The rainy season had visited Loveland. Aside from being a nightmare for those who still have to travel to work, the gloomy weather also tends to make people melancholic, especially those who are on their own. During such times, it is surprisingly reassuring to have someone to talk to.  

Word Count: 2473 words

The weather in Loveland City has been rather erratic recently. It could be sunny at the moment and raining cats and dogs later when you least expect it.

Knowing this, the producer had never traveled around without a foldable umbrella in her bag. This was especially so because the rain always occurred late in the evening, which coincided with the time she usually left her company.

However, even with those preparations in place, she still couldn’t avoid being drenched to her skin by the time she reached home. Well, that was to be expected since she had to face the full brunt of the heavy torrential downpour and strong gales with nothing but her umbrella throughout the entire twenty-minute walk.

While it was uncomfortable to be stuck in soaking wet clothes throughout the journey, it was still not as bad as having to endure wearing soggy shoes. Even now, when she was all warm and cozy at home, she still couldn’t dismiss the moist and cold sensation of her aching feet from when she first reached home, as well as the unsightly view of the wrinkled and pale skin of her feet when she took off her shoes. It made her worried that if this carried on, her feet would remain permanently wrinkled one day…

Alas, the current rainy weather was expected to last for at least another week, according to the latest weather forecast. Moreover, it was also predicted that a thunderstorm might be occurring at any time within the week.

With the current downpour already being terrible enough in her opinion, the girl couldn’t imagine being stuck in facing a thunderstorm while on her way home one day. Not to mention, most of her employees were also travelling to work on foot like herself. Therefore, right after she had heard of the latest weather forecast, the girl had informed all of her employees to work from home until the weather was stable enough for everyone to travel safely to work.

As an employer, the producer wasn’t particularly against the idea of working from home. Even though she wouldn’t disagree with the notion that one’s productivity in work might decrease due to being in the comfort of one’s home and the sense of freedom that came from having no one to directly supervise one’s work progress, she believed that it was still better to have this alternative option.

For her, she wouldn’t mind if her employees take it easy when working from home as long as they still deliver their work on time and she could reach them via calls when required. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t because there were still some pending arrangement details for an urgent project, she would have let them off from work during this period.

After all, she knew full well how hard her employees had been working, while she was out seeking collaborative projects to increase her company’s value and to prevent LFG from pulling back their investment. So, they truly deserved to have some off-days.

Fortunately, it still wasn’t too late for her to do that since she had just settled the matter regarding the urgent project by informing the respective parties of the project about the finalized details.

After sending a message to thank all her employees for their hard work and to also inform them that they will be on leave from work until further notice, the girl plopped herself face-down on the couch. Rolling over onto her back, she clutched her phone to her chest with an evident look of contentment.

With this, she could finally have some time for herself as well.

“Oh right! I should tell Kiro about this.”

Ever since Kiro first messaged her after recommending her show, “Miracle Finder”, on social media, they had been frequently keeping in touch with one another. Their conversations could be related to anything, such as food, movies, work-related matters, the interesting things that they had stumbled upon in their daily lives or even idle talks.

Even though Kiro was a celebrity idol, which made him someone who she normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to approach, let alone chat with frequently, she had never felt daunted by his fame or social status. She didn’t know why, but she always felt like she could talk about anything with Kiro, be it joyful or unhappy things.

Therefore, he was the first person she thought of sharing the news of her holiday.

[Yay! I am finally free from work! ^-^V]

It didn’t take more than five seconds for her to receive a reply that caused her to giggle.

[That’s great! Now, our idler group is finally complete!]

Compared to her, Kiro was certainly more hectic when it came to his work schedule. However, his workload had reduced significantly due to the rainy weather, which limited all of his job assignments to indoors. Once he had completed all of the indoor-related assignments, his manager had decided to give him a break since all the assignments that remained could only be done outdoors, which would have to wait until the weather cleared up since no one wanted to risk getting the celebrity idol sick.

Ever since then, Kiro had proclaimed himself to be an idler and had been lamenting on how he was still missing her as his partner in lazing about. Now that she was free from work too, it was to be expected that Kiro would be delighted.

[Still, it’s a shame that we will both be stuck at home due to the weather.]

[Why? Are you missing me, Miss Chips?]

His message was followed by a smirking emoji.

Blushing at having her innermost thoughts exposed by his teasing words, the girl pursed her lips while typing out her reply.

[I am just thinking how boring it would be since there aren’t many entertaining things to do at home.]

[Oh, Miss Chips doesn’t miss me. T.T]

In response, the girl’s lips had curled up unknowingly and she shook her head helplessly at the thought of Kiro pouting while typing those childish words. To behave childishly without turning people off, none could have done it as effortlessly as Kiro.

If she was like any of her fangirls, she would have fallen for his words and admitted that she missed him, just to not make him be any more disappointed.

However, she knew Kiro better than any fangirls. Moreover, she was aware that Kiro was only pretending to be saddened by her replies in order to coax her into confessing. Not wanting to let him have things his way all the time, the girl decided to play dumb.

[Didn’t we just have a video call last night?]

[Which Miss Chips rejected the first time… :’( ]

[That was because I had just gotten out of the shower at that time and hadn’t fully dried myself off!]

Not many would ever talk to Kiro in such a casual manner. Then again, the girl had never been one to walk on eggshells around Kiro. That is why they have been able to converse with each other with ease. It was because they held nothing back between them.

At the very least, she alone had never felt the need to do so.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kiro had always found it mysterious, how the rainy weather tends to make one feel melancholic. The gloomy and dark skies outside, coupled with the silence that permeates the air within the big house, had further accentuated a sense of solitude. Moreover, having been confined indoors due to the weather and not having much to do, one would naturally be contemplative.

Loneliness.

Who would ever believe that a well-loved celebrity like Kiro, who had legions of fans worldwide, would ever feel lonely?

To the public, Kiro is a bright star, whose radiance never dimmed and continues to illuminate others without fail. It might never occur to them at all that there would also be moments when a star will lose its radiance.

Not surprising since people tend to only notice the beautiful side of things. Thus, it was likely for them to have overlooked the fact that beyond the lights and glamour of the stage, Kiro is just like everyone else, an ordinary person.

He too will be overwhelmed by others’ expectations of him or be weary from having to put up a strong front at all times in order to not disappoint said expectations.

He too wished to be comforted when things were difficult, to have someone praise him for trying so hard all the time or to tell him it was alright to not push himself too hard and to take a breather sometimes.

Nonetheless, Kiro was someone who was always harsh towards himself. Instead of giving in to those yearnings, he chose to bottle up his feelings and carry on in maintaining his flawless image to the public. Facing the world on his own, the only thing that kept him going was a certain hope, which was further reinforced by his mentor’s words at the airport right before Kiro departed to America.

Back then, Kiro thought he had hidden his emotions well, but somehow his mentor still knew about it and had given Kiro a firm hug as he consoled the fifteen-year-old boy.

“Kiro, everyone is born alone and dies alone in this world. Still, that doesn’t mean that we are fated to be alone for the rest of our life. Aside from Eva and myself, you will encounter others who will accept everything about you and love you as you are.”

The famous French singer, Eva Seidel, was the closest person to a mother figure to Kiro. She was also the one who had suggested for Kiro to continue his studies in America. While this suggestion was undoubtedly beneficial for Kiro’s future, it was only because Eva and his mentor were strongly in favor of this option that Kiro decided to go to America in spite of his reluctance to leave France.

Kiro greatly admired and respected his mentor, but he still couldn’t hide his skepticism after hearing his mentor’s words. Of course, his mentor had noticed it as well.

“You might find it hard to believe now, but mark my words. As long as you don’t close off your heart and boldly accept those hands that have reached out to you, you will never be alone.”

That was the last face-to-face talk Kiro had with his mentor.

He kept his mentor’s words to heart, even though he still didn’t believe there would be others who would accept his flaws and imperfections. Still, there was someone who Kiro had always hoped to meet again and he wished she would be one of those people that his mentor mentioned will accept him as he is.

This hope was what had kept Kiro going throughout the years after his mentor’s disappearance.

When Kiro eventually met the girl again and realized that she didn’t remember anything from the past, he thought that it was for the best. With this, they would be able to start afresh and he will be able to show her only the best part of himself.

Nonetheless, whenever he was with her, he felt so at ease that he always ended up behaving unreservedly. Still, the girl had never shunned him for it and had oftentimes told him that she liked him that way.

Of course, he hadn’t truly believed her back then and stubbornly continued to hide his weaknesses from her. She was too precious to him and he was afraid of losing her. Even the mere thought of her disliking him was unbearable to Kiro, let alone the idea of her abandoning him.

To Kiro, his existence was precarious and heavily-dependent on his fame as an idol, which in turn, was reliant on the adoration from his fans. Despite that, he wasn’t even certain whether those adorations were genuine or due to the influence of his Evol.

The vagueness had merely heightened Kiro’s sense of insecurity and he became particularly mindful of people’s perception of him. In order to prove that his popularity wasn’t due to the influence of his Evol but due to his own efforts in giving the best performance to the public, Kiro never stopped pushing himself to the limit.

It was his Miss Chips who had quelled his fear of rejection and loneliness by sticking by his side through all his uncool and vulnerable moments. It was her voice that had pulled him from the darkness of his own mind that threatened to engulf him. Once again, he was saved by her presence and unconditional support.

Even if he was alone, his loneliness would instantly dissipate whenever he heard her voice during a phone call, saw her smiling face during a video call or read back the past messages between them.

[That was because I had just gotten out of the shower at that time and hadn’t fully dried myself off!]

Just like now, Kiro couldn’t stop himself from grinning as they continued to message back and forth between themselves about trivial matters.

[Really (o-O) ? Why do I feel like Miss Chips purposely doesn’t want to see me?]

[Of course not!]

[Hmm…then Miss Chips has to prove it.]

Before she could send out a reply, Kiro had clicked on the video camera icon on the top right side of his phone screen, thus initiating a video call between them. Unlike last time, the girl had accepted the call within five seconds.

However, she must have done so in a rushed manner because the sight that greeted Kiro on the phone screen was of the girl hiding the lower half of her face behind a couch pillow. Finding her posture to be adorable, he decided not to say anything about her slightly disheveled hair.

“Yoo-hoo, Miss Chips!” greeted Kiro while waving at the phone screen. “Glad to see me?”

Although he couldn’t see the lower half of her face, he could tell that the girl was miffed based on her narrowed eyes.

“Kiro! Why so suddenly? I didn’t even have time to prepare myself.”

