“Wow, it’s cleaner than when I was a kid, that’s for sure.”

The hurricane known as the Elites arrived at the old playground, at about six in the afternoon. It was not the shortest way home for Kato and his entourage, or for the members of middle class families that were Franco, Caius and the Jupiter sisters, but it was only a short detour, so they didn’t mind the extra couple of minutes.

From school, they had to climb up a pavement path on the side of the hill that the urban playground was atop of. Overlooking the inner city, the hill faced west and they could see the sun making its way down to the short peaks in the distance that surrounded the valley. A picturesque scenery for sunset sightseers.

“But it didn’t change much. They changed out the rubber mulch a couple of years ago but that’s it. That’s probably why it looks clean.”

“The slides, the monkey bars, the jungle gym, the swings are all still here.”

Mayumi climbed to the top of one of the slides and sat there to watch the sunset, feeling just a bit of nostalgia as she took in deep breaths of her old home neighbourhood’s air. The rest of the Elites, however, were still in heated discussion about the result of the Class War from lunchtime.

“The match was too close to call. Is it because Class C doesn’t have enough smart people, or is Class D especially strong this year?”

“Class D is stronger this year. They definitely didn’t expect Class D to do this well. Remember it was Mr Rigel doing all that literature quizzing. Now we know that at least in literature, Class D is comparable to Class C.”

“Even on the whole, Class C and Class D are on par with each other.”

“Ariel, how do you know that?”

“The Records Office has data.”

“…”

“Scary.”

Their large gathering from lunchtime had increased by one. Bianca joined them when doing the student council work that they all had some part in after school. For some of the Elites, it was a part-time job when they needed to align together items and strategies for the weekly conventions of the Assembly, while the rest were there to just hang out. But for the Jupiter sisters it was nonstop work to get student government running smoothly with their Class B classmates, and that work needed to also be done at lunchtime.

“Anyway, Class C narrowly won the war, but they imposed a really strict peace treaty onto Class D. They played for keeps, so whether it was narrow or not, it was still an all-or-nothing game. I feel sorry for Class D because they almost made it.”

“Three seats in the Assembly, taking the prime time slot for Class C in the talent show, and unrestricted requisitioning of resources from the clubs headed by Class D students for the purposes of that talent show. That last thing is like a kick in the nuts for the AC.”

“A kick in the nuts for the AC while asserting Donovan’s authority in the newly re-formed PSC. Re-formed with the hyphen. Unrestricted requisitioning means money and capital, so both funds and physical equipment can be confiscated from those clubs by Class C until the end of the talent show.”

“Off the top of my head, I believe the presidents of the Alchemy Society, a couple of the science clubs, literature, photography, and chess clubs are in Class D. Did I miss any?”

“Likely doesn’t matter if you can’t remember them. They probably wanted the photography club’s massive studio setup to do their own photo-shoots for the yearbook or something.”

“And they used a Class War to nick their stuff? They’ve got balls.”

“It’s a you-eat-them or they-eat-you world out there, brother. It wouldn’t be a problem if the drama department didn’t have beef with those clubs from Class D, but then again it’s normal for a PSC-affiliated group to be at odds with the AC-affiliated ones.”

“You’d think that Gilbert and Mona are on good enough terms personally that they wouldn’t fist-fight like this, but I guess not.”

“Well, mommy and daddy being on good terms doesn’t mean that their children won’t fight each other to the death. It’s a zero-sum game for them, to be honest. Like the talent show, that’s the first major school-wide event, and obviously everybody wants the prime time slot.”

“Because Class A is still suffering from the fallout of the PSC, and my class is one-half too busy on SLO duties and the other half in music doesn’t need the prime time, the spotlight was on Class C and Class D.”

“Class C is basically the whole drama department, but what was Class D gonna do with the prime time?”

“They were going to do some kind of a skit or performance too, using resources from outside of the drama department. They’re definitely gonna put on a crappier show, but it’s about sending a signal. It’s like a big ‘fuck you’ to the drama department, both the students and teachers.”

“They were just gonna wing something? Now that’s ballsy. And they almost did it too.”

“Yeah. That narrow win is gonna cast a long shadow on Class C and the PSC, but for now, they’re safe.”

Bianca’s presence was a strong one too. As the chancellor, also known as the student council treasurer, she was also the de facto vice-president, a role and title that unfortunately was not explicitly defined in the constitution. In Mirabelle’s continued absence from school, all of the president’s responsibilities fell on this unofficial VP.

