Just like that Aila's month long vacation was over; she is excited of the days to come.
"Good morning girl! I'm back, are you free today? I'll pick you up." Aila's excitedly called her best friend Reese.
"Game! I'll wait for you."
Aila brought with her some royal macaroons made by the best pastry chef in the country. This is a rarity because it has the symbol of the royal crown on it.
Aila picked up Reese and they went to their favorite spot, the view point. Aila closed her eyes and took a deep breath savoring the fresh breeze that hit her lovely face. She held her cup of coffee that gave a faint sense of heat in her palms.
"I missed hanging out with you like this Princess."
"Same here, look I brought you something I secretly took from the palace hahaha."
"Wow, you committed a crime for me? Hahaha"
"Hahaha, well technically those are mine so no, but then I shouldn't have brought it out the palace to protect my cover; but I trust your appetite enough that you can finish them in one sitting."
Reese hit Aila's shoulders as they both laughed hysterically.
"So how was your vacation?" Reese was eager to know how the royalty spends their vacation.
"Hmm it was fruitful; in fact I gained myself a fiancé." Aila's tone was serious, it made Reese confused.
"What? Fiancé? You?"
"Uh-huh, well sort of nothing's final yet but my family definitely wants to honor the arrangement so…" Aila gently uttered the predicament of her future.
"Will they force you to do it?"
"No, not really my grandpa even said that he would not force me doing something that I don't want, so basically; they want us to fall in love naturally when we meet which is set to years from now."
"That is troublesome..."
"What if you the one even before you get to meet "that" one?"
Reese sighed thinking how frustrating it must be for Aila.
"I'm not sure; I want to take it one day at a time. We'll see when we get there." Aila was still hoping for the best, because that's the only thing that's left to do… hope.
"By the way, do you know anyone with the name Loki?"
"Loki? No. Why is he bothering you? Do you want me to check on him?"
"Hmm… not really, seriously where is the fun in that? You get to figure out people even before I get to know them. Hahaha."
"Okay, I will check him out but will not inform you about it, so you get to do it your way without thinking of anything."
Reese still did not want to give in to Aila's defiance.
"Okay, unless he is a killer or any of those sorts please let me get to know him the natural way."
Aila offered her pinky for Reese to swear on.
"Noted on that Princess."
"By the way, I've decided on the riding the bus for college; how about you?"
"Did you really have to ask that question Aila? Of course I will commute to school to, would I miss the chance to enjoy that with you?"
"But we are enrolling on different degrees; we might have different schedules by then."
"Then the team shall talk to the bus companies to plant security on the busses that you will take."
"That's unnecessary, No one knows me so I might be safe right?"
"My dear, precautions should always be laid out, you know that."
"Okay , okay just please be discreet about it." Aila gave up with both hands up.
"So I'll see you on the bus stop tomorrow?"
"Sure thing!"
The two girls called it a night and went home to rest for tomorrow's battle the long queue for enrollment.
Aila was lying on her bed when she checked her phone; there were so many messages from Loki. She decided to expose him using her own ways; without the help of her staff.
"Hey you said you know me from high school?"
"Wow, after a month of waiting for your reply I never expected this. By the way yes we were school mates."
Loki was truly surprised with Aila's reply he already have given up on it after waiting for more than a month already.
"What class were you in?"
"Sapphire."
Aila searched the yearbook of their batch for the name Loki in the Sapphire class. Looking at the list of students in that class, there was no Loki, so she decided to look at the pictures instead to see if there is one person familiar to her.
"This guy, the mystery guy…" reading his info on the yearbook sent shivers down Aila's spine.
"Yhuan Lardizabal- "My ultimate wish is to meet the woman who kept my handkerchief"
"Wait, Loki, the mystery guy and the hooded guy are the same?" Aila was baffled with the revelation that unfolded before her.
She gathered he strength to send a text message to Loki/Yhuan to confront him.
"Yhuan Lardizabal"
"Wow, you are really smart how did you figure it out so fast?"
Yhuan praised Aila's investigative skills.
"You could've just said who you really are, I don't like liars."
"I'm sorry I did not intend to lie to you like that, I was just afraid that without the mystery you would not be interested about me. I am pretty sure that you receive a lot of messages like that."
"Okay, so you judged me without even knowing me."
Aila answered that way just to challenge Yhuan, but it is true that she would not have replied if she was not curious of him.
"Do you mean, you will respond to my text messages even if I told you who I really am?"
"Probably." The vague replies of Aila sow more excitement for Yhuan.
"And will you give me a chance to know you more? A chance is all I need Aila."
"Lets's see." Aila was smiling thinking how intrigued Yhuan might be.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow then."
"You know where I'll be tomorrow?" Aila felt a bit conflicted when she tries to appear mysterious with her answers but this guy is creepier.
"School, you will enroll right?"
"You even know my whereabouts, you sure are quite creepy."
"I heard from my friend Lyn that they will go to school to enroll, so I just assumed you will go to school too. I'm sorry I did not mean to appear like a stalker to you."
"Stalker… wait aren't you one?"
"Probably."
Aila chuckled with his reply; throwing her responses back to her just like that she is out smart replies.