Sun Upon Dark Clouds

20: Second Thoughts

Last night’s events were fun that the brunette still had a broad smile on her face when they arrived back in the apartment. It turned out that covering a stranger’s car with sticky notes was one of the things that were on Coley’s bucket list—a bucket list that she never actually written on a piece of paper but just existed in a part of his brain. Her bucket list that she would only remember the contents in certain situations where she would end up being in. Perhaps the reason why Coley could not get over the fun moment from last night with the drunk man was because she did not accomplish one thing in her bucket list but with someone who happened to be the emotionless woman, Ghrae Kanori.

It was another day as Coley woke up in a lighthearted mood, seeing the flawless white ceiling above her. She stood up as she did the basic stretches; starting with the upper back stretch, to the neck stretch, the shoulder stretch, the side stretch, and ending with the side stretch. Since Coley had not been going to the gym for days already, she had forgotten the other stretches that she used to do. After completely waking up the systems of her body, Coley decided to step out of the bedroom as she immediately found Ghrae seated on the sofa in the living room with the TV turned on to the news channel.

“With the successful merging of PYL Holdings and HZ Group, the stocks have increased in a good way,” the news anchor from the TV spoke professionally. “Also, it is reported that the couple, Wyatt Hazien and Aria Pylee, are still in their honeymoon and that there is no confirmed date of their return.”

Coley’s mouth formed an ‘O’ when she saw the wedding picture of Ghrae and Wyatt on the TV. She glanced at the woman eating cereal on the sofa who was said to be the same person on the TV, and back to the TV where her picture was still displayed. The brunette continued to glance from one to another until the image in the TV disappeared and Ghrae finally noticed the latter’s presence.

“Why are you just standing there?” Ghrae asked as she looked at the woman who was looking at her strangely. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“The married woman on the TV was you, right?” Coley squinted at the latter as she placed her arm on top of the backrest and leaned on it.

“Kind of?” The raven ate a spoonful of corn flakes.

“So, you’re saying that your real name is Aria Pylee?” the brunette asked curiously.

“Not really. Ghrae Kanori is my birth name and Aria Pylee is the name my adoptive parents gave me,” the raven explained while keeping her eyes on the TV that was switched from the news channel to a channel where “Family Guy” was currently playing.

Coley was slowly understanding the situation of the latter as she went to the kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal and join her in the living room. Suddenly, a thought appeared on her head, which made her even more curious about the mysterious woman.

“What did you say the reason why you’re in Peace Town again?” Coley asked, trying to be careful with the words that she was choosing.

“Why are you curious about that again?” Ghrae asked as she watched the brunette sat next to her on the sofa with a bowl of chocolate cereal.

“I just thought of it,” The brunette let out a nervous chuckle as she ate a spoonful of cereal before it gets soggy.

“I don’t want people to find me,” she said the same answer as she gave to the latter from the other night.

Things started to sink in Coley’s mind as she tried to connect the dots about Ghrae’s situation. After all, Ghrae had always been mysterious from their first meeting in the park up until the moment that she invited Coley to her apartment even though there was a possibility that Coley could cause harm to her, like how Coley initially planned to hurt Ghrae and steal all of her money. As the brunette stared intently at the raven who looked oddly calm even after seeing the news about her, she could not help but think,

I know that she left after her job is done, but I didn’t actually think that she ran away without informing them.

Coley then remembered what Ghrae just told her. She did not want to be found, which led Coley to a selfish conclusion. Nobody knew where Ghrae was, especially since her phone was completely untraceable. Nobody also knew that the Ghrae Kanori who was staying in Peace Town was the same Aria Pylee that was reported to be enjoying her honeymoon with her husband. Of course, it would not be surprising to know that Ghrae’s family was surely hiring tons of people to look for their daughter who suddenly disappeared right after the wedding.

Coley went back to think about her life—her life that was in risk because the gangsters of her father’s gang were searching around for her. If she would get caught, she would have to go back to her old life as the daughter of a gang leader; all of her sacrifices to leave that life of hers and start a new one would all turn to a waste if she let herself get caught by the gangsters. The thought of Ghrae’s situation and her situation led to one selfish and terrible solution,

What if I call and make a deal with her family?

The brunette wanted to smack herself for acting just like her father. But what could she do though? She needed money and protection to stay away from her father and his gang for good so she could live a new ordinary life. To live, Coley had to be an opportunist and do dirty stuff even if that meant to break the trust of the person who she eagerly wanted to befriend in the first place. With everything that was currently going on, Coley’s head started to ache that she hoped that she did not know too many things in the first place.