Unlike her twin, however, Bianca didn’t have the same enchanting, almost possessive charisma—though she had the physical attractiveness—that led them to victory in the student council election last school year, so it was taking all she could to keep the machine together. What she lacked in natural charm she compensated with her talkativeness, diligence and fiery spirit, and thus she almost always took control of the conversation, especially against the Elites.

Despite the gaping differences in personality, appearance-wise Bianca was a mirror image of Mirabelle. They and their family were pure-blooded Yue, characterized by their narrow eyes and rounded noses. Usually, Bianca tied up her silky black hair in a loose bun, and her front still had really impressive fringes. If Kato had to say something, her most attractive feature was her bright rosy lips, thin but also had the width at just the right points and undeniably kissable. Of course, it meant the same for Mirabelle, but he was not going to say any of that to either of them.

Kato was quiet the whole time, merely observing the tropical storm immersed in their school politics. He stepped away from the group to look up at Mayumi, perched up high at the top of the slide.

“Mayumi, how’s your right eye been? Is it manageable?”

“Yeah, just about. It’s been the same since I’ve left. Nothing’s wrong with it.”

“Do you still have depth perception problems?”

“From time to time. You get used to it in your daily life. It’s only a problem when I see new or disorienting things.”

He continued to stare at Mayumi, who noticed and peeled away from the sunset to stare back, still smiling. The orange sunlight bathed her figure in a golden aura, though against her navy blue uniform it blended in poorly. He wasn’t fazed by the staring contest. He never was about a physical exchange.

“What about the power in your eye? Can you still use it?”

“It took you long enough to mention it.”

Though the smile disappeared, it didn’t turn into a frown. It was a matter of fact, after all. She stuck out her bottom lip, shrugging indifferently.

“It’s the same old story. It’s not as strong as it was before, though. I still can’t defeat automatic tables, and I still get super exhausted after using it.”

“Well, at least you can now use it without dying anymore. And you can control when to use it.”

“I know, right? Clairvoyance sounds really cool, until you realize it wrecks your body entirely.”

“How much does it wreck you when you use it now?”

“It’s reduced to just fatigue now. It was thanks to you that I’m still alive and wasn’t killed by the clairvoyance in my right eye.”

She smiled again, putting her hand to the bandage patch on her right eye to uncover it just enough so that Kato could see it.

He wasn’t surprised. It was the same as it was the last time he saw it. The iris was rainbow-coloured and it blended completely and malignantly with the sclera, but more importantly, her right eye was lame. The pupil only stared forward without purpose, in contrast to her left that was aimed squarely at Kato.

“There’s still no vision in your right eye?”

“Nope. It’s permanently gone. Though we knew that would be the case anyway. It’s only good for clairvoyance now.”

“So then what’s the eye patch for? Are the rest of the dead eye’s biological functions working properly? I can see its motor functions are gone already, I guess.”

“Well, that’s true, but also, I still can’t actually control my clairvoyance per se, because it’ll automatically start reacting to light. That’s why I have to wear the eye patch all the time. At least there’s an on-off switch compared to before when it randomly activates and kills me in the process.”

“I see, I see. So you’re peering into the future right now?”

“Only a few seconds ahead. I have to constantly reel it in mentally to not get too far and completely tire myself out. Sadly my body’s still pretty weak compared to a normal person’s, so I can’t exert myself. I still cough up blood from time to time.”

Kato gave her a sour face as she let go of the bandage, letting it snap back in place over her eye. Her face suddenly softened, turning the reliable grin of a gang boss into something gentler and becoming of her age.

“I don’t know, but I always feel like I owe you something all the time. I’ve said it many times before I moved away, but I can’t help but feel the need to say thank you to you again and again. So now that I’m back, I’m gonna say it again and again, for as long as I can. Thanks for saving my life.”

It was the most relaxed expression that Mayumi had made since she arrived this morning. Her overbearing presence in the crew was like a taut wire, never failing nor faltering, but in this moment her heart was made of glass.

“I didn’t save your life. What can a primary school kid do to prevent a terminal condition from claiming somebody’s life? In the end, if it weren’t for Lady Eterna healing your eye, everything else would have been meaningless.”

