To Know

Chapter 35

What had felt like a second later, Seraphina opened her eyes.

She blinked – her eyes shut for a few seconds each – and pushed the blur out of her eyes. Then she sat up slowly and asked, "What happened?"

Leilah smiled above her, crinkles forming around her eyes, and stood over her. "It's done!"

"What's done?" She rubbed her eyes.

"The operation. It should be successful."

"Huh? Do you want me to test it?" she asked, tilting her head at a small angle.

"Yes." Leilah walked away from the bed and picked up a digital clock with bright red numbers. She handed it to her. "Try it."

She took in a deep breath. How many times have I attempt this before?

Shutting her eyes, she reversed time – or at least what would be an attempt. Then she peeked out of one eye.

It had worked.

Her breaths rushed in and out as she stared up at Leilah.

"Did it work?" she asked.

"...Yes."

Leilah wrapped her arms around her shoulder and sobbed on her. "Thank god."

She responded the hug and they stayed there in the hug for a few minutes. Like when we were young.

Afterwards, Leilah went back to her equipment and told Seraphina to lay down and rest for a bit.

"So, that friend you brought the other day; that's your boyfriend?" she asked in casual conversation.

"I guess he is. We've never made it official."

A pause of silence fell between them.

"I have to ask, though, what's his ability? He said some odd thing about it when we met – during that chase."

"His ability is aura manipulation. It's basically could be called 'copy' from my understanding, but it's called aura manipulation due to how it works."

"You don't know how it works?" she asked. "It does sound very interesting."

That's because you work in aura mechanics.

"He's never gone into the specifications about it. He actually tried to not tell me about it." She paused for a second. "It would probably be better to talk to him specifically."

"He also told Kayden that his level is 7.5." Leilah smiled to herself. "I'm not really surprised you found a friend closest in your level."

"Actually, he told me he was a cripple." She looked away from her with heat rushing to her face. "Part of the denial thing I said earlier."

"Um, are you okay with that?" she questioned.

Seraphina twisted her fingers in her hand. "It wasn't a 'nice' thing to find out, but it had nothing to do with me. He lied to all his classmates for his own reasons. It wasn't because of me."

Leilah nodded hesitantly.

"What... were those issues?"

She pursed her lips in thought. This is way too much to just explain.

"He's a late bloomer. This is way too much to just explain over the span of a few years developed it until he was a high-tier. He didn't cope with the change well and there are incidents that happened that he blames himself for. I think more happened, but he refuses to talk about it. As he didn't want it to happen again, he pretended to be a cripple."