Arc 0: Prelude 14 - Isolated Bird

lost /lɒst/

that has been taken away or cannot be recovered.

“Did I… really do the right thing?”

“Whatsh uhp?” The girl, sitting on the opposite end of the table, spoke up, her mouth filled to the brim with food; her words were barely coherent.

Lauren Cherith was having lunch with a friend of hers at the school cafeteria.

The students were swarming the cafeteria like platelets tending to a wound, so much so, one could mistake it for a fast-food restaurant. Each one would come and go, as they emptied their pockets for more food. This was the best the cafeteria had ever been.

No one would dare touch the cafeteria’s food, yet here were the students, having their fill of all they desired. From irradiated meatloaves made of God knows what, to quality Swedish meatballs that would have one salivating for more. Somehow, the food in the school’s cafeteria had managed to drastically change overnight.

As might be expected, this change in food quality was not far from Lauren’s friend’s reach who was a self-proclaimed connoisseur of all things food. She ate to her heart’s content, leaving her only with a turkey sandwich for last.

But Lauren was barely touching her food, resorting only to scrapping it with a fork. Her face bore a mundane expression. It was as clear as day that something was bothering her.

“Come ohn,” her friend, Chloe, struggled to take a bite out of her sandwich (careful that she might burn the roof of her mouth from how hot it was) as she spoke up, “You cahn tshell me…”

To see Lauren without a smile was a red flag, especially for Chloe, who had been her friend for two years now, and was the first friend she ever made when she transferred to the school.

After finally finishing her first bite, she scowled, “Earth to Lauren? Listen, I get it when you just… you know, go through a phase but if something’s wrong you can always tell me if you need help. Besides you just won that writing competition two weeks ago, you should be ecstatic…”

「Two weeks…?」

It has been two weeks since the competition ended with her victory, two weeks since the boy that admired her in every way came to abhor her after he lost his legs to a horrible accident, two weeks since Zachary Ashworth disappeared.

One day, he was a cripple in the hospital, and then the next, he was an empty bed in the hospital room as if he had completely vanished. The hospital staff claimed to have never seen him walk out, which would be impossible considering his state at the time. Even then, none of the wheelchairs were taken. So quite frankly, there was no possible way the boy could have simply left the hospital, be it on foot or on a wheelchair, without being caught by an eye or two.

It puzzled Lauren greatly, who was not one for overthinking… but it wasn’t as great as it worried her.

“I…,” she tried to put her stress into words, keeping it all in would do no good, and she knew that very well, “I’m worried about Zach. He’s been missing since the accident, and he hasn’t been picking up my calls at all.”

“Zach?!” Chloe’s brows snapped together and then she glanced up to the ceiling, recalling the name in her head, before it came to her, “Oh the Nightingale’s boy, right?”

“Nightin-who?” Her eyes flickered with uncertainty, “N-No, it’s Ashworth.”

“Nuh-uh, that’s only one his Father’s side,” she snapped her fingers, “His mother’s family though? Oh man, they can turn the town on its head if they very well pleased.”

“Huh… he never told me that…”

It didn’t come as much of a surprise to Lauren that Chloe had that specific piece of knowledge within her grasp. She was a renowned member of the newspaper club and practically knew all there was to know about the students in school, down to the little and unnecessary details. An impressive feat but one that was terrifying to an extent.

“Ease up a little,” Chloe extended her arm and held onto Lauren’s arm in an attempt to soothe her, “You’re just overthinking things. That’s not like you at all.”

She was right.

The overthinking process, the worrisome attitude, were all traits that were unlike her. Normally, it would be her lightening up the mood to a conversation with her energetic behavior, be it with Chloe, Zach, or anyone else for that matter. She never failed to drop a smile. She shouldn’t feel this devastated for the disappearance of someone she had known for a little over two or three weeks.

And yet, how could she not? This was Zach.

“It’s just…,” her mouth twitched, “It was that night… the night he disappeared, those…”

She immediately held back her tongue before she could utter another word.

「No…!」

There was a certain correlation in her mind that she desperately did not want to think of. She wanted to stop herself from thinking of that.

However, being someone with a very keen observation of things, Chloe caught onto Lauren’s thoughts.

“Oh, you mean those watch-dimwits who jumped off the hospital’s roof the other day?” She went back to eating her sandwich as she asked the question nonchalantly.