“It’s okay, Miss Chips is always adorable.” He grinned mischievously and winked at the screen. “As for the sudden video call, it’s the best way to prove whether Miss Chips is avoiding to see me or not. Unless … you want me to go over to your place to meet you directly?”

The girl’s eyes had widened for a second before she shook her head vigorously and clutched the pillow closer to her face.

“Of course, there’s also another reason. It’s because…” Kiro deliberately dragged the end of his words for a while before he broke into a smile.

“I miss you a lot, Miss Chips.”

As always, his mentor’s words were true.

No one is meant to be alone in life.

Heart-to-Heart - [Gavin]

Figuring out someone’s thoughts is as difficult as disclosing your own thoughts to others. Even so, it isn’t necessarily wise to keep silent and leave the matter be. Having just started going steady with one another, how would MC and Gavin deal with such a situation?

Word Count: 2279 words

Whenever one requests for another person’s opinion on a matter, they usually do so because they couldn’t come to a final decision on their own. So, they required a second opinion in order to either narrow down their numerous options or to get a basis for forming their own opinion.

Unfortunately, not many would openly share their opinions when requested, whether it was due to hesitation in bearing part of the responsibility that came with being involved in the decision making, the fear of having their opinion shunned or they merely didn’t wish for others to be pressured into accepting their opinion.

Therefore, even for a question as trivial as what to have for lunch among work colleagues, the most common answer that one would get would be “Anything is fine”. While such an answer may seem considerate and polite at first sight, it was actually inconvenient to the questioner as the latter was left to make the decision on their own without any additional hints.

This was especially problematic when it involved choosing a gift for someone.

For a straightforward man like Gavin, who had no idea at all when it came to the things that women would like as gifts, the countless choices of bags, cosmetics, accessories and clothes that were available in the mall were enough to make his head spin. Despite there being so many choices available, none of the things that he saw during his window-shopping trip had given him the feeling of being a suitable gift for the girl.

Then again, what would she like to receive as a gift?

Not one to beat around the bush, Gavin had tried asking the girl directly about it in the middle of a conversation about their upcoming plans for celebrating the girl’s birthday.

“Anything is fine.”

As expected, the girl had answered him in a cheerful voice that she was fine with anything and that she also wouldn’t mind if he didn’t get her anything because she was well-aware that he had been preoccupied with work recently.

That’s the kind of person she is, always so caring and considerate. Even during those times when he had missed out on their dates due to his work, she hadn’t uttered a single word of complaint. Instead, she had always cheered him on and requested that he take care not to get hurt during work.

For his devoted girl, how could he bear to show up empty-handed on her birthday?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ever since the producer met Gavin again, she got to know him a little better, a little different from the impression of a violent delinquent that had been painted of him during high school. If anything, the current Gavin fitted her initial impression of a socially-awkward but kind senior, who on a particularly rainy day, had given her his jacket to shield her from the heavy rain and had run away before she could thank him.

Perhaps, Gavin had always been kind.

This belated realization had made her wonder for a moment, of a time if she hadn’t been influenced by the rumors surrounding Gavin, if she had ignored those rumors and mustered the courage to approach him. How different would things have turned out then? Instead of being disconnected with each other for years, would they have been friends…or perhaps something more?

Since time could never be rewound, that possibility would be something that she would never know for sure.

Still, she was grateful to have resolved the misunderstanding between Gavin and herself now concerning the bloodstained letter that she didn’t read. It was after resolving this matter that their relationship, which had been stuck on a standstill since high school, had truly moved forward once again.

Since then, she had witnessed the different sides of the senior who used to be unapproachable to her during high school. No, he was no longer her senior. It would be more apt to say that Gavin had progressed from his status as her high school senior to her protector, someone who she could entrust with her life. Even before they had started going steady, Gavin had been her stout protector, who kept her safe and rescued her from dangers countless times.

Initially, she couldn’t understand why Gavin would go so far to keep her safe when they weren’t even any close to each other during high school. Unable to come up with a plausible reason, she chalked it up to his sense of responsibility as an STF agent in ensuring a citizen’s safety.

Even though she did have a slight suspicion that Gavin might have had feelings for her at that time, she had instantly brushed off that possibility, believing that she had been presumptuous for even having that kind of thought. After all, why would Gavin have feelings for her?

As far as she could remember, she had always been a quiet girl that didn’t really stand out during high school. Aside from that, she rarely meets or exchanges words with Gavin at school, let alone doing anything significant for him. Thus, to her, it would be unlikely for Gavin to have liked her out of the blue since then, much less now, after years of being apart without any contact between them.

Nonetheless, it did warm her heart when she noticed how Gavin gradually opened up to her now as time passed, with him speaking less stiffly to her and how he wore his heart on his sleeve before her through his simple gestures and vivid facial expressions.

That was not all, though.

Whenever she couldn’t contact Gavin because he was away on a mission, she would be so worried about him that she hadn’t been able to sleep well for days. Whenever she learnt that he had been injured after missions, she would be so anxious and upset that she would be having a hard time holding back her tears, as though she was the one who was hurt.

Eventually, she realized that the reason for these turbulent feelings were because she had fallen in love with Gavin. Having lost the opportunity to know Gavin during high school, she didn’t hesitate to confess her feelings to him at the right opportunity. And now, here they are, a few months later, discussing their plans for celebrating her birthday during a phone call.

Even though this would be their first-time celebrating her birthday as a couple, she was intending to spend the day together at home instead of going outside since she was tired from the continuous days of working overtime and would rather not mingle with the crowds, which would be unavoidable on a weekend.

Of course, instead of deciding everything by herself, she had asked for Gavin’s opinion on the matter, that if he was fine with them spending the day at her place.

“As you like.”

It was an answer that she had expected, but she was a little disappointed by it. This was because it wasn’t the first time that she had received such an answer when asking for Gavin’s opinion.

Based on the few months of them being together as a couple, she had noticed that Gavin would always leave it to her to make the decisions by stating that he was fine with anything as long as she was happy. While she did feel flattered that Gavin would prioritize her over himself, this had also made her feel bad as she can’t help but to suspect that Gavin might have been forcing himself to accommodate her wishes.

Just like how Gavin wanted her to be happy, she also wanted the same for Gavin. She would never want to be the one being accommodated one-sidedly in their relationship.

But, how exactly should she broach this matter to him?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

For the umpteenth time, Gavin gave the small box within his jean pocket a slight squeeze, as if to confirm that it was still within his possession. After browsing through shop after shop, he finally came upon the gift that he considered perfect for the girl. Fearing that he might lose it, Gavin had been constantly checking up on the box in his pocket at every available opportunity until the moment he reached the girl’s place.

“Gavin.”

Upon hearing his name, Gavin snapped out of his thoughts and naturally looked towards the girl who was sitting right next to him on the couch with her head leaning on his shoulder.

“Can I be honest with you about something?”

“Of course,” he answered immediately without looking away from the girl.

Unlike Gavin, the girl was quite hesitant to speak. Instead, she pulled away from him and sat up straight on the couch. Although he was feeling a little anxious with the girl’s gestures and hesitance, Gavin didn’t prod her to speak. He chose to wait for her to speak up at her own pace, which he didn’t have to wait long.

“Gavin, you have always let me decide on things as I like ever since we got together and I do appreciate that,” she said before looking directly at him with a sad smile, “However, I wish for you to decide on things as you like too. Do you get what I mean?”

The young man didn’t say anything and merely fixed his sight on the girl. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what she meant. He was just …surprised. He didn’t expect that he had unwittingly made her sad and the worst part was, he wouldn’t have realized the problem if she hadn’t spoken up about it now. Even though it was with much difficulty that his feelings for her were finally reciprocated and they had been dating as a couple for months, he was still so oblivious of her feelings and thoughts at times, which made him furious at himself.

Mistaking his silence as bewilderment, the girl said, “Instead of being accommodated one-sidedly, I wish for us to come to a mutual decision together when it comes to making decisions.”

To be honest, Gavin had neither forced himself nor had he kept his opinions to himself in order to accommodate her. If anything…

“Actually… I am clueless when it comes to the things that you asked for my opinions, which is why I leave it to you to make the decisions,” confessed Gavin while looking down and scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “I thought that since you know better than me, the choices that you made would certainly be better than if it’s from me, who didn’t know anything.”

Scoffing at his own misconception, Gavin then returned his gaze back at the girl. “I am sorry,” he said earnestly while meeting the girl’s eyes, “I didn’t realize that I had made you upset by doing so.”

The girl’s expression had softened, long before Gavin had apologized.

“It’s nothing to apologize for, Gavin. I brought this up because I didn’t want any misunderstandings to remain unspoken and eventually fester between us. Now that we have talked about this, we get to understand each other’s thoughts better, am I right?”

Gavin nodded.

“So, I would also be honest with you. I would prefer that you share your opinions with me, Gavin, even if you think it is silly or when you have no idea at all. Can you promise me this?”

“Mm, I promise.”

Having received his word, the girl clapped her hands together and smiled brightly.

Seeing the girl’s bright smile, Gavin thought that there was no better time than now for him to reveal the gift that he had bought for her birthday. So, he slowly took out the small box from his pocket and presented it on the palm of his left hand to the girl, who had gasped in surprise at the sight of it.

“Gavin, this…”

A knowing smile crossed the young man’s face.

“Whether it was back then or now, the only person on my mind, who had kept me going no matter the obstacles, have been you and only you, no one else.”

Having said that, Gavin then lifted open the cover of the box with his right hand to reveal a pair of identical silver rings with a gold-plated gingko leaf pattern in the center. It was a pair of custom-made promise rings, which signified an unmarried couple’s commitment to their relationship.

“Even though we had only been dating for a few months, I wish for us to stay together, now and always, and never be apart. Would you accept this?”

The girl, who had been covering her mouth with both hands all this time, had giggled with glistening brown eyes.

“Of course! Of course, I accept!”

Beaming with joy, Gavin then proceeded to put on the smaller promise ring on the girl’s fourth finger of her left hand. Once he was done, the girl had already reached towards the other pair of the rings in the box that had been placed between them. Without saying a word, she reached out for Gavin’s left hand and carefully put the ring on his fourth finger in the same manner as hers.

Engrossed in admiring the sight of the promise ring on his ring finger, Gavin was surprised when the girl had lunged forward to hug him without warning. Even though she didn’t say anything and merely buried her face deeper onto his chest while hugging him, the slight feeling of dampness on his chest was all Gavin needed to understand her current feelings. So, he returned the girl’s embrace with a contented smile and spoke out the rest of the words that he had wanted to told her on that day.

