Everything started at the second day of summer holidays.

It was a fine day of July, Ran just left a group gathering with her classmates that she won't be seeing anytime soon for the following two months as each one of them would be in family trip somewhere in the world, far from sweet old Belgium.

She was not one of them as both her parents would be working and her brother was still in Japan not yet on school vacancy due to Japanese system being quite rigorous. 

Though not in need of money, her parents were quite the vigorous citizens that wanted to financially contribute in the economy of the country that welcomed them. It didn't bother her much, her mother did spend the first years just raising her and Rei utill they were autonomous enough by teenager. She's now all grown up and she still had Tachibana-san's company if she ever feel lonely, though the old man need his well deserved break at his old age.

Wanting to stay outside for a while, she spent some more time in the public park surfing on the internet and sending ludicrous pictures to her parents who would answer her by different amount of time. Her mother then requested her to buy grosseries for tonight's dinner and she complied because she could do that at the very least as she didn't start to work and was still under their responsibility.

And unlike her now former classmates, she didn't apply to any university for advances studies, wanting to stop at high school as it was compulsory to go school till 18 in Belgium. She didn't have any plan for her future either and both her parents were quite laxist about it so she's allowed to roam freely for two months of summer.

She didn't notice it at first.

The supermarket was a public place and it wasn't that strange to cross the same people a lot of time. What started to become a lot more creepy was that she saw the same cropped hair with the same cold eyes on the same pale face a few meters behind her while pretending to window shopping the bakery.

She had to gather every brave nerves of her to not make a scene right there and took some detours before heading home, fearing she might be attacked just in front of the building or that the stalker would ever take notice of her address.

But no mistake, the man was still following her.

She started to fret as she was moving far away from her usual location and was losing track of what part of Brussels she was. Then, couldn't holding it anymore, and with her feet swelling, she localized a group of friend in front of a bar and wrapped her arms around the first girl in reach.

"Please help me," she tried to whisper loud enough for the group to hear as she's way too small for her age.

They only hesitated for a second before greeting her and teasing her for being late. They then welcomed her to take seat with the others of their group who already ordered their drinks.

Once inside, they had to check she was in age to drink. Though she reassured them that it was the case, she ordered a juice before thanking them by paying their drinks. She then called her father to ask him to get her as she had no idea where she was and how to get home anymore.

"Papa? Hey, you're finished right? Would you perhaps be able to pick me up? Yeah, no, we had an after and I'm a the bar... The name of the bar?"

She had to ask the bartender the name and the address of the place.

"OK, see you, papa!"

She waited by staying with the group who was getting louder and louder as they're downing their beer. She eventually received her father's text and beamed obviously for the group to see. They greeted her again and she disappeared out of the door when she saw her father's car stopping in front of the shop. If she forgot her drink, she grabbed her grosseries bag with dear life and was waving her father with it.

"Papa, thank you for coming!"

Her father, Sakura Renji, smiled through the rolled down car window, unlocking the door for her.

She just had the time to grab the handle before feeling herself being yanked on the side.

Someone was grabbing her bag and would have snatched it if Ran wasn't holding it as tight.

Except, the mugger was much taller and stronger than her and literally lifted her up while still trying to steal her grosseries bag.

"Ran!"

She barely heard her father's cry under her own distressed scream. She's aware she'd better let go of the bag and rather save her life and get out unscathed but by the speed they were going, she feared that she will end up injured anyway, so she tightened her grasp on the bag.

Suddenly, everything stopped.

The mugger got arrested and she with him. She fell on her feet like a cat and heard struggling above her to see a man having the mugger in locking. As the delinquant kept struggling, her savior blocked him in head lock and almost asphyxiated him.

Ran hold her breath when their eyes met and couldn't break it off till her father came. She answered the hug with as much force and almost forgot everything around them until the police came to take the mugger. By then, her savior had vanished. But not in Ran's memory.

Because her savior was her stalker.

After that, she had to give her statement to the police but her parents insisted that she stay in the house for awhile. To recover, they said.

Not that she felt that upset, it was only a mugger attempt. She got lucky, but it was quite traumatizing, to be honest. She never felt that helpless and the feeling to be transported like ragged bag weighing nothing.

She should have been more serious during karate lessons.

A week passed, with her spending all the time with Tachibana-san indoor and she almost had to beg her parents to allow her outside as she felt caged. Her parents accepted under the conditions that she would be accompanied by Tachibana-san whenever she's stepping outside.

She knew she was acting childish and since she wasn't even working like a responsible adult, she had no say in this. And she couldn't even say she was an independant woman as she's the one who wanted to be tied to her parents and Tachibana-san that she saw like a grandfather.

"Ta-san, do you want me to prepare the dinner earlier?"

