Street Signs

Chapter 25

BRIELLE

The light fascinated my eyes, and the cold breeze warmed my heart. Right after I exited Serinokuni, I closed my eyes and smelled the fresh air. Finally, I was home.

When I opened my eyes again, I wandered them all over the place. The familiar view, the tall green trees, and the towering buildings made me realize that I was at the university. Also, the shouts of rejoicing could tell me that the camp was still ongoing. I could not help but smile knowing that I was home safely after how many days of survival in Serinokuni. It still felt like a dream. Forever I would be thankful for Prince Valor for helping me out.

After taking the time to breathe, I hurried to see my team. However, while I was on the way, I met Queen. So, I stopped and grinned as I looked at him.

On the other side, Queen's eyes were widened the very moment he saw me. He ran towards me and hugged me. "OMG, where have you been?" he asked, slapping my shoulder. "I've been looking for you, b***h! What the freaking hell did you do?"

"Queen, I missed you!" I said with teary eyes, still hugging him. "Can you please tell me I'm not dreaming?"

He released me and faced me with a creased brow. "What do you mean? Of course, you are not dreaming! You seem to be out of your mind. What happened to you?"

"It's a long story, Queen. I'll tell you at the right time. But now, let me rest first. I've been on an unexpected trip that made me so exhausted."

"Trip? OMG. You're supposedly joining the camp. I'm sure your dad is now mad at you. It has been hours since he was calling you, but you are not answering. You're not even raising your phone to me."

"My battery died, okay? In the first place, I didn't expect this to happen. As I've told you, it's an unexpected journey."

"Cant you tell that to me now? Curiosity kills me, my god."

"Not now," I said and hold his hand. "Let's go back to the camp."

"It's our break time," he said.

"But, wait..." I turned my gaze at him. "You mean you were looking for me by just hours? Not days?"

"Only hours, why? It's just our first day here in the camp. The second game has ended yet, and now we're having a break 'cause it was tiring I could die."

I stopped for a moment and thought of the days I stayed in Serinokuni. If it was only hours since I was missing here on Earth, why did it take me days in Serinokuni? How was the time did not match?

Until when I arrived at Queen's tent, I was still stuck on my own thoughts. I wasn't talking because I was thinking how were days between the Earth and Serinokuni were different? What kind of world is Serinokuni?

"What do you want to eat?" Queen asked, entering his tent to get some food.

"Anything that can be eaten," I said. "Just everything. I want to eat everything and my favorites, please."

Queen's face couldn't be painted. He didn't know how to react to what I had said. "Starving, huh?" he mouthed after some time.

"I am," I said firmly. "So please, give me everything."

"But I only have an apple and two pieces of banana here. Would you like to take them all?"

"What?" I creased my brow. "Don't you have rice and something like fried chicken?"

Queen shook his head. "I am too lazy to cook. Would you like to go to the cafeteria instead?"

Even though I was tired, I just agreed with him. When I arrived there with him, he asked me again what would I like to eat, so I told him everything that I was craving.

When I was left all alone at the table, I had taken time wandering my eyes all over the place to see if any member of my team was in here. I had seen some of them that were busy eating. I also looked for Cheveyo, but he wasn't in here. I really wanted to know what had happened to the second game but I didn't have someone to ask except for my best friend.

So when Queen had finally arrived, I asked him right away to tell me things as I was preparing all the food.

The first thing he had told me was, "Your team won the second game!"

My eyes grew wide a little but I didn't feel excited for the reason that I was not in the game when it was ongoing. However, a tiny smile touched my lip for knowing that Cheveyo had made the team proud, that was for sure.

"Cheveyo is a good leader, I can say," I said, chewing my food.

"Yeah, but I started to hate him," Queen said, smirking badly.

"Why? I thought he's your crush."

"That was on the first day that I met him, but now, it's all over. I was asking him about you, but he's not responding adequately. He even said that I should sacrifice my feet for you and not my mouth. What should I do? I was just asking him because I thought it would be much easier to find you since you're in his team."

"What more did he tell you?"

"He said he didn't see you. Maybe because he was too focused on the game, so he doesn't have the time to look upon his members one by one. I can understand that if he said that in a good manner. But the way he spoke to me, it felt like I've done something wrong to him."

"I think you should understand him," I said. "Based on my observation, he is just like that. You know... the cold one. The one who barely speaks, but when he does, it has sense."

Queen crossed his arms. "Uh, so you're saying you are with him?"

"Not that. I will still be with you even so I know your bad attitude," I chuckled. "I appreciated you looking for me. You're the best, really!"

He expressed hesitations. "Would you mind telling me now what had happened?"

I looked around and thought the place was too crowded for me to speak to Queen. It was either I would not deliver it clearly or he would not hear it appropriately, so I told him if we could go to another place where we could talk about it more smoothly.

We went to our dorm that we rented and talked there. We weren't actually staying in the room after class, it just served as our catcher whenever we were in rush or there was an expected thing to do in the university, especially since we were both members of the English club. We did not come back to the tent because it was also crowded there; many tents had been built just inches away from Queen's.

"Just make it faster because the third game would be starting soonly," Queen said, setting himself ready to listen.

I took a deep breath first and told my best friend everything he needed to hear. I doubted he would believe me since my story was like a fantasy one. Even I could not believe it if ever I didn't experience it myself.

"So... are you saying that you were lost in a different world, b***h?" Queen asked me, still with his eyes widened.

I nodded. "It's really hard to explain. I'm not sure if that land is part of the Earth or it's another planet or whatever."

"What the f*****g hell. I can't believe it. Do you also mean, a green door leads you there? Like, you opened the door and when you entered, that's it! Boom! You are in a different world now! Is that what you mean?"

"Uh-huh. But that door lost the moment I entered that world, so I wasn't able to go home for three days."

"b***h, you were only lost for three hours."

"I know. I just can't explain how did the time here on Earth and in Serinokuni differs. But that doesn't matter anymore. The important thing is, I am home now."

"No, b***h, tell me more about the prince. I'd like to hear about him, c'mon."

I had mentioned to Queen that Prince Valor was the first one I saw in Serinokuni, but I didn't tell yet that he was also the one who helped me throughout. In the end, I told him as well the last part of my journey in Serinokuni because he forced me to tell him.

Queen's face turned red after hearing my story. For some time he was quiet, but in no time, he just slapped me like he had no plans to stop. "b***h, give me that prince! OMG!" he shouted.

"Stop it, Queen! It's hurting," I yelled at him, causing him to stop hitting me with his heavy hands. "Ouch," I stretched my arms. "When I saw him again, I'll give him to you, but I think that's impossible. I will never go back to that world again. I already have violations there. If they see me, they will kill me."

Queen drew his face closer to me. "Really?"

"Yeah, it's because I used the invisible wings which they said is illegal to them," I said. "Don't plan to ask me more about it because I don't even know that kind of norm they have."

"That was indeed an unbelievable trip, b***h. How I wished you captured the spots there so I could see them."

"A bad luck, Queen. I just realized I had my phone with me when it was about to die. But to tell you, it's beautiful there and it's close to nature. It's just that I hated the queen, she's so bad to me."

"But, what if..."

I looked at Queen. "What if?"

"You told me that the queen there is looking for you because of your violations in their world. What if, she knew you came back here on Earth and now planning to still look for you till here?"

I paused for a moment. As I thought of Queen's idea, my heart started beating rapidly again. What if that theory... would become reality?