“Happy birthday, my girl.”

MC had volunteered to cook for dinner, while Victor prepared himself for the worst case scenario. How would this dinner for two turned out in the end?

Word Count: 2582 words

Constancy was a word that fitted Victor’s character, just like how spontaneity was part of the girl’s disposition.

Whenever Victor thought he had gotten used to the girl’s random and silly antics, she would prove him wrong by surprising him in one way or another.

Just like this time.

“Victor, leave tonight’s dinner preparation to me!”

That was what she had declared over the phone when he called over to discuss their plans after work. Victor had no idea what had gotten her so pumped up to volunteer to do the cooking for that night.

Nevertheless, he did have an inkling of the girl’s cooking skill based on the homemade pudding that she had made last time for the famous celebrity, Kiro. Not to mention, that was just a dessert,which didn’t involve as much preparation as needed for a main course. Therefore, Victor’s response to her declaration had been instantaneous.

“Definitely not.”

As expected, her voice was filled with indignation at hearing his answer.

“But why?!”

To prevent unwanted accidents, to avert getting food poisoning, to avoid wasting food…There were plenty of similar reasons that came to his mind. However, Victor knew that if he were to tell her any of those reasons, she would certainly throw a tantrum and they would end up in an argument. With this dinner being their first face-to-face meeting within the past few weeks, the last thing he wanted was to ruin this opportunity with his bluntness.

Still, that didn’t mean that he would yield on this matter.

“When was the last time you cooked?” Just when the girl was about to answer, Victor had interrupted her by saying, “Instant foods don’t count.”

Following that, there was a pregnant silence on the other end of the call, which caused the corner of Victor’s lips to perk up unconsciously. He could picture vividly in his mind the current expression on the girl’s face as she was thinking up a retort to his words. With furrowed brows and a childish pout, she must be grumbling about him in her mind.

“I don’t have time to cook, that’s all!” was her retort after a minute of silence.

“Not even on the weekends?”

“I have to work on the proposals for LFG over the weekends…”

“Hmm, so I am the one to blame for that?”

At this moment, there was a sudden change in the girl’s tone as she spoke enthusiastically, “Anyway, I really feel like cooking today! So, you just have to sit back and look forward to tonight’s dinner!”

Knowing that she was trying to divert the topic, Victor chose to let her have her way. Even though he still felt uneasy about letting her cook, it would be pointless to try to change her mind now when she was already so determined and enthusiastic about it.

It was not that he was worried about whether he will be starving or getting food poisoning tonight. Even if she ended up making an inedible dinner, Victor could just cook up something simple with whatever ingredients that were available at the moment to make up for it. If that was not possible, they could go out to a nearby restaurant for dinner at the last minute.

So, what Victor was worried about the most was the girl, who was unused to working in the kitchen, hurting herself when cooking on her own. Still, Victor would never tell her that and he doubted that she was even aware of his concern for her. With a deep sigh, he replied reluctantly.

“Fine…”

“Great! Then, see you later!”

After ending the call, Victor glanced at the time. There were at least three hours left before their dinner appointment, which was more than enough time for him to go through his last agenda of the day. Nonetheless, after a brief moment of contemplation, the CEO of LFG had tapped on the button of the intercom phone on his desk. After a beeping tone, a flustered young male voice had answered from the other end of the intercom.

“Goldman speaking.”

“Goldman, bring forward the company meeting that was supposed to be an hour later, inform the departments involved to be ready within fifteen minutes.”

“Noted, sir!”

After a resounding beep from the intercom, silence returned to Victor’s office.

With this, he should be able to finish up his work and meet up with the girl earlier.

Hopefully, nothing had happened by then.

Hopefully.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After ending the call with Victor, she breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the cooking ingredients that she had laid out over the kitchen counters. The recipes of the two dishes that she had intended to make were stuck to the surface of the top cabinet for her to view them easily during the preparation process.

Since she had taken a day off from work today, she had spent the whole night scouring the internet for the most straightforward recipes for these two dishes yesterday. The step-by-step instructions seemed simple enough and she had brought the exact ingredients that were stated in the recipe at the market this morning. So, nothing should go wrong if she follows the recipe completely.

It should be fine…I think.

Even though she had been insistent on personally preparing tonight’s dinner, she was actually doubting if she could pull it off well. It had certainly been a long time since the last time she had done any actual cooking. Still, it wouldn’t be fair for her to one-sidedly enjoy Victor’s cooking, to be the only one on the receiving end.

She didn’t remember when or where she had heard it, but there was a mention somewhere that cooking a meal for someone is a genuine expression of affection and care towards the other party.

This made her think of all the times that Victor had cooked for her, either as a reward for completing her tasks well or on his own whim. Even though she was certain that Victor was busy with his own share of work as the CEO of LFG, he had never complained and would still make time to cook for her when she asked for Souvenir’s meals as her reward. As for herself, she had done nothing but eating to her fill all these times, much to her belated embarrassment.

That was why, at least once, she wanted to let Victor have a taste of her cooking.

Please let this turn out well.

With that thought, she rolled up her sleeves and pumped herself up before starting with the preparations.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When Victor rang the doorbell of the girl’s apartment unit, there was thirty minutes left before the appointed time. Even though he had brought forward a meeting in order to leave the company earlier, something unexpected came up at the last minute and it took a longer time to resolve than he would have preferred. Therefore, as soon as he was done with that matter, he had headed straight to the girl’s place without even stopping by his home for a change of clothes.

Is she done cooking?

Did she cut herself while prepping?

Did she burn down the kitchen?

Those thoughts were on his mind throughout his journey to the girl’s place. Even now, as he stood waiting before the closed door of the girl’s home, Victor wondered if he would be greeted by a strong burnt scent and the sight of billowing black smoke when the girl opened the door. Fortunately, that scenario didn’t come true. When the door was pulled aside, all it revealed was the girl wearing clean casual home attires and with her hair tied up into a ponytail, smiling nervously at the sight of him.

“Oh, why are you here so early?”

It was only after noticing that there hadn’t been any wounds on her hands or anywhere else for that matter that Victor was finally able to relax.

Of course, he would never admit this to her.

“To supervise the cooking progress of a certain dummy.”

The girl had instantly pouted when hearing the word “dummy”, but she didn’t say anything else. Instead, she stepped aside and welcomed him into her home. Now that Victor thought about it, this was actually the first time he had visited her place, even though he had driven her back from work countless times in the past. Whenever they meet up, it has always been either at LFG, Souvenir or any other public places. In fact, she had even been to Victor’s place before, albeit rarely.

Nonetheless, the moment he stepped foot into the apartment unit, it was evident that the place belonged to her. It wasn’t due to the cute plush dolls that adorned the top of the shelves, the framed photographs of the girl’s youth that hung on the wall or the pile of stacked-up papers and folders on the coffee table at the living room, but because the place gave off a cozy and welcoming presence, much like its owner.

“Victor.”

As he shifted his attention back towards the girl, she said, “Actually, I just finished preparing dinner a little while ago.”

Having arrived earlier than the appointed time, Victor didn’t expect dinner to be ready. So, he was slightly impressed that the girl was already done. However, she seemed uneasy when mentioning about the dinner.

Was it because the final outcome was worse than what she had intended? Anyhow, since there wasn’t any burnt smell in the vicinity, Victor believed that the situation shouldn’t be too bad.

“So, why don’t you take a seat over at the table,” the girl had gestured towards an empty square table, “while I brought out the dishes.”

Having said that, the girl had headed straight towards the kitchen before Victor could respond. Not one to sit and wait to be served, he also went to the kitchen with the intention of taking out the tableware to help set up the table.

The first thing that caught his attention the moment he entered the kitchen was the sight of the messy kitchen counters that were littered with remnants of sliced vegetable ingredients and the piled-up cooking utensils in the kitchen sink. Still, the mess wasn’t as bad as he had expected.

Just when he had looked away from the mess, he locked eyes with the girl who was on her way out while holding one plate of food in each hand. She instinctively looked away from him when meeting his gaze, as though she was embarrassed.

But for what reason?

To Victor, she had actually done better than he expected and he even felt a little bad for having underestimated her culinary skill so much. For someone who rarely cooks, she actually managed to cook up two edible-looking dishes for dinner. There was just one thing, though.

“So,” Victor looked at the two plates in the girl’s hands, “It’s a vegetarian dinner tonight.”

With the two dishes being stir-fried Bok Choy and pan-fried sesame garlic tofu, there was no meat being served at all. Hence, Victor had called it a “vegetarian dinner”.

“Actually, the first thing I tried making was pan-fried fish,” said the girl in a softer voice, “but it didn’t turn out well.”

With a nervous chuckle, she then looked up to meet Victor’s gaze. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn about cooking dinner myself.”

Victor merely sighed.

“What’s there to apologize about?”

She mustn’t have expected him to say that as she stared at him with those bright brown eyes of hers. So, Victor elaborated further by saying, “After all, you had prepared dinner, as promised.”

He reached out and took the two plates from her hands.

“So, let’s sit down and have dinner before the food gets colder.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

An awkward silence was hanging in the air throughout the entire dinner session. Unable to tell from Victor’s poker face on whether or not he was displeased with the meal, the girl can’t help feeling so anxious that she couldn’t really taste what she was eating.

Although Victor had brushed off her apology in the kitchen, she was still worried that her cooking might be unpalatable for Victor, whose taste in food was much refined and cooking was far superior than her. It would be worse if he was forcing himself to eat this because the other option would be to starve himself. Perhaps, she really shouldn’t have insisted on cooking when she wasn’t even good at it.

While she was mulling over her own thoughts, she didn’t realize that she had cleared her plate and it was at this moment that Victor decided to break the silence between them.

“The bok choy was slightly overcooked, which caused it to be less crunchy. As for the tofu, you should have left it on the pan a little longer for it to be crispier.”

Hearing his sudden comments on her cooking, the startled girl didn’t know what to say and just nodded fervently. At the same time, she also braced herself for any impending harsh critiques that would come from the owner and chef of Souvenir.

“Overall, it was a decent meal and a good effort for someone who only cooks once in a blue moon.”

The girl blinked her eyes once … and then twice.

Did she hear Victor correctly?

He was praising her, right?

As that realization sunk in, a bright grin gradually adorned her once grim face, as though she had received the highest acclamation in the world. Well, Victor doesn’t simply praise people after all. Moreover, his words had also meant that her efforts for this entire afternoon hadn’t been a waste after all. Nonetheless, she didn’t get to relish in her sense of accomplishment for long as Victor had spoken.

