1 Episode 1: The love of a family is life's greatest blessing

The love of a family is life's greatest blessing, even when it hurts.

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He remembered waking up startled that one morning.

He failed to get his erratic breathing under control, and it further elevated his panic when he realises he was entangled in sheets on a bed he didn't recognise.

Beginnings of a headache thrummed as flashes of alien images he didn't recognise assaulted his feeble mind with a cruel vengeance.

Fear stricken, he tried shaking off the strange sensation of his brain being engulfed in fire ants.

Two distinct, separate memories trying to dominate the other; a rush of colours blinded his sight.

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A woman and a girl playing in the water laughing, a young male in his early twenties happily snapping photos with his camera while he ( or was it a she?) sat by the beach looking out with a fond smile.

A man was wearing a large knapsack, smiling brightly as he ruffles her raven locks.

A different young man stared into her eyes in a loving gaze, a baby in their embrace.

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Agonising pain flared in his skull, he shut his eyes and clutched desperately onto his head in an attempt to relieve some of the pain. His heart was thudding erratically.

He failed to acknowledge he was screaming, nor did he hear the sound of thundering footsteps followed by a slam of a door opening as another memory forcibly ploughed into his mind once more.

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A little boy with bright green eyes smiled a happy, cheerful smile, running away in glee. An Asian woman knelt at his height, patting his head in comfort—a stiff-looking man in a suit with cold, distant eyes.

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His body flailed and spasm, ignorant of his surroundings. He vaguely heard yelling when his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

And then, he knew no more.

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The next time he was conscious was to the reminisce smell of bleach and disinfectant. Though his mind was still swimming in a hazy fog, the smell brought forth a sense of nostalgia— to a time when he was under hospital care after having his firstborn.

He stops short at that.

Somehow he gained two very different memories, now perfectly converged upon one another.

It was odd knowing he remembered living a life as a woman, happily married to her husband with a wonderful baby boy, a toddler.

At the same time, he still held memories of the present.

He was Onodera Haruyuki, a son to a mother who was prim, strict and proper. And a father who was at times non-existent in his life, an owner to one of the most successful businesses.

And a sibling, a twin in this life.

Did he get himself reincarnated somehow?

But why? He couldn't remember dying.

Worry, sorrow and grief swirled in the pit of his stomach for his family but was brought back from his musings when he sensed a presence by his bedside.

Groggily he opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of a white ceiling. The rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor was the first to catch his attention. His fingers twitched, still feeling the lingering after pain from the earlier migraine he hopes was the last time he experienced.

"Nii-san?"

Concerned green eyes met his own as if he was staring into a mirror. However, his twin's were slightly bloodshot and puffy from exhaustion. Had he been crying?

"...Ritsu..."

The name had unconsciously spilt out from his lips before he had a chance to comprehend its meaning. For some reason, his instincts automatically drew him to the conclusion that this strange boy was safe.

To add his growing worry, his vision interpreted everything— including the boy in front of him— looking as if they were drawn two-dimensionally, including himself resembling every likeness of exaggerated Japanese anime characters with traditional big expressive eyes. But he was looking at that heart-wrenching expression howeverー it caused guilt to crawl up its way into his subconscious. Knowing that he put this bright little boy he came to care for to this state kicked off his earlier concerns in the afterburner. The now dubbed thirteen-year-old could only give an apologetic smile.

He tried sitting up but was met with gentle resistance to remain in his position. "N-nii-san, you shouldn't move so much!" The boy, Ritsu, cried out in worry.

"You're still recovering from surgery."

The other twin blinked. Then, he consciously raised his hand to feel bandages neatly wrapped around his head. What's even stranger, there was an alarming amount of blanks in his memory—especially the ones leading up to the incident.

"You went to bed early," Ritsu provided.

"You've been complaining about having headaches during dinner." his voice grew quiet, looking down at his hands gripping at the sheets.

"Mother was unhappy that you didn't come in for breakfast because usually, we came in together. I thought you were still sick, so I let you sleep in. That's w-when I heard the noisesー you were screaming so awful…"

Seeing his twin this upset and on the verge of tears weighed heavily on his mind.

'I did this.'

Haruyuki had never meant to cause this much anguish, especially for his brother. The love he felt for him filtered through as if he were the twin of the boy beside him, and it hadn't been anything different.

In his last life, he had been the eldest and had had siblings. Caring for them was his responsibility while his parents were away for work. It also helped that he was a mother. It came naturally to him when he had raised his little one.

The bed-ridden boy gently clasped his brother's shaking hand to rub soothing motions, gradually bringing him back from his blabbering. Then, he sluggishly scooted further into the bed to make room, taking care of the wires and IV drip. Much to his twin's protests, he pulled him along to lay beside him on the comfortable mattress.

