A few weeks passed by pretty quickly and everybody in the Academy was preparing for the tests.

Including me.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance as I tried to memorize the entire history book, sitting on a bench in the open during the lunch break.

Sadly, I had this stupid conflict with Raashid where he said he was smarter than me.

And I was like 'Excuse me?! I think you used the wrong pronoun right there.'

And then we had this stupid bet where I had to score higher than him and I'll get what I asked for.

And he was the fucking Emperor who's been taught everything more than anyone in this empire. Since he was a baby.

Doesn't mean he's good at it.

I thought,

I am definitely smarter than him so I can definitely score more than him.

My pride's on the stake.

Just a week was left before the tests and then we'll be graduated from the Academy.

I can't wait for that day.

"Choiiiii~", came an annoyingly sweet but deep voice as I turned my face away from the book to look at a smirking Raashid.

"Obeliaaaaa~" I mimicked his sweet tone as he made his way towards me. He would often call me Choi when it's just the two of us. For the first few times, I pointed out that it's 'Haeun' but he just ignored it and continued calling me Choi.

So I started calling him Obelia.

"You're going to love this." He said excitedly as his butler handed him a basket and he pulled out a wooden box from there.

He kept the box in my hands and I stared at it curiously, "Open it." Raashid said as his eyes shimmered with excitement.

I took the wooden lid off and my jaw dropped, "A burger?"

He smirked, "Yeah. I described a burger to our head chef and he cooked this."

"Do you have time for all these things? I thought you were busy." I said as I stared at the burger, my mouth watering.

"I can always take some time out for you." Raashid replied before his butler said, "Let me help you, my lady." and placed the burger in a plate with fork and knife.

I snorted, "Its not a burger if I'm going to eat it with that." I said and picked it up with my hands, so did Raashid.

I took a bite and moaned.

Oof! This is too good.

"It's good." I tell him as he nods, "I thought you'd enjoy it. Since it's our kind of food."

I smiled, "To be honest, I miss my ramen more though."

"Ramen? Who?" Raashid asked almost instantly, his features turning scary.

"It's like noodles." I tell him and he drops his scary face and frowns, "You were talking about food?"

I snorted, "Yeah, we were talking about food from the start till you thought I was talking about some human."

He just huffed in response and took another bite from his burger.

"So...what's so special about ramen?" He asked after a few moments.

"Well, the noodles are long, tasty and easy to cook. It was really popular in my teens and I used to eat it all the time because I was too lazy to cook anything. And then-" I stopped myself before I could blabber more. Raashid doesn't like talking about our past lives...so I quickly tried to change the subject, "Well, enough about me? What are you planning on doing today?"

Raashid stared at me for a moment before saying, "You know....you don't have to avoid talking about your past life because of me."

I stared at him for a second longer before replying, "But you're obviously uncomfortable with the topic....."

He smiled, a sad one, again.

I don't like seeing his sad smiles.

"Well, I took my own life because I couldn't live that lifestyle anymore not because I didn't want to live." He said, "Yes, the topic does make me uncomfortable but it's all in past now. I was pathetic, weak and I couldn't stand up for myself during those days." His eyes dimmed a shade, "That's why when I was reincarnated as Raashid, the future Emperor of an Empire, I decided to make myself stronger, so I would be able to stand up for myself when I needed to."

I just stared at him, not sure what to say.

"So the moral of the story is, even though I'm uncomfortable talking about my past life, you don't have to feel the same. You can blabber all you want, I don't mind." He finished and I smirked, "You better not go back on your words. I'm gonna blabber till your ears bleed." I told him before pausing for a second, "Umm.... You can ignore this one last question if you want but I was just wondering if you ever told anyone that you're from another world?"

"No." He replied instantly, "I really hated my past life so I never brought it up. I just wanted to enjoy my life as Raashid and if you minus any interactions with Adailia, I did kind of enjoy it." Raashid replied simply and I was happy he didn't get depressed.

We chatted for the rest of the lunch break before he went back to the palace and me to my next class.

__

____

"Congratulations on surviving these seven months." Ajhussi said, popping out of nowhere in my room with party poppers.

"You need to stop using that shit on me." I grumbled as I dusted the confetti from my hair.

"Well well, it's time for farewell." He says before gasping, "Wow, that rhymed."

I rolled my eyes at his childish behaviour before his words registered in my mind, "Wait...what farewell?"

Ajhussi smirked, "I'm going."

"To where?" I asked.

"To another dimension, to deal with souls and shit." He mumbles.

"Oh cool." I relaxed, "So when are you coming back?"

Ajhussi's smirk cracked a little as he said, "Never."

My eyes widened, "Wait...so like you're going.....forever?"

He nodded before rolling his eyes, "You thought I was going to stay here forever?"

Yes.

"No....but like.... I thought you'd stay around for a bit longer............. You know what, you can't go." I tell him, "I still haven't forgiven you yet. Who's gonna take me drinking if not you?"

