Chapter Text
I walked calmly toward a bus stop that stood not far from my campus. I hummed a soft melody as I tapped my fingers against the brown tote bag on my shoulder.
To be honest, I do the same activity, walk the same route, and interact with the same ten people every single day. Arguably, ever since I started college. I wanted to say that it’s boring, but I realized that not everyone has the same privilege as me.
That’s why I decided to just enjoy all of the small things that life has offered to me. For example, I love how my light blonde hair—that I tied in a low ponytail—reflected the light orange hue of the late afternoon. Also, I love how the warm breeze of the late summer blew across my white maxi dress. I don’t even care if it made my already short stature even shorter.
What’s important is, I’m happy that I feel beautiful today.
“Hey!”
I looked to the side and saw a group of students gathering just outside of the campus building. There was a small plastic table in between them with three red cups on top of it. One student hid a ball under the cup before rearranging the cups in one quick motion.
After a series of shuffling, the other student chose the cup in the middle. It turned out that there’s a ball under the cup. The other student yelled happily before receiving two dollars from the student who shuffled the cups.
“They got a lot of nerve to gamble just outside of the campus ground,” I murmured to myself before getting away quickly from the scene, to avoid any unnecessary scandal or drama.
When I arrived at the bus stop, I noticed another college student was already there. They were leaning against the ad poster while playing some kind of game on their phone. Other than them, I also saw a raven-haired man with a nice suit sitting on the bench. With how his hair was neatly pushed back and the way that pair of rectangular glasses framed his face, I figured that he must be a businessman who just got back from work.
I looked at my clock and noticed that it’s still early before most people left their work. I smiled inwardly as I realized that there is a high chance that I can get a seat on the bus.
A moment later, a very vacant bus arrived at the bus stop. I could only see a few people inside. The businessman let me step onto the bus first, a gesture that I replied with a whispered gratitude. I sat on one of the seats on the right row, near the window.
Meanwhile, the businessman sat in the seat in front of me. The businessman then proceeded to open a newspaper and began to flip the page. Honestly, I was amused by him, who knows that there are still people out there who prefer to read the physical copy of a newspaper in this era. Not to mention the fact that he read the newspaper late in the afternoon.
I was about to take my eyes away from the newspaper, but a headline caught my attention.
The Modern-Day Robin Hood of Mitras
The poor fight back! Is this the beginning of a modern-day revolution?
Read on how the mysterious Robin Hood drained the bank account of Rod Reiss.
The Robin Hood. I had heard about him, or her, or even them. No one really knows the true nature of their actions. However, Robin Hood said that they took the money because they are tired of the disparity of wealth between the people of Mitras.
Thus, in the past few years, they’ve been sucking the check out of the pocket of the upper-class families in Mitra, especially the three out of the four richest men in the city. They are none other than Nicholas Lovof, Willy Tybur, Rod Reiss. The fourth man, Karl Fritz, is still standing strong with his wealth. However, with how things are looking right now, it might not last for so long. It seemed The Robin Hood might already have his head as a target.
I bit my inner cheek as I imagined the eventual downfall of the Fritz Family. I should feel angry at them because, at the end of the day, they are still stealing. However, truth to be told, I—
Clink
I was awakened from my reverie when I heard an interesting sound from my side. I looked to the other row of the seat and saw a man with a baseball cap was sitting near the window. He was playing with a coin, flipping it repeatedly up into the air before catching it with his hand.
I was surprised by him because I didn’t notice him before, which was weird since he seemed to be a big man, so it would be impossible to miss him. However, I paid him no mind. I decided to return my gaze toward the window.
However, I learned that the combination of the repeated subtle sound of a coin being flipped and the smooth sound of the bus in clear traffic was a perfect lullaby for me. I felt my eyelids becoming heavier with each passing moment. I almost fell asleep in my chair, but—
“WHAT?!”
My eyes opened in an instant the moment I heard the loud yell from the man that sat in front of me. I took a peek and saw that he was in the middle of a phone call. He noticeably lowered his voice when other passengers on the bus shushed him. Nevertheless, I was able to listen to some of his conversations.
“You lost your phone?” He murmured into the phone, voice laced with worry and anger.
There’s some frantic mumbling from the phone.
The businessman sighed before speaking again, “How many times should I tell you to watch your belongings?”
That sentence took me away from my activity of eavesdropping.
My belongings!
I immediately opened the zip of my tote bag, making sure that my phone and wallet were in the same place as before.
When I noticed that I still got those two safely inside my bag, I let out a relieved sigh.
Unfortunately, before I could close the zip, the bus came to an abrupt stop. As a result, I was thrown toward the front, I felt a pain as my forehead hit the back of the seat that was in front of me. At the same time, I heard a sound of a coin that fell to the floor. I glanced toward the driver and saw a woman running in front of the bus.
