The Diary of Modern Cinderella

Chapter 1-2

“It looks like she’s already here,” dad says to me. That’s when I notice a woman comes towards our direction. And she’s also bringing another girl with her. She seems a bit older than me. Maybe she’s a high schooler. Are they the one that dad is referring to? Dad is waving at them when they’re coming near us. So, I guess it’s true that they’re the one that we’re going to meet now.

Both of them take a seat after that. The girl then looks at my direction and smiles at me. I have no idea who she is. But it doesn’t hurt to smile back at her. It doesn’t cost me anything, anyway. “Risa, I’d like you to meet Ms. Riko Sakuraba and her daughter, Chiyu. I know that it may seem sudden to you, but we have seen each other for quite sometimes already. We even plan to get married as well. In fact, grandma already gave her blessing to me,” dad says to me.

Now I understand why dad seems enthusiastic to bring me to the amusement park. And it makes sense why grandma was hinting me about it back then. Sure, he honestly wants to bring me here. But his reason for bringing me here is more about introducing his new girlfriend to me. I become speechless when I find out about it. It’s even more surprising that he blurts out about their plan to get married. Even Ms. Sakuraba’s daughter seems surprised with the news as well.

“Wait, I don’t get it,” I protest, “How do you guys know each other? You never told me anything about you meeting someone.” Both of them blush when I ask them. “Well, we met on a group blind date. At that time, my single subordinates were pestering me to join them. They didn’t have enough people on the guys’ side. I agreed to tag along because I doubted that any of the girls would be interested in someone like me. So, I didn’t expect anything,” dad answers.

Both of us find it hard to believe that dad would meet Ms. Sakuraba in such situation. We thought that only high school and college kids would go for something like that. Well, it’s not that grown-ups will never go on a group blind date. But it seems bizarre for someone like dad who ends up with a new girlfriend. Now I begin to wonder how his subordinates would feel when they found out about it.

“To be honest, I felt awkward when my friends wanted me to join them. But I felt relieved when I realized that I wasn’t the only person who felt that way. It felt even more reassuring when I found out that he was a single father with a daughter. We clicked with each other only because we had something in common,” Ms. Sakuraba continues.

Chiyu clears her throat after both of them are done with telling their story. “Well, that’s great to know how you two met,” she says, “But I still feel frustrated that you’ve been keeping this secret from us. Mom only told me about seeing Mr. Akagi and his daughter. I never thought that there was something special between the two of you. You should be punished for what you did to us.” She then turns to me, smirking. “Your name is Risa, correct? What do you think about this idea? Don’t you think they should be punished for keeping a secret from us?”

For some weird reason, I seem to be in alignment with Chiyu’s idea without any hesitation. “Well, that’s not a bad idea,” I reply, “I was thinking about having dad to take a roller coaster ride. This place seems to have a ride that isn’t for the faint-hearted. I’m going to punish him for that.” I then look at dad. “Don’t worry. You won’t be riding it alone. Ms. Sakuraba will ride together with you.”

Chiyu laughs when she sees that I share the same thought like her. “Wow, that’s a good idea. As for my mom, I’m going to punish her by forcing her to enter the haunted house. Like your punishment, Mr. Akagi will go inside with her. I think that Mr. Akagi is okay with the haunted house, right?” I giggle at her. “It shouldn’t be a problem for someone like dad. Well, he’s the superintendent of the criminal investigation division in Yokohama Police Department. He has seen something far more terrifying than that.”

Both dad and Ms. Sakuraba seem paranoid when we’re punishing them according to their fear. Well, there’s nothing I can do about it. They should have told us about their relationship. We won’t be this merciless if they admit to us about their relationship in the first place. After telling them about their punishment, we then head to the haunted house first. It’s a bit far from the food court. But then again, we want to save the best punishment for the last.

We head inside the haunted house when it’s our turn to enter. As expected, Ms. Sakuraba seems to be terrified of the fake ghosts. Both Chiyu and I don’t find anything spooky about the haunted house, though. But it can be too much for someone like her. Dad seems calm when we’re inside. He’s hugging Ms. Sakuraba tightly to calm her down. That’s when I begin to realize that dad does love her as much as he loves me, seeing how much he cares about her.

Ms. Sakuraba looks pale once we’re already outside of the haunted house. It must be way too scary for her that she becomes so white. I grin at dad once we reach our next destination. And that is our roller coaster ride. Dad seems petrified when he sees the length of the track. Not only the roller coaster track is long, but it also has a few whirlwind tracks. Besides that, the track also goes underneath too.

“Have fun,” I say to dad as we buckle up for the roller coaster ride. Like Ms. Sakuraba, dad already becomes pale even before the roller coaster starts to move. The whole ride takes about 10 to 15 minutes. While everyone is having fun, it’s a hellish experience for dad during the 15 minutes of the roller coaster ride. After all, he can get motion sickness with riding a roller coaster that easily.

Dad barely stands up after the roller coaster ride. Not only that, he barely walks straight. As a result, he has to sit down for a while until he no longer feels dizzy. Ms. Sakuraba lets him rest on her lap when she sees dad in his worst shape. Somehow, they don’t feel embarrassed at all to show how lovey-dovey they are. I assume that they’ll be a bit reserved when they’re with us. But they don’t seem to care about it. They want to show to us how much they love each other.

Chiyu and I take a seat nearby while waiting for dad to recover. Both of us remain silent until Chiyu starts to speak up. “I’m amazed that they’re willing to take the punishment without worrying about looking like a fool. At first, I thought that they were willing to do it because of guilt. But I began to realize that they wanted to show to us that they were serious about this relationship. I guess that they’re not kidding when they say that they want to get married.”

