Chapter 396 Theo's Secret

After Theo escaped from their claws, the girls sighed in defeat.

They could only beat him tomorrow in the martial arts practice as they couldn't do it in public.

"We have to get him tomorrow! Or we will miss our change due to the vacations." Sam suddenly said as they observed Theo's car leaving the garage.

The other girls nodded in agreement.

"Hmm, maybe we should let him off?" Aurora tried to help her brother.

Even though she had to admit it was fun beating him up with the other girls, she didn't want to hurt him.

"Don't worry, Aurora-chan. We don't want to hurt him, we only want to teach him a lesson and then it will be over." Ayia said when she saw Aurora's worried face.

"Yeah, just one last time." June agreed.

"Plus, with his skills, he could have escaped at any time when we beat him yesterday. But he stayed still." Shizuka commented.

The girls became thoughtful when they heard that. They all had to admit that Theo's skills were frightening by what they saw in the practices. But he didn't use it at all the day before.

"It seems like he stayed still to let us vent our frustrations on him." Aurora commented with certainty.

She knew her brother well enough after years of living together, and that was exactly something he would do.

"Are you sure?" Sayuri asked in doubt.

"Yes, I know my brother. He can do the most selfless thing and never say anything about it or even complain about it." Aurora said with red eyes.

She remembered the times when he didn't eat so that she could have something to eat. He would never say anything about it.

"Well, now I feel bad about beating him up." Sayuri said guiltily.

"Yeah, and if you think about it, he only gives us a hard time in the practice because he wants us to be able to protect ourselves." Sam commented.

"My brother seems especially worried about my safety, that's why he started training me." Aurora added.

"It seems we can't beat him up anymore." Shizuka stated.

"You guys noticed that Theo always does everything for us. But nobody ever does something for him?" Ayia commented.

"Well, that's because he always has everything ready for us. He does everything so amazingly that it's difficult to do something for him." Sam commented.

"But we have to do something for him. Like his birthday. But his birthday is only in November. Aurora-chan, can we throw a party for him in February?" Ayia asked as she looked at Aurora with excited eyes.

But Aurora's eyes dimmed when she heard her question, she said in a low voice, "Hmm, February is a tough month for us."

The girls noticed Aurora's sudden sad moon, so they surrounded her and tried to comfort her.

"Why?" June asked in a low voice.

"Our parents died in February. He had to be the adult in the house since then as I was just devasted and too young. Well, younger than him. We don't have any relatives, so Theo had to start working every hour he could so he would be provide for us. Since then, he stopped celebrating his birthday." Aurora said as she tried to fight the tears that were forming in her eyes.

The girls' also tried to not cry. They already knew that Theo and Aurora lost their parents a few years ago, but they didn't know that they went through a such difficult situation.

They remembered Theo's ever-happy face as he talked with them. He was always so lively and calm. Since they met him, they wondered how he was so mature for his age. Now they understood why. He had to mature when he was just a teenager. But it seemed like he didn't go through these things with his lively way to live his life. And they wouldn't even know about it if they didn't ask Aurora about it.

Now they understood why he was always worried about someone attacking them. He didn't want the same thing to happen again.

"Didn't you guys go to an orphanage then if you guys didn't have relatives?" Shizuka asked.

"Hmm, I don't know if I should tell you. Big brother made me promise to not tell anyone or he would get into real trouble." Aurora said with uncertainty.

"We promise never to talk about it after we leave here today, right girls?" Ayia asked as she looked at the other four girls.

"Yes, we won't even mention it among ourselves." Sam agreed.

The others also agreed and expressed their understanding of the situation. They didn't want to implicate Theo. They would never do something to hurt their friend.

"Okay then." Aurora said when she saw their serious faces.

She could see that they wouldn't leak the secret.

"Just like I said before, Theo matured as soon as our parents died. He didn't have a chance to get sad because his only goal was to protect me. He knew that because of our family situation, we both would go to an orphanage after our parents were buried. And he also knew there was a big chance we could get separated. Even if there was only a small chance, Theo would not accept the situation." Aurora explained.

The girls' could imagine the 13 y.o. Theo was desperate not to lose his sister, the only family he had left. They could imagine, but they couldn't know the awful things he must have felt.

"At the time, our family on a nice house and we did have some money. But even with that, we would still go to the orphanage without a legal guardian to take care of us. That's why before we were even approached by social services, Theo went on a search for a dirty employee in the department. His was goal to bribe one of the employees so Theo could get my legal guard. When he was losing hope, he managed to find one dirty employee. But the fee was so big, that even the money our parents left wasn't enough. So, Theo sold our nice house and managed to pay the guy. Theo finally had my legal guard, and our names disappeared from the social services visiting list. We became invisible in their system. Theo resolved the guard problem, but the money we had left was barely enough for us to survive. Theo barely went to school from that day on, he would always be working so he could pay the bill for us. I still remember the times he did not eat so I could be able to eat. He never complained about it, and he always had a loving smile on his face as he looked at me even when he was in hunger. I watched his body go frail and weak because of the heavy workload and lack of nutrients." Aurora explained, but at the end of it, she was already crying as she remembered those times.

The girls' could not hold it anymore and started crying as well.

They never imagined that someone as lively and happy as Theo could have gone through such dark times.

It was so sad!

A teenager, a boy, has to mature and do everything in his power to be with his sister. Even if he had to use illegal means, he would do it if it meant that he wouldn't leave his family.

The girls' didn't know if they would have Theo's strength and perseverance to trail on this path if they were in his shoes.