I started to doubt whether today is going to end on a good note.
After a series of curse words from the driver, the bus continued to its next destination, my stop. As I was about to prepare myself, I caught something from the corner of my eyes. I noticed that the baseball-cap man was crouching on the floor, looking over the gap and pit in between the seats.
“Next stop, Central Park. Next stop, Central Park.” The speaker on the bus announced.
The baseball-cap man then smiled when he saw his coin was in the middle of the alleyway. However, before he could reach for it, the businessman suddenly stood up from his seat and walked toward the door. To the baseball-cap man's dismay—and also my—the businessman kicked the coin to the space below my seat.
The baseball-cap man grunted toward the other man, but the other man didn’t seem to care about him as he appeared to be in a hurry.
I took pity on the baseball-cap man and offered to grab the coin for him, especially since the coin fell under my seat. I crouched down to the floor and began to reach for the coin, which was proven to be no easy task. I was so focused on trying to retrieve the coin that I almost didn’t notice when the bus announced that they had arrived at my destination.
“Current stop, Central Park. Current stop, Central Park.”
After a series of grunting and stretching my body, I finally got the coin. I hurriedly gave it back to the man who thanked me. Alas, I didn’t have the time to exchange long talks with him. I could only reply to him with a smile before taking my bag and zipping it in one quick motion. I yelled at the driver to keep the door open as I ran to exit the bus.
I could still feel the euphoria of almost missing my stop as I walked through a park. It was the biggest park in the area, and it was getting crowdier as the sun slowly set on the horizon. As I was about to leave the park, I noticed an orange rolling on the ground toward my way. I grabbed it and saw a middle-aged man was carrying two grocery paper bags, or more specifically, one working grocery bag and one broken grocery bag.
Various fruits were rolling down the ground, and without thinking, I started to collect the fruits. After retrieving all of the fruits, I walked toward a blond-haired man who looked bewildered. Though, as soon as I stepped into his view, his face immediately lightened up.
“Oh, thank you so much, young Miss.”
“No problem, sir,” I replied before looking at the broken paper bag. “Do you have a spare bag?”
He shook his head, “Sadly, I do not. That’s why I have no idea how to carry all of these fruits.”
I glanced at the fruits that were on my hand and said, “Well, I can help to carry this for you.”
A wide smile appeared on his face, “Really? That would be a great help! You just need to carry it to my car.”
“Sure, where did you park your car?”
His smile slowly disappeared from his face at the mention of his car, “Well, the thing is, I kinda parked my car very far from here… Are you okay with that?”
I nodded. I don’t really mind, it’s always great to be able to help someone. Besides, I am in no way of a hurry.
After that, we began to roam around the area as he tried to find his car. He said his car is a black Toyota Camry, which was not quite helpful when we walked in the sea of black cars.
“You are a nice kid, you know.” He suddenly said, “Not a lot of young people nowadays would bother being around the older generation like me.”
“Sorry to hear that. However, believe me, not all people are like that, sir.”
He nodded, “True, you are right. I sure hope my daughter will grow up like you.”
I glanced at him with a tilted head and a smile, “Oh, you have a daughter?”
“I do have a daughter. She’s my pride and joy.”
From his warm expression that exuded a lot of love, I’m jealous of how lucky his daughter is to have such an amazing father like him. “I’m sure she is.”
“Yeah, she was five when I first met her. My wife and I fell in love with her right from the beginning. She is smart, funny, and diligent. Looking at her now, I’m sure she’s going to grow up to become such an amazing person.”
I felt warmness in my heart as I heard his story about his daughter. “Aw, that’s so sweet. You are such a great parent, sir.”
He paused, seemingly taken aback by my remark. “Thank you. I need to hear that.” He replied, “To be honest, we really want to adopt a bunch of kids, as a hope that we can give them a place where they can finally call a forever home. I don’t know if you’re aware, but some orphanages couldn’t provide the best for the children due to the limited budget and the rising number of orphans.”
I furrowed my brows, “Oh, I didn’t know that.”
“That’s okay. We can’t know a lot of things about the world, right?” He explained, reassuringly. “Besides—Oh, wait. That’s my car.”
They approached a car that was parked in front of an abandoned office building. He then noticed a big plastic bag that got stuck on the windshield. He happily took it and put the rest of his groceries inside the plastic bag, including the fruits that I held in my hands.
The man thanked me again before reaching for his phone in his pocket. I noticed how his smile was swiftly replaced by a sunken frown when he saw his phone.
“What’s wrong, sir?”
“It seems my phone died, no wonder I didn’t get any notifications from home.” He glanced up from the phone and toward me, giving me a weak smile. “Hey, I’m really sorry. I know I’m asking you a lot, but do you mind if I borrow your phone? I have to call my wife.”