“Now, can you tell me what exactly made you want to cook all of a sudden?”

The question caused the girl to stiffen for a moment. There wasn’t any reason to not answer Victor. So, she decided to be honest about it, in spite of the awkwardness she was feeling in revealing the truth.

“Well, you have always been the one cooking for me, while all I did was just eat.”

Feeling very embarrassed at this point, she looked down at her lap as she continued, “So, I thought I should do the same as well, you know, to show my gratitude.”

There was a moment of silence before she heard Victor speak.

“Dummy.”

She smiled as she already expected him to say that. However, what she hadn’t expected was to look up to see Victor smiling gently at her. That faint smile that was filled with tenderness was strangely nostalgic to the girl… but why?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To be honest, Victor hadn’t expected that to be the reason for the girl’s sudden enthusiasm in wanting to personally cook. After all, he had merely cooked for her because he wanted to and he had never expected anything else from her in return.

“That’s unnecessary. As long as you sincerely enjoy my cooking, that is all that I need as gratitude.”

After all, back in the past, it was that bright smile of a certain silly little girl at the first bite of his first attempt of a homemade pudding and her genuine exclamation of said pudding being delicious, that got him interested in cooking in the first place.

So, as long as his cooking could bring a certain dummy happiness and contentment, that would be rewarding enough for him.

• Black Lily - Black Queen

What if MC hadn’t been able to return to her original world? 

An alternative scenario for the confrontation between the Black Queen and Lucien in Chapter 25.

Word:1876 words

I will never care for anything ever again.

It was a decision that the Black Queen had made after experiencing countless heartbreaks, betrayals and deaths over and over again throughout those different parallel worlds. Regardless of how much she had struggled, the same outcome had awaited her every time.

Death, be it hers or her loved ones.

Even when she chose to sacrifice herself to save humanity, her loved ones would still end up suffering until the very end due to the very same humanity that she had saved being hell-bent on destroying themselves out of distrust and envy. No matter what, everything that she had done would be meaningless. In the end, she would merely suffer meaninglessly again and again.

Therefore, she learnt that the best choice would be to abandon everything.

By doing so, she will never have to suffer again for another’s sake.

And yet…

She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about him.

With her other naïve self losing her way among the myriads of parallel worlds, the Black Queen was able to set foot upon this world, whose destruction had just been postponed. While she was thinking of what to do next, the thought of him had crossed her mind and brought back the feelings that she had buried deep within her heart.

That man who was always negligent when it came to taking care of himself.

How would he cope with her other self’s absence in this world?

Based on what she could observe from the Black Cabin before this, the Black Queen could tell that the man and her other self had shared an intimate but tragic relationship in this world, much like what she had personally experienced in the other different worlds.

This was to be expected since he was the one who was tasked with ensnaring her and yet, they both ended up falling for each other. Their love was something that was not meant to be. Even so, they couldn’t deny their feelings for each other and ended up suffering for one another over and over again.

With how deeply they love each other in this current world, the Queen was curious about his current condition now that her other self was gone. Thus, she decided to pay him a visit.

Since her presence in this world hadn’t fully been established yet, she was like a phantom to everyone else, except for those who she always had close connections to in the previous worlds. So, she was able to easily slip into the research center without being noticed by anyone.

While standing before his office door, she lifted her hand and was about to knock on the door when she heard the muffled sound of broken glass from within the room. The profound smile on her face had instantly wavered for a moment as a glint of anxiety flashed across her eyes. Nevertheless, she regained her composure in the next instant and proceeded to knock thrice on the office door.

There was a moment of silence before the door was opened before her, revealing the man that she was looking for at the moment, who had his collar unbuttoned and his loosened tie draped around his neck.

In contrast to her amiable expression, Lucien had narrowed his eyes when he realized that it was her who was standing before his door. Still, the Black Queen had pretended not to notice the air of hostility around him, Instead, she smiled sweetly at him.

“We finally get to meet, Professor Lucien.”

Without waiting for his response, she nimbly slipped her way into his office before he could block her path. Nonetheless, she hadn’t taken more than three steps into the room before she was roughly yanked back by the arm. She then had her back pressed against the wall, prior to feeling the sensation of a cold and sharp object being pressed dangerously close to her throat.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

It had been a long time since she had heard his voice. To hear it now, she can’t help but to have a mixed feeling of both relief and sadness, even if said voice was laced with nothing but cold hostility and those violet eyes that used to gaze at her with fondness were currently filled with nothing but murderous intent.

What happened to you?

She had wanted to ask him that, but held her tongue.

She didn’t keep her silence out of fear, but more out of disbelief and heartache instead.

The Lucien that she knew was always composed and kept his emotions well-concealed behind his fathomless violet eyes and disarming smile. Therefore, it was unbelievable for her to be witnessing those raw emotions being laid bare before her eyes now. Throughout those many parallel worlds that she had experienced, she had never once seen Lucien as miserable and on edge as he was now.

It made her heart ache for him.

Still, the pain and pity that she felt for him soon turned into bitterness as she realized that these torments that he was experiencing were all due to how deeply he loved her other self, not her. Instead, all that the Lucien before her held towards her was nothing but enmity and contempt, which was proven clearly by the scalpel that he was pressing dangerously close to her throat.

Even though she and her other self were the one and the same, to this Lucien, the Black Queen was merely an imitation, a fake.

In the end, her other self was loved more dearly than her.

This irrefutable fact had merely made the Queen hate her other self more. Moreover, she wanted so much to lash out at the man before her, if only to let him feel her anger and pain.

“Oh?” She smirked, despite the stinging pain and the thin trickle of blood that came from the scalpel being pressed too closely against her throat, “And here I thought you wished to see this face.”

For a splitting second, she felt a slight tremble from the scalpel on her throat. Savoring the slight satisfaction from successfully unsettling the usually untouchable man, she continued speaking boldly.

“It seems I am not welcome here…but if you wanted to kill me,” she then hardened her gaze and stared right back at his icy violet eyes as she deliberately emphasized each of her words, “Do you really think you could do it?”

Despite there being no noticeable changes in his expression, the Black Queen could sense the internal conflict between rationale and sentiment that was raging within Lucien’s mind.

“You are not her.”

Those words were spoken by him with absolute conviction and a hint of threat. Even so, there was a noticeably soft edge in his voice when he mentioned her other self. Ironically, it was this gentleness of his voice that caused the Black Queen’s heart to ache even more than the bleeding wound on her throat. Even Lucien’s spiteful tone and hostile actions towards her hadn’t hurt her as much as that seemingly trivial gesture.

While the Black Queen had always believed that her tragic experiences in the other parallel worlds had hardened her heart and made her emotionally numb, here she was feeling such indignation and bitterness when knowing full well that Lucien wasn’t at fault at all for treating her that way since she was merely an outsider, if not an invader, to this world.

Still, this Lucien would never know how much the Black Queen loves him in every parallel world nor would he ever know how much anger she currently held towards her other self for being so weak as to leave this man before her so hurt, broken and vulnerable.

He never knew and he never will.

Regardless of the outcomes in those various worlds, whether he killed her, he died for her or vice versa, in the end, the Lucien in each of those worlds never knew the full extent of the Queen’s love for them. There was no happy ending awaiting them… and that was what frustrated her so much and drove her to despair, to give up on caring about anything.

Despite that, she still couldn’t give up on her love for him.

How infuriating.

Disregarding the scalpel that was pressed against her throat, she reached out and pulled Lucien’s head towards her without warning and kissed him directly on the lips. The action had been so quick and sudden that the man was frozen in place and the scalpel that he was holding had slipped from his grip before falling onto the floor with a dull ‘clang’.

It was at that moment that a scene of her other self kissing Lucien by surprise at a public aquarium had suddenly flashed through her mind and the Queen realized that this was Lucien’s current thought that was accidentally exposed to her through the fine cracks within his mind.

For him to think of her even now…

Annoyed, the Queen tried to wrap her arms around Lucien’s neck to pull him closer to her. However, he had regained his senses by then and he instantly shoved her away from him. While wiping his lips with the back of his hand, he glared at her and spoke venomously.

“Don’t even thinkabout it.”

At this point, the Queen couldn’t comprehend how he could love her other self so dearly that he was on the verge of breaking apart and yet, despised her to the very bone.

For him to be this cruel to her.

Never mind… it’s fine.

She had plenty of time.

No matter how much he yearned for her other self now, the fact remains that she couldn’t return to this world. Sooner or later, he will have no other choice but to accept this truth.

Even if he didn’t, the time would come when he would eventually break because of it. When that happens, she will be there for him. She will be by his side until this world comes to an end and she would have to move on to another world as a new cycle repeats itself again.

After all, regardless of him being Ares or Lucien, she was the only one who could truly accept and love him for who he is.

“I should leave now.”

As though nothing had happened, she nonchalantly straightened the creases on her black dress. With a sweet smile, she then curtsied and said, “I will pay you a visit again next time, Professor.”  

Without waiting for his response, the Black Queen then turned and left the office, leaving the professor on his own.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was after he was certain that the Queen was truly gone that Lucien allowed himself to slump onto the floor while clenching his chest tightly. His brows were knitted together and beads of sweat were dripping down his chin. The back of his shirt was also soaked wet as he endured the pain in his chest that was currently making it difficult for him to breath.

Even in that tormented state, he still managed to speak through gritted teeth.

“She … is not … her.”

However, it was uncertain whether those words were spoken as a fact … or to convince himself.

Without a doubt, she is both his bane and his salvation.

A reference to the “R&S - Not Planned On”.

Genre: Angst

Words:3187 words

When was it?

Since when did someone like Lucien, who had never yearned for anything, come to desire something more than the fleeting sense of fulfilment from realizing his plans and meeting his goals?

“Even if you’re dangerous, I trust you.”

It was her.

It was all because of that delicately foolish and yet radiant girl.

Then again, if that girl was truly as foolish as Lucien had claimed her to be, then what of himself who was moved by those too-good-to-be-true words on that day at the aquarium?

The girl was the only person in this world who could effortlessly stir up inexplicable emotions within Lucien. In fact, ever since he started considering about the girl’s feelings or when he started to truly enjoy the moments that he had spent with the girl, be it as her show’s consultant, her next-door neighbor, or a close confidant, Lucien had known for certain that he had changed.

As much as he wanted to rationalize or reject these changes, he couldn’t refute the fact that he had gradually come to cherish the girl’s presence in his life and the thought of her eventually finding out about his affiliations with Black Swan had unexpectedly brought up a sense of dread within him.

