A Clouded Glow

Chapter 13: Rather Than Calm, I...

April 26, 2030 (Friday)

3:00 pm

The school bell rang, but the classroom was long empty as the teacher dismissed us early. Today's skies are clear, but aside from that, it really does feel like same rubbish, different day. I stayed behind in the room until I was left alone because I wanted to make a call. I whipped out my phone and dialed Sissy's number, it's still hard to grasp that out of nowhere she's suddenly in another country, free from all academic responsibilities too.

"Hello... Aria here, is now a good time?"

"Oh hi there, Sissy here, it's currently 7 pm here"

"You're not busy?"

"Hmm, just gazing at the night city lights while having dinner on the balcony,"

Wow, so fancy.

"not as fancy as you think though, I've been doing this pretty every day since I got here and now it doesn't feel as mesmerizing." she continued.

"The amount of privilege coming out of those words might be a bit triggering, Sissy. Besides didn't you just arrive 3 days ago?"

"Hohoho, is that so?"

"Yes, it is so. If you're so bored you should hurry up and come back!"

"I'm afraid I'm not the type to waste free vacations, unfortunately. Especially not with what's been happening lately"

Hmp, there she goes bragging again.

"Like what?" I asked.

"A certain series of events eventually lead me into walking into a room where I saw a CEO and one of their subordinates sharing a passionate kiss, and the CEO was married to someone else."

"What?! Did you— how much money did you get out of them??"

"I didn't blackmail them a penny, they begged me for my bank account details so that they could forcefully transfer a huge sum to me to keep my mouth shut about it, but I earnestly declined. I'm only here to have fun, and besides declining the money and keeping that anxious look on their faces satisfies me way more." she said.

"That's a bit uncharacteristic of you, I thought you were the type to... look ahead, and use that money for investments or something." I replied.

"Excuse me, but since when was I the type to exploit people?"

"The very first thing you did when we first met was try to scam me." I stated.

"Like seasons, people change, Aria." she responded.

"Wow, how clever of you."

"Jokes aside, they actually ended up finding my bank account and managed to transfer the money, but I just transferred it again to some random local charity as soon as I could so that I wouldn't be tempted to waste it on random things. Honestly, I really just want to have fun here. I'm aware of the opportunities I'm losing because of that, but I want to be able to rightfully earn the things that I want to achieve in the future. I promise you that I am looking ahead, and that's precisely why I don't need that money right now."

"I see... so you do have a dream."

"Are you telling me the reason you sounded so melancholic since the call started was because you don't have one?"

"N-no, it's just, that I've been getting left behind lately, everyone's going someplace else after class ends and they all seem to be working towards their dream so... yeah, I guess it's just as you said, I don't think I have a dream."