[Music Recommendation: "A Sweet Smile" by Yu-Peng Chen (Genshin Impact OST) - available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter ~

[Please note: We're back to Senara's POV - after that sudden kiss from Kaiden

Blood rushed to my face as soon as his lips landed on mine.

'H-He's doing it again! K-Kissing me in public! Waaaaaa… I like his kiss but this is too embarrassing.'

"Haah… Haah…" I panted heavily after his kiss. Truly, this guy would be the end of me. Now, my lips felt wet, and warm, and h-hot. Kyaaaaaaaaa!!! "Kaiden…" I called his name in a reprimanding tone.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I lost control for a moment," he apologized then smirked afterwards. Because of that, I felt skeptical if his apology was sincere at all.

"Woah! Did I see that correctly?" Callan exclaimed in his shock, leaving his mouth wide open. "A-Am I not hallucinating?" He pinched himself and probably feeling the pain from it, he figured he wasn't. "It's true! Boss! You can kiss someone! Woah!"

Callan was so happy for Kaiden. Aside from him being a man, his reaction was the spitting image of Crystal's reaction—in a fanboying way, if there ever was a term like that. They were both overjoyed and almost tearful. How funny. The brawny and hot-tempered Callan, almost crying over his friend.

"You can even touch," Callan mumbled as he observed Kaiden touching my face with his bare hands. "Uncle and Auntie shouldn't have troubles with heirs now."

SMACK!

A loud smack landed on Callan's head as soon as he said that.

"Shut up, Callan. I can't believe you said the same thing as Crystal. You two would make a better twin. Ugh."

"What? No! I can't be twins with Crystal," Callan protested, followed by a soft murmur, "I'd rather be your brother in law."

"Ha-ha-ha-ha," I chuckled seeing their funny exchange. Of course, Callan wouldn't want that. He'd rather marry Crystal than be her brother. "Stop it, you two. Let's go now."

And so, we went on our way towards the cafeteria where everyone was waiting for us—Hora, Crystal, and the Sly Fox Verrill. They were all chatting when we arrived. Once all seated, we placed our orders as usual. Just a few weeks more and I probably would have tried everything on the menu in this not-so-cafeteria.

While eating, Kaiden told us news about the investigation on Silky's situation.

"By the way," Kaiden started, "Hora, the investigation about your cousin is done. The report was sent to me this morning. I'll send you the full details in your email later."

"What?! For real? Wow, you're fast! We were just discussing it yesterday!" Hora shouted in her surprise. I could understand her, it really was incredibly fast!

'Now that I think about it… I wonder if Kaiden investigated me, too? Way back before we met? Hmm… I don't mind if he did but I'm curious. I better ask him later.'

"It's nothing special. Father has a group of professionals who are all greatly skilled with what they do. I just asked them for help so it was easy."

"That's another brownie point for you," Hora smiled cutely and winked her eyes. "Great job! Now, here's your prize—I'll allow you to kiss Senara one time."

"Hey! You're selling me?"

"It's not called selling if you're his girlfriend. I'm just giving permission."

"Why are you the one giving permission?"

"Thersh no ushe fighting you know," Callan stopped us while chewing on his food. Gulping his food down, he continued, "Kaiden already got his prize earlier."

Hora's eyes blinked rapidly, a couple of times. And my heart was back to pounding loud in my chest.

"Oh," she said, unamused. "In that case, there's no need for a prize anymore."

"Awww, you should have taken a picture!" Crystal complained to Callan.

"Ack! S-Sorry. My bad. I didn't expect them to, you know, be lovey-dovey and all that kissing," Callan did his best to explain.

"Pft! Ha-ha-ha-ha! It's fine. I can imagine what your reaction was," Crystal chuckled at him. "It's probably the same as when I learned about it."

"Huh? So they kissed even before that?" Callan's face pale up. "And here I am still untouched from head to toe! No first kiss yet…"

Crystal cleared her throat. "Ehem. Well yes. And I saw them slee—"

I hurriedly covered Crystal's mouth with my hands.

