Tokyo adored the Yakosobis.
They were the banners that fluttered over streets, the faces that appeared on glossy magazine covers, the voices that dominated podiums and screens. A man and a woman, powerful and admired, paragons of ambition.
But in the Yakosobi mansion a sprawling estate of marble, glass, and silence they were ghosts.
The only ones who lived inside its hollow halls were the twins: Aqua Yakosobi and Anna Yakosobi.
The dining table could seat twenty, but only two chairs were ever filled.
Anna drummed her fingers against the polished wood, staring across the vast distance at her brother. She leaned forward, chin in her palms, her violet eyes glowing with mischief.
"You know, Aqua," she said, "if you keep eating one grain of rice at a time, by the time you finish dinner, the sun will rise."
Aqua, seated perfectly straight, lifted his gaze from his plate. His golden hair caught the light of the chandelier, but his eyes were calm, unamused.
"And if you keep skipping vegetables," he replied flatly, "you'll end up in a hospital bed before the year is over."
Anna gasped theatrically, clutching her chest. "Ouch. Cold words from my very own twin. You really are an old man trapped in a teenager's body."
Aqua did not smile. He simply continued eating, silent, methodical.
Anna, however, grinned wider. "Do you even know how creepy it is, the way you just sit there? You don't laugh. You don't talk. Sometimes I wonder if you're even alive."
"Alive enough to notice you haven't done your homework this week," Aqua said without looking up.
Her mouth dropped open. "You spied on me!"
"I didn't have to. You leave your books open on the sofa."
Anna pouted, her cheeks puffing like a child's. Then, after a moment, she sighed and poked at her untouched vegetables.
"You sound just like Mom."
"Mom doesn't care what you eat."
The words slipped out, blunt and heavy, before Aqua could stop them. Silence followed. The clinking of utensils faded. Even the rain outside the tall windows seemed to hush.
Anna stared at him, her smile faltering. Then, slowly, it returned not as playful as before, but soft, almost fragile.
"Well… that's why I have you, isn't it?"
Aqua's chopsticks paused mid-air. He looked at her properly this time. For once, she wasn't teasing.
She meant it.
Later that night, Aqua sat in his room surrounded by books. Ancient philosophy, history, essays no one his age should care about. He liked them. They were quiet. They didn't lie.
A knock came at his door.
"Aqua," Anna's voice called.
He didn't answer.
The door creaked open anyway. Anna tiptoed in, golden hair damp from her shower, still humming the silly tune she'd been singing at dinner. She plopped herself onto his bed and sprawled across it like she owned it.
"You're not welcome here," Aqua said without looking up.
"Good thing I never asked for permission," she shot back, grinning.
He sighed, closing his book. "What do you want?"
"To talk."
"You already talk enough for two lifetimes."
Anna laughed, rolling over onto her stomach, kicking her legs in the air. "You're so boring. You don't talk to anyone at school, you don't play, you don't laugh. Sometimes I think you'll grow wrinkles before graduation."
"I'd rather have wrinkles than regrets."
She blinked at him, tilting her head. "What regrets?"
"Trusting the wrong people. Making the wrong friends."
Anna groaned dramatically, burying her face into his blanket. "Not this again."
"You need to hear it again," Aqua said, his voice sharper now. "Those friends of yours they don't care about you the way you think. They smile when you're there, but when you're not, they talk. You don't see it because you don't want to."
Anna's face peeked up from the blanket. Her violet eyes met his, shining with a mix of frustration and affection.
"You're impossible, you know that?" she whispered.
"So are you."
For a moment, silence. Then Anna crawled across the bed, sat beside him, and leaned her head against his shoulder. Aqua stiffened, but didn't push her away.
"You don't have to like people, Aqua," she murmured, her voice softer now. "But don't hate them all. And whatever you do… don't hate me."
Aqua looked down at her golden hair resting on his shoulder. He didn't smile. He never smiled.
But he said, "I don't hate you."
And for Anna, that was enough.
The Yakosobi twins were always a spectacle.
When the sleek black car pulled up to the gates of Meishin Academy, heads turned. Cameras flashed. Whispers traveled like wind through the crowd of elite students gathered under the morning sun.
"Isn't that the Yakosobi car?"
"I heard their father is meeting the Prime Minister next week."
"Their mother's speech got half a million views online."
The children of the rich and powerful were used to privilege, but the Yakosobi name carried a weight that silenced even them.
The door opened.
Anna stepped out first, her golden hair catching the light like a halo, her violet eyes bright with laughter. She waved at the crowd as if she were born to be adored. And in a way, she was.
Aqua followed behind her. Same golden hair. Same violet eyes. But the resemblance ended there. Where Anna smiled, Aqua's expression was unreadable. Where she walked with energy, he moved with a calm that felt almost heavy. The air around him was colder, quieter.
He didn't look at the cameras. He didn't acknowledge the whispers. He simply adjusted the strap of his bag and walked on.
Anna blended effortlessly into the crowd of her friends, her voice already rising with laughter. She was surrounded in seconds, chattering, joking, linking arms with classmates who adored her.
Aqua, on the other hand, walked straight past them all and sat beneath a tree at the edge of the courtyard. He pulled out a book, opened it, and didn't look up again.
Students glanced his way. Some smirked, some whispered, some avoided his gaze entirely.
"That's the twin brother?"
"He doesn't talk to anyone."
"He thinks he's better than us."
Aqua ignored them. He always did.
At lunch, Anna carried her tray to her usual table, crowded with friends. The laughter there was constant, loud enough to fill the entire cafeteria. Her presence made her group brighter.
Across the room, Aqua sat alone. His tray untouched. His book open beside it.
"Why doesn't he just sit with Anna?" a student whispered.
"He's too weird."
"Maybe he thinks we're not good enough for him."
Anna noticed. She always noticed.
Excusing herself from her group, she picked up her tray and marched across the cafeteria. Without asking, she sat down beside Aqua.
"You look like a statue," she said, poking his cheek with her chopstick.
Aqua glanced at her, unimpressed. "And you look like you don't belong here."
"I belong wherever I want." She grinned, stealing one of his vegetables. "Besides, you can't sit alone forever. People will think you're a ghost."
"I don't care what they think."
"Yeah, yeah. Old man answer number twenty." She leaned closer, lowering her voice. "You know what they're saying about you? That you're scary."
"Good. That means they'll leave me alone."
Anna sighed, rolling her eyes. Then, after a moment, she smiled softly. "You're not scary to me."
Aqua didn't reply. But his chopsticks moved toward her tray, sliding the vegetable she had stolen back where it belonged.
Anna laughed.
That evening, as the mansion lights glowed and the city buzzed beyond its gates, Anna sprawled across the living room sofa, scrolling through her phone. Aqua sat in the corner with a book, the lamp casting shadows across his calm face.
Her friends had sent her pictures from school. Selfies, group shots, little hearts scribbled across the screen. Anna giggled as she typed back.
"You know," she said, "my friends asked about you today."
"Don't care."
"They think you're mysterious. Some of them even think you're… cute."
Aqua turned a page without reacting.
Anna smirked. "You should be grateful. Not everyone gets called cute by the prettiest girls in school."
"Not interested."
Anna groaned, throwing a cushion at him. "You're impossible!"
The cushion bounced off his shoulder. Aqua didn't even flinch.
Anna lay back down, shaking her head but smiling all the same. "One day, Aqua… one day you're going to smile, and I'll be the first to see it."
Aqua closed his book, his eyes steady, his voice low. "Don't wait for something that won't happen."
Anna only laughed, the sound bright and unshakable in the silence of the mansion.