"Sleep."

He was tucking his brother under his chin, basically spooning him.

"I know that you're worried," he mumbled with a slow exhale of breath, "but neglecting your body is very bad, and you may very well have gotten sick."

"Did you think I wouldn't get worried too? Always prioritise your health before caring for others."

"You're no use to everyone if you'd collapsed from exhaustion," he added, feeling exhausted himself.

Haruyuki smiled at the blush dusted on his brother's cheeks, ducking in embarrassment. Humming, he absentmindedly played with his brother's brown locks. Before long, he could feel that his strokes had lulled his brother to sleep, but he kept on with his task.

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It had strictly been a month. And it quickly began to irk him.

After two weeks of being in the hospital, the doctors prescribed painkillers, antibiotics and two whole gruelling months of bed rest. He was mortified to learn that he was unconscious for a week, which might have explained Ritsu's anxiety. He would be too if, God forbid, his brother had been rendered into a coma.

His mother had been concerned as well, fussing about his needs, making sure he had taken his medication and his much needed rest. He was beginning to suffocate with all of the unnecessary attention. He was a thirty-year-old woman in a body of a child! Not a disabled person!

To add more salt to the wound, he had to accept he was just that; a child. And not just any child at that; he was a teenager. He could only shiver at the thought of re-experiencing puberty. He might have been female, but he had been on the receiving end of his sibling's mood swings and awkward mornings in his past life, so he knows what is to be expected.

Oh well, at least he was free from bleeding once every other month.

This large amount of extra time allowed him to reflect on his 'other' life. Mostly about the part where he spent as a teenage girl.

She was nothing specialーjust an ordinary girl living out in the suburbs for most of her life, enjoying outings and continuously trying out new things. There were times where she does experienced hardships despite having a relatively supporting family. Her father had an easy-going attitude, but he was controlling and possessed a nasty temper in contrast. Her parents fought often. The man was abusive, and sometimes when their arguments were getting out of hand, he would raise his hand on her mother. It was a blessing in disguise when he was forced to live separately in different states due to his job. Only able to visit once or twice a month.

Now that he thought about it, maybe that was why he was used to the idea of barely having a father figure. Past experiences had taught him not to rely on them, often associating the household's male leads with pain and heartbreak.

Ritsu, in a way like him, didn't have a father figure to look up to. Thankfully, their father was not like his old one, but the man was the type to prioritise his work over family, and there were times they barely even got to see him.

He was currently sitting in his bed, listening to his brother's retelling about his day at school. Haruyuki was aware that his twin was feeling lonely since his sentence to house arrest. He couldn't recall a time where Ritsu mentioned having any close friends besides being acquainted with his classmates. They were always together, but now that he was confined to another month of bed rest, Ritsu was forced to go to school alone.

Though hesitant to fully come to terms with his situation, admittedly, it wasn't all too bad. He had Ritsu and a roof over his head, more than some people in the world.

There was something still nagging at the back of his mind.

For some reason, his brother's name sounded kind of familiar as if he had heard it before, echoing insistently from the very depths of his memories from his 'other' life.

Maybe it was a common one? He couldn't remember being in Japan meeting someone named Ritsu before.

And he barely indulged in bothering with any idols or actors that had the same name.

What is it...?

Ritsu... Onodera....Onodera...Odaー

Instantly, he'd gone entirely rigid.

Ritsu, having noticed the change, stopped in mid chatter to call out to him in concern. "Nii-san? What's wrong?"

Unaware of this sudden turn of events, Haruyuki turned and stared at his brother to really take in his bright green eyes and brown hair as it triggered a long-forgotten memory.

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She was having another stressful day, being pressured to do well at school, getting good grades, to do better. She was running on fumes. As she wandered during lunch, she spotted a group of juniors gathered by the bench, chattering in excitement. Curious, she got closer and introduced herself. They were a bit wary of her at first, but soon she was included in the conversation. They were passing Japanese mangas around when one, in particular, caught her attention. "Hey, I think I got a poster of this from one of the magazines. Is it any good?"

There adorned on the front cover was an illustration of a green-eyed brunette male carrying a bunch of manga along with a tall, dark, handsome man brandishing thick-framed glasses. It didn't look like any of the typical shonen manga she came across before. For one, the book was pink and flowery. It had a white bunny mascot holding a wand. It was new yet peculiar. Shonen-ai?

She raised a brow when she noticed that the majority of them were nervous. "Erm...well, we weren't sure that you'd approve of it if we were to tell you…" one said but was cut off by her friend.

"Since one, you're a senior and two you're a school prefect, you might report on us." she deadpanned.