"Awww Haeun-ah! Just admit you'll miss me." He replied and I rolled my eyes, though it was partially true, "I would love to stay longer but I have to do my job."

Even though it's sort of pitiful to admit, for these past months, Ajhussi was a friend to me who I can talk with for hours without feeling like the need to hide anything.

And though he was annoying and sly as hell... I never wished he wasn't there.

"But....... I still have some questions for you. About Raashid and his reincarnation thingy." I asked. I don't even know why I brought that topic up but I just blabbered up something, trying to spend a little extra time I had with Ajhussi.

"Well, ask then." He said and I just randomly came up with any question, "I don't get why Raashid was reincarnated as the novel Raashid, I mean did some reaper mess with his soul too? Just like me?"

"Hmm..." Ajhussi pondered on it for a second, "Well, first of all, you should not repeat this thing again." He said and I nodded.

"So....basically, the underworld is kind of divided into departments and we need to follow some rules and regulations while doing our job." He said and I asked, "Which department were you from?"

"Souls and book of death management." He said and I made an o shape with my mouth, "Anyway, the most important rule is that, a pure soul, which had shitty life or had to suffer more hardships, will have it easy in his next one. Meaning, we had to set his soul into a more promising body the next time."

"So... The original Raashid, a prince of an empire, had a better chance of living lavishly, so we were supposed to put a soul, which lived a terrible life because of fate, into that body.", He said.

"So... This Raashid was supposed to be the original Raashid from the start?" I asked.

Ajhussi shook his head, "No. Actually, some other guy was supposed to be transferred to Raashid's body. Raashid was around 15 minutes away from being born and as soon as he took his first breath in this world, we were supposed to transfer that soul into the body. That's how it works." Ajhussi explained, "We had the soul all ready. Memory erased, qualities required to be Raashid, added. But then...."

"Then?" I asked.

"This poor guy's soul came in!" Ajhussi exclaimed, "He obviously had...like the 'worst fate of the year'. We weren't even prepared for that since he came earlier than expected. And we were ordered to transfer his soul into Raashid's body instead of the one we prepared." He continued, "We quickly started altering the guy's soul, adding Raashid's quality and stuff, erasing his memory. But we had a lot less time than needed and were forced to transfer his soul to his body before properly checking."

"Wow. Just wow." I muttered.

"Yeah! And the memory-erasing department fucked up bad, that's why he remembered everything." Ajhussi said,"But it didn't change much in Raashid's behaviour. The kid hated his past self a lot and managed to be like the original Raashid almost perfectly. Though he turned out to be a lot less violent than the original Raashid."

"Okay." I muttered.

"Now, is everything clear?" He asked and I was about to nod before stopping myself and started thinking hard for another question.

"Ahhhh....Ajhussi, what did you do to end up as a reaper?" I asked.

Ajhussi paused for a second and then looked deep in thought. After a few moments, he shrugged and said, "It's been so long that I don't even remember what I did."

"Oh...." I mumbled.

"So I'm going. B-", " Wait! Aren't you.........", I tried as he said raised his eyebrows, ".....going to watch your ship sail?" I finished stupidly.

He looked at with amused look in his eyes before chuckling, "But it's already sailing." he said.

"No. It's not." I retorted.

"Pfft- Right. Stop lying to yourself." He said, eyes glistening with amusement, "You like him."

"....No."

"You hesitated!" He pointed out before laughing and I pouted, "Ugh! I feel like I'm some stupid Female lead in a stupid romance book confused about her feelings!"

I don't like Raashid like that (I think...or maybe not. I'm fucking confused). But I may or may not have considered his offer or at least gave it a thought. After all, it would be lying if I said he wasn't handsome and he'd grow up to be a man someday.

"Well, technically you are one." Ajhussi muttered making me frown at him.

He smirked and ruffled my hair, making glitter fall off it.

"Try not to miss me too much." He muttered, his smirk growing.

"Yeah. I'll try." I grumbled.

"Oh and this is just a friendly reminder that you will have a short life." Ajhussi added making me frown, "You only have 45 years ahead of you that means you'll die around 40 something."

My frown deepened, "Wait..if I have 45 years of life, shouldn't I die around 60 something?"

He scowled, "You do the math."

I chuckled, "That's enough life to live." I told him before looking at him seriously and just saying the words I've been meaning to tell him, "Oh and..... I have forgiven you...for you know.....putting me in this world and for other things." I finished, making him smile.

A genuine smile.

"Bye, Haeun-ah."

And then he disappeared.

Vanishing in front of my eyes.

I panicked.

Would I really not see him ever again?

But what if I want to talk to him?

I tried to think of how to call him again.

And my mind pictured the silver ring he gave me as my hand instantly clasped on my pinky finger.

Only to be left disappointed when I didn't feel the metal against it.

He really left forever.

Bye Ajhussi.