'I can't believe she's saying "that" to Callan! And the sly fox is with us, too. And who knows who else is listening unto us or is hearing what we're all talking about?! Seriously! Some privacy please!'

"I-I think we shouldn't be discussing 'that' here," I smiled awkwardly towards Crystal, and widened my eyes after, obviously giving her warning not to say anything weird anymore.

"R-right," Crystal agreed. "I almost spilled it."

"Spilled what? Tell me! Tell me!" Callan insisted.

"Maybe later, when we're alone."

"Awwww. Okay," Callan pouted.

I sighed heavily after that. Meanwhile, Verrill was nonchalantly eating as if nothing shocking enough was going on. His calm demeanor and unfazed expression always irked me. Somehow, I'm beginning to imagine him like a mastermind or an evil person calmly waiting as the chaos he planned unfolds before him.

"Anyway, enough of the chatter," I sighed again. Then, in a serious note, I asked, "Kaiden, did you read the report already? What did it say about Aunt Vora? And Silky?"

Kaiden was slicing through his beef Wellington when he halted to answer my question.

[Music Recommendation: "Interweave" by Chewie Melodies (Genshin Impact OST)]

"I only managed to read a few but from what I understood, it seems that her mother is not aware of her transfer. Also… there is something a bit disturbing."

Hora's smiling face turned worried. Same went for me. For what could this disturbing thing be?

"W-what do you mean?" Hora's asked with her voice trembling a bit.

"Does Silky happen to have any twin sister?"

"Huh? A twin?" I pondered deep in my memory but I never knew that Silky had a twin. She was Aunt Vora's sole daughter if I weren't mistaken. I could forget names, but I never usually forget people I met. Well, unless I didn't meet Silky's twin—if she ever had one.

Turning to my side, I checked Hora's expression. I wasn't sure if it was just me or… Hora's expression changed from worried to horrified in an instant. Yeah. Her face pale up and her lips trembled.

'Oh my goodness! Don't tell me Silky never had a twin! If that's the case, who's the one with Aunt Vora?! And who's the Silky I met yesterday? What in the world is going on?'

"I… Uuuuhh…" Hora was lost of words. She lowered her head and bit her lower lips. Turning to me, she whispered, "I think I need to speak to Aunt Vora personally."

"What?" I whispered back. "What's going on? Do you mean you'll fly back to our country?"

"Yes but just for a moment. Maybe over the weekend? I just need to confirm something really important."

"Oh… Okay. I'll come with you then."

"No. It's okay. I'll go alone. I'll be fine."

"What's the matter?" Verrill who had been silent all this while finally talked. His face was filled with worry for Hora. At least he's worried. If he wasn't, I'm prepared to give him a punch in the face.

And so, Hora explained to everyone that she needed to come back to our country briefly.

"Can't you talk to Silky first?" Crystal suggested.

"It's… a bit risky to do that. I really need to talk to my aunt first."

Hora was holding back on her words. Whatever it was, it was something she couldn't share with us. Maybe I should talk to her later. Hopefully, she would open up to me at least. If she was having problems, I wanted to be there for her and help her.

"I'll go with you," Verrill said firmly. "And that's not an option."

"No! I'll go alone. You can't. Besides, you have an important event this weekend, you can't just—"

"It doesn't matter."

Verrill's expression was fierce and firm. It was obvious how he's hinting that it was not a discussion matter. If Hora wouldn't allow me to go with her, then… at least with Verrill, I'm good with that. It's way better than going alone. Especially when she looked like that. There's a lot of things and lots of possibilities about Silky.

Badump! Badump! Badump!

A heavy atmosphere surrounded us. And for some reason, I suddenly remembered that nightmare again. What if, instead of time traveling to the future, it was a prophetic dream? Like those dreams with hidden meanings in them. But I knew nothing about interpreting dreams. Ugh. I'm so useless at times like these.

'I just hope everything's alright with Aunt Vora's family. Maybe Silky does have a twin which she doesn't know about—or maybe it was Aunt Vora who didn't know. No, that's ridiculous. She's the one who gave birth to her daughter. How would she not know if she had a twin or something. Haaah…'

Please. Let everything be okay.