfast first before we get ready. Okay?” She said, keeping the same expression.
Lara nodded in excitement, and as they ate their breakfast, Lara couldn’t help but feel that something was going on with her sister. Whenever her sister talks, it’s as if there’s no emotion to it. Even when her sister is tired, Aster would still smile and show emotions, but today is different. She didn’t show any emotion at all. But Lara just ignored her feelings and continued eating breakfast. After all, they are going to have fun today.
After eating breakfast, Lara gets ready and goes to their car. On the way, Lara can’t help but talk about things she wants to do: “I want to try different rides and eat different food! How about you, Aster?” She asked enthusiastically.
“I’d do the same.” Again, Lara felt like her sister had run out of emotion. This made Lara go silent for a moment. “Is there something wrong?” Aster asked.
“Are you not excited? It’s alright if you don’t wanna go.” She said, feeling bothered.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m excited too.” Aster said with an expression of someone who was not excited.
Because of this, Lara just kept silent and thought of ways to make her sister happy when they got to their destination.
At the amusement park, Lara started running happily. After the accident, she and her sister were always mourning, but now, for Lara, this is the start of being happy again. Aster takes pictures of her sister enjoying herself. They eat, they try different rides, then eat again, and try a ride again. Lara, for the first time, was enjoying life again.
“Aster, Aster. Look, there’s a photobooth. Let’s take a picture.” She pointed at the booth.
“Sure.” The two of them went inside the booth.
Lara starts to pose while Aster just does a peace sign. And when all the photos develop, every picture is printed with a glare.
“Why is it so bright?” Lara wonders.
“I don’t know. Maybe let’s try again.” They take a picture again, and the result is the same.
“I think this booth is broken,” Lara said in disappointment.
“Maybe next time,” Aster suggested.
“Okay…” Lara felt disappointed with how the pictures turned out.
Despite that, they both continued to enjoy the rest of the day, or rather, Lara continued to enjoy the day. Even though Lara can’t help but feel like something is off about her sister, she still chooses to enjoy herself. Night came, and the two sisters went back home. Lara fell asleep on the way.
The next morning, Aster prepared breakfast for Lara and helped her get ready for school. Aster dropped her sister off at school and continued to go to work.
At work, people noticed Aster’s coldness towards them. She didn’t even greet them and just went straight to her office. This put the employees in unease, as if their boss had suddenly switched personalities. Even the secretary noticed something was off about his boss.
“Ma’am, here are the files.” The secretary handed some files to Aster.
“You can go now,” Aster said coldly. This made the secretary nervous. It felt like one wrong mistake, and his boss would snap at him.
Once outside, the other employees asked him. “So, how did it go?” they asked eagerly.
“She is scary. She’s so cold. Like she decided to wake up with a different personality. She didn’t even say thank you like she always did.” He said dejectedly.
The employees are murmuring to themselves, wondering about the sudden coldness of their once kind boss. Just to make sure, whenever Aster was around, they all didn't dare make unnecessary moves.
While in her office, Aster got a call. It was from her best friend, and she wanted to meet her at a nearby cafe after work. Aster agreed and met up with her friend. Her friend was already waiting at the cafe, and when she saw Aster, she waved at her.
“Took you long enough.” Her friend said teasingly. Aster didn’t reply; this made her friend confused since Aster would immediately make a joke about it. “Are you alright?” her friend asked worriedly.
“I’m fine,” Aster said in a neutral tone. Her friend couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong with her friend, but she ignored her feelings and continued to talk to her.
“Anyway, something happened today. Guess what.” She said eagerly while smiling.
“What?” She replied.
This made her friend pout. “I said guess.”
“No idea.” Her friend screwed up her face at Aster’s response.
“Girl, are you okay? What happened? Did someone ruin your day?” She was trying to find out if Aster was okay since she knew that Aster was still grieving the loss of her parents.
“Can you just tell?” Aster said. This sets off her friend. Even if Aster was upset about something, she would let her best friend know. But now Aster is acting like they are strangers; then she remembers something.
“What is my name?” She asked Aster.
“Jena,” Aster answered quickly. “I still have my memories, you know.”
“You sure? Cuz you don’t sound like yourself,” she said suspiciously.
“I’m just tired.” Aster tried to reassure her friend.
“Then how about we watch a movie? A horror movie! You in?” She said, waiting for an answer.
“Sure, what movie?” This answer made Jena’s heart drop.
This isn’t Aster. The real Aster would rather lock herself in her room than watch scary movies with her. But she can’t let the fake Aster know, so Jena asks her to watch movies after her work is done, and Aster agrees.
After they meet up, Jena is worried because if that Aster was fake, then where is the real one? And so she decides to go along with the fake Aster to get more information.
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