After Eiden had caught the falling Linda, he realized with a jolt that his hand had landed directly on her boob. Not only that he’d unconsciously squeezed it a few tis before his brain caught up with what it was. The mont the realization hit him, he quickly retracted his hand like it had touched hot tal.
Linda stabilized herself, her arms imdiately covering her chest, her face flushed a deep, almost painful shade of red like she’d turned into a beef tomato. Eiden, on the other hand, was scared shitless. Her expression didn’t bode well. He felt the icy hand of doom creeping down his spine, already picturing himself being reported for sexual harassnt. This was it, ga over.
But then... silence. For a few seconds, neither said anything. Linda just stared at him. Eiden knew he had to act fast before the awkward tension broke into sothing irreversible. Desperate, he ntally activated every trick in his arsenal. He summoned his Face Master skill to look as apologetic as possible and even lowered his voice to a soothing, genuine tone though he wasn’t sure if it’d work in this situation. Looking straight into her eyes, he said softly, "I’m sorry... Are you okay?"
Her eyes slightly widened as she looked back at him. There was a pause then, surprisingly, she nodded and replied in a quiet, almost embarrassed tone, "It’s okay... and... thank you for catching ."
Without daring to stay a second longer, most likely due to the boiling embarrassnt, Linda muttered, "Later," and walked off quickly, her arms still folded over her chest. Eiden stood frozen, watching her retreating figure.
Linda, for her part, wanted to say sothing more maybe a retort, a sarcastic jab, anything but she held it in. She knew it was her own fault. She had deliberately staged the fall, hoping he would catch her, and she had predicted that very reaction from him. There was no way she could bla him for what happened he had simply reacted like any decent person would. Using this incident to guilt or manipulate him would’ve felt wrong.
Right now, all she truly wanted... was to get away from the scene of embarrassnt as quickly as possible. After she had disappeared from sight, Eiden exhaled a long, relieved breath. "Pheww... that was close. And good riddance too," he muttered, shaking his head.
Not wasting any more ti, he turned on his heel and headed straight toward the convenience store. No detours, no distractions. Once inside, he picked up the dicine he needed and quickly made his way back ho.
When he arrived, he headed straight for the kitchen, but his mom wasn’t there. "Mom, I brought it!" he called out. Her voice echoed from the attic, "Leave it there. I’ll take it."
Monts later, she ca down, took the dicine from him with a soft "Thank you," and went to her bedroom where Eiden’s father, Algir, was laying on the bed.
With nothing else to do, Eiden sat down at the table where breakfast had already been laid out. He tucked in, finishing everything neatly. Shortly after, his mom stepped out of the room and looked at him. "Done?" she asked.
Eiden nodded. "Thanks," he said, standing up. Just then, his phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he saw it was Petter. He picked it up casually.
"Wassup?" he said. Petter’s voice ca through. "You wanna co over today?" Eiden paused, thinking for a mont. "I don’t know... Lem check my schedule real quick. I’ll call you back later."
"Don’t act busy, bro," Petter shot back before hanging up. Eiden chuckled dryly. He wasn’t trying to act busy. He just had this gnawing feeling... ever since getting the System, no day had ever gone according to plan. Sothing always happened.
He went up to his room, flopped on his bed, and began browsing through his chat ssages. One chat in particular caught his attention Lyra. Her na showed up with the familiar "typing..." animation under it.
Eiden waited. But the ssage never ca.
The animation would appear, linger a few seconds, and then vanish. Again. And again.
He tilted his head. "Spelling mistake?" he murmured. But after a while, it was obvious. Lyra wanted to say sothing but couldn’t muster the courage. She had no real reason to text him, but clearly, she wanted to. It was kind of adorable.
Eiden smiled. She really is cute and innocent.
Not wanting to leave her hanging in her own anxiety loop, he decided to break the ice himself. He typed: Hi, are you free today?
The mont it was sent, it was marked read. On the other end, Lyra jolted upright in her room. She had been nervously writing and deleting ssages repeatedly when Eiden’s text arrived. She read it and quickly responded: Yes, I’m free for the whole day.
Eiden smiled and typed: Wanna hang out?
Her reply ca so fast, it was as if she had already typed "Yes" before he even sent the ssage. Yes!
Cool. et at the sa place we t up at around 10:30. Ok.
Will see u there. Eiden placed the phone down and looked at the ti: 9:44 AM.
He still had so ti, but he decided to change his clothes anyway. Coming downstairs, he saw his dad, Algir, now sitting on the couch, sipping tea, while his mom, Dally, was beside him watching TV.
"I’m going out," Eiden said. Algir gave a small nod. Dally looked over and said, "Be careful and co back on ti." Eiden nodded and stepped out the door. The sumr sun was out, casting soft shadows as he walked toward Caribbean Park, the place where he had t Lyra previously. After a few minutes of waiting, he saw her approaching in the distance.
He glanced at his phone. 9:15 AM. We’re both pretty early. As Lyra reached him, he smiled and said, "We’re both quite early." She smiled shyly. Eiden took a mont to size her up.
She was wearing a thin straw hat with a blue ribbon, a navy blue skirt that stopped just at her fair thighs, and a matching navy blue top that exposed her pale, delicate arms. She carried a small dark blue purse that looked rather expensive.
There was a certain elegant and charming air to her appearance but beneath that, sothing sweetly naive and innocent. "You look really cute and pretty," Eiden said with a playful smile. "Elegant aura for a machine girl."
Lyra blushed faintly. "Thank you... and... you look handso and tall too." The word handso ca out almost in a whisper. Then, as if only just realizing, she looked him over head to toe and muttered to herself, Tall? Her eyes squinted as if asuring. He really does seem taller than before...
"Thanks," Eiden replied, rubbing the back of his neck. Then, gesturing toward the bus stop, he asked, "Wanna go to the park?" Lyra nodded as they began walking side by side. She kept glancing at him from the corner of her eyes, now almost certain he was taller than the last ti they t.
When they arrived at the bus stop, they paused. Standing there already was Crysty.
Crysty had clearly noticed them too. Her eyes locked on theirs as they approached. The air grew tense. They stopped a short distance apart, almost in sync.
Lyra instinctively stepped slightly behind Eiden, unsure of what to do. Eiden, on the other hand, was curious. He studied Crysty’s face, wondering what she was thinking.
After a long pause, Crysty broke the silence. Her voice held a hint of sothing unreadable as she glanced between the two of them and said,
"Looking good, you two."
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