Her right eye was born with the latent power of clairvoyance. She could see into the future, though with varying degrees of uncertainty. Peeking into the future caused great distress, pain, exhaustion and even internal injuries, enough usually to prevent her from breaking causal relationships of the physical universe with information from the future.

However, her eye was defective and the burdens of the clairvoyant eye laid heavily on her body, leaving her naturally weak, prone to injury and requiring long recoveries. It almost reached a point of no return when the corrosive defect threatened to spread to her brain via the optic nerve, at which time she was hospitalized and in constant agony.

“You’re right, but it was you who asked for that favour from Lady Eterna. If you weren’t there to do that, surely I would have perished in that hospital.”

“I can only do what’s within the limits of my ability, and even today, if something similar were to happen again, I can still only beg for help from somebody else.”

“Don’t play down your role like that. It takes a lot to get on your knees to beg. Especially for you guys.”

“Hey, those circumstances were dire. There is no way I’m going to let our egos get in the way of that.”

Mayumi chuckled just a tad smugly, but it disappeared just as quickly.

“What I’m saying is, your efforts weren’t just as simple as convincing Lady Eterna to save my life. At the same time, my heart, too, was saved by you, Kato.”

In the past, Kato often wondered why this version of Mayumi sometimes showed up in front of him, but today he had enough experience to be able to recognize the underlying motivations of this Mayumi. Yet, he preferred to pretend to not see it so that he could preserve the status quo.

“If I could fix your heart, then I must be the most under-qualified heart surgeon in the history of mankind. Who’s heard of one who hasn’t got a high school diploma yet?”

“Apparently, you’re the only one. And the only one who can heal mine.”

Kato broke off from their staring contest and rubbed his forehead, suddenly exhausted. Seeing him sighing, Mayumi let out her usual squawking laugh at his expense.

“Well, I’ll leave it at that. How’s Caius been?”

She abruptly changed the subject, perhaps a little too quickly. He looked up again to see deep rosy cheeks, kind of like Alice’s, and he secretly thought it was endearing. He couldn’t help but feel an aura similar to Mirabelle’s emanating from her, but the difference was that Mayumi was like a brother to him and nothing more, and she seemed to be well aware of that.

“He’s been good. Nothing’s changed much, still as loose a guy as he was back then.”

“C’mon, he just happens to end up being interested in trashy girls. It doesn’t mean he’s trashy.”

“Being interested already implicates you in the crime, sister. Besides, I wasn’t referring to that. His mouth can say some dangerous things, and inappropriately in front of guys and girls.”

“If he really stopped doing that, I’d be surprised. And he didn’t disappoint today. His attitude hasn’t changed at all.”

“See, he’s exactly as I advertised. No exchanges or refunds.”

She looked away from him for the first time, back towards the glowing sunset and the city draped in orange.

“Then it seems like he’s doing very well. Do you think I still need to talk to him?”

“About what?”

“You know, if he’s still hung over by that.”

Kato sighed. Though there were seven missing years between them, he still knew what she was talking about. But it was also something that wasn’t his to solve, or rather, something that wasn’t solvable by him. Because of that, he decided to give her a blunt answer.

“Of course, he has plenty to say to you. You definitely do too, by the looks of things. It’s all on you, sister.”

“He does?”

“If you believed it didn’t mean anything to him, you wouldn’t ask me that question, would you?”

“Hmm…”

Kato sighed again. He softened up and threw her a bone.

“That’s my guess. It just depends on if there’s an opportunity for you and for him to be willing to talk about it.”

Mayumi obviously noticed and smiled again.

“You’re not good at this kind of talk, are you?”

“I just don’t think I’m the right person to talk to, now, am I? Look at it from my perspective. What would Caius think of it?”

“I don’t care about what he thinks of it. I just wanna talk to you about it.”

“Then this is whatchu gonna get.”

Mayumi laughed out loud again. She slid down the slide, comically slowly because she barely fit inside the inclined plane. Upon reaching the bottom, she jumped off and onto the rubber mulch, showing a nimbleness which Kato was surprised that she had now. She was a loud but sickly girl when they were children, so it was reassuring to see her able to move around like that. With a wink, it seemed like she returned to her usual, pompous self.

“Just kidding. I get whatchu mean. You can leave everything to me.”

“Yes, I definitely will. There’s no way I wouldn’t.”

