The warm feeling of summer lingered at her uncle's place, but even on dreary days filled with rain—

"I like your hair."

Haru remembered pressing together her mouth at her cousin's greeting, whether she'd just arrived at her uncle's home or whether one of them had just entered the room, always hiding her childish amusement at the strange greeting. "Why?"

"Because it's red," she remembered her not-Ryo cousin saying. "Red's my favorite color."

She knew all too well that was his favorite color just as Haru knew not-Ryo helped create the warmth that always lingered at her uncle's place, a stark contrast to the rest of the family. Still, no matter how much Ryo scowled or gaped at his twin brother, her not-Ryo, Hary always felt welcome despite knowing her red hair stood out among the Shirogane family whether they held the family name or not, something rumored to be inherited from her father she'd never met.

Not that it mattered.

"Hey. It's time for bed, you three."

Haru's older cousin Takashi took charge of things whenever her uncle wasn't home and often did not ignore him, lost in his own little world of whatever preoccupied him. "Yes. Red's my favorite color."

"We know that," Ryo often said. "How many times do you have to tell Haru you like her hair? It's creepy?"

Not-Ryo always asked, "Why?"

"Because I wouldn't do that."

"I'm not Ryo," so Haru remembered him as Not-Ryo because—

"Well, things happened."

She'd take her cousin Takashi's hand, letting him lead her into the room where sleeping bags were laid out for the three young cousins, with Not-Ryo's alien toys and Pikachu plush joining them—they both loved Pikachu, and they'd wait for uncle to return, because—

"Hey, hey!" Not-Ryo called out when their uncle came home, sometimes late at night because of his job, while Ryo let out a groan from nearby.

"Can't you just go to sleep already?"

"I want Dad to tell us a bedtime story."

"We're too old for that," Ryo claimed.

"No, we're not," Haru protested.

"And what kind of bedtime story do you want?" her uncle asked, laughing.

"The one about mom!"

The bedtime story was always about the uncle's wife or the mother of his children—Haru never could tell with all the rumors going around during her childhood before she moved to the city in hopes of getting away from the family despite keeping in touch with Ryo after everything happened.

And the story always involved their mother, the alien, a strange story to tell one child to be sure, yet that never changed how the warm filling of summer always lingered—the tennyo, as some of the elders in the Shirogane family called her, making her cousins as other as she was within the family.

Childhood wasn't something that lasted—it ended when Not-Ryo and her uncle disappeared, with the clue that Ryo disappeared briefly, and uncle later, the adults never saying what really happened, although she knew—

She knew that Ryo's twin was out there from Ryo; she knew Not-Ryo was alive. Still, later, her cousin, who managed to become a pop idol, also managed to find Not-Ryo, his twin, but not before Takashi also disappeared, before his mission to outer space failed.

"And he wasn't the one who was obsessed with aliens," Ryo texted her.

Life seemed out to get her, what with her boyfriend breaking up with her, things not going well at her job, and other things—

"I'm trying something new," she texted Ryo, sending a selfie of herself in front of the hotel where she worked. "I'm now concierge here, so if you ever think you need a vacation, think of dropping by."

"Can't."

"Because you're working on new music?"

"I'm looking for a certain alien conspiracist, we both know, but as long as I'm worried about him, music just isn't coming."

"Know that I'm here for you, but don't forget to take a break from that crazy life of yours," Haru typed out, not realizing how crazy things would get at the resort.