It was an unavoidable outcome. He knew that before he had taken up the mission to approach the girl, who was regarded as the Queen. However, aborting the mission was not an option as it would bring nothing but more risks to the girl and setbacks to his plans. Therefore, he had to carry on with the mission, no matter what.

If that was the case, then…

Let nature take its course.

That was the only option that would allow him to stay at the girl’s side and keep her safe for as long as possible. Of course, it was nothing more than a temporary measure, but it was the only one that would prolong this beautiful illusion a little longer.

Thus, Lucien didn’t put much effort into fulfilling the mission and he didn’t stop the girl from investigating deeper into the matters related to Black Swan. In fact, he even aided the girl in her investigations, in spite of the risks those actions would bring to himself. Even after she had eventually found out about his identity as Ares, he allowed her to escape and chose to bear the punishment for failing the mission.

To be honest, the distance that he was willing to go for the girl without a second thought was both baffling and fascinating to Lucien.

Of course, he had always expected that his constant involvement with that girl would bring about changes to his life. Still, he hadn’t been able to anticipate back then, whether those changes would be beneficial or detrimental to himself. As for now…

If it is now, then Lucien can state with certainty.

That girl is both his bane and his salvation.

————————–

The flowers on the roadside had swayed gently in the wind as Lucien stared at the entrance of the abandoned building of the Quarantine Zone that was still draped with police tapes. It had been months since the mayhem that had occurred within the Quarantine Zone, but Lucien would still come here occasionally.

Even though he usually doesn’t even have time for himself, he would still spend a few minutes lingering outside the entrance of the Quarantine Zone. He would merely stare at the entrance of the building silently, while being immersed within his own thoughts.

Despite knowing this to be a futile deed, he couldn’t bring himself to stop going there. Perhaps, it was because this was the last place she had been before she disappeared without a trace from the world.

Thinking back, Lucien found the situation to be rather ironic.

It was due to their opposing standpoints that Lucien distanced himself from the girl, believing it to be the best course of action since his affiliation with Black Swan had made him a threat to the girl’s safety.

Even so, when he heard that the girl had participated in the celebration parade, which was deduced as the location of the next viral outbreak, Lucien had thrown aside everything and rushed to the venue to find the girl, barely being in time to save her from being run over by a bus. Nevertheless, he didn’t reveal his presence to the girl and quietly left the scene after ensuring the girl’s safety.

That would be the last time that he would ever see her.

In the end, Lucien wasn’t there by her side when she needed him the most.

Although the incident at the Quarantine Zone had been covered up by the STF with a mix of vague and fabricated information, it wasn’t difficult for anyone to imagine how dangerous and chaotic the actual situation had been at that time.

What would the girl’s state of mind be in facing that chaos?

He couldn’t fathom it.

Lucien’s only bit of solace would be the fact that she hadn’t been alone in facing that predicament.

Victor had been there with her.

Needless to say, the CEO of LFG had refused to tell Lucien the exact details of the event in the Quarantine Zone, let alone what happened to the girl. Nonetheless, Victor did reveal one fact to the professor during their last conversation.

“I will definitely bring her back.”

That single declaration seemed to imply that the girl was still alive but away in some unreachable place. Coupled that with what Lucien knew about the girl’s connection to the Black Cabin, the professor was able to deduce that the “unreachable place” was most likely a parallel world.

Even so, it was inconceivable for the girl to instantly be able to utilize the Black Cabin’s power to travel to another world when all she could do recently was merely viewing vague visions of the future.

Then, a fluke?

Or perhaps, an instinctive reaction of self-preservation?

Regardless, the fact that the girl still lives was what really mattered. He hadn’t lost her completely, not yet.

Finding the Black Cabin was the best way to reach the girl and the study of space-time travel would be the most likely path for him to achieve that. So, Lucien worked tirelessly on the progress of both the research on space-time travel and the vaccine for the flu virus at the same time.

It was after a month had passed since the girl’s disappearance that the research on space-time travel, which had been ongoing for nearly a year, had finally reached its conclusion.

While Lucien was no stranger to the success and failure of scientific research, the outcome of this particular research had left him feeling so utterly helpless for the first time. Based on the outcome of the research, it was proven impossible for Lucien to determine the girl’s whereabouts, let alone bring her back to their world.

In short, there was nothing he could do.

Without realizing it, the butterfly he cherished had flown far beyond his grasp.

Despite the disheartening result, Lucien refused to despair just yet.

Knowing how strong-willed and determined the girl could be, he held on to the possibility of her making her way back on her own.

If all he could do for her now was to wait for her return, then Lucien would ensure that the world would still be there for her to return to by ending this influenza outbreak.

Then, he will wait for as long as it takes for her to return here.

————————–

Unknowingly, another three months had passed since then.

Not one to stay idle, Lucien had kept himself busy in monitoring the situation and adjusting his plans accordingly. The research on the vaccine for the flu virus was completed successfully not long ago, which put an end to the influenza outbreak that had been gripping the people with fear for months. As a consequence, Lucien was hailed as a “savior” by the public, much to his chagrin.

To him, the title of “savior” had sounded more like mockery than praise since he was the original creator of the virus. He didn’t deserve the respect or gratitude of the masses for doing this. If anything, he had merely rectified the problem that arose from his own creation.

Even though Hades was the one who had stolen his abandoned prototype and put it to use, it was still undeniable that the virus had originated from his hands. Thus, he was also responsible for the repercussions that were brought about by the influenza outbreak.

Since his involvement in the creation of the virus was only known by Hades and the girl, this secret would be buried away once the outbreak had been contained. In other words, Lucien had merely tied up a loose end by creating the vaccine for the outbreak.

Nonetheless, even when the influenza outbreak had been resolved, peace hadn’t returned to Loveland City. With the STF publicizing the existence of Evolvers and accusing Black Swan as the main instigator of the viral outbreak, the situation had been growing tense between Evolvers and non-Evolvers.

This situation had been accounted for in Lucien’s plans, though.

Still, it wasn’t his place to interfere in the conflicts between STF and Black Swan since he had already left the latter. Instead, he had much work to do as the head of the newly-rebuilt Ultima Bioresearch facility. With the increased workloads, Lucien became so busy that he would sometimes lose count of the number of sleepless nights and skipped meals that had passed.

By the time he noticed, a wry smile would cross his lips as he thought of how the girl would have scolded him for being so negligent of his own wellbeing. This idle thought would then bring about the familiar throbbing pain at his chest that always came about whenever he thought of her.

Silently, Lucien would endure the pain until it had passed completely before heading out to grab a light meal or trying to take a short nap in his office. Even if he didn’t have much appetite nor could he fall asleep nowadays, he would still try to fulfill what the girl would have asked of him. This was because he knew without a doubt that she would be upset if she were to witness his current state. After all, she still cared deeply about him, in spite of their opposing stances.

This may also be his wishful thinking, but by taking care of himself as she had asked of him, Lucien carried the hope that, likewise, the girl will also be keeping herself safe, wherever she is.

It was unlike him to have such wishful thoughts, much less clinging onto the seemingly brittle hope of the girl’s eventual return. Still, he can’t help it. Whenever the girl was concerned, his actions and thoughts would somehow be influenced by emotions. In fact, he could no longer view the world with the same indifference that he initially possessed before meeting her.

These changes were the traces that the girl had left in him.

If he was to lose her, will those traces remain with him or will they vanish along with her?

Lucien chose to shelve that thought, being adamant that it wouldn’t happen.

Whether it was a certainty or merely self-assurance, only the professor himself knew for sure.

Nonetheless, the answer had arrived unbidden on one particular winter.

Lucien had been reminiscing on a memory of the last winter that was spent together with the girl when he was suddenly assaulted by a vision of himself strangling the girl’s delicate neck with his own hand. It was evidently a vision from the other world since Lucien had no recollection of it ever happening before. Nonetheless, the abrupt vision had left his mind reeling with a mix of emotions.

Shock, confusion, concern and then a sense of urgency.

The girl was in danger … and the threat was none other than himself. This was the worst possible situation for Lucien, one that he dreaded the most. Even so, the fact remained that there was nothing he could do in this situation, which frustrated him to the point of clenching his fist so tightly that it turned pale-white. It was after a few seconds had passed that he managed to compose himself and review the information that he could glimpse from that vision.

In the end, Lucien determined that as long as the girl still possessed her powers as a Queen, there was a high likelihood that her powers would trigger up instinctively in a life-or-death situation to protect herself, similar to how it might have been responsible in transporting her to the other world during the mayhem at the Quarantine Zone.

Besides that, regardless of how different the other world’s version of himself is to his current self, one thing was for certain. That is, he would never take unnecessary actions. So, he wouldn’t have bothered to kill someone with a tedious method, like strangulation… Unless he was trying to elicit some sort of reaction, that was, he was trying to confirm something.

So, the girl should be safe.

Still, Lucien can’t help but to feel uneasy. His expression remained impassive, but his tense posture had revealed a hint of apprehension. He had recently received information that STF had got their hands on the Evolution Accelerator, which was another one of his abandoned prototypes for the Black Swan Project, and successfully completed it.

The coincidental timing between the unpleasant vision from the other world and the info on the Evolution Accelerator’s completion had left him somewhat ill at ease, especially when he knew that the prototype couldn’t be completed due to the missing “gene model” or “evolution core” that was deemed unobtainable.

It was either the information was false or the STF had somehow gotten their hands on the “evolution core”.

In order to find out the answer, Lucien had secretly infiltrated the location where the Evolution Accelerator had been hidden by the STF. Contrary to his expectation, what he discovered there was the “evolution core”, which he had deemed unobtainable, nestling securely within the interior of the Evolution Accelerator.

It was true.

His incomplete prototype had finally been perfected.

However, Lucien wasn’t the least bit pleased by that.

Instead, all he felt was a growing sense of dread and a seething anger that was barely held back by his rationality.

The “evolution core” was the inextricable part of the Queen and her powers. That was why Lucien had abandoned the idea of utilizing the accelerator and deemed it unobtainable. If the “evolution core” was now within the accelerator, wouldn’t that mean that the girl was currently powerless in the other world?

If that was true, then that vision from the other world that he had seen…

At that moment, the small and brittle hope that Lucien had held onto all this time seemed to have slipped away from his grasp.

Of all the possibilities and scenarios that he had anticipated, this outcome was something that he could never be prepared for.

The fact that it was him who had ended the girl’s life with his own hands.