Kato said, somewhat strenuously at Mayumi’s ambiguity. Then again, he wasn’t sure if he would have done anything differently were their positions reversed. At the very least, she was aware of her own place here and all the strings attached to it, and he could only patiently observe what was yet to come.

After Mayumi left the playground, heading back down the slopes along the way they came from towards the school, the rest of them gathered at the east end of the playground where the chain-link fences separated it from the wide street that ran north-south. This was where the two groups normally separated, Franco, Caius and the Jupiter sisters in one direction towards the gentrified suburbs, the rest in the opposite direction for another inner city-like district. Though the former might be called a suburb, it was still dominated by high-rises, albeit with luxurious flats and not-as-cramped urban planning as the latter, Kato’s busy home neighbourhood of Sancheung.

Today, however, Caius joined the Eternian children’s group instead. They made their way north along Jordan Street, which eventually turned east into Kato and Eon’s neighbourhood of apartment buildings. Peculiarly in this sector, some of the flats were not right on the main street, but rather there were sections with standalone shops before giving way to the apartment buildings immediately behind it, separated by a narrow pedestrian road that could barely fit two vehicles side by side. Needless to say, at the sections with the flats on the main street, there were more flats behind them too; the city was a dense concentration of mortar and steel.

Eon lived in one of those, the relatively newer flats that were built on the main street after the land was bought off from the standalone shops in a wave of gentrification, while Kato lived in those ones behind the shops that resisted and remained. At the base of Kato’s flat were small shop spaces that could also be used as garages. Since Kato’s family lived with an Eternian nomenklatura, Karl, and now an Eternian Heart too, Sisi, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them to own a shop space directly below their flat on the second floor.

While the girls, Yui and Alice, went up first, the three men remaining hung out at Kato’s—Karl’s garage, taking out Caius’ bicycle that he kept here on occasion because his own garage was tight on space. Eon and Kato each had their own bikes too, and stored in this garage too in fact. They didn’t find much use for them except to get to school quickly when short on time.

“If I’m gonna practice saxophone at home, I’ll have to carry it on my bike in the morning. It’s gonna be a hassle otherwise to bring it back and forth on foot.”

Unlike Eon and Kato’s situation, Caius’ saxophone was his own so he could take it in and out of school on his own will. Not only that, but Caius lived in a detached house, meaning he could reasonably practice at home without complaints from neighbours. Affixing his saxophone’s case to the multi-purpose rear seat with its fastener belts, Caius shepherded his black bicycle along the shallow ramp that extended from the one-and-a-half vehicles wide garage onto the pedestrian road, to where he halted.

“So we’re gonna play band instruments for the talent show?”

“Hopefully, we can. Because at this rate we’re definitely not going to make it in time with a rock band setup. Either way Alice really wanted to do the talent show thing, and it’ll be the best opportunity for our debut, so why not?”

“Kato and being servile to women, name a more iconic duo.”

“Only a few specific ones. I don’t want to hear that from a man who’s also bullied by his sisters.”

“You’re also weak-willed against my older sister Katia too, so you can’t count them against me.”

“Eon, Kato, please. Be grateful you have wonderful sisters. Being an only child here is a sad existence.”

“Then you have no idea how painful siblings are.” “You don’t want siblings if you’ve ever had them.”

“You won’t want to live without siblings if your parents can’t be your playmates and your time’s spent alone with the radio or the television.”

Caius shrugged amusedly at their simultaneous response.

“Anyway, when’re auditions again?”

“Auditions are gonna keep going for the next four, five weeks. The talent show’s on the first Saturday of November, so we still have lots of time.”

“We need to learn how to play these instruments from scratch, audition with them a month later, and then perform two weeks after? Sign me up on this death train.”

They chuckled at Eon’s reality check, putting into perspective how high and lofty their goal was. However, they were not discouraged one bit; they were confident, perhaps not in their ability but in their ego, to pull through this with hard work and dedication. This was the modus operandi of the old men of the Elites.

“If I know ourselves well enough, we’ll probably get in by the skin of our teeth at the very last possible moment. In any case, I can always carry you guys when it comes to music.”

Caius agreed with Eon’s assessment as he mounted his bicycle, already ready to leave. Quick business was Caius’ style, but perhaps that principle was a little lax today as he still had not yet moved.

“What do you guys think of Mayumi?”

Caius calmly opened the can of worms, and Eon obliged to open it up with him.

