Chapter 8
1292 Words
"What are you doing?" asked Samantha, while looking at Hye, who was standing by the window. "Have you changed clothes yet?"
"Yes, actually, it's been a while."
"What? Impossible! When I left, you were wearing the same clothes."
Samantha ran to Hye's room. His wardrobe had almost no variety; all his clothes were the same, except for a few white items. Mostly, his shirts and sweaters were black, and his pants were all identical.
"Where did you buy these things? Where are the clothes you brought when you traveled here?"
"I didn't bring any. They all stayed at home."
"What?!"
Leaving the room, Samantha grabbed her bag from the sofa and walked toward the door. As she opened the door, she said, "Let's go, it seems cutting your hair won't be the only thing we do today. Who buys only black clothes, and worse, all the same!"
Samantha didn't stop. As they walked to the stores, took the bus or the subway, whenever she remembered Hye's wardrobe, she started talking about it, complaining about his lack of self-care.
***************
"Hmm..."
"Finally awake?" asked Alyia, smiling while looking at Teodoro lying on a large red bed. "Did you seriously try to read his interior? You don't even know how to do that correctly yet."
"Ouch!"
When he got up, Teodoro felt a slight pain followed by dizziness. Was this a consequence of the time his soul was exposed to that absurd amount of mana?
"I told you not to be careless when doing that," said Alyia, as she sat on the edge of the bed. "Part of your soul was destroyed. I've fixed it, but it might take a while for your angelic part to accept the piece I created. It wasn't easy to create a piece of a human soul with angelic properties; you should thank me."
"Not easy?" asked Teodoro, letting his body fall back onto the bed and then looking at Alyia with a smile. "Did it take more than a minute?"
"Ten seconds, actually. But, like you, that's a lot of time for me."
"Okay, don't worry, I won't do that again anytime soon... But... had you already used your eyes on him? Did you see too?"
"No, when I told Lior to use his eyes, I meant just to see how he didn't appear to have any trace of mana, not to look deeply into my boyfriend's interior."
"Sorry... I guess I let my curiosity get the better of me..."
"It's okay, rest a bit more," said Alyia, stroking Teodoro's hair before getting up and walking toward the exit. "That's the least of your problems now. I heard you snuck out of the house, they're looking for you..."
"What?!" Teodoro grabbed his phone from his pocket and quickly checked the time. "Damn, has that much time passed?"
In a leap, Teodoro got up and walked quickly to the window. But before leaving, he asked, "Alyia... aren't you a bit curious? None of the other irregulars have as much mana, not even me. Don't you want to know what makes him different?"
"I don't remember asking you why your eyes glowed when I first met you. Nor did I look into your interior without permission."
"Yes... You waited until I wanted to know about it myself... So, you'll wait for him to take the initiative to tell you?"
"That's my plan."
"And when that happens..." with flashes of memory passing through his mind, Teodoro sweated coldly. "Even though he's your boyfriend, will he go through the same thing Lior and I did?"
"Exactly because he's my boyfriend, he'll have to go through it."
"I understand... Call me when that starts to happen. I won't participate, but watching will be really fun."
Teodoro jumped out the window but didn't fall. The moment he passed outside the room, his body disappeared. He moved so fast that he crossed the globe in just a few moments.
"He's faster," said Alyia, watching the Nephilim distance himself in a blink of an eye. "But I think it still won't be enough... she will still catch him..."
***************
"Come on, hurry up!" exclaimed Samantha, quickly moving from store to store, while Hye followed carrying several full bags. "We still have more stores to visit."
Suits, shirts, and dress shoes, Hye tried on various items and bought them all because neither his aunt nor the attendants could decide which looked best on him. The same thing happened in other stores: pants, sneakers, shirts, and sweaters. He went into the fitting rooms so many times that Hye had even counted the number of fingerprints on the mirrors; 132 in total.
"So?" asked Samantha, analyzing Hye, who was sitting in a black chair, and showing a haircut on her phone to the man beside her. "Do you think this haircut will look good?"
"Will it look good?" said the hairdresser enthusiastically, circling Hye. "What haircut wouldn't look good on him? Do you want to be my model?"
"Then please, do this one. We still have a lot to do."
Hye said nothing; he didn't seem to have a voice in this situation. Even while buying clothes, all he did was try them on, one after another. His opinion didn't seem necessary, and it seemed it wouldn't matter even if he tried to give it.
After the haircut, the next stop was a jewelry store.
"Are we buying a ring?" asked Hye, looking at the rings in the store's display. "But she didn't even accept my proposal when I asked."
"You proposed to her?!" exclaimed Samantha, shocked, looking at Hye and thinking about something he couldn't decipher.
"It was impulsive," said Hye. "I got tangled up in my words."
"Ahh..." Samantha sighed. "It's not an engagement ring. It's a promise ring. If I had known this would happen, I would have brought your mom's, but for now, you can use a substitute. Then you can give her the other one."
"Is there a difference between the types of rings? Aren't they all the same?"
"I couldn't explain the difference exactly, but in practice, it's more about the meaning. A promise ring doesn't have the same meaning as an engagement ring. And an engagement ring doesn't have the same meaning as a wedding ring."
"I see... So since it's about meaning... wouldn't it be better if I chose the ring myself?"
Upon hearing Hye's words, Samantha stopped immediately. She looked at her nephew for a moment; he never had a look like that before, a look full of conviction and confidence; 'See..., he finally looks a bit like you...'
"You're right. Go ahead, choose."
Hye looked at the rings, he seemed to find the perfect one very quickly, but; "That's a wedding ring," his aunt said, even before he pointed to the ring he had chosen.
"The difference was the meaning?"
"Yes, also," Samantha replied, getting a bit closer to her nephew. "But it's not that simple... Can I help you choose?"
Looking at the dozens of rings over the glass, Hye hesitated but eventually nodded.
"Okay, then, let's see... The first three rows are engagement rings. From the next two, you can choose, but not the sixth one; those are also wedding rings. Understood?"
Hye nodded. Smiling, Samantha continued, "The rings from the seventh to the tenth row can be chosen, but all the others cannot. The eleventh to the fourteenth rows are wedding rings, and the last row is all engagement rings."
Not wanting to interfere too much, Samantha tried to only advise Hye, giving him space to choose the ring he thought was best. However, despite being the "right decision," it was far from being the quickest.
"Not the third row! Didn't I mention that before?"
"Sorry..."
- Writer
