Thirty Years

Too Cruel

"What about Truth in Style?"

Via shook her head, gazing at the table full of half-drawn sketches in front of her. It was the one work day the participants had to work on their designs for the competition, and Via still did not have her theme.  

Although she knew it was only a competition and that she, by no means was in it to win sponsorship from Espeji Corp. (why would she be when she had such easy access to its CEO?), she wanted to use this opportunity to truly explore her styling abilities.  

"What is it?"

Via looked up from her discarded sketched to see Alecai walking towards her with a small square box in his hand.

"Lunch. You can't eat all your meals at restaurants. It's not good for you."

"Thanks." Via took the box from him, then continued to stare at her work.

"Why not just do something fun--like the messages you send me." At Alecai's words, Via glanced up, giving him a hard stare as if to say 'you dare talk back to me?'

Leaning over Via, Alecai bent down and spoke in her ear.

"I'm sure whatever you come up with will be great. Just go easy on them will you?"

Via scoffed, pushing the laughing man away from her.

"Oh I got it!"

"What? What is it? Did our darling Espeji finally propose?"

Molly bounded over to Via's table at Via's excited exclamation.

"What? Propose? No. . . I came up with my theme: To Be True To Yourself."

"Aw that's a good one." Molly smiled before going back to her work. 

. . . 

Throughout the rest of the day, Via worked tirelessly, sketching design after design. Afterward, she immediately began crafting the designs, asking Molly on her input occasionally. 

"Via."

"What? I'm working." Making a shooing motion with her hand, Via continued to measure the cloth in her hand, holding it up to the light for inspection.

"Lunch. Asa brought food from Chloe, but you were still working so he left some for us."

"You haven't had lunch  yet?" Ignoring the fact that she herself hadn't eaten yet, Via looked away from her work in concern.

"Come on, I'll drive."

At this, Alecai let Via pull him out of the room and followed her to her car.

"Where should we eat?"

"The garden outside the hotel."

Via smiled to Alecai, turning on her car's GPS system. 

A  3-D holographic display of the city appeared in the middle of her dashboard. On the side of the map, was a little red bird, similar to the one Alecai had seen Via send him the other day.

"To the hotel?" The little bird asked.

"Yes, thank you Miju."

Alecai only watched the exchange. When he first met Via, he had been impressed with her skills, but only saw her work with virtual reality. As she grew older, her funds also increased, allowing her to experiment with bigger, and more ambitious projects. The display on her car was the result of one of those projects. 

Usually, after Via successfully finished these projects she would sell her work to the company willing to pay the most. She had no need for the funds, as she was already able to live comfortably, and thought it would be best if other people could work on her ideas if she had no intention of continuing with them.