My Universe

46: “It’s just fun messing with you.”

“Oh, look at that. We still haven’t gotten any kimchi.”

It was clearly obvious how the brunette was avoiding the topic that she accidentally brought up in front of the raven when she was not supposed to talk about that to her. Because of that, the raven stopped on what she was doing as she stood in front of her while staring at her with a sharp look, demanding for an explanation to the vague statement that the brunette just uttered a few seconds ago.

“Aster, what did you mean by me not having to worry for the next five months?” Winter repeated her question for the second time in a slow but threatening way.

The brunette was breaking into cold sweat as she forced to wear a smile on her face to make it look like she did not just mention anything significant that was going to deeply affect the relationship between them. She usually did not care when she would travel to another universe since she always made sure to not be emotionally attached to anything or anyone, so it would not matter whether she leaves them or not. But at that moment, Aster badly wished that it was already her sixth month in that universe for her to be able to run away from that situation even though that would mean for her to lose her entertainment of being a witness to the planned love story between Winter and Iris.

“Don’t think about what I said too much. What I meant is that you don’t have to worry about your love story failing in the next five months because Iris will surely fall in love with you and date you as fast as less than a month,” Aster explained as she let out a fake nervous laugh after, which was a bad idea because the latter immediately caught on it.

“Stop with the bullshit, Aster. Tell me what’s up in the next five months.” The raven took steps toward her and leaned in dangerously close as the latter leaned back on the glass fridge.

Aster pursed her lips in as she stared at the shorter woman, who was basically cornering her on the glass fridge in a supermarket, where other people were also roaming around to buy things that they needed. Seeing how serious the latter was, the brunette knew that she no longer had a choice but to tell the truth that she had been keeping from her for nearly two weeks already. It was unfortunate that her true identity would be revealed to Winter which would lessen the fun, though it was not like the truth would be able to always stay buried permanently.

“All right, all right. Let me know if you wanna make out right now first because I’m down for public make out sessions anyway,” Aster said with a playful smirk on her face as she wiggled her eyebrows.

Immediately, the raven stepped away from her as she realized that the distance between them was too close to the point that some of the people around were throwing glances at them. Winter shook her head to get rid of the embarrassment that she was feeling as she cursed herself for being such an assertive lesbian to a woman that she did not even have feeling for.

While the raven was regretting her actions, the brunette just let out a chuckle at the sight as she stood properly while fixing the creases on her shirt. For some reason, Aster was loving that assertive side of the latter that she started to look forward to being in the same situation more in the future.

“Okay, tell me.”

“Okay, to be honest, I lied.” Aster wore an awkward smile as she observed the change of expression on the face of the shorter woman.

“Lied about what?” Winter raised an eyebrow as she watched her intently, looking directly to her eyes to check if she was being genuine or not.

“About me being a god.”

Ever since the day that Aster introduced herself as a god that came to the human world for observations, Winter already had doubts on her as she refused to believe that the brunette was actually a nonhuman creature. Those kinds of topics never piqued the interest of the originally psychology student as she only cared about the present where she was alive in the world of reality.

Even though there were things that might have been considered as proofs about Aster not belonging to the human world, the raven still had doubts though she decided to just forget about it as she had always thought of her as a fellow human being. Now that Aster finally confessed about herself, Winter felt a sense of relief that her doubts were correct.

“Honestly, I never completely believed you about that in the first place, anyway,” Winter deadpanned.

“Huh? How? I literally look like a goddess, though.” The brunette furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she confidently pointed at her flawless face. “Anyone would believe me if I said that I’ve always been a real goddess all along.”

“You’re funny.” The raven forced out an obvious laugh of sarcasm. “Anyway, I don’t think that answered my question.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s because there’s another thing which I never told you about.”

The brunette squinted and chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about how she was going to explain to the latter about her natural special ability that she had ever since she was born. For an ordinary human being like Winter, it would sound utterly absurd to just tell her that Aster had some sort of uncontrollable superpower that no one had.

Seeing how Winter never believed Aster being a goddess after all the time that they spent together, the brunette was certain that the raven would surely not believe her even more as she would think that she was just making up stories to cover up whatever the truth behind her statement was even though her special ability was literally the truth that the raven was looking for.

