"Hey, Aera!" Aera turned to the owner of the voice. "Good morning!" Cavin greeted Aera, and Aera immediately replied with a smile and bowed slightly.
Aera fished out her phone and quickly typed 'Good morning' to greet Cavin back.
Cavin wanted to ask her, but he was hesitating.
Aera smiled at him again.
"I―I heard from Leus that you were absent for days... do you feel okay now?" He finally asked.
After what happened that day, they felt the pain that Aera had been carrying.
Aera nodded her head and bowed at Cavin.
Cavin panicked and said, "H-hey, you do not have to do that." He added, and bowed back at her.
'I just want to thank you for helping me that day. I really appreciated it. Thank you very much!'
"I am happy that you are okay now. We got worried. I will accompany you to your room. Is that good?" Cavin offered, but Aera stopped him from walking. "Why?" he asked.
Aera took a deep breath before rolling up the sleeves of her jacket. She wanted to show her scars to Cavin before getting her pad to show what she had prepared in the morning.
'Will it be okay for you to be my friend even if I have a lot of scars? Is it okay for you or do you not like it?'
"Do you want to be my friend?" Cavin asked Aera. "Aren't we friends already?" Cavin asked continuously and nodded, "Of course! I'm fine with it and it's not a problem to me at all." he answered after reading Aera's pad asking if he will still like to be her friend even though she have scars.
Seeing Aera smiling, he felt somewhat proud that he could make her smile.
"You know, it's not a big deal to us. This is what is really important," Cavin said, and pointed to his heart. "Your heart. If you treat other people well, they will like you. They will know that you are a good person and will definitely treat you well too."
"Those people who are hurting you... just think of them as a bunch of rotten wood. Don't be friends with them and stay away as much as you can." He added, giving advice.
They started to walk to Aera's building since HRM has their own building, unlike the other courses.
"Leus will be happy to see you smiling now. He was too worried because he could not even approach you these days, especially since you were absent for days too. He badly wants to go to the orphanage where you are living, but sadly, he does not know where it is." Cavin shared. "You do not have social media accounts that we can message, so it was very disappointing. Don't tell him I told you about this, okay?" Cavin added.
Aera started to write while walking on her phone. Cavin found it cute since Aera was taking a lot of time while typing on her phone. After writing, she showed it to Cavin.
He nodded. "Yes, I had my breakfast already. Is your phone new? You write faster than typing on your phone." He asked.
Aera immediately nodded in agreement.
'My friend bought this for me. It was my first time having this too, so I am still learning how to use it'
"That's better. It's convenient to use the notepad on your phone. You will be better after a few more weeks." Cavin assured her.
When they got to the room, Leus was already there, talking to their classmates.
"Leus!" Cavin called Leus.
Leus excused himself and headed to Cavin. "Why are you here? Do you need something?" He asked his friend.
Cavin shook his head and moved a little, revealing Aera behind him.
Leus was shocked when he saw Aera.
"Aera?" he said, still surprised by the view he was seeing in front of him. "Thank God you are now here. You have been absent for a few days. I do not know how to contact you. I do not have any of your social media accounts. Good thing you met her, Cavin." he told his friend.
Cavin nodded. "We met at the entrance. I decided to accompany her to see you as well. We will have our match later. So I want to see if you are in good condition." Cavin answered.
"Well, I am good. We will win the game later." He replied.
Leus is wondering if Aera's okay already. He also can't believe that Aera is now comfortable with Cavin.
"Good then. I will go now." Cavin said. "Stop over-thinking. It looks like you are too smart, even though it's not," Cavin laughed at Leus. "Aera, see you around." he added, and winked at Aera before walking away.
He gave Cavin a guarded look. "What the hell was that, a*shole? Come back here!" Leus shouted, but Cavin didn't even stop nor look back. "What was that? Why is he winking at you? Is he hitting on you secretly? Does he make you uncomfortable? I will beat the hell out of him!" he added, panicking that Aera might be uncomfortable with it, but Aera only smiled, saying it was okay.
"Are you sure? I can't understand. Why did he even wink at you? It is either he was hitting on you or hitting on you." He asked again, totally confused by Aera's reaction.
Aera is smiling widely at him.
"Is it really okay? because I am not fine with it. That fuc― bastard is hitting on you and in front of my f*cking face?" He added enragedly, as if he was ready to kill Cavin.
Aera immediately turned to her phone and began to write.
'I asked if he would still accept me as a friend even though I had many wounds. He said he was fine with it and still wanted to be friends with me'
Leus shook his head. "So does that mean he can wink at you already? I should fix that bastard's eyes." He said, but Aera told him to stop, tapping on her phone, and showed it to Leus.
'Don't curse too much. It's bad'
He sighed, defeated. "Sorry. I am just mad. No, not totally mad, just frustrated." he explained.
'Thank you for still accepting me, Leus'
Leus' rage is now gone. Reading what Aera wrote for him makes him happy.
"Come on, let's get inside. Give me your digits and social media accounts, but before that, you know what, some of our classmates are asking me about you. Do you want to get to know and befriend them too?" Leus said, as if he hadn't been angry before.