“I’ve got nothing on her. She’s returned to us out of the blue, and personally, I’m wary at what her motivation is, but I know it’s got nothing to do with me, just as it was the case when she first left us. That’s why I’m fine either way. A blood brother returned. Nothing more, nothing less.”

After putting everything on the table, Eon looked to Kato expectantly.

“You both already know exactly what happened back then. My opinion of her hasn’t changed from that time, and it seems like her opinions haven’t changed either. I’ve never had a stake in any of this, and I’ve even reminded her so, just earlier. Got it, Caius?”

Caius nodded slowly, his serene face unflinching as usual, giving no indication of what was going through his head. Even in his voice, he showed nothing.

“Yeah, Kato, don’t worry. I understand what you mean. It’s not your fault to begin with.”

“See, there’s nothing out of the ordinary here. Kato’s probably sad now that he’s going back to getting wrecked by us.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m so looking forward to that, bro.”

Even though this was supposed to be a serious conversation, their tendency to derail anything and everything arrived soon enough. Alice had a hard time reining them in because the only people who could rein them in were the men themselves.

“Did she say anything else, Kato?”

“She didn’t say much about herself. She’s only asked me about you, which I’m guessing she’s worried about how you took it back then.”

“How did you respond?”

“I just told her it’s an issue between the two of you. She should clean up after herself.”

Caius nodded calmly again, accepting his answer. Seeing that, Kato felt as if he didn’t say enough to reassure one of his best friends of his position. Though it appeared a black box while it was operating, still Kato was around Caius long enough to know how he actually operated, and so he knew no amount of words could relieve Caius’ doubts. Despite that, he continued on.

“If you still have doubts about the past, then this is the time to ask her about it. I’ve already given you my side of the story a long time ago, so it’s up to you whether you want to believe it or confirm it or neither.”

They stood together for a good thirty seconds of silence. They stared at one another, Eon and Kato on one side, Caius on the other. The noise of the city was loud in their ears without the sounds of their voices. Random shouts, car tires grinding on the road, ticking pedestrian lights, spinning bicycle chains, idling trucks and accompanying snaps of metal on concrete ground, were all common sounds of their familiar city.

“I get it, Kato. I believe you. It’s not about that anymore. Truth to be told, I’ve already given up on it. Now, it’s more like I wanna see how I should treat our relationship from here on out, and hopefully nothing needs to be done about the past.”

Though his words were steady, neither Eon nor Kato bought it at face value. What Kato said was not a supposition, but an assertion that Caius had misgivings about the past. If that half a minute of silence wasn’t the evidence, then what else could it have meant?

However, Caius didn’t lie either. They could believe that his wound healed over time, but there were definitely parts of the story he kept to himself and out of sight of his best friends. Eon could only walk up to Caius to put a hand on his shoulder.

“If that’s all, then we’ll leave it to you. Does that sound good?”

Caius retracted his bike stand and put his feet on the pedals, already pedalling forward and away from them, and waved back with a content smile. Not once did the expression on his face crack.

“Sounds good, peeps.”

And just like that, he turned and disappeared between the shops and back onto the main street. Eon shook his head, grieving already in front of Kato, who was bemused the whole time.

Eon took a seat on the step to the side of Kato’s garage, which was raised above the pedestrian road by a couple of steps, hence the concrete ramp from the garage opening. He put his hands to his forehead, the strain from their stare-down finally receding from his face.

“Aaughhhhhhh. This sounds like a pain in the ass, dammit. Why did Mayumi have to come back?”

“What? You didn’t forgive her either?”

“Well, it’s not about if I forgive her or not. It’s about if Caius can forgive her. That’s what I mean by pain in the ass. You know Caius holds onto these grudges, even if he outright denies it. And you. You’re actually directly involved too, even though you try to portray yourself not as such.”

Kato sighed overdramatically, crouching down to Eon’s level.

“Technically, yes, but you know I’ve already done everything I could to make this situation not about me, even if it was by pure chance that I didn’t give in to her wishes.”

“Yeah, I know, but either way this’ll never end. But hey, at least it’s not my fault.”

“Do you mind Mayumi returning to us?”

“No, I don’t. It’s nice to have that kind of a spirit from back when we were kids, y’know, the nostalgia. It’s only really after her operation to fix her eye that things fell apart completely. How about you?”

“Same reasoning as yours. She’s one of us, an original Elite, so why wouldn’t I be happy that she’s back?”