————————–

After returning from STF’s hidden base, Lucien had been mulling over his past decisions. Even though he knew it was pointless to look back on the past, he couldn’t help but to wonder if there was anything that he could have done differently to prevent the current outcome. It didn’t take him long to realize that this line of thought and the accompanying emotion was what people commonly regarded as “regret”.

For the first time in a long while, Lucien had felt regret.

He regretted distancing himself from her.

Instead of staying away from her, he should have kept her close and never let go.

Now, he had lost her forever.

With her gone, the world had not only returned to being dull and lifeless, there was also an undeniable feeling of emptiness within him that constantly reminded him of her absence. Even something as trivial as the sight and scent of the blooming gardenias at the university garden or the cream puffs that were on display at the bakery that he passed by on the way to the research center could make him think of her.

It was strange how one would only yearn for another so desperately after losing them forever.

Perhaps, this was his punishment.

Nonetheless, Lucien had seemed as usual to others. He continued to interact with people when necessary and completed his tasks without any delays.

No matter what, life still goes on.

Even if he found the situation unacceptable, the truth cannot be changed.

In the end, he either accept it and move on or be stuck in stagnancy by succumbing to denial.

The choice was clear. He couldn’t give up on life just because it took much effort for him to continue living on with this loss. There were things that he must do and things that only he could do. He wasn’t so irresponsible as to turn away and abandon everything. Therefore, Lucien decided to visit the camphor tree, the place where everything had begun between him and the girl, in order to bid his last farewell.

With his hand on the tree’s trunk and his eyes closed, Lucien recalled all the memories that he had shared with the girl, such as when they had first met as children under the camphor tree, their “first” meeting as adults at the research center, when the girl had vowed to be with him and even kissed him during the aquarium visit and many more.

All these memories were filled with bittersweet happiness, which weren’t born out of manipulation nor were they fabricated. Those blissful moments were dazzling, precious … and they will forever remain unattainable to Lucien.

After breathing out deeply, Lucien withdrew his hand from the tree trunk and turned around. As he lifted his gaze, his eyes had widened in surprise. Standing before him under the shadow of the tree was the girl whom he had missed dearly. She had looked the same as the last time he had seen her.

With her hands clasped behind her back, she was smiling brightly at him and Lucien could see himself being reflected within her warm brown eyes. The radiant colors that enveloped her petite figure was gradually seeping into her surroundings, bringing life to the once monochrome world.

She wasn’t real. She can’t be real.

Lucien kept telling himself while staring at the phantom before him.

Even though he knew that the girl before him was merely an illusion, he couldn’t deny the sense of relief and awe that had washed over him at the sight of her and the colors that she had brought to the world. He can’t help but to let out a chuckle as he realized belatedly his immediate reaction to the illusion.

She had always been the one and only person who could throw off his judgement.

Without a doubt, she is both his bane and his salvation.

If there were any other options, she would have asked anyone but Victor to accompany her for this. Since this was the only way, she could only put on a forced smile and steel herself in enduring the CEO’s scowling face and sharp-tongued remarks… However, the actual situation turned out to be not as terrible as she had expected?

POV:MC (Third POV)

Words:2092 words

“So…this is your idea of fun?”

Victor maintained a deadpan expression as he spoke, but he still couldn’t hide the hint of sarcasm in his tone. He was examining the horror-themed posters that were displayed on the wall next to the entrance of the establishment. With a hand on his chin, he seemed to be thinking about something.

In response to his remark, the girl could only chuckle nervously.

To be honest, she had expected this kind of reaction from Victor after she revealed that day’s main event to him. Having prepared herself for Victor’s onslaught of snide remarks for dragging him into this, she had decided that she wouldn’t back out until she had completed what she had set out to do today.

“Since you haven’t participated in such an activity before,” said the girl as she stood next to him and pretended to examine the posters on the wall. Sneakily, she glanced at Victor through the corner of her eyes to read his expression. However, the man had suddenly turned to frown at her, which caused her to quickly avert her gaze back towards the posters and continued talking enthusiastically, “This will be a first experience for both of us! So, I am sure it will be fun and exciting!”

Receiving no response from Victor, she reluctantly turned away from the posters to look at him with a forced smile. Just as she expected, the expression on Victor’s face was one of complete skepticism, with the silent question of “Are you serious?” being conveyed clearly by his narrowed eyes. On a normal working day, she might be wary of offending Victor’s mood…but not today!

“Well, this is part of the reward you promised me. So, no backing out now!”

If this was a message conversation, she would be receiving a “…” reply from Victor by now. Instead, Victor had merely stared at her for a moment before sighing softly.

“Childish.”

For some reason, instead of being offended, she felt a sense of triumph and her lips had tugged upward unconsciously at hearing that single word.

After spending months trying to turn around the financial situation of her company, things were starting to improve and becoming more manageable than when she first took over as the head of her father’s media company. It was during a rare leisure moment in the company that one of her employees had brought up a topic that she had completely forgotten about amidst her hectic schedules.

The company’s team building event.

It was something that was held by most companies to foster teamwork and better communications among their employees. For her, the main purpose of having such an event was for everyone in her company to unwind and have fun after a hectic period of endless projects. Moreover, Willow and Kiki were more than willing to be in charge of organizing the event, which prevented her from having to stress herself out in thinking up a plan for the event.

The only problem was the activity that had been decided for this year’s event was an escape game, something that she hadn’t tried out before. Of course, she had heard about it sometime ago since it was a trending activity. She had even considered it interesting and had planned to try it out herself, if she ever had the chance to take a day-off from work in the future. However, never had she expected the opportunity would come to her so soon and in the form of a company event.

While she doubted anyone would fault her for being completely ignorant about the escape game, she didn’t want to ruin everyone’s fun on that day. Besides, she also had her pride as a boss to maintain among her employees, even if this was a non-formal event. In other words, those were her personal concerns and the best way to resolve them would be for her to gain experience by participating in an escape game before the company event itself.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t join the escape game by herself since it required a minimum of at least two participants for a game session and she was also embarrassed to ask anyone who will be joining the team building event to accompany her. With Gavin being away on a mission, Lucien having a conference out of the city and Kiro being caught up in filming for a popular TV drama recently, she was left with only one choice, that was Victor.

Even when she had reached that conclusion, she couldn’t help but to reconsider her options over and over again. It wasn’t because she disliked Victor…well, maybe a little. Yes, to be honest, she just disliked him a little, and that was only because he was always being mean to her, by calling her names and finding fault with every little thing that she did.

Not to mention, when she pointed out the inconsistencies in his actions, he would retaliate with either a snide remark or by bringing forward the deadline of her proposals. What a tyrant! If LFG wasn’t the main sponsor of her company, which indirectly made Victor her superior, she would have flipped out and given him an earful long ago.

Anyway, after much consideration, she decided to ask Victor to join in on an escape game with her since she believed Victor wouldn’t have participated in such an activity himself, considering his temperament. He might even consider it a waste of time to participate in such an activity. However, she wasn’t worried about her invitation being rejected by the CEO of LFG since she still held a trump card. Victor still owed her the reward for successfully completing a project earlier and he had stated that he would fulfill any one of her demands as long as it was within bounds.

Although she trusted Victor to be a man of his words, she didn’t reveal to him that he would be joining an escape game until he had arrived at the venue. All she told him was that she would like for him to accompany her for the day. Thus, that was how they both ended up being in front of the reception counter of the establishment that hosted countless sessions of escape games.

The moment they made their appearance before the counter, a bespectacled young man had greeted them with a friendly smile.

“Good afternoon. How may I help the both of you?”

“We would like to try out a game.”

“May I know if you have joined other game sessions before this?”

“Actually, this is our first time.”

“If that’s the case, I would recommend trying out these two scenarios,” said the staff while taking out two leaflets from under the counter and placing them before Victor and herself.

One of the leaflets was depicting a black-and-white image of a hospital room with bloodstains on the wall and the word “Memories” was printed in red as its header, while the other leaflet showed a dark prison-like room with iron bars and had the word “Retribution” printed boldly in white as its header. The images were simple and typical of a horror theme, but they successfully instilled a sense of fear in the girl.

“These scenarios are more suited for beginners to familiarize themselves with the game settings,” explained the staff with the smile still on his face.

“Is there any difference between the two?”

Surprisingly, Victor was the one who had asked that question.

As though he had been expecting that question, the staff readily explained the difference between the two scenarios.

“The “Retribution” scenario will begin with the players being confined separately in different rooms, while the “Memories” scenario will begin with the players being confined together in the same room. However, despite the different starting arrangements, both scenarios would still require teamwork and communication among the players to complete.”

“Uhm…”

This time, all eyes were on the girl and her partially-raised hand.

“There are no surprises or scary things appearing in the game session, right?”

Hearing that, the staff had chuckled lightly before assuring her that the game will only consist of puzzle-solving and hunting for hidden clues, while Victor was wearing the same frown that he had shown her back at the entrance.

Are you serious?

Well, she can’t help being worried about jump scares appearing during the game with the depictions shown by the horror-themed posters. She had purposely picked a different establishment from the one that Kiki had chosen for their company’s team-building event, in order to avoid spoiling the fun by knowing the puzzles beforehand, but she didn’t realize at that time that the games from this establishment would all be horror-themed, unlike the one chosen by Kiki which were more adventure-themed. She had only realized this when she saw the posters displayed on the wall, but it was already too late for her to back out by then.

Disregarding this hindsight, she needed to make a decision now.

“Victor, which one do you think we should choose?”

“You are the one who wants to try the game. You decide.”

While she wanted to be proud of herself for having anticipated that exact answer from Victor, she was actually more vexed by it since it didn’t really help her situation. Perhaps sensing the brewing storm beneath her forced smile, Victor had then added another statement.

“They are the same. Just randomly choose one.”

If it was that simple, would she have asked him in the first place?

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at Victor, she suddenly thought of a way to make her choice.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“To rely on a coin toss to make a choice… I am reevaluating your decision-making skills.”

“Says the one who isn’t helping,” she grumbled under her breath.

“What’s that?”

“Still, we managed to make it out in time. That’s not too bad, right?”

By a coin toss, they had chosen to play the “Retribution” scenario. After being briefed by the staff about the rules and the backstory of the scenario, she and Victor were provided with modified phones by the staff as their only means of communication before being confined in different rooms. While it was disconcerting to be locked in a dark room on her own, the presence of the flashlight and the phone in her hands had done a lot in reassuring her.

