"Okay, start with you." Ray gave his cue.
"Uhh... Why me first?" Althea pursed her lips to the left, flustered that she didn't know where to start.
"You seem to need it more."
Ray shrugged as if it was obvious and Althea scratched the back of her neck.
"Well..." Althea started, "First of all, I don't like to be this restricted. I mean I have been restricted from hanging out with my friends for fun even when I'm already 17, confined at home all the time and isn't allowed to have any imperfections without mentally draining consequences."
Ray nodded and signaled her to continue.
"And you suddenly telling me I need to get away from boys even though many of them are my friends are just... excessive." Althea huffed, "First I can't hang out nor meet them outside of school activities and now I can't even talk to them or interact with them normally even at school??" thinking about it again, Althea felt slightly annoyed.
Not like she could really help it.
Her mother would make her help at home and shop on weekends, and even when she has a few weeks of holiday she would be asked to do all sorts of work which confined her at home. Even worse, when Althea asked if she can hang out to a friend's place after doing her work, her mother's mood and expression would turn sour before reluctantly let her go with a time limit.
So most of the time she would only go to Karin's house then went back home after 2-3 hours.
Hearing her complaint, Ray furrowed his brows and seemed like he disagreed about something in her statement but said nothing.
"What? you won't compromise?" Althea exchanged silent stare with Ray before Ray closed his eyes in resignation.
"Continue first," he said.
"Hmm... also about my clothes, don't you think I have worn quite decent clothes already?" Althea swished her hands up and down to show her loose and long-sleeved pajama, "I mean yeah I don't always wear long clothes but you know what I mean."
Ray looked at her with no change of expression before asking, "Is that all?"
Althea hummed and thought again. She felt like she had so much she wanted to complain but it's slipping her mind.
Her eyes searched for anything in her room which can help her remember before it bounced between the stack of books on her table and Ray.
"Right. Can we please have a proper eye to eye talk like this? At least like... every two days or something would be fine." Althea smiled bitterly remembering how much she wanna share her thoughts and burdens with him albeit only verbally, "I really wanna be like... I don't know, normal couple?" her words end with a question mark as even she wasn't sure if it was what normal couples do.
"I wanna talk to you not just about serious stuff. About what happened in my day too, about how you were doing while I'm not there, what do you feel about something, your opinions, I wanna talk about .. just...anything." Althea struggled to search for a word that can represent what she really wanted but that jumbled and unclear explanation was all she managed to let out.
"Okay. Anything else you'd like to add?" Ray asked once more.
Althea's eyes wandered as her body swayed left and right, trying to remember if there's more, "No. I will tell you if I have more later."
"Okay. I guess you pretty much talked about first and second step already," Ray had a small helpless smile on his face and Althea was sure it must be because she likes skipping procedures. Not like anyone complained though.
"Yeah..." Althea smiled sheepishly.
After a few seconds of silence which made Althea fidget thinking what she did wrong, Ray opened his mouth again, "Do you know how beautiful you are?"
It was clear how Althea was unprepared as her dark brown eyes widened and wandered left and right, "W-what is it? why suddenly change to this?"
Ray chuckled but still asked again, "My girl is obviously beautiful, but do you know about it? Do you think so?"
"N-no. Of course not. I'm as normal as I can be." Althea shook her head, "I mean haven't I send you a picture of me with my friend before? She is much more beautiful." Althea referred to a picture she sent with Karin after her dance performance.
"Which?-- Ahh... you with that makeup and costume?" Ray remembered her appearance clearly, but the girl with her... "I didn't see her. I will need to check again."
"You what?" Althea blinked her eyes and thought there must be something wrong with her hearing.
"I didn't see how she looks like. I only saw you and forgot that there's someone else. I'll check if you want." Ray repeated his answer and left behind the fact that it's not that he 'forgot' how the other girl looked like, he just really didn't care to the point that she became invisible."
"O-oh.... Okay..." After thinking that Ray forgetting about it makes more sense, she added, "Anyway that girl is Karin, she's my best friend. And yeah, she's much more beautiful than me."
Indeed, when remembering Karin's features, the aura of kindness yet mischievousness surrounding her, and how good her body was due to her liking athletic, Althea could only say Karin is a charming, beautiful girl.
Ray smirked, checking the girl named Karin, he tried hard to see from Althea and normal boy's perspective to understand where her words came from.
Karin indeed gave off a cheerful, confident, and happy image, making those who saw her attracted to it.
However, appearance-wise, Althea was actually on par with Karin if not more, not to mention how she didn't even apply any makeup on herself. Some might think she's too serious and a bit gloomy, but Althea has an aura of mystery shrouding her with a tinge of indifference and stubbornness which attracts curiosity and desire to conquer her.
Thinking to this point, Ray narrowed his eyes. He needed to settle this later. He needed to guard his girl from such men.
In the end, the question of how beautiful one is depends on each person's preference. After all, no matter if there's a world-class beauty in front of Ray, his eyes could only see Althea.
"Nope. You're much more beautiful, dear." Ray smiled as he caressed Althea lovingly.