Kato shrugged helplessly as Eon gave another sigh. It was extra depressing for Eon because he was also an original Elite but felt powerless to change its course. Kato and his sisters joined them at the start of primary school, but incredibly the original three had been together since kindergarten.

“So, what is this all exactly?”

Suddenly, Alice appeared from around the corner together with her high-pitched, sharp, almost naggy voice. Crossing her arms, she came here for the explanation she wanted from Kato earlier in the day. Trailing behind her was Yui, still carrying their schoolbags in her arms.

“Were you hiding just behind the corner?”

“Yes. Yui’s here too. Nobody’s gone home yet.”

She pointed up at the big steel cage that encased the opening in the concrete building that was a four-metre wide window, just above them on the second floor. No one could call their apartment building “modern” as it was built with a brutalist architectural style, underlining its origins as social housing within the sprawling city. The building itself was really plain and nondescript, but the inhabitants decorated their metal cages with plant pots, minor household shrines, and clothes hanging off wooden bars for air drying. For social housing, this apartment was one of the better ones, excellent even.

“I can’t say I’m surprised. But I think Yui remembered what happened, did you?”

“Only as a memory from long ago, but yes, I do remember the sequences of events. at least from an outsider’s perspective. It was surprising for the rest of the class too, but most of them quickly forgot about it after Mayumi moved away.”

Beside the space that was normally occupied by Karl’s small car was something like a miniature living room, with a tiny desk, a cabinet and several chairs. There was even a cramped Oriental-style washroom that was a source of hot water. Alice entered the garage to sit down in one of the lawn chairs, crossing her bare voluptuous legs that were her speciality in lieu of any significant assets on her chest.

“Then, tell me what happened.”

The boys and Yui looked at each other, and after a moment Eon motioned his head at Kato, who nodded in agreement.

“I’ll do it then. Let’s start with the initial problem—her clairvoyant eye.”

Clank. Click.

The lock to the folding metal grill barrier in front of the door deconstructed itself loudly as it always did. Thirty floors above the ground, Cecilia finally returned home with a Yue takeout meal inside the plastic bag she was holding onto.

She lived in an inner city district not unlike Kato and Eon’s, but the difference was that it truly was an inner city district which occupied the lowlands of the valley, which allowed for the construction of high-rises from early on in the city’s development. It would be years before high-rises as tall as hers would occupy all of the hillsides, and lots of progress had already been made. The hustle and bustle here, though already enough for most people, was still nothing compared to central downtown or the ghetto.

The entrance was quite dark, and she saw four pairs of shoes before the entryway. There were more on the rack to the side, but those were there for the alternating seasons and occasions. The bleached tiles extended further along the narrow passage that led to the well-lit living room and kitchen at its end, blindingly bright now that she closed the door behind her. There was a mixture of mumbles and rambles of male voices in Old Yue from that direction. Familiar clicks of stone on stone echoed throughout the apartment, but then suddenly these pebbles made a deafening waterfall and prompted her to move forward.

She cautiously made her way towards the light, and the walls close enough for her both her raised elbows to touch. But before she was able to take a sharp turn to the left into another narrow corridor, a truly repugnant call for her stopped her in her tracks.

“Cecilia! Why d’you come home late?”

“Sorry, Dad. I had club activities. They always make it long.”

“Then don’t be an ungrateful runt and call Steven’s for takeout. We’re all waiting for dinner here.”

She was met with sneers from the other three middle-aged men of varying sizes sitting at the mahjong table that her father had been hosting probably for the entire afternoon. She could see the recently disposed styrofoam boxes in the overflowing trash bin in the farther corner that, most likely, her mother had ordered and paid for. Their ashtrays were filled with soot and although the window behind them was open, the scent of tobacco was still strong.

“And how many times do I have to tell you? Fix yourself up. You look awful.”

“Right. I’ll call Steven’s right now. The usual is fine?”

Her hair was all over the place and it fell in front of her to obscure her face, giving off a roughed up impression. She did this on purpose, however, precisely because of the predatory stares of the other three men here in her home, to which her father was completely oblivious to. In fact, she regularly used the school’s girls’ dormitory facilities to shower before she returned home, changing from her uniform and miniskirt into the current jersey and sweatpants; the classic shut-in appearance. She normally carried a duffel bag around instead of a schoolbag for this reason. It was a little difficult to do in the summer because of the humidity immediately invalidating the shower, but there was no other convenient choice.

