After exiting the building, Kinsley turned around to look at the entirety of the building's appearance.
It was grand and tall.
However, he still couldn't remember whether he had truly been in this place in the past or not. It was as if his head was covered with a thick layer of fog that made him unable to pry nor see most of the memories of his distant and mostly irrelevant past.
'Fortunately, I still remember most of what happened to the world in the future…' he let out a sigh of relief.
After that, he didn't think about it any longer and focused on the matter at hand instead.
Kinsley scanned his surroundings and saw several people walking in his direction.
He presumed that they must be employees of the company since they all wore the same black blazers and blue slings on their necks
Kinsley took a deep breath and gathered his courage. Then, he walked to those people and smiled, "Hello. I couldn't find anyone so, do you guys mind if I ask you something…?"
When the five people heard his question, they all simultaneously stopped in their tracks. They seemed to be at a loss as they stared among themselves. After that, they sized up Kinsley and found that he was at the very least, a decent-looking person.
They thought that he wouldn't be bad to talk to so, one of them stepped up and hesitantly said, "Sure. You can ask us anything, we'll be glad to help you."
Kinsley looked at the short bespectacled woman in front of him for a moment before he embarrassingly directed his gaze away from her and softly replied, "I… don't know this place very well so it seems that I got lost… unknowingly."
"What…?" the woman stared back at him, a bit dumbfounded.
However, she immediately realized that she was being rude, so she hurriedly retracted her gaze and calmed down. "Oh… so you're asking for directions."
Kinsley could only nod and replied in a low voice, "I wanted to ask where this place was since my phone just died and I couldn't open my navigational map anymore…"
The people behind the woman had an understanding look on their faces as they commented one by one.
"I see…"
"Oh, you must've had a hard time all this time. Have you eaten yet? This big sister can give you some money to buy foods."
"Little brother, come, I'll let you borrow my phone for a while. I think you should let your parents know about your situation first, right?"
Kinsley didn't say anything and only nodded to them in reply. He waited for them to finish what they were saying before he spoke, "Thank you all. But, I truly only need to know where this place is since my little brother might be still waiting for me back at home…"
"Ah, right! We talked too much, sorry about that. We are actually in City Y right now." The bespectacled woman from before said.
When Kinsley heard this, his eyes immediately widened in surprise. 'City Y? This is City Y? Why has it changed so much?!'
He had lived in City Y in the past. However, as far as he could remember, City Y had always been dull and poor. It had never looked this civilized and rich.
Kinsley took a look at his surroundings once again and compared it to the City Y in his memories but still couldn't find any semblance nor shadows of how it had been in the past.
This was a great shock to Kinsley.
'It seems that there's some major difference in this world to mine. I'm afraid that my knowledge in my past world would be rendered useless here…' he thought with a grim look on his face.
He then took a deep breath to calm himself down before he looked at the bespectacled woman in front of him and said, "Thank you so much. That helped me greatly! I know where to go now."
The woman smiled, "Is that so? Then, that's a relief. Well, it's about time that we go back to work as well. So, we'll have to go first, alright? Go back home safely, bye-bye!"
After saying that, she turned to the group of people behind her and nodded before she headed inside the tall building with them. They waved their hands at him when they passed by him.
Kinsley waited for them all to enter the building before he turned around and hailed a taxi cab waiting by the side of the road. He greeted the driver, "Hello, please drive to City B. Thank you."
The driver replied, "Alright."
***
A few minutes later.
The car stopped in front of a huge dilapidated orphanage.
Kinsley paid the taxi fare with the little bit of money he had left in his pocket and exited the car, "Thank you."
After the car left, Kinsley slowly turned to look at the orphanage in front of him and sized it up. This orphanage was the place that he and Elliot had grown up in for many years and he couldn't help but feel a bit emotional when he thought of this.
He remembered what happened to him when he became 17 years old. He had been kicked out of the orphanage since he had already came of age and is no longer a child. At that time, he couldn't bring Elliot with him since his younger brother at that time was only 10 years old.
When he brought up the topic of him bringing his little brother with him, the director at that time strongly objected to this saying that Kinsley was still too young and that he was in no capacity to take care of his 10-year-old little brother on his own.
Kinsley thought that it was truly absurd. What, was he supposed to wait for Elliot for seven years before he could bring him back? Wouldn't Elliot be vastly different at that time? Those had been his naive thoughts at that time.
The 17-year old him didn't understand the director's intention and disregarded his concern for him. Only as he grew older did he realize why did the director react so strongly about his idea.
He regretted it but at the same time, he didn't, since in the end, he still managed to prove that he was someone capable.