Weeks had passed since the afternoon where Jesslia and Lucion had fun in the waters, and when Yun and Boa had confirmed their relationship. After slamming the door in her brother's face, Jesslia dialed her parents straight away, informing the older couple about the latest news, to which the two rushed home as soon as they could, throwing everything they had on hand away.
It was unexpected of course, they had always thought that their younger child would be the first to get into a relationship, but before that could happen, their older child had found himself a girl - one whose parents they heard of since Boa did belong to another renowned family. The topic of Boa's family was a sensitive one, concerning to the politics of the country and Marcus and Alle were cautious not to bring up any topic that might relate to that when they met the former after rushing back home.
The group had discussed about heading to the ice rink so that Jesslia and Lucion could practice like how they had intended to do earlier in the day and were ready to leave, only to have Jesslia whine about every single thing she had not done. It was a way to pass time really, after all, Jesslia was the only one who knew her parents were coming back. Until then, Jesslia racked her brains with every idea she could, with Lucion joining her towards the end when the latter realised what was going on. This then resulted in the image of Marcus and Alle walking into the living room, catching their annoyed son dragging their daughter and Lucion towards the house's entrance.
The start of the meeting between the Marins and the group did not went exactly as planned, but the rest of it went pretty much well, with the whole group teasing the new couple and the to-be couple without limit. And the rest of the group could not remember the last time they had this much fun with people old enough to be their parents, the night went on with much laughters and jokes, with Immlia ended up making friends with Alle, which was not really a good idea. But then again, this would only dawn on the rest of the group much later.
Back to the present, it was a fews days away the supposed competition between Natalye, Quince and Jesslia, Lucion.
Well, there might be people thinking that the two couples will be using every second they had to practice, since it will not be that easy to excel in figure skating, not to mention winning a competition on it. On top of that, it seemed to everyone that the couples were spending all the time they had in the rink, especially Jesslia and Lucion, who had been absent from usual classes for about a month and had only made their appearance in front of their school mates during the semester examinations. And as usual, the two "geniuses" scored in every paper they took respectively, emerging as the top students of the different faculties the two were in separately with Yun, Immlia and Jae catching up behind Lucion in the Sports while Boa was right behind Jesslia in the Arts.
The results this time, though expected, were met with unexpected reactions from before, peculiarly when the student body now respects Jesslia to the point that she was treated like another god - no, in Jesslia's case, she was treated like a goddess. It was a complete contrast from the despises and insults she got from her fellow school mates before her brother has returned, before everything was thrown off the path, before she actually met Lucion.
Another unexpected reaction came from the exchange students. The group had foolishly thought they would too the school, but of course, whenever you feel that life is great, someone would be thrown into your life to ruin everything you believed before, and they had felt it from Lucion and Jesslia. The two had almost, if not, full marks in the papers they took, which was quite defying since the papers were not simple at all. This blow to the group had resulted in everyone forcing and supervising Quince and Natalye in their practices, they were too egoistic and proud to accept another defeat after all.
But in the midst where their opponents were stuck in hell-ish trainings, Jesslia and Lucion, on the other hand, well, Yun and the rest of the group had given up on them.
They do not even see the two in school now, especially when Lucion's parents, Warner and Marianne, found out about the competition and they booked an ice rink nearer to the Creas' and Marin's houses straight away for the two to 'practice'. But who knew what the two were doing, the rest of the group were chased back to school after that, on orders from Warner, Marianne, Marcus and Alle which prevented them from finding out where the couple had improved or even knowing what they were doing during the day.
What they knew, however, was that everyday, each of them will return to their respective houses smiling happily. It was something the families had never seen in them, and that further strengthened the parents' determination in getting the two together, which was of course, kept a secret from the kids. They did not care whether Jesslia and Lucion would win the competition, as long as the two had spent time together, they were contented, since it did meant that their plan was working well.
~~
"I feel bad for lying..." Jesslia pouted to her partner who was sitting right next to her. Lucion smiled, charming those around him, before patting the former's head gently, "It's okay, we did leave notes for them. They'll find them eventually. Besides, I bet our parents would be more than glad..."
Jesslia hummed in response, falling right back into the world of the book sitting on her lap, her head automatically leaning against Lucion's shoulder. The boy's reasoning had eased her pumping heart straight away somehow, but she was getting used to the feeling, that she now had someone to depend on when she had doubts or difficulties. It was getting tiring to having the need to do it all by herself, not that she was complaining of course, but a girl would always have the desire to depend on someone, no matter how strong she was.
Lucion on the other hand, fell into the trance of staring at the girl next to him. The sound of hearts breaking could be heard as eyes around fixated on the boy who was looking at the girl next to him with pure gentleness that could compete with candies.
Time passed in an instant, the two wrapped by a comfortable silence in their own world, away from everyone else. A small wave caught Lucion in his daze, and a mediocre-looking air stewardess was smiling right at him, asking him wordlessly about the meal provided by the flight. Lucion nudged Jesslia straight away, while asking the air stewardess about the menu options, and the two ended up deciding to each get a different set, so that they could try both options without compromising on their tastes.
A western selection placed in front of Lucion comprised of a smoked salmon salad as appetizer, potato salad as the second side, a tenderloin the size of a delicate lady's palm coated in rosemary sauce and assorted vegetables and a fruit platter to complete the meal. A local selection, on the other hand was placed in front of Jesslia and consisted of poached diced salmon sitting on a large bowl of rice with assorted vegetables, a kimchi side and a fruit platter similar to that of Lucion's.
The two enjoyed their meal, exchanging bites here and there, with both of them cracking up small inside jokes in between. The three hour flight they were on was only halfway through before reaching their destination, and Lucion was bored. Jesslia had returned to her world of imagination right after finishing the meal, leaving him alone to realise that he had spent the first half of the flight staring at the girl and that he had nothing to do for the rest of the flight.
Furrowing his brows together in thought, he recalled how the two of them had ended up on a flight, days right before the competition. It was a random but funny process to be honest, the two were bored with all the practice and they had visited almost every place they had interest in back home, all of which were done during the time they were supposed to practice. The night before, they finally snapped and were finding something to do, cracking their brains before finally finding a place to visit.
They decided within seconds before heading home to get ready and pack for the short trip respectively. No one knew of it yet, the two having decided to give their families a surprise instead by each leaving a short note explaining for their actions and that they will definitely be back before the competition, warning their families not to contact them without a proper reason or they will get it when they were back.
Lucion smiled unconsciously, imagining how the two of them would spend their next few days together, only to notice the sudden descent of the plane which signalled that they were near their destination. When the plane finally landed minutes after, he nudged Jesslia once more, "Come on, we need to go. Sam called just now to say that the boat is ready."
"Heoll..." Jesslia groaned, "how long are we away from that place?"
"It's merely just ten minutes, bear with it my lady." Lucion chuckled, pulling Jesslia and the two's luggages behind him towards a small yacht decked by the dock right next to the airport.
Fast forward to ten minutes later, the yacht slowed towards a seemingly uninhabited island, and Lucion flashed a smile to Jesslia, stretching a hand out to her, "We're here."