A reunion for the hunt

I was always intrigued by Christmas. I looked forward to it every year. The joy of families celebrating together. I never had a 'family' family. But what I had was enough. I lived with four roommates in an orphanage. Well, one of them got adopted, and it was pretty hard for me. I don't know why someone never adopted me. Or the rest of my two roommates. Perhaps we were too old for adoption. I guess you could say I was happy nobody took us in. Because for me, we were family. I didn't want anybody to pull us away from each other.

But last Christmas, everything changed.

It all started happening four years ago during the Christmas season. In my orphanage's neighborhood, many orphaned children went missing. No one knew how it happened. Since everyone who went missing was an orphan, few people tried to find out what happened to the missing children. Some sources say an affluent businessman abducted the children for his hidden illegal child labor factories. But no such suspect had ever been found. This time, many people were terrified the same thing would happen again.

"Hey, Andrea! Andrea!? Don't walk alone at this time of the year!"

Andrea turned around to see who it was.

"Andrea! Don't you know it's that time of the year again? Please be careful."

"Hey Alisa! I missed you so much! Yes, I know it's that time, but tell me, how are you? We missed you a lot last Christmas!"

Andrea and Alisa were childhood friends. Both grew up at the same orphanage, with the same roommates, and were just like sisters. But one day, a family came and adopted Alisa when she was ten years old. But even then, Andrea always made sure to celebrate Christmas with Alisa every year. Last Christmas, she couldn't.

"Alisa, are you all right now? We felt so bad last Christmas when we couldn't meet you because of your flu. How are you feeling now?"

"I am great, Andrea. Better than ever. We won't let what happened last time. That's why I'm here. We'll find the one who's responsible. Tell me now, what are you doing alone here outside the orphanage?"

"I was just...searching for Chow. This was the last place that I saw him. Akemi and I... we tried our best ...but to no avail. We still haven't found him yet. I'm afraid...someone took him...or maybe I shouldn't think like that..."

Andrea's eyes swoll up.

"I understand your pain, Andrea. It's been tough for all of us. But we need to be strong now. Let's go and get started with our searching now."

Andrea and Alisa made their way back inside the orphanage. Last Christmas, Chow, one of Andrea's roommates, whom she considered family, went missing. Since then, Andrea and her other roommate Akemi, have been searching for him.

"Hey Akemi! How are you?!" Alisa asked with joy, her eyes delighted to see the person standing at the door of Andrea's room.

"Alisa? Thank god! Thank goodness you're here. We've been going crazy since...since last Christmas. I'm scared to think about what happened to Chow. I can't think about it...I am...not...that strong."

"And that's why you have to stay strong, Akemi. And you too, Andrea. For Chow. And for the rest of the kids in this neighborhood. Let's create a lookout team. We'll protect our neighborhood kids from disappearing. We'll hunt the one who's responsible for this."