Emilin kept patting the Grace that leaned next to her before awkwardly saying, "I have to go to the bathroom..."

Then she hurriedly ran off to the bathrooms outside, the ones next to the main lobby just a few rooms away.

​​

She ran off so fast it was as if there were a great monster chasing her.

The monster of a problem that couldn't be solved.

After Grace's office's room closed shut, the two people left inside burst into laughter in unison.

"You scared her away with your terrifying acting. Just look at her, like a bunny she just jumped off to the farthest bathroom there is here."

Noah complained amidst laughter.

There was clearly a bathroom in Grace's office that Emilin had used on multiple occasions, yet in a moment of panic, not knowing what to do, she seemed to have completely forgotten about this point.

It was in moments like these that Emilin oftentimes displayed her social skills, or more like lack thereof.

Grace moved to the couch to slouch on the armrest as one would on a pillow before sighing and glaring at Noah again.

"Isn't it clearly your fault though? If you weren't threatening me, then I wouldn't have had to act like that. All because of you, my little cutie pie ran off!"

Grace nagged like the unreasonable second-generation child of a big boss that spoils their kids.

Noah's eye twitched.

"Would I have to have threatened you if you didn't slander me?!"

He was always rather restless with Grace when Emilin wasn't here to keep a watch on her.

It was rather simple logic.

When Emilin was here, Grace would have better things to do than to look for every way to plot against himself.

Plotting on how she was going to annoy him to death.

It was actually a rather ingenious plan, there would be no visible evidence or weapon and thus nothing to pinpoint the crime on her when he died.

And so, in order to live a longer life, Noah had come up with two skills.

One was of course to stay away, but that was only after his long-cultivated patience ran out.

And from experience, Noah knew that even an ocean's worth of patience would be quickly drained away when in this mighty being's presence.

What was worse was that his father dared to say that Grace was a good influence on him and that since he had met her a few years back, he had become a more sensible child!

Wasn't that just because after spending time with Grace, he was just way too fucking tired to argue with his father after he got home?

How the heck was this being a good influence?

And let's just not talk about the way his parents interacted with Grace when they met at some event.

Noah would seriously question whether Grace was in fact his parent's true daughter, while he was picked up from some dumpster at a young age.

The kind that you got from the buy 0 get 1 free section.

Yeah, you know that section.

And Grace.

God, Grace.

Her acting was Oscar-worthy.

No more comment.

After spending so much time with both Emilin and Grace as well as with Grace in a good mood, he nearly forgot what her true form was like.

She was a scheming little thing!

"You can't call it slander if it's true! Don't you think that all men are trash and that our baby Emilin should stay farther away from them? I only called you a bastard, everything else wasn't even directed at you, yet you directly came to claim the sins, don't you think that you should examine your guilty heart?"

Guilty heart my ass!

Noah was speechless.

Okay, he could admit that he wasn't as proficient at word games, but did one have to be like this?

He was being fucking played again, how could one even make friends anymore?

Seeing as Noah wasn't speaking, Grace continued.

"Or do you mean to say that you would rather more trashy men approach dear Emilin," Grace teasingly said, words filled with meaning.

Noah was fuming, but now for different reasons.

"I don't understand what you mean..."

Grace laughed at the man in denial.

This denial was really the greatest evidence of guilt.

Any normal friend would probably just agree and move on to the next topic.

What was the point of even denying such a statement if it's just about someone you see as a friend?

But then, Grace stopped laughing after realizing the other party was actually somewhat distraught.

Noah sighed again.

"What's wrong, you better take the chance while Emilin is out to tell me, or if you keep keeping it in, you might explode one of these days," Grace said sincerely, but even then, she didn't miss the chance to curse the other party.

If it were anyone else, they might have gotten mad, but sadly enough, Noah was already used to it.

Noah sighed again.

After a moment of silence, he finally spoke.

He didn't suddenly talk about all his troubles and do an emotional dump on the spot, instead, he just asked a simple, yet somewhat complicated question.

One that had been bugging him for a long time.

"Grace, you tell me. Why do you think that, despite being such a reserved person, you are able to talk to and open up to Emilin so easily?"

"Don't you find it strange? Do you ever question yourself about it?"

Yes, Noah just said that.

Grace was in fact a reserved person, very, very reserved at that.

Even more so than himself.

Though Noah spoke to the people around him and displayed his social skills all the time, when it came to his private matters, he rather nearly never spoke to them to anyone he considered an outsider.

Unlike many who are able to talk about their private matters to people they just met.

At least he usually wasn't like that.

And for the seemingly outspoken Grace.

The very same one who had no filter around Mason, Noah, and Emilin, she was even more reserved than he was.

Yet in a time span of fewer than two weeks, it wasn't just a handful of times that she had spoken about her private affairs with someone she had pretty much just met.

Though Noah just went along with it, he still didn't understand why it was as it was.

Grace even oftentimes used the term "my" as in "my cutie pie" or "my dear".

That single word made a whole world of difference, and Noah didn't fail to catch it.

Grace really took Emilin as one of her own, or at least even if she didn't do it fully, she was already halfway there.

But what troubled him wasn't the fact that Grace opened up so easily.

That was her own issue.

As for the main reason he wanted to ask this question, that was of course because... he found himself to be in the exact same position.

He too felt like he opened up too quickly.

He truly didn't understand why he was able to talk so unreservedly.

For these reasons, Noah had in fact question himself over and over.

He had even spoken about his father!

But it was really much before that, from the first moment he locked eyes with the other party, he felt like he had no secrets worth mentioning.

No, it was more like, no secrets worth keeping.

That intense feeling that stifled his breath made his heartbeat and his adrenaline pump.

That feeling was so mystical.

But he couldn't believe it himself.

He felt like if the other party wasn't tricking him, the only other option would be that he was deluding himself.

How could there be something as paranormal as having your heartbeat for someone else with just one glance?

That was absolutely absurd.

So absurd he wouldn't admit it to have happened.

There had to be another reason.

Then why was there something in himself that made him want to believe it?

And thus, the question was proposed to Grace.

"Why huh? Does there have to be a reason why?"

The question dumbfounded Noah, and for a moment he couldn't think of anything else.

None of his messy thoughts clouded his judgment.

Does there have to be a reason why?

I guess not.

But if this sounds so logical, why does there seem to be something wrong with logic?

"I guess if you really want a specific reason, it would be that Emilin is sincere, and I feel like we have an affinity for each other."

"It's a horoscope thing, you wouldn't understand," Grace said in all seriousness.

Up until there, Noah had been somewhat convinced, but then it was as if someone had shown him reality after questioning him with the world's most philosophical question.

Why the fuck are you still listening to her?

Horoscope my ass!

For a second, Noah felt like he had just wasted all this time talking to a wall, but after he calmed down, he actually felt like Grace's words made some sense.

He must have gone crazy.

Like totally cookoo.

Okay, to be fair, it wasn't the horoscope part, but the thing before that.

The part about sincerity, and the part about fate...

***

Mini-theater

Grace: Yeah, okay, you really are delusional. I said affinity. AFFINITY, not fate!

Noah: Okay, okay, we can still change that for the next chapter… deal?

Grace [ignores]: Hmm…

Grace: But then again, I guess little Emilin and I are pretty fated if we met in this vast world. Yeah, it's really one in a million, I should take this chance and marry her quickly!

Future Elijah: *Brows crease* [How shameless, who else could have more affinity with Emi than me?]

Future Elijah: So, you've been by love rival all the way back then huh. I guess I should do something about this now, shouldn't I? *Kind smile*

Grace: *Cold sweat breaks out for no apparent reason.jpg*