Chapter Text
“What do you think about his debut?”
“Should I really care, Lisa? He is… he is living a different life now. I believe that he has even forgotten us back here.”
Lisa chuckles at my response. Of course, she is after all still hung up on the idea that one day someone will come back home to scoop me in his arms and run away with me.
The last time I checked I was the one more into romance books and these antics. She must be trying to mess with my mind.
“And if he hasn’t forgotten?”
“Then good for him and his memory. Can we change topics now?”
Lisa chuckles once more, knowing she succeeded in toying with me. She does not respond to my questions but instead, she just places a ticket on the textbook page. It was for one of those late night talk shows. I look at her questioning why I would wound up there.
“He’ll be there.”
Then he will be there. It was something he has always wanted to experience anyways.
“Consider going Jean. Perhaps he’ll stumble over his words when he sees you in the audience.”
Has Lisa always been this pushy? Did she need to win a bet or something?
Despite my protests, we had ended up there nonetheless. It was a chilly Saturday night. I was waiting for Lisa and Eula at a café I used to work at during high school. It had been renovated and was very much different from when I last had a shift there.
The white walls were now a light shade of gray. The front door no longer made too much noise when it opened. There no longer was foam poking out of the leather covers of the chairs. The light bulb he fixed constantly above the register no longer flickered every few minutes. A lot had changed but it felt oddly the same.
A lot had changed but it felt the same because the name of the drink he named rang in the air just the same too.
“One hot Well’s Reflection for Jean!”
Ah, yes. He named it one day when the manager was trying to name the new drink she had concocted. It just so happened that he was there too waiting for me to finish the shift. The drink could be iced or hot. It was essentially an espresso with a more chocolatey flavor and whipped cream on top.
“Manager, since Jean likes espressos, I like chocolate and we're the only two people aside from you in this café—what if you name it after us.”
Those were his words. My manager agreed as long as he would be able to give a decent answer. Therefore, he did.
“Jean likes lions and I like owls. In response to this, I tried searching up fables where the owl and the lion are the main characters. Just my luck, there is one. I read it and took the name Well’s Reflection from this very tale.”
It was a bedtime story. A lion lived in the jungle with other animals but it was too ferocious and feisty, making life for the other animals difficult. The animals decided to have a meeting to look for solutions on how they could restore peace to their lives. They had decided to defeat the mighty lion.
Of course, no one wanted to do it. They were all too afraid except for the owl who had decided to challenge the lion. The two met at dawn, the owl being late to the agreed-upon time. Its alibi was that it had come across a lion who was much tougher than the opponent in front of it. Enraged, the lion asked to see what the owl had supposedly encountered.
The owl said the lion was down the well. Upon seeing his own reflection and having his own roar magnified by the well, the lion had cowardly ran away. Therefore, wits had beaten courage that day.
“I’m not saying she’s bad like the lion—Jean is just one of the strongest people I’ve met too. It is a nice story and doesn’t chocolate help blood flow to the brain, therefore, making it able to help you in studying. Espresso helps you stay awake. It is now Jean and Diluc’s studying drink or Well’s Reflection!”
It was ours before anyone else’s.
He also told me that he chose that specific analogy to make it seem like I was stronger than what I seemed. The reflection in the well showed that I too had a flame within me that burned brighter than anyone else’s did.
They were both taking insufferably long. As per schedule, the management would let audience in at seven and it was already fifteen past six. It was a thirty-minute drive to that place, not taking into account the possible traffic. It was freezing that night.
Slumping into my chair, I look over at the counter. Still the same register that could not punch in the number seven properly unless you pressed it frighteningly hard. The girl at the register was doing the same right now, it gave me a gust of nostalgia, and I soon fell into a trance.
“Jean!”
Eula was tapping my shoulder. We were leaving now that we got their orders. I take one look back at the café as we loaded into my car. The chocolate flavored aftertaste of Well’s Reflection has slowly gotten more and more bitter with every sip.
Arriving inside the studio, Lisa had pretended that she had bought us tickets meant for the front row seats. I could do nothing but glare at her. Lisa and her hidden agendas were always something else.
“He’ll see you better then. A little reunion of childhood friends.”
Eula was never one to tease but of course, Lisa had reeled her into whatever chaos she had in her mind. I sat there simply awaiting the show to begin. Maybe if Barbara was watching and the camera panned to us, I would wave hi to her. Maybe he would not see me.
Perhaps it would all be in my head. The worries that he would see me in my seat. The thoughts about how I should have changed up my hair so it would be less recognizable. The looming feeling that maybe I should have pushed through with dying my hair brown before heading here could have been correct.
He would not see me.
He after all was a different person now. It has been four years. Four long years since that day in the café.
He was Diluc Ragnvindr, one of four members of the group DCKZ. He no longer was the Diluc I knew—he was a performer who was adored by his fans worldwide. I was of no mere importance to him compared to everyone else in the room right now.
“Ladies and gentlemen, fans of DCKZ and just everybody else here in general—I introduce you to the man of the hour. His group’s best vocalist and every woman in this room’s dream, can you believe he has now debuted as a solo artist? This is Diluc Ragnvindr!”
Curtains lift up to reveal him.
Same red hair. Same eyes. Same style, just a little bit more refined. Same Diluc, just extremely different.
He waved to the crowd and smiled. Despite being front row seats, they were a bit further from the stage and knowing how bad his eyesight was getting in high school, he probably couldn’t see this far. He ran through the walkway in between the chairs and touched hands with the audience before heading back to the stage with the host.
He looks radiant.
He looks the way he wanted to look.
He sits down on his chair and takes a quick glance at the audience again, waving. Then he freezes.
There I realize we are locking eyes.
Shit.