"Please do so, Ran-san. I would like to help you since your mother will be home soon but my lumbago is acting up."

"Don't worry, Ta-san, I'll take care of it. Rest like the doctor said, I'll call you up when kaasan would be here."

Of course, being that old, it was a little difficult for the man to learn French, let alone Dutch or Deutch, but he did make an admirable effort in learning English since he was taking care of Renji in his teenhood like an actual butler and would exchange in the language with the family members once outside. Indoor, they kept it in Japanese.

So, Ran cooked the dinner and was waiting for her mother's return as her father would come home late due to his last architecture project he's working for a company. Her mother worked as saleswoman in a private brand of feminine mode and even made her own brand of Japanese traditional clothing by following her parents' footstep back in Japan. Grandparents that neither Ran nor Rei had much contact, although Rei would have more chance now that he's back in their home country.

As she finished the rubik's cube with twelve faces and the mahjong solitaire on the side, she heard the door lock in action and get up to welcome her mother.

She stopped right on her track upon seeing her unconscious mother in some strangers' arms.

Her breath got caught in her throat and she was unable to look at the man's face as her eyes kept being drawn on her mother's limp form. Suddenly, he spoke up with a low voice.

"Keep it down and nothing more would happen to her."

His words, in English, were slow and succincts.

Ran would have appreciated the slight difference that he added so to nuance how he won't harm more her mother as she's already, you know, unconscious. But right now, even if she wanted to, she couldn't get out a word without breaking it down.

Calling for help wouldn't help, as the neighbor was an elderly woman and the other person at reach was Ta-san who's as old. She couldn't either run to the kitchen and find a weapon as her mother was held on hostage, so she nodded obediently.

"Would you like a drink? Or, you know, to hydrate my mother."

Wordlessly, he entered in the apartment and put her mother on the sofa, making sure not to step on her scattered tiles or even the uneven rubik's cube. Ran could only close the door and ran to her mother's side, making sure she's still alive.

She was.

Relieved, she turned to the intruder, who disappeared in the corridors. Suddenly worried for her grandfather figure's safety, she went after him. Thankfully, he only progressed to the centre, seeming lost in the middle of closed doors.

"Which one is yours?"

"W- why?"

"You're going to pack your bag for a trip. Take all the furnitures you need and write a note to say you're leaving for an undetermined period of time."

Ran wanted to argue.

A stranger assaulted her mother mid-evening, she didn't eat, the same stranger was telling her to pack a bag to follow him and making it look like she's going willingly on travel, something she would never do without her parents' consent, while both her mother and grandfather was in the apartment unaware of said stranger's presence.

To add more inability on her part, he raised a stun gun.

"Do it or I'll find that old man leaving under this roof with you and stun him. Just so you know, if any elder got touched by an electroshock devise at their age, it could be lethal for them."

Now, blackmail. And a very effective one. While her mother might recover being still young and not yet middle age, Tachibana-san would probably not survive being in his 60s.

"What kind of clothes do I take?"

"Just for the warm weathers. And bring your identity documents. Where do you keep your blank paper?"

She directed him the cupboard at the end of the hallway where the family kept papers and all the stationeries and went to pack some summer clothes in one sport bag. When she headed to the bathroom to take her skincare creams, he told her to leave her socks behind and to straight up throw away her toothbrush.

Though not understanding, she obeyed and put her cream in the bag before having a blank paper shoved at her. She started writing a neutral note to not arise suspicion and made sure to also write it in Japanese so her family will know it was really her and finally signed it with her name in Kanji.

The man checked the note and made sure to wipe the pen of her fingerprints, same for her playthings, before taking her phone and telling her to move along.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat before going? I mean, surely, you've been seen entering in the complex apartment and leaving as soon you enter would be weird, no?"

"Grab a container and pack yourself a bento or whatever you call it but be quick."

Funny how he didn't say anything about him.

Anyway, Ran did so and also grabed a bottle of water among all the packs they bought for storage. She also put one on the table beside her mother unconscious form and rearranged her hair while engraving her face in her mind before going to the man's side.

At the door, he told her to take her set of keys with her.

She almost shit on herself at that.

All the time he was in her house, he could have done so many thing but he only ordered her around like an organizer preparing a trip. Him seeing her house key wouldn't change anything but the fact was that he intruded by attacking one resident. All in all, he didn't act like a robber as he just told Ran to take her belongings and herself but the whole thing was just too unreal.

Eventually, Ran took her set of key, noticing how the one of mother that she retrieved earlier on the lock was hung beside the one of her brother's and Tachibana-san's. It only missed his father's and hers.

Ran closed the door, a sport bag on her back, and followed the stranger far from home.