Leus had introduced Aera to their classmate whom he had talked to earlier. Aera didn't hesitate to show her wounds and was overjoyed to know that they didn't find them ugly or disgusting.
"Where's Cavin?" Leus asked the first thing when he entered their dressing room.
"He is still in our room. Finishing his paper. Why?" Keon answered, since he is Cavin's classmate.
"I'm gonna beat that f*cking bastard." he answered while changing to his soccer uniform.
Even though everything was okay, he couldn't let the wink slide today, tomorrow, or for the next few months.
"What did Cavin do to you?" Ricx asked, curious about what happened.
Before Leus could answer, the man for whom he was waiting came.
"What's up, motherf*ckers! I am done with my term paper―oh hey―" Cavin couldn't even finish his lines because Leus tried to attack him.
Fortunately, their friends blocked Leus, so that's why he couldn't even come near Cavin.
"Why, man?" Cavin asked, wondering.
His wondering reaction turns into a big smile. He even didn't wait for Leus' answer, and he just smiled crazily.
"You, bastard! I'm gonna wipe that smug look off your face! Get out of my way!" Leus said, trying to attack Cavin again.
"Calm down first, Leus!" Drake said he was worried that it would affect their game 30 minutes later.
"What did he do?" Allen asked to know the reason behind it.
"That a*shole just winked at Aera! Is he hitting on her secretly without my knowledge? How dare he do that to her? What if Aera finds it uncomfortable?" Leus became enraged.
The four didn't even try to hold down Leus anymore. They are now laughing at him. Even the other players who were worried about him are now laughing at him.
Leus' pupils flared. "Why are you guys laughing? Is there something funny? What the f*ck?" he asked, wondering.
"I told you, Keon, he is in that phase already." Cavin said, out of nowhere to Keon.
"What phase are you talking about?" Confused, Leus asked Cavin.
Cavin tapped his shoulder. "Learn it yourself. It's a friendly wink, man. I know Aera is a bony, but we had already agreed to be friends. No more than that." he explained.
Leus somehow calmed down with Cavin's explanation. At least he is sure that it's what Cavin called friendly wink.
The game ended with a good score. Stratford won again. Leus and his teammates were in the dressing room getting ready to go home, but only Leus was doing his stuff at a fast pace.
"A*sholes! Good game! I'll go now. See you tomorrow!" He said it in a rush, then went out of the dressing room, almost running.
"Captain, make sure to have a girlfriend before Leus can!" Allen was teasing their Captain.
On the other hand, Leus is running to the gate.
"Aera!" He shouted when he saw Aera standing beside the security house like what he had told her.
Aera smiled at him and waited for him.
"Did I take too long? Sorry for waiting." Leus apologized.
Aera immediately shook her head before smiling. She immediately showed her phone to Leus.
'Congratulations!! You did well earlier'
"Thank you!" he said, expressing gratitude. "Although we lost once, I think we won't let them win against us from now on." Leus said, laughing. "Anyway, since we won today, it's my treat. I'll drop you off at Saint Angel's before 6 p.m. Did you already ask permission from Sister Ailee? I don't want to change her impressions of me." He added.
Aera immediately showed the text that she asked for permission from Sister Ailee.
"Good, and you've got a new phone?" Leus asked in surprise, and Aera immediately answered with a shake.
'Lance, Lizzy's brother, gave it to me'
"That's good to know. Let's talk about that later. Let's go." he said, guiding Aera to walk.
They immediately took a taxi. After a few minutes of traveling, they reached the Maude Restaurant.
Even before they could enter the resto, Aera stopped Leus.
"What's with that reaction? Don't worry, this resto is from my uncle. Most of the time, I am here to eat and taste Uncle's food." Leus explains and gently pulls Aera to enter the resto.
"Good morning, Ma'am and Sir Leus!" One of the waiters greeted them.
"Where is Uncle?" Leus asked back.
"In the office, he told us you were coming. This way, please." he replied while motioning them to the reserved seat.
"Are you comfortable?" he asked as soon as they sat down.
Aera immediately nodded in response.
"Just tell me right away if you are not okay. We'll go out immediately. My Uncle is kind, you don't have to worry." Leus said, giving Aera assurance.
"You're not alone in tasting my dishes now, huh?"
The two turned to the owner of the voice.
"Uncle Ji!" Leus greeted them warmly and did a fist pump. "She is Aera, my friend and classmate as well." He introduced Aera.
Aera stood up and bowed at Leus' uncle.
"Hi, Aera! I heard about you a lot. I am his uncle. You can also call me Uncle Ji." he told Aera.
Aera bowed slightly and smiled at him.
"You're pretty. Don't let the others drag you down, alright? I want you to taste our dishes here and give me your feedback on whether it's good or not," he said to Aera, so she answered with a nod. "Anyways, I'll be back in a second to serve the food." he added before leaving the two.
"Tell him right away if the food is not good. We will criticize their food if it is worth our money. Don't hesitate to tell me, we can use this as our experience later on." Leus reminded Aera.