“Nng.”

A strange grunt for affirmative, she stepped just inside the living room’s boundaries to reach for the corded telephone perched atop a short wooden stand. While the living room was not as grimy as Cecilia expected it to be after the wear and tear of being a gambling site, it was nonetheless somewhat dusty and dirty, with smears of pigment or otherwise from chairs and other things scraping the white walls. The small couch was worn down enough for the plastic-like top layer to fracture into chips and pieces, revealing the woven lines of the fabric right underneath. The radio and television sat unused while they played, and they were just as run-down with the cracks and worn-out buttons and gears.

She could already feel the lecherous stares from behind her, and unfortunately for her it was inevitable. There was bound to be a day where she couldn’t avoid returning home in a tempting form, and since she was naturally on the attractive side, it undoubtedly caught the attention of these wretched middle-aged unemployed men who wouldn’t have this kind of a chance to ogle otherwise.

Cecilia immediately retreated after the telephone call was done with, hurriedly down the corridor and into her room. She made sure to lock and double lock the door behind her before she could let herself relax. Luckily, they never drink alcohol because it actually interfered with their game, so the chances of anything happening to her was relatively low, but the pressure and fear of this unknown still weighed heavily in the smoke-filled air. It was against all of her instincts to place any trust in those men, including her father.

Unfortunately, her trips to the washroom were when she was exposed to risk, and there wasn’t much she could do about it. This had been the state of affairs since she was young so she learned to live with it, but as a result she couldn’t wait for graduation and get out of this godforsaken house.

Sometimes, she lamented the loss of her father’s sanity. About twenty years ago, a massive economic depression swept Auxiria as a result of a collapse in the financial system in the neighbouring continent of Eiria, first with the great Hellenic West Yunia Company going bankrupt. Businesses closed and companies disappeared, and it continued for years to come. Her father was swept up in one of the successive waves of foreclosing businesses, around when Cecilia was just a toddler. The image of a not depressed and miserable father was just a distant memory.

She noticed a small grocery bag on the top of her crowded desk and promptly opened it up. It was a sizeable collection of packages of candy from a local confectionery, and Cecilia smiled wryly at it. She put it away in the topmost drawer underneath her desktop where she kept all the other packages because she wanted to control her sugar intake.

It was something her mother left behind for her from daytime. Unlike her father who had lost his way to gambling, her mother worked many jobs day in, day out to keep Cecilia in school and the household fed. Possibly due to a combination of these influences, from very young she was taught to take care of her health because seeing the doctor meant exorbitant costs for her mother.

As she weaved her chopsticks through her takeout dinner with her right hand, in her left she ran her fingers through the reading material from the classes she skipped. Instead of earphones, her compact disc player was connected with a bulky headset for use at home. She was sure she had the innate ability to make good use of her polytechnic education, and if she didn’t have to take care of her mom and dad in the places they lacked, she would have made it into Class A by now. At least that was her hubris. It was only past seven-thirty, but in a couple of hours she would fall asleep on her bed, completely exhausted, and no amount of motivation could get her to focus well enough on her studies living in a household like this one.

After paying the delivery boy with her mother’s money and leaving the packaged meals behind in the living room, she threw away her own dinner’s packaging and the rest of her room’s trash into the garbage chute at the end of the apartment floor’s main corridor. She occasionally saw a neighbouring boy, likely only approaching middle school age, shyly waiting around the corner to have a chance to talk to the fair, tall, older girl. She appreciated the company, but unfortunately he was a bit too young for her.

However, today was rather unlucky as the one who waited round the corner was not the infatuated neighbourhood boy but her erstwhile family and cousin.

“What is it, Stephen? If you’re looking for Dad, he’s playing mahjong as usual.”

“Your tone hasn’t changed, I see. Is it too difficult for you to behave civilized for once?”

“I’m glad you noticed that I don’t want to see you, then.”

There was nothing but contempt in both of their stares, more animated so on Stephen’s face than Cecilia’s. Stephen almost physically flinched from holding back his tongue, but he managed to swallow it whole.

“I’m not here for Marcel today. I need to speak with Aunt Nellie about the Yaumatei dance hall management gig she was offered a while back. Is she in right now?”

“Mom’s busy. Come back later, and she might be here. Can’t guarantee it though.”

“You do realize I’m sent here as a gesture of friendship, right?”