“Ah, sure. No problem.” I said as I unzipped my bag and reached toward my phone.
My phone…
My heart sank when I noticed that I couldn’t find my phone. I began to frantically rummage through the contents of my bag.
“Is there something wrong?” The man asked with a face contorted in worry.
“I think I lost my phone...” I replied immediately. “OH MY GOD, I think I lost my phone,” I repeated with a much higher voice. I felt her heart beating loudly against her chest as I remembered all of the important files that I stored on my phone.
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yeah.” I kept searching inside my bag, silently wishing that the phone would magically reappear.
“Okay. Where was the last time you saw it?” He asked in a calming voice.
“On a bus… ” I then remembered when the bus stopped suddenly when I wasn’t done zipping my bag. “... I think it might have fallen from my bag.”
“I see. Well, there’s a chance someone will find it. So, How about we go to the police station to file a lost item report?”
I took my attention away from my bag and nodded, feeling a bit lighter from the suggestion. “Oh, right. I can do that.”
The man accompanied me to the nearest police station, as a way to return the favor and he also thought that he might be able to borrow a phone from the police station. So, while the man left me to do his phone call, I went to fill the report in the Lost or Found Property. However, before I could finish the document, a woman with short hair and a bandana arrived at the table.
“Hello, I want to report that I found a teal-colored iPhone on a bus—”
A siren sounded loudly in my brain as soon as I heard the mention of “iPhone” and “bus”. In an instant, I went toward the woman and asked about the phone. It seems the fortune is on my side because it was indeed my phone.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH, MA’AM!” I exclaimed loudly, “Please, let me repay you for your kindness.”
The woman with the bandana shook her head, “No, that’s alright. You don’t have to, I’m just doing the right thing.”
Ignoring the woman’s remark, I still reached for my wallet. “Please, I insist.”
“No, no, no.”
I took fifty dollars from my wallet and gave it to her, “I want you to accept this, I owe you, Ma’am.”
“Ah, no! You don’t… Wait, how about this?” The woman with the bandana grabbed something from her backpack, it was a stack of pamphlets. “I got these pamphlets from the mall, mostly it’s about asking for donations and all”
“Oh.” I took the pamphlets and skimmed through them.
“Instead of giving the money to me, I think you can donate the money for those who truly need it, right?”
I nodded before throwing a smile at her. “Yes, this is a great idea. I’ll do it.”
“Nice. Just make sure you always watch your belongings, alright?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
The woman bid her goodbye before leaving the police station. Not long after that, the man returned, seemingly finished calling his wife. When he knew that I got my phone back, he looked happy and relieved. Then, just as we wanted to part away, he gave me a small package of colorful band-aids.
“I’m really thankful that you helped me earlier, but I don’t have anything in hand except this pack of band-aids.”
“Ah, that’s fine sir. You helped me too. Without you, I probably would break down crying in the middle of the road.” I replied jokingly. “Besides, I think your daughter needs that band-aids more than me.”
“Don’t worry, I have a lot of this.” He laughed, shoving the small packages to my hand, “Who knows, maybe you’ll need this.”
I grinned at his remark, it seemed that I won’t win the arguments anytime soon. Thus, I accepted it.
An hour had barely passed since I left my college building, but I already felt drained for the day. I couldn’t wait to get to my apartment and slam myself onto the warm and soft bed.
As I made my way through the business area of the city, I saw a woman leaning against a wall. She wore formal attire, while her deep brown hair was tied in a neat bun. She seemed to be writhing in pain as she walked through the sidewalk.
I looked at her feet and noticed that she was wearing tall heels. I grimaced as I imagined her pain, especially when I saw rashes on her ankles. Then I remember the pack of band-aids that I recently acquired from a friendly stranger.
I took the package from my bag and walked toward her, “I’m sorry, do you want some band-aids?”
She turned toward me in confusion before her bright brown eyes noticed the colorful band-aids package on my hand. “Oh! Yes, please! I swear my legs are gonna come off.”
As soon as I saw her face, I felt like I'd seen her before. However, I couldn’t really pinpoint who or where. Nevertheless, I ignored my feelings, she probably looks like some random celebrity that I’ve seen on television before.
I helped her walk toward the outdoor seating of a café. She kindly bought me a cup of ice chocolate as a thank you gift.
“I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m not used to wearing heels. I only wear this because I had an interview, you know, it’s all for a good first impression.” She said as she applied a pink band-aid to her right ankle. “I forgot to loosen the shoes before the interview, it’s never a good idea to wear brand new shoes to your interview.”
After putting the band-aids on the rashes that were prevalent on both of her ankles, she returned the rest of the band-aids to me. “Thank you so much for this. You are clearly an angel, I almost thought today was going to be the worst day of my life.”