***

“Coley.”

The called woman blinked multiple times as she looked at the woman across her who had been calling for her attention more than three times. Coley slightly widened her eyes as she felt panic when she realized that she had no idea what Ghrae was calling her attention for. She then looked down to her iced caramel macchiato, trying to see if there was something wrong with her drink. She looked around her until she gave up since she noticed that there was nothing wrong for Ghrae to keep calling her name.

“I’m sorry, what were you saying?” Coley flashed a sheepish grin on her face as she lightly scratched the back of her head.

“I was asking if you noticed the changes in the shop,” Ghrae simply asked though her eyes remained fixed on the latter’s face as if she was trying to examine her.

“Oh,” Coley looked around the coffee shop. There was nothing new in Noah’s coffee shop. “No?”

“You seem to be helping in attracting more customers,” the raven said.

That was when the brunette realized that the coffee shop was not like the usual coffee shop as she noticed that there were more customers with new faces and not the same three female customers. Some of the customers were also men. An amused smirk appeared on the brunette’s face as she caught one of the female customers staring at her. Seeing how Coley was wearing her usual narcissistic face, Ghrae knew that she was okay as she stopped staring at her and turned to stare at a blank space.

“Gosh, Noah is pretty lucky that we chose to hang out here,” Coley let out a vainly laugh and took a sip on her drink, winking at one of the women who she caught was staring at her.

The door was suddenly pushed wide open, aggressively hitting the wind chimes, which immediately caught the attention of everyone in the coffee shop. Noah, who just placed a cup of iced americano on the table of one of the customers, nearly jumped as he immediately turned around with an annoyed expression on his face to see who was the rude customer. He was even more vexed when he saw the bright aura of his little sister who entered the coffee shop by skipping as if she did not just startle literally everyone by abruptly opening the door.

“My sweet older brother with a cherry on top, hi!” Nora greeted enthusiastically and jumped to hug her older brother.

The female customers who had been going to the coffee shop everyday to see Noah had their jaws dropped, making the coffee in their mouth drip because of the sight. They felt jealousy and shame at the same time for not even knowing that the coffee shop owner had a pretty little sister when they literally had been going to his coffee shop every day for a month. Ghrae noticed the dejection of the women as they stood up and left the coffee shop, making her raise an eyebrow.

“Get off me. You’re heavy!” Noah groaned as he lightly patted his sister’s back.

“Fine, fine,” Nora giggled before dropping back to her feet. She looked around until she noticed the presence of the two women. “Coley, Ghrae!”

They exchanged cheek kisses as the red-haired woman approached them in a swift move. They noticed that Nora had a guitar slung behind her back.

“What are you guys doing here?” the bunny-toothed asked brightly.

 “To attract more customers for your brother,” Coley cockily answered as she winked at Ghrae when she glanced at her.

“Very funny,” Nora scoffed as she slapped the brunette’s shoulder. Her face suddenly lit up as she turned to Ghrae. “You’re straight, right? Because you can’t fall for this asshole.”

Ghrae could only laugh because she was neither straight or gay in the first place. She watched as the two of them teased each other since they could not really catch up with each other last night at Margo’s birthday.

“Just come and busk with me like how we used to do in Arrowbreak,” Nora urged Coley as she lightly tugged her sleeve to have her stand up from her seat though the brunette was strong.

“I’m with Ghrae, okay?” Coley whined as she tried to take her hands off her though the red-haired woman was strong as well.

“It’s fine. You can go,” Ghrae wore a reassuring smile to make sure that the brunette would not hesitate.

“But you’ll be alone.”

“Is Noah a ghost?” Ghrae deadpanned. “Also, I’ll just head back home if I get bored here.”

“But—” Before Coley could even protest, Nora had already successfully tugged her to stand up from her seat.

“Come on!” Ghrae smiled and waved at Coley who looked at her with eyes that seemed to be seeking for help as she was tugged away by Nora.

“Don’t torture Coley,” Noah deadpanned as he went back to his counter without throwing a glance at them.

“I won’t!” Nora said after getting the cajon from the room in the back as she pulled Coley out of the coffee shop.

Ghrae took a sip on her latte as she gazed at the vehicles passing by the street through the window. She felt peace like how she used to be before Coley came into her life though she was not even complaining about Coley’s existence—in fact, she thought that it was pretty interesting.

While she was staring into blank space, she did not bother looking when she heard the wind chimes from the entrance. Until a familiar deep voice spoke that instantly grabbed her attention.

“Aria.”