At first, she didn’t have the confidence in completing the game within the allocated forty-five minutes since they were beginners who weren’t used to how the game works. However, as she and Victor gradually solved each of the puzzles, they started to get the hang of it. They continued exchanging information through the phones about the vague codes and clues that they had found in their respective rooms. By openly sharing their thoughts and ideas, the seemingly senseless alphabets and numbers became comprehensible messages to help them escape.

Moreover, Victor was unexpectedly encouraging when she became frustrated at being stuck at a puzzle. Although he would still direct jabbing remarks at her when she made a careless mistake in the game, he was still being less critical than when he was evaluating her proposals. This different and kind side of Victor during the game session did make her dislike him a little lesser…just a little.

“It’s an interesting experience.”

“Huh?”

As she couldn’t believe her ears, she instantly turned to look at Victor, who was walking next to her. However, she didn’t expect Victor to meet her eyes defiantly instead of looking away.

“What?”

Flustered by his intense gaze, she quickly looked away while saying, “I just wanted to say that I had fun today as well and thank you for willing to accompany me today.”

“Well, this is part of your promised reward.”

Why, this man…Would it kill him to speak kindly?

“Then, if I did well again for future projects, you wouldn’t mind accompanying me again for another game session?”

There was a moment of silence before an answer was heard.

“Well, if that’s what you want.”

“It’s a promise then,” said the girl before running a few steps ahead of Victor. After turning around to face the older man, she exclaimed with a bright grin, “No backing out, even if you do regret it in the future. If not, I will be telling the whole world that CEO Victor is not a man of his word!”

Seeing this, Victor merely smiled faintly.

“Dummy.”

Victor’s expression had seemed especially tender at that moment, which made the girl doubt her own eyes.

Saudade is a profound melancholic yearning for the absent of that which one loves, that is often accompanied by the denied fact that it might never return. In other words, it is the feeling of missing someone dear to you who is no longer by your side.

Words: 1386 words

For the past one minute, Kiro had been staring at the constantly blinking vertical line on the half-completed email that was displayed on his laptop screen. His hands that were on the keyboard had remained motionless, even though his mind was whirling with various choices of words to convey his thoughts. It was strange since he didn’t usually have this much trouble in putting his thoughts into words.

After all, this wasn’t his first email and it was also unlikely to be his last.

There wasn’t a defined limit to the length of his emails. Some of them were as short as a few sentences, while others could be as lengthy as a few pages. Nevertheless, the words that he wished to say would come to him naturally and guided the movements of his fingers on the keyboard, much like when he was struck by a sudden spark of inspiration while in the middle of composing a new song. However, unlike his songs, which he would gladly share to the world without reservations, the words on this digital form of letters were something that was meant for his one and only recipient.

An irreplaceable and important person in Kiro’s life.

After much hesitation, Kiro eventually typed out the finishing sentence for his email. He sent the email immediately and received a confirmation from the system a moment later regarding his email being delivered successfully. The young man then leaned back onto his chair and stretched his arms up in the air. Nonchalantly, he glanced at the time that was shown at the bottom right corner of his laptop. Most people would be eager to retire to bed after realizing the current time, but for Kiro, he merely sighed before smiling wryly.

If Savin knew that he had been staying up late while knowing full well that he will be having a photo shooting session in the morning, he would not only be nagging at Kiro, he would confiscate all of his devices and games to prevent him from staying up late again. It was already bad enough to have his snacks confiscated before this. If he was to lose his games and devices as well…Kiro didn’t even want to imagine it. Thus, it would be best to hide this from his manager’s knowledge.

Anyway, considering the current time, it wouldn’t make much difference for him to go to bed now or later. Not to mention, he wasn’t feeling sleepy at all right now. Rather than tossing and turning in bed as he tried to fall asleep, he might as well stay up for a little while longer. Having made up his mind about that, Kiro reached out to his laptop once again. He scrolled through the long list of emails that existed within his inbox in the encrypted mailing system. His azure eyes grew wistful as he skimmed through the simplified previews for the contents of each of the emails.

[How’s your day today?]

[Happy birthday, Kiro.]

[Are you staying up late to play games again?]

[I have listened to your latest song.]

On the list of emails that could be dated as far back as fifteen years ago, there were only two names. Needless to say, Kiro was one of them. As for the other name, it was none other than his mentor, KEY.

As a matter of fact, this encrypted mailing system was actually something that was set up by KEY as a private means of communication between him and Kiro when the latter was sent abroad as a child. Nonetheless, if one was to examine the list of emails closely, they will notice that starting from five years ago, Kiro had been the one sending emails to his mentor, while there had never been an email from KEY to him.

This was because KEY had been missing without a trace in the past five years.

While The Twelve of Black Swan had deemed KEY to no longer be in this world, Kiro refused to accept that. Instead, he believed that his mentor had merely hidden himself so well throughout the years that no one was able to find any traces of him. Even now, his mentor must certainly be waiting somewhere in the world for the opportunity to reunite with him.

Ever since Kiro solved the first coding puzzle that was left behind by KEY and received the subsequent message of encouragement that was attached to the hint for the next riddle, he had continued to believe in his mentor’s survival.

If not, how could the occasional messages from his mentor, which appeared every time he solved one of those riddles, fit with the latest events and Kiro’s current situation in life?

Still, despite Kiro having accepted his mentor’s disappearance as a temporary circumstance, that didn’t mean that he was completely unaffected by it.

Back when Kiro was still staying abroad, he and his mentor had still maintained contact with one another through the encrypted emails in spite of not being able to meet with each other. Now, there was completely no contact between them. So, of course, this had made Kiro feel lonelier than before. The only solace for this loneliness would be when the blonde youth was immersed in his work as a celebrity, solving his mentor’s riddles … or when he was sending emails to his mentor via the encrypted system.

Kiro had started actively sending emails to his mentor after the latter had been missing for more than a year. To be honest, he didn’t know why he started doing that or if there was any meaning in doing so. Still, the only thing Kiro knew for certain was that the weight on his chest had felt a little lighter after he had sent out those emails. Even though there hadn’t been a single reply for any of his emails, Kiro wasn’t disheartened and continued sending out his emails whenever he could do so.

Since the contents of the emails were about the things that Kiro had experienced in his daily life, this habit of composing emails to his mentor was akin to writing a diary entry, which led him to come up with a certain idea.

That, someday, if he could meet up with his mentor, he would retrieve all of these unread mails from the system and recite them back to his mentor, letter by letter, just to inform him on how he had been doing for the past years during his mentor’s absence. In return, Kiro would then request to hear about his mentor’s experiences.

With so many things to talk about between them, a day would certainly not be enough. So, Kiro might as well take a few days off from work during that time. While it may be difficult to take a long leave of absence from work due to his rising fame and the countless job offers, if he persuaded Savin to allow him a long break just this one time, it wouldn’t be impossible.

After that, he could catch up with his mentor without a care in the world. Kiro could even take the opportunity to introduce Miss Chips to his mentor. Knowing the two of them well, Kiro was sure that they would get along fine. The blonde celebrity had smiled widely in contentment as he pictured the scene of his mentor, Miss Chips and himself conversing happily at one of his secret bases.

If there was really such a day in the future, Kiro thought that he couldn’t be happier.

Stifling a yawn, Kiro rubbed one of his eyes before deciding that it was finally time for him to sleep. After instructing his laptop to shut down, the young man stood up from his seat and headed towards his bedroom to have a short nap before the sun rose.

While pending on the shutdown command, his laptop’s screen was showing the most recent email that he had sent out earlier to his mentor. A single sentence had stood apart from the rest of the content at the bottommost part of the email. It was the last sentence that Kiro had added into the email before he sent it out.

[Master, I miss you.]

With a blink, the laptop screen turned dark, signaling that the device had completed its shutdown process.

MC hadn’t heard from Gavin for quite a while. Unable to focus on work, she ended up working overtime in office, which led to an unexpected incident.

POV:MC (Third POV)

Words: 1969 words

It had been a week since the last time she met Gavin.

Even though there had been times when she had lost contact with Gavin for much longer than that, she couldn’t help but to be anxious this time due to a disconcerting dream that she had been having recently. Within the dream, she was wandering alone in complete darkness. Just when she heard Gavin’s concerned voice calling out to her in the dark, she lost her footing and fell from a great height… which then prompted her to wake up from the dream with a racing heart.

While it could have been just a random dream without any significance, she couldn’t shrug off the possibility of it being a sign of the future to come that was shown to her by her precognition Evol. Ever since she realized she could glimpse a little part of the future through her dreams, she hadn’t been able to treat any of her dreams as a random figment of her subconscious.

Since Gavin had been a part of her latest dream, it made her wonder if it meant that something was going to happen to him or if he was going to be in danger because of her again. Consequently, this also caused her to remember that past incident with Josie, where Gavin had come to her rescue when she fell into the trap that was intended for the former while trying to alter the vision of Gavin being in danger that was shown by her Evol.

As a STF agent that deals with Evol-related incidents on a daily basis, she knew very well that Gavin constantly faces dangerous situations and there had been countless times when he had to place his life on the line to ensure everyone’s safety. Thus, it was unavoidable for him to be wounded from his missions. But still, even if she wasn’t strong enough to protect Gavin from harm, she had hoped that just like how Gavin had looked out for everyone else, she could be the one to look out for Gavin.

After giving one last look at the last unanswered text message that she had sent to Gavin an hour ago, she kept her phone in her tote bag and proceeded to pack up her things from her office desk in preparation to go home. Since she can’t help but to check on the unanswered texts that she had left Gavin at every opportunity of a break, she hadn’t been able to get much work done today.

In fact, she hadn’t realized that her action was so conspicuous until Kiki and Willow had teased her about it, which she had then responded to by pretending to be offended in order to hide her embarrassment. She wasn’t sure if she had convinced them with her feigned anger, but at least they hadn’t pursued further on the subject.

Having finished packing her things, she picked up her bag and walked out of her office. As she waited for the elevator to arrive, she stared at the constantly rising number that was shown on the electronic panel between the two elevators. Just when the next number was going to be her floor level, there was a dull ‘thuk’ sound and everything went dark without warning.

Startled, she grabbed her bag instinctively before reaching a hand into it. After fumbling around for a while, her hand eventually settled on the familiar shape of her smartphone, which made her lips lifted upwards one-sidedly. Once she took out her phone, the light of her active touchscreen had seemed like a beacon in the seemingly ominous, pitch-black sea of darkness around her.