I laughed, “That’s okay, that would make the two of us.”
“Really? What happened to you?” She asked with genuine interest.
I’m not a person that likes to talk about my life to a stranger, but oddly enough, I didn’t find it hard to talk to her. I ended up telling her about the series of unfortunate events that happened to me ever since I left my class.
In turn, she told me about how she almost came in late for her interview. She also said that she was sure that she did horrible on the interview, blowing her chance away at being hired at the company.
“You probably didn’t know about this company as they’ve been under the radar, but they are actually a wondrous company with a promising future. So, I really want to work there.” She said as she began to dig into a sandwich that she ordered from the café.
“Really? What did they actually do?” I asked as I stirred the ice cubes in my chocolate drink.
She cut a piece of ham from her sandwich and threw it to a passing cat before answering her, “They are known to be great at event planning, be it for weddings, parties, or small gatherings. Besides that, they also did an excellent job at organizing various charity events and galas. So, it’s another reason why I’m so interested in working for them.”
My eyebrows raised at the mention, “Charity events? That’s interesting.”
“Yes, one time I visited a charity art exhibition in another city. When I was there, I got the chance to witness various beautiful paintings that were made by a father who died from cancer. His children wanted to honor their father, so they held this event as a way to do that. I heard that the money that they made from the event would be given to a Cancer Foundation.”
Suddenly, something interesting was brewing in my mind. I feel like the whole universe was giving me a sign to do this. I might need to communicate this with my sisters first and probably my father too. I took away my phone and noticed that it was low in battery, which was weird because I’m sure I had it full when I left the campus earlier.
“What’s the matter?” She asked, eyeing my bag. “Don’t tell me you lost another thing again?”
“Ah! No, that’s not it.” I said as I returned my attention to her. “Well, I was about to ask you about a contact of this company, but my phone died.”
“Oh, what a convenience,” She smiled widely before grabbing something from the pocket of her blazer, “I actually have a name card of the company.”
She slid a simple white professional card on the table, which I thanked her very greatly. I told her that I was probably going to make a quick call to the company. I was happy when she expressed her support for my decision, and we ended up exchanging numbers. She promised to update me on whether she got the job or not. Also, I promised to tell her more about my plan regarding this event.
We then parted away, with me walking toward the residential area of the city while she was walking toward another way before being obscured by the sea of people.
Meanwhile, on another side of the road.
A woman with a neat bun looked behind her before walking toward a taxi that was parked in front of a busy street. She opened the back passenger door and hopped into the car.
“Where to, Miss?” The driver folded his newspaper before putting it aside, glancing at the woman through the rearview mirror.
“You know where to, sir.” She replied in a mock tone, grinning at him through the mirror. “Also, may I say, you look good with those glasses, sir.”
He took off his rectangular glasses and put them in his shirt pocket. “No, I don’t.” He replied with a frown before starting the car.
“You do, Levi. Besides, have I told you that your hair looks sexy pushed back?” She continued, this time using a much more playful voice.
He rolled his eyes as he drove the car away from the area, “Don’t quote that.”
She laughed before bringing her fingers to her eyes to take off her contact lenses. She blinked a few times, adjusting to the change of sensation. Then, she grabbed a pair of circular glasses from the compartment on the door and wore them. After that, she untied her bun and took off her blazer.
“How are your legs, Hange?” Levi asked. “Do you need something?”
“I’m okay. It’s nothing that I can’t handle.” She said, taking off her heels. She let out a relieved sigh as she leaned back on the seat. “Thank you for asking, though.”
The car stopped in front of a minimarket and a tall man with a baseball cap stepped into the car, sitting beside the driver.
“Hey, have we met before, Mr. Driver? I think I’ve seen you not too long ago.” The man jokingly said as he took off his cap.
“Shut it, Mike.” Levi replied before starting the car to the next destination.
The car halted near a park to pick up a woman with a bandana. She greeted everyone as she took a seat near Hange.
Last but not least, they arrived at a bakery. A man was seen exiting said bakery with a long baguette in his right hand and a big plastic bag was in his left hand. As soon as he was in the car, the whole car immediately smelled like a bakery.
“A baguette? Seriously Erwin?” Levi remarked.
He ignored him, instead, he waved the baguette inside the car, “Anyone wants a piece of baguette?” He asked, in which everyone—except Levi—replied cheerfully.
“Don’t leave crumbs,” Levi said as he saw the baguette being handed from one person to another. “This is not our car.”
“Yes, I know. Speaking of, how’s the mission?” Erwin inquired as he tore a piece of the bread for himself. “Nanaba?”
Miraculously, at the same time, a ring was heard from inside a pocket of the woman with a bandana, Nanaba. She took her phone out and smiled brightly.
“A success, we got Miss Maria Fritz on the hook.”