After breakfast, Grandfather Seto ushered the two out into the forest.
"He seemed eager for us to get along," Renji quipped.
"He must be plotting something," Violet said as she reached out for her phone and earphones and turned on the music.
"You just made your grandfather sound like a criminal."
"Well, he did a crime."
Renji couldn't believe what he just heard from the human representative's granddaughter herself! Grandfather Seto is well-respected even in the spirit realm. He is known to be like the monkey spirits: full of knowledge. Humans and spirits alike come to him for a consultation about various things! How can someone with such an honorable reputation put a stain on his title and on those who came before him? He should report this to the spirit representative. But first, he had to dig through the hole. What specific crime did Grandfather Seto do?
"What crime did Grandfather Seto do?" Renji asked, all in seriousness.
Violet sighed as she continued typing through her phone. "The only crime he did is forcing me to go to this stupid forest with you," she said to him and ended it with a piercing glare.
Renji didn't know if he should bang his head on a tree for thinking that the human representative would do a heinous crime and damage his reputation or if he should bang Violet's head on a tree instead for making him think that.
Renji's gaze fell down on the girl's gadgets and immediately thought of a way of revenge that would also benefit him.
"Hey! You sneaky, little fox! Give that back! Don't you know that is stealing?! I will sue you for that!" Violet screamed as she helplessly watched Renji jump from one thick branch of a tree to another. As much as she wanted to go after him to retrieve her belongings, unfortunately for her, she couldn't climb trees.
"Sorry, sweet pea. You can't sue a spirit. No stupid police in our realm," Renji said with a wide grin and started tapping a few buttons on the smartphone. "Now, how do you work with this thing?"
"That is a personal thing! You are not supposed to look through it!" Violet demanded.
"Then you'd better start climbing and take it from me before I finish looking through every nook and cranny of this thing," Renji said with a grin.
Renji has always been a fast learner. Give him at least five minutes and he would figure the stuff out. Same way with the smartphone. In just short minutes, he already browsed through Violet's smartphone's content.
He knows that going through her phone is wrong and rude, but he couldn't help himself. Renji wants to know what happened to Violet in the past years. He wants to know what he missed, what things she experienced. He wants to see the moments she experienced where he wishes she had spent with him.
In a matter of thirty minutes, while Violet is screaming and screeching and trying to climb the tree, Renji managed to gather new information about Violet. He found out that Violet loves fashion, going out with her friends from the academy she attends, and taking pictures and uploading them on her social media. She also loves music, especially the ones from a boy group called BST.
"I am going to tell grandpa about this!" Violet shouted.
"Go ahead," Renji said and continued on to another app that read Gallery.
Renji browsed through Violet's gallery and saw that it is mostly filled with pictures of herself and her friends or her newly bought stuff. As Renji looked through her pictures, he didn't even notice the smile that crept through his face.
The same smile that disappeared upon seeing the only boy in the gallery.
Renji's brows furrowed. He reached the folder of the gallery where there is only one topic: a boy named Lucien. Each picture has a title that tells Renji about it.
Lucien at the beach. Lucien in the Philippines. Lucien at the Mall. Lucien at a convention. Lucien reading a Calculus book. Lucien... Lucien... Lucien....
It is an endless scrolling of one same face of a boy by the name of Lucien.
Renji's blood started to boil.
Who is this guy? What is his connection to Violet? Does Violet fancy this guy? Does this Lucien like her as well?
"Wait," Renji thought to himself. "Why do I even care?"
Before Renji knew it, he tossed the phone with a scoff and a screaming Violet followed. Thank goodness she caught it, though. Can't risk having her phone breaking.
"Why did you throw it?!" Violet shouted angrily.
Renji jumped from the tree branch and landed like it was nothing. A poker face with a dangerous aura met Violet that made her shudder.
"So?" Renji asked in a bored, but serious tone. "Listen, girly, no one in this forest cares about what that is. They care about what you will come out of by sundown."
"Is that a threat?" Violet asked a little cautious.
"So what if it is?" Renji asked, then he grinned. "A scrumptious, little cupcake like you will have no worries lasting in this forest with me."
"Don't make me sound like a food."
"I bet you taste good if you're food."
"Please stop," Violet groaned.
"You're probably something sweet."
"Enough with that."
"Because you have always been a sweet person."
Violet was about to say something, probably a rant or anything, but was caught off guard by what Renji just said.
"Wh-what...?" Violet whispered.
"What? You deaf or something? Anything got in your ears?" Renji asked, acting innocently. "I said-"
"DON'T!" Violet rushed and covered Renji's mouth, then looked away. With a blush, she whispered loud enough for him to hear, "I... I heard what you just said."
A gentle smile immediately formed on Renji's mouth (still covered by a shy Violet's hands) as he looked at the girl with warm eyes.