Tale of the Gifted Beings

chapter 3

chapter 3

TIME STOOD STILL as I found myself looking into the eyes of the girl standing in front of me. My heart rapidly sank into my chest, its rhythm echoing in the weird silence. The girl stood before me, smiling, and somehow her face was like a combination of the teenager she'd grown into and the small, Asian girl I once knew.

Her dark brown eyes were the same, but her face was now replaced by a mature glow that probed through the weight of the years that had passed. Her once cherubic cheeks are now more prominent; the tenderness has changed with time, like a cobblestone that's unprotected and altered by continuous downpour. Yet, beneath these changes, parts of the Mamori I once knew back in the orphanage when we were kids still stayed, or that's what I think it is. I mean, the bobcat hair, the almond eyes, and the luminescence of bubbliness in her smile remained unchanged.

They were all memories of the childhood friend I'd lost track of.

"Is it really you, Prim? How have you been?" Mamori's voice washed over me, birching up a ripple of my past recollection. My lips disjointed, but the words were odburate, latching at the back of my throat, not wanting to let go.

I was too dazed, flabergasted, or amazed—whatever you want to call it. The sound of our laughs and whispers underneath the massive oak tree still knelt in my ears, and the thought that she stood before me now, after so many years, was enough to send my mind spiraling into a vortex of disbelief.

Suddenly, Leo coughed intentionally. My reverie was shattered, and I found myself staring at Leo's annoying face.

"Excuse me to ruin your moment but do you two know each other?" Leo asked.

Mamori and I shared glances before she nodded. "Yes," she replied. "This is my only friend back at the orphanage. She was the one who saved me back when I was being bullied by three kids. It's been years since we last saw each other," Mamori added.

A brief stillness blanketed us three, unfurling over Leo's office like an avalanche, with each word becoming submerged in the silence. The brisk lights whirred overhead, creating long, gloomy shadows that remained motionless on the tiled floor. In addition, a familiar smell of antiseptic and caffeine danced in the air, and the sterile scent of Leo's office now became a contrast to the wistful scent of our old orphanage.

I looked at Mamori again, my eyes painting the outline of her face. And if there's something I noticed, that is the fact that she has changed, undeniably so, but at the same time unchanged in a way that sent a trace of nostalgia within me. Despite all the years and miles that had expanded between the both of us, despite the tableau curtain of the one incident that had obnubilated our paths, it was still her. It was still my childhood friend. This is indeed Mamori.

From my peripheral vision, I noticed Leo wrinkling his forehead in thought, staring at the both of us back and forth. Mamori, however, seemed oblivious to his scrutiny; her attention was entirely on me.

"As much as this I love this reunion, I think we know why we're here," Leo said. "Especially you, Primmy."

He stood in front of me annoyingly, his figure a towering pillar against the thin, grey light that entered in through the small and narrow window. His eyes, strict and arresting, bore into mine.

"Primmy," Leo's deep voice broke the silence. "If you have Ms. Greene's wallet, just surrender it now, please. I promise I will just let you go with a warning. I know you have it."

The wallet. For a moment, I forgot about that.

A sly grin twitched at the corners of my mouth, even as I faked innocence. I could feel the texture of the faux-leather wallet squeezing against my thigh from its hiding place in my pocket.