I nod my head. Like Chiyu, I also notice the same thing. I bet that dad already expects that I’ll be angry at him for keeping something crucial away from me. But he knows that I won’t be mad for long. Even if I do, he knows that I’ll be enjoying myself in the end. After all, I have someone else tagging along with me. “So, you’re okay with having my dad as your stepfather?” I ask Chiyu.

She chuckles when I ask her about it. “Well, what about you then? Can you accept my mom as your stepmother? Most importantly, will you be able to accept me as your stepsister?” I can’t help but chuckle at her questions too. “Well, I do have the same concern as you. But since you ask me whether I can accept you or not, I guess that I should be frank with you then. To be honest, you’re not that bad. So, I don’t mind to have you as my stepsister.”

Chiyu seems surprised when she hears my answer, though. “I don’t expect that you can accept me that easily. But I’m glad that you do. Like you, I’m accepting you as my stepsister with an open arm. We may not get along very well in the beginning. But I do know that we can foster our relationship if we try. But after seeing you were on board with my idea, I guess that we can get along very well even before they get married.”

We both laugh at each other, as if we find it funny. We then begin to talk about each other since we’re going to be in the same family sooner or later. That’s when I find out that Chiyu is a manager for the basketball team in her school. Sure, they’ve lost the preliminaries for Inter High. But she knows that the team will never give up and will eventually make it to Inter High.

I even tell her about my penchant for arts. She even encourages me to enter Minagawa Academy since she has a friend who is prolific in arts. Well, I’m currently considering to enter Minagawa Academy since it’s quite near from our house. But after talking to Chiyu, I’ve decided to choose Minagawa Academy as my high school. Another reason for that is Chiyu is there as well. So, it’s going to be much easier for me since she’s in the same school as I am.

As we’re busy talking, dad and Ms. Sakuraba approaches us. “We’re going to the food court now. My head still feels dizzy. But I will feel much better after I have something to eat. Riko wants to get an ice cream. So, she’ll be coming to the food court later,” dad says to us. “If that’s the case, then I’ll come along with Ms. Sakuraba. I also want to get an ice cream too,” I say to him. Dad nods at me, allowing me to go and buy the ice cream with Ms. Sakuraba.

Both Ms. Sakuraba and I are heading to the ice cream shop while Chiyu and dad are heading to the food court. “Risa, you don’t have to be so formal to me. You can call me Ms. Riko. That should be enough. It feels weird when my soon-to-be stepdaughter is addressing me by my old surname,” she says to me. I nod at her, making a mental note that I’ll be calling her Ms. Riko from now onwards.

After a long walk, we finally reach the ice cream shop. There are a few people who are lining up to buy an ice cream. Ms. Riko seems like she’s not feeling well. So, I’ve decided to buy the ice cream for her instead. She then sits on the bench which is near the ice cream shop. I hope that it won’t take that long for the ice cream shop to serve the queue. It’s getting hot out here. And I don’t know how long I can last in such a hot weather.

As I’m lining up to buy the ice cream, I suddenly hear a loud scream. The scream seems to be not far from where I am. Feeling curious, I’ve decided to take a look. It turns out to be that the scream comes from Ms. Riko. She looks like she’s terrified of something. And she keeps on using her handbag and flapping it into the air, as if she’s trying to get rid of something. She must be trying to get rid of bugs around her. But I don’t see any bugs anywhere in that area.

“What’s going on, Ms. Riko?” I ask her when I come near her. “I saw a black butterfly,” she replies without hesitation, “And it keeps on coming near me. I don’t know where this black butterfly is coming from. And I don’t get why it keeps bothering me. So, please help me get rid of it.” She keeps on flapping her designer handbag, trying to get rid of the black butterfly. I know it may seem crazy, but I don’t see any black butterfly. I don’t even see a fly, let alone something prominent like a black butterfly.

“Ms. Riko, are you sure that there’s a black butterfly around you? I don’t see anything,” I say to her. Ms. Riko seems confused when I tell her that I don’t see any black butterfly flying around. “Are you sure you don’t see any black butterfly? How can you not see any? Are you sure you don’t have any problem with your eyesight?” I shake my head since I don’t see any black butterfly at all. At the same time, I become insulted with her remark about my eyesight.

People around us are looking at her like she’s some kind of a mad lady. She keeps on insisting about the black butterfly while still flapping her handbag. She’s trying to get rid of something that doesn’t even exist. I understand about her concern with the black butterfly. After all, a black butterfly symbolizes death in many cultures. If the black butterfly is heading towards that person, it means that this person will die soon. Ms. Riko must be terrified of death. And that’s the reason why she’s trying so hard to get rid of it.

Ms. Riko stops flapping her handbag around after a while and turns to me. “I don’t get why you can’t see the black butterfly. But that’s okay. It’s not that the black butterfly is harming me and everyone else here. Even if I’m the only one who can see it, I still feel embarrassed with my behavior. Since it seems erratic to some people, I hope that you don’t tell anyone about what you witness, especially your dad. I don’t want him to worry about this silly superstition and cancel off our wedding.”

She leaves me after that. I become dumbfounded after witnessing her unexplainable behavior. To be honest, I don’t get why she’s behaving like that. I try to convince myself that she’s only over-exaggerating and won’t behave weirdly after this. But somehow, I have a strong feeling that the same thing will happen to her again. And it’s only the beginning.