Staring at the group, who were now in jittery nerves and tense silence said senior blink. Rolling her eyes at the paranoia, she replied with a bland voice,

"If we're playing at the technicalities then, all of you should be aware that the rules dictate against bringing non-educational reading materials to school, and I'm entitled to confiscate these and deduct merit points." she pointed at the impressive collection, causing them to laugh nervously.

"Fortunately…" she continued, waving the book in hand to emphasise a point. "Seeing as I an avid manga fan, I learned to appreciate good manga when I see one. So I'll let it slide just this once." at this, the girls heaved a relieved sigh.

"Just..." she awkwardly added, gesturing to the growing mountain pile of manga. "Don't bring them out in the open if you don't want to get caught. I won't be held accountable the next time someone else reported you and end up losing points."

Needless to say, in just one day, the girls were immensely grateful for her leniency and had excitedly lent her the manga only to discover her budding love for the BL genre.

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Haruyuki blinked. Once. Twice. Oh.

Oh crap.

Still in shock, he hadn't managed a response for a while sporting a vacant expression. He didn't seem to acknowledge that the boy responsible for him experiencing an existential crisis was by his bedside, trying to get his attention, who gradually getting worried by the minute.

Ritsu's nerves eased a little when Haruyuki finally spoke, but he still held on to some of it when he cautiously noted that his twin was sporting a lost expression.

"...Say Ritsu?" came a low, quiet reply.

Attentive, the boy scooted closer to his twin, hoping to give some semblance of comfort. "Yeah?"

"...Did Father own a publishing company by any chance?"

"....yeahhhh?" Ritsu looked at his brother oddly at the question. Was he suffering from amnesia?

Meanwhile, Haruyuki was on the verge of wanting to hyperventilate. Logically, it shouldn't be possible, but somehow he landed himself in a seemingly fictional world.

And not just any fiction.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi.

He was in a god-forsaken BL manga of all places. And he got himself reincarnated as the protagonist's twin brother that had never existed in the manga nor the anime adaption.

Onodera Ritsu, as he knew, was an only child. Period.

Add to the fact he now felt stupid because it took him a whole month to realise why everything looked so animatedly 2D; he thought it was a side effect of the anaesthesia and whatever possible brain damage he picked up that had somehow affected his vision. If it weren't for that constant self-assurance, he was sure that he was crazy. It didn't once occur to him that he was, in fact, in a fictional comic book. And as an additional side character to boot.

'Great.'

He was not looking forward to all the unwanted drama. Back then, he might find them entertaining, hilarious even, but that was not the problem. What threw him for a loop was that his twin was the main protagonist of a BL MANGA.

Meaning, an adult read with practically porno graphical content based plot aimed at the female audience. And this one, in particular, has plenty of it.

He mentally winced. He barely held in a whimper at the image of Ritsu being in a provocative position with a large neon sign that practically yelled 'all you can eat buffet for sex-driven Seme'.

Why couldn't he have been sent to Durarara or Beelzebub?

Believe it or not, he was open about homosexuality. But it didn't mean that he was excited about the prospect of doing a reenactment of a kid catching his parents doing the nasty at every chance they get.

He could feel another headache coming along.

"Um, Nii-san? Are you okay?"

Meanwhile, Ritsu, on the other hand, was beginning to get anxious. His bed-ridden twin was acting strange. He was unresponsive for one minute, and the next was looking as if he was constipated with how twisted his face had turned. He even heard poor Haruyuki gave out a slight whimper.

Was he in pain?

Panicked at the possibility of his brother being sent back to the hospital, he comically jumped from his seat on Haruyuki's bed, almost tripping towards the door.

"I-I'm getting M-mother!"

"N-no, really Ritsu! I'm fine! Just a mild headache."

Haruyuki laughed nervously, fruitlessly trying to calm his brother without revealing that he was internally having a mental breakdown himself.

He finally sighed in resignation.

No use crying over spilt milk. For now, he could try and make the best of his second chance in life and go wherever it takes him.

He'd have to be very careful not to change anything though.

For one, he wasn't supposed to exist. He had no intentions of playing god and end up risking a Butterfly Effect.

Or worse yet, he could accidentally be screwing with Ritsu's character development. As much as he wanted to shelter his new brother from experiencing heartbreak, he knew full well that he couldn't. Perhaps, from time to time, he could try imparting a few words of advice whenever Ritsu needed help figuring some things out. Otherwise, he will be taking the knowledge of the future to his grave.

There wasn't anything for him to do here anyway. This world was relatively peaceful compared to some of the manga he read.

Maybe he could continue being an educator in this life after completing his studies. After all, he did love teaching.

Ah, decisions decisions.