Ever since she was young, she always had this instinctive fear of the dark. However, she hadn’t been as fearful of the dark once she became an adult. So, she couldn’t explain her currently racing heartbeat and the evident trembling of her hands that were holding her smartphone before her face. She could only blame it all on her current situation being a reminiscence of the dream of darkness that she had been having recently.

Don’t panic. Don’t think too much. Just turn on the flashlight.

As she mentally consoled herself, she configured through the settings on her phone’s touchscreen to turn on the flashlight app. She sighed in relief when the front of her phone had given out a bright light to illuminate the path ahead of her.

Feeling less nervous, she came to a realization that usually the building’s backup power generator should have started up immediately following the power blackout, which in turn, would activate the emergency lights to prevent the whole building from being immersed in total darkness. However, it had already been well past a few minutes after the power blackout, but her phone’s flashlight was still the only source of illumination around her. Something must have gone wrong with the backup power generator.

Since it was already very late at night, she couldn’t possibly rely on the possibility of someone coming over to repair the power generator or to wait in the office until who-knows-when for the power to be restored on its own. Needless to say, she definitely didn’t want to stay overnight by herself in the office.

With those thoughts in mind, she turned to look towards the direction of the door to the emergency staircase. With her currently being on the seventh floor, it shouldn’t be that difficult for her to descend all the way down to the ground floor through the emergency stairs.

Besides, going down the stairs uses less stamina than climbing up the stairs.

Having pumped herself up with that idea, she headed towards the door that led towards the emergency staircase. With the light from her phone guiding her way, she had made quick progress in descending to the next floor. Soon, she was only four floors away from reaching the ground floor… when her phone had died off suddenly, leaving her in total darkness.

“What?!”

She cried out in panic as she frantically tapped on the touchscreen of her phone with the thumb of her right hand while holding the railing tightly with her other hand. Unfortunately, her phone still remained unresponsive. Thinking back, she hadn’t really taken note of the battery level of her phone today, let alone charging it. Thus, it wouldn’t be surprising for it to run out of power and shut down by itself.

It’s okay. It’s okay.

Even though she was on the verge of a panic attack, she continued to console herself with her eyes closed. She can’t possibly break down crying now and expected someone to come to her rescue. Just like everyone else, there would be unexpected occasions where she will have to stand alone. If she couldn’t even overcome the current situation on her own, how can she expect to be dependable to others?

With trembling hands, she placed her phone into her bag before holding on tightly to the railing of the staircase with both hands. Blinded by the darkness, she slowly lowered her foot to the next step on the stairs, making sure that her foot was standing firmly on the step before proceeding to do the same for her other foot. She then repeated this process again for going down to the next step of the staircase. By doing so, she was making a much slower but safe progress down the staircase.

She wasn’t aware of how much time had passed, but judging from the steps that she had taken after losing her only source of light, she estimated that she was probably around three-and-a-half floors away from reaching the ground floor. If she kept it up at this pace, she should be able to reach the ground floor before morning comes, she thought jokingly to herself.

It was at this moment that she suddenly heard a familiar voice calling out her name from far below the stairs. She thought she might have imagined it out of anxiety since it couldn’t have been such a coincidence for her to hear that voice that she was yearning for the most in her current situation.

“Ga…Gavin?”

Her voice had trembled when she called out nervously towards the darkness. Perhaps, her voice was too soft to be heard for there wasn’t any other response from down below the staircase…Or maybe, she had imagined that voice after all.

Even though she was prepared for that possibility, she still couldn’t stop the feeling of disappointment from welling up within her chest. Feeling the side of her eyes growing slightly damp by the seconds, she lowered her head and raised one of her hands to rub her eyes.

Just when she was about to continue taking her next tentative step down the stairs, she heard that voice again. This time, it was followed by the urgent sound of footsteps approaching her from below the staircase. Just when the sound of footsteps was just around the corner from her, she turned towards the source of the sound and was momentarily blinded by a flash of bright light, which quickly shifted away from her face.

“Are you alright?”

The concern in the familiar voice was evident, much like his expression. Even amidst the dimly-lit surroundings, she could notice the light sheen of sweat on Gavin’s forehead and the sight of his brows knitted together, followed by the faint sound of his panting breaths.

Although she was utterly pleased to know that she was the reason he had run up all those three levels of stairs in a hurry, she couldn’t stop her eyes from brimming with tears, to the point that they started to trickle down the side of her face.

Perhaps, she was just too relieved to see him appearing safe and sound before her after not seeing him for a week … or maybe it was because he had appeared before her when she was most in need of support.

Nevertheless, this vulnerable state of hers was the last thing she ever wanted to show Gavin. Panicking, she quickly lowered her head and rubbed her eyes with both hands as she tried to explain her sudden outburst.

“No, this isn’t…I mean I didn’t intend to…”

While she was fumbling for words and kept rubbing the tears away from her eyes, she felt a strong pair of arms circling around her form in a manner that is not suffocating and yet, not too distant.

“I am sorry,” she heard Gavin’s voice above her head and felt his hand patting her back awkwardly, as if he was uncertain if it was okay to touch her at the moment and also to assure her that he was truly with her, right then and there. “I am sorry that I am late. It must have been scary for you to be alone in the dark.”

For some reasons, hearing his words and feeling his warmth had made her feel both vulnerable and safe at the same time. Even though she thought that if she couldn’t be strong enough to protect him, at least she wanted to be able to stand on her own, so that he could have one less thing to worry about. However, in the end, she still ended up seeking him for reassurance.

She is totally hopeless, isn’t she?

“Don’t be afraid. I am here.”

She couldn’t help but to sniffle at those words of his. When he appeared to save her in a sea of fire during that incident with Josie, he had spoken those same words to her.

Be it then or now, Gavin had always assured her that she will not be alone.

How she wished that the day would come, when she would be strong enough to be the one to return those words to him.

A random fanfic with reference to the end of Chapter 6-19 of the game’s plot, which was also known as the confrontation between a “protective” Lucien and a “hostile” Gavin. 

Words:1019 words

Keeping her safe has always been Gavin’s goal.

It was also his reason for seeking greater power.

After all, she was special.

Gavin had known that she was special ever since that day, the day when the ginkgo leaves were billowing in the wind, when his EVOL first awakened. Therefore, it wasn’t surprising to him that she would be targeted by many people with ill intentions. In order to protect her from those dangers, Gavin resolved to get stronger … even if it required him to be away from her. Nonetheless, he vowed to return as soon as possible to her side to protect her.

However, when they did meet each other again, it had already been six years and the girl could barely remember him. Gavin was disappointed, but he reassured himself that they could just take this chance to start getting reacquainted with each other again. After a few rounds of awkward interactions, Gavin noticed that the girl seemed to hold a mistaken perception of him that stemmed from his ill reputation during high school.

While it would have been natural to clear the misunderstanding between them by directly confronting her about it, he was well-aware of how stiff and awkward she was whenever he tried to approach or talk to her. So, he didn’t want to pressure or scare her any more than that. Besides, he firmly believed that the truth will eventually reveal itself, even without him doing anything.

Nevertheless, Gavin didn’t have much time to worry about this as the peace of Loveland City was threatened by those who were actively making their moves in the shadows. EVOL-related cases were popping up one after another, which kept him preoccupied and rarely having the chance to be with her. In fact, the most recent encounter that Gavin had with the girl was in front of the abandoned orphanage, where Gavin had arrived earlier, after following the trail of an ongoing investigation.

At that time, Gavin was surprised to meet her there. However, his surprise had instantly turned into suspicion towards the man that was accompanying her, a certain special consultant for the girl’s company, who was also a world-renowned neuroscientist, “Professor Lucien Xu”. After all, it was unlikely for the girl to have suddenly come to the orphanage at night of her own volition.

Even so, Gavin started to doubt his judgement when Lucien had pulled the girl behind him and used his EVOL to create a barrier to ward against Gavin’s EVOL that was fluctuating unstably. It was at this moment that Gavin thought that perhaps, the man before him was not an enemy, that there could be another threat hidden within the shadows around them.

It was thanks to this quick thinking and fast reaction of his that Gavin managed to counter the sniping bullet that was aimed towards the girl. If he had hesitated and spent a little longer doubting Lucien…

Without saying much, he had then asked Lucien to escort the girl to safety while he went after the hidden sniper. Although Gavin still didn’t fully trust Lucien, if this well-known man was willing to expose something as secretive as his identity as an Evolver to Gavin in order to protect the girl, then Gavin trusted that he wouldn’t allow the girl to be harmed at least.

After wrapping up the entire incident by reporting to Commander Leto, the first thing that Gavin thought of doing was to check up on the girl. Aided by the darkness of the moonless night, he had flown through the clouds and hovered outside the windows of her apartment unit. He unknowingly sighed in relief the moment he saw her sleeping peacefully on her bed through the partially-covered windows. After ensuring that there were no hidden threats around the vicinity, he gave her one last glance before silently leaving the scene.

When Gavin finally had time for himself, he thoroughly went through all the information that he had collected regarding the incident. The main perpetrator of the sniping incident was discovered to be a secret organization known as “Black Swan”, which had suddenly become active two years ago. While the actual aim of the organization was still unclear, it was evident from their repeated attempts and threats on the girl’s peaceful life that she was their main target.

Moreover, since the ballistic report had proven that the sniper’s bullet wasn’t actually meant to take the girl’s life, then this would mean that Black Swan had deliberately created that life-threatening situation for some kind of purpose… To forcefully awaken her EVOL? If that was the case, then the one who could most likely lead the girl to that location to trigger the situation would be … Lucien.

Then, could Lucien be a part of Black Swan?

Gavin’s eyes had widened in surprise at his own deductions.

If that was true, didn’t that mean that Gavin had just entrusted the girl to the enemy’s hands on that day?

Gavin unconsciously tightened his hand into a fist at that appalling thought.

Still, the fact remained that Lucien had protected the girl and even sent the girl home safely on that day. Even now, a week after the incident, Lucien hadn’t made any suspicious moves. Instead, it would seem as though nothing had changed at all since that day. Unless Lucien was very confident in hiding his tracks, it would be rather brazen of him to remain as usual without any hint of worry. Perhaps, he really didn’t have anything to do with the incident.

Moreover, Lucien’s possible affiliation with Black Swan was merely Gavin’s deduction and suspicion. So far, even after doing a background check on the young professor through STF’s resources, he hadn’t found a definite proof that linked him to Black Swan and Gavin knew full well that any deductions without solid proof would be nothing but groundless accusations in the face of the law.

Even so, Gavin still couldn’t shake off this wariness that he had towards this person known as “Lucien Xu”, especially with how the man was always found around the girl recently.