Maki and Yumi decided to cut the shopping short, and went their separate ways to go home. Though, the pink haired girl made sure her bestfriend was okay to go home by herself first before leaving. Finally, Maki had made it home and put on a brave face for her family as she walked into her run down place they called a house.

"I'm home." She said, trying to sound cheerful, but failed miserably. Her younger brother, Kai was in the living room, reading a comic book he got many years ago.

"Isn't that your one hundredth time reading that?"

"One hundred and fifth, actually."

He said back with a sigh as he looked up at his big sister as she gave a small frown, muttering something along the lines of getting him another when she gets some money.

Her brother, was only fourteen and got into some trouble not long after their father had died. Their mother had a hard time making money with her job and Kai felt that it was his duty to support them since he was now the man of the house. But how smart could a fourteen year old boy be? He couldn't get a job, and he had school. So he decided to get in touch with some people who could help him out. Little did he know, he was messing with bad people. A gang to be more specific.

He borrowed money from them, and promised to pay them back when he could. But he never could, he didn't think that far ahead. The gang showed up, trashed their house, and took anything that was remotely valuable and left. And Kai had been forced to join the gang as collateral to pay off the rest of the debt.
Now here they were. The family of three, struggling through life all because of that gang and the leader, forced to live with their grandparents because they lost everything they had. Maki hated them, and hated how they treated her little brother and swore that she would find a way out of this mess. She got a part time job in the evenings to pay them, so their mother didn't have to waste all of her money on her brothers stupid mistake.

Maki sighed slightly but smiled as she patted her brother on the head,

"Everything will be fine. I'll take care of it."
She told him this every day, yet he started to believe it less and less, knowing that the gang was getting more and more angry for not being paid back all of what they were owed. They said they would start taking away things they loved, or that they'll start to hurt people he loved till they got their money back. Kai was getting scared, but never dared to tell his mom or his sister what they were saying. He didn't want them to freak out. He had to do something about this. But what?

"Kai? Kai!" Maki snapped him out of his thoughts as he blinked and looked up at her, grunting a simple what in response. She told him to go eat some dinner while she got dressed for her job. Their mom was still out at work, most likely on a night shift. He listened and went to eat as Maki went up stairs.
The floor boards creaked with every step she took till she was finally in her room. She let down her strong sister persona and flopped onto her bed, letting out a big grunt.

"That stupid gang.. It took everything from us. I'll make them pay. I won't let them get away with this!" She growled slightly but soon let it go once she saw the clock, noticing she was going to be late for work. She quickly got dressed and ran down the stairs yelling goodbye to her brother as she booked it out the door. And went towards her job.

Maki thought to herself,
will I be able to get my family out of this? What will happen if I can't do anything? What will they do to Kai? To me?

Meeting her soulmate was the least of her problems. She practically forgot about it. She was more worried about her family than some random person she just met. But she was being naive. She didn't know what was going to come in the future. Just who was her soulmate?