Lauren’s eyes widened in great fear, she felt her heart almost stop.

“Oh? You do? Wait—” Chloe thought for a second, “You don’t think your boyfriend offed himse—”

“Shshshshsh—” Lauren quickly sprung off her feet and silenced Chloe by covering her mouth as she shook her head in panic, “Don’t say that! No, don’t even think that! No, that didn’t happen. He’s just… missing.”

It was all just wrong. Zachary would never resort to ending his life no matter the circumstance. She believed he was just like her. And even if the worst scenario was the case, then something would have turned up.

After that sudden shift in movement, she realized what she had done and returned back to her seat calmly. She was still holding her grip over her chest.

“Alright! Alright!” Chloe spoke up as soon as she got a breathing room.

“A-And he’s not my boyfriend…!” Her eyes darted.

“You sure?” She chuckled, “You rarely spoke to me after you met him. You didn’t join me for lunch like this because you had a “meeting” with him. And now you come back to me after he disappeared like a sad little puppy ashamed from running away from its owner. By all means, you were probably lovey-dovey lovebirds when no one was looking and you don’t want me to call him your boyfriend?” She gave her a smug smile.

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Lauren was embarrassed.

The two girls returned back to eating after they were done with this abrupt mess of a conversation.

“Oh, right!” Chloe said, “Remember my Scholarship?”

As she continued her chatter to her, Lauren suddenly zoned out. She spotted someone in the corner of her eye.

It was Yeong-Gi.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

Chloe turned to look behind her and with food in her mouth, she spoke, "Oh shi, Bong-yee!"

"Hey, quiet down!" Lauren whispered.

For a second, it seemed like the boy, Yeong-Gi, glanced at her from the corner of her eyes before looking away. It almost startled her.

He was standing with a friend of his, a girl, who seemed to be his stark contrast in appearance. Strangely, the girl wasn’t dressed in the school’s uniform as everyone else was. To add to that, there was a bandage wrapped around her head.

Lauren wondered what had happened to him. “Oh, that’s… uh what’s her name?”

“Hmm?” Chloe squinted her eyes, “Huh… I don’t know her. Well, that’s a first,” she commented as she threw the last piece of her sandwich in her mouth.

“She's a friend of Yeong-gi's, I think I've seen her before,” she clarified, “I always forget her name.”

Despite her rather dismal appearance, she seemed to have a still smile on her face, even with the injury on her head.

"Ah yes! She's that "errand girl" everyone's been talking about this year. She’s known around school for helping people, and I heard she fixes things. She does it all for free, after all."

The school was known for having many talented students. But this girl seemed to reign above most from a variety of different aspects. She was quite literally the perfect “errand girl.”

"Oh, so she's the one who fixed my watch?" Lauren was dumbfounded, “She’s… quite… quite multi-talented.”

“And she’s only a first-year, believe it or not.” She tilted her head forward and then back again, letting out a wry smile as if she felt proud for singing the girl’s praises in a discreet manner.

“A first-year?! It's only been a few weeks and she's that popular?" She was genuinely impressed, "But what happened to her?"

“Oh yeah! They did say someone else in our school got into that accident as well. Could it be her? Oh, ask her if she knows anything about your boyfriend, she might know since they were both together. This is your chance!”

Lauren was not so sure, “I don’t think she—”

“Just go,” Chloe waved her hand in her direction, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?”

“I don’t even remember her name!” She exclaimed. Every time she was on the cusp of remembering her name, it would slip right away out of her mind like it was never there, to begin with. It was truly baffling.

"Well, neither do I," Chloe said.

"Yeong-Gi's there!"

"Then that's a bonus, now hurry up!"

Still watching her from afar like bizarre secret admirers, the two girls noticed Yeongi-Gi had finished up his conversation with the girl and left. As for the girl, she was starting to collect her stuff to prepare to head out of the cafeteria.

"Well, now Yeongi-Gi's gone, happy?" Chloe eyed Lauren with a mad look.

Lauren scoffed, "Would you please stop?"

“You better hurry up before you fully miss your chance, missy.” She snatched a look at the plate on the other side of the table.

“You just want my lunch, don’t you?” Lauren drooped her eyelids in disappointment as she realized why Chloe really wanted her to leave.

“Come on, I’m not a monster… —okay, only the pudding!”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, “Fine, whatever…”