“What is it? Spill already.” The raven crossed her arms across her chest.

“I know that you’d surely not believe me, but I actually have this ability that I’ve always had ever since I was born,” Aster started as she made sure not to speak in a fast pace to observe any changes on the facial expression of the latter. “Every 180th day, I randomly teleport to another universe.”

Winter blinked multiple times as she blankly stared at the taller woman while waiting for everything that she just said sink in. The raven recalled the moments when the brunette seemed oddly different from everyone else in a way that made her think that she could be related with the creator of the world that she was living in. Aster knew about Winter not being the real Summer in Summer’s body as she was also totally relaxed after hearing the explanation of Winter about how she ended up going to that universe in the body of her alternate self. Anyone would think that the raven just turned insane from the novels or TV drama series that she had been obsessing over, yet the brunette was the only one who calmly believed her like it was a normal thing to happen to a person.

“W-Wait. Can you elaborate what you just said?” Still, the raven was still in utter confusion with what was happening.

“I’m not an ordinary human being. I have a special ability that makes me—my soul travel to different universes every six months. As the clock strikes midnight on my 180th day, I’d open my eyes to find myself in the body of another alternate self of mine in another universe,” Aster slowly explained as she herself wanted the latter to understand everything that she was saying as well. “Right now, I’m in my first month in this world. In the next five months, Aster will no longer be in the body of Avery as I will go to another random universe.”

Winter was not slow-witted to not understand everything that the brunette just said since she literally used easy words to explain about the special ability of hers. She did understand every word that she just said, though the raven could not help but still be confused on why and how Aster had that special ability. She demanded a logical explanation for it as she never expected special abilities like hers that were related to the multiverse to actually exist in real life. Sure, there were some novels that were related to the existence of different universes which Winter loved to read over and over again because of the interesting plots; but she still knew how to distinguish between fantasy and reality that she never bothered dreaming of being a rich businesswoman that accidentally teleported to a universe filled with nonhuman creatures after reading a magical book.

“Are you making up another story? This is real life, Aster.” Winter let out a sigh as she massaged the bridge of her nose. She might get a headache at that point because of the new shocking information that she was receiving at that moment.

“Well, I didn’t expect anyone to believe me anyway. But that’s literally the answer to your question, so I’m good now.” Aster shrugged as she went back to lean on the handle of the cart.

In one of the universes that Winter had been to when she was 16, she told her best friend since childhood about her special ability. As expected, the best friend of her alternate self only laughed at her for making up a lie that was suitable to be a plot for a novel. Ever since what happened, Aster decided to keep it a secret to herself for the rest of her life as she decided to not expect anyone special to suddenly enter her life and believe everything that she was saying about her special ability. It was better to be seen as a mysterious person instead of a joke, after all.

“Wait, I’m actually mad at you.” The raven turned to shoot her a glare.

“Huh?”

“All this time, you’ve been keeping all of this significant information from me when you’re supposed to since you’re helping me with my current situation.”

“Oh, yeah. It’s just fun messing with you.” Aster laughed.

And that was a wrong thing to say followed by a laugh at that moment.

With a scoff in disbelief, Winter shot one last deadly glare to the taller woman before forcefully grabbing the handle of the cart and walking away in angry stomps. There were a few things that the raven had not picked up yet as she decided to get them next time when Aster was not around because of the annoyance that she was feeling toward her at that moment.

“Oh, why is she so moody?” Aster sighed as she leaned back on the glass fridge while watching the raven push the cart toward the cashier.

***

The brunette regretted not catching up with the raven immediately as she rubbed her face with her palms and let out a heavy sigh after. For the past five minutes, she was standing in front of the door to the room of Winter in the dormitory.

Aster was curious about what would happen if she did not chase after Winter immediately in the supermarket earlier as she expected the raven to look back at her and send her signals with her eyes to go after her even though she was mad. But it was not worth to test for her curiosity as the brunette realized how she was just making things harder for herself.

Muffled loud pop music could be heard from the room as the brunette knew that the raven turned the volume to the max on purpose. In Aster’s 20 years of existence, she had never thought of begging a person, whom she did not even have a special relationship with, to speak to her.

Yet here she was, having another first-time experience while she was still alive.