“Doesn’t matter if Mom doesn’t want to do anything for the old family. It’s been like this for years and years now, and I’m surprised that you all still haven’t given up yet.”

“Father doesn’t want to give up on his only younger sister, so I too have the same responsibility to Aunt Nellie. But if you insist, then I’ll tell Father the same to drop this.”

“Yeah. And tell Uncle Vincent that he’s not going to convince Mom otherwise anytime soon. Just like every other time.”

It was hard for anybody to figure out with Stephen’s messy black hair and permanently rigid frown that this man was Cecilia’s direct cousin. He was still in his school uniform, although somehow loosely clung to his big frame as if his shirt didn’t deserve to be worn by his enormous ego.

The old family was the Liguro family, from which Cecilia’s mother had been estranged from, which operated a prominent property management business in Livia and Lien. They were in charge of the day-to-day running of property and naturally could perform consultant and other middle-man work between the renters and property owners. While the tycoons owned the land and property, it was the Liguro family that managed the buildings on it for the lay-people who came to rent, whether they were for private residences, commercial shop spaces or even factories.

Of course, this naturally meant that the Liguro family business was dependent on the patronage of the real estate tycoons, especially their relationship with Mona’s family, the Mackenzies. Being Gilbert’s right hand man, the Gilbert faction and the Mona faction were in reality one and the same, no matter how different their politics in school were.

Giving him a pout, this was what irked Cecilia in her childish idealistic dream-world. She could see first-hand the hypocrisy of supposedly diametrically opposed political factions being tied at the hip underneath their shirts. Just as in the real-world, powerful and seemingly opposed interests could be intricately tied together under the table.

This was the fucked up world that Stephen represented for Cecilia, and perhaps because her mother also had this childish idealistic view, the ego to reject the corporate mob world and run away from home, that Cecilia turned out this way too. Because both these sentiments were part of Tommy’s rejection of suburbia, Auxirian Idiot appealed to Cecilia so well.

“My concern is why Aunt Nellie insists on taking it on herself to do everything, including continuing to cling herself to some doofus like Marcel for all these years. She can return to the family at any moment because Father’s generous enough to let her, but yet she doesn’t. Why?”

“Your concern? It doesn’t need to be your concern because neither you nor Uncle Vincent understand any of the principles that Mom lives by. Even if she’s living in hell on earth, she will never look back at the old family and say she regretted leaving them.”

“Suit yourself. It’s Father’s wish to support Aunt Nellie, but you’re free to continue to turn us down. Similarly, I wish for you to be in good shape.”

“Sorry, I don’t need your fake charity either. Whether it’s the nomenklatura or the aristocracy, it’s all the same bullshit to me.”

Stephen’s fuse was much shorter than Gilbert’s, but at least it was only a snarl at the end.

“I won’t argue principles right now. But the fact remains that you and I live in this reality, so grow up and deal with it.”

“Coming from you, it’s gotta be a joke, right? Speak for yourself. But you’re right in that let’s just leave each other alone and not argue principles. Goodbye.”

Though Cecilia’s appearance wasn’t as disturbed as Stephen’s, whenever she spoke to him she felt an inexplicable urge to talk back and deny every one of his ideas. Stephen scowled as she attempted to turn around for home.

“And another thing. Watch your morning class’ tardiness. You’re gonna be put on probation if you keep this up.”

“I don’t need a life lesson every time I speak to you. And don’t be a creep. It’s kinda fucked up for you to be able to look up my grades and attendance, so don’t do it to other girls. I’ll be the first to testify in a pedophilia case for you.”

“The PSC and the student council have all of that data. If you have a problem with it, then don’t attend Korolev Senior.”

“Psh. It’s more convenient for you to not have me attend the same school as you, eh?”

“That’s not it. No one can tell we’re related anyway, even if you put Aunt Nellie and Father next to us.”

Stephen pointed to his jet-black hair, on top aplenty but shaved short on the sides and back, and obviously different from Cecilia’s dirty blonde hair; a colour that Cecilia inherited solely from her father. She sighed. It was enough, and she already talked back too much today. The day’s fatigue made her especially inhospitable.

“Of course. Business as usual, then. Nothing has changed.”

Stephen sighed as well. Perhaps because Cecilia was still family, it was easier to throw in the towel at this stage. He turned away without missing a step.

“Understood. Then let’s keep it that way.”