Dera's parents eventually (reluctantly) accepted to adopt the little chick ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶D̶e̶r̶a̶'̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶i̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶o̶ ̶m̶u̶c̶h̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶a̶r̶ because they were conquered by its cuteness. It was named cookie by Lianne because "he's so cute I just wanna eat him up!" - her words. At first, they were a bit worried Dera would not look after it properly, but he was surprisingly gentle with it.
Ren(looking on like a proud mom); 'I misjudged you, my son'
Dera(coaxing cookie to eat); "?"
Ren and Chiyo had exchanged numbers and were chatting almost every. single. night. Probably because she was released from the pressure of having to reply real time, Chiyo suddenly became more chatty. Ren found out very quickly that she wasn't as quiet as he'd expected. Of course, this didn't get in the way of them meeting at the stream, and their friendship blossomed.
Meanwhile, in another country, a young man came to a decision.
"I'm going to get her" Craig said to Paris (the handsome man)
"Who? Nova?" he asked in shock
Craig didn't say anything, but that was the only answer Paris needed.
"You're crazy, you know? Why can't you just let go?"
Craig's eyes reddened and bit his lips and shook his head, not replying.
"Craig?" Nova asked, astonished. Her surprise was justified; after all, he should have been in the country of Gore, far away from Averile (the country they are currently in).
"It's me" He gave a small smile.
She stood there for a few seconds, not knowing what to do, but then recovered and gritted her teeth before slamming the door decisively.
"W-wait! I'm sorry Nova!" Craig shouted, banging on the door. "Don't leave! Please…" He slid down to his knees against the door "I'm sorry" He whispered brokenly.
"Go away! I never want to see you again!" Nova slammed the door and slid down it in tears, burying her face in her hands. On the other side of the door, Craig knelt and pressed his forehead against the cool glass. He wanted to say something, anything, but the words got stuck in his throat. Nova tried her best not to pay attention to him, to pretend she didn't know he was there. After sobbing for a while, she lifted her head. A figure stood quietly in the corner. "Ren…" she called out weakly, her voice a little hoarse from crying. Her son smiled awkwardly and shuffled from foot to foot. "I-I'd better go check on cookie… S-she must be hungry". Then he ran out of the house mumbling some excuse about giving her medicine and making sure her temperature was right… Nova grabbed fistfuls of hair in frustration, breathing hard and trying not to bang her head against the wall. Eventually, she gave up and just collapsed onto the wall next to her in tears.
***
"A… date?" Craig said in surprise. They had kept in touch after the drug incident and were now even good friends. Nova had always been decisive. Noticing her growing feeling for him, she directly asked him out on a date.
"Are you going or not?". She tried to put up a front of not caring, but in truth, she was actually very nervous.
A huge smile blossomed across his face. "Sure!". Why not?
It was evening and the two were walking through the park eating some ice cream. "Did you know?", Craig started, "That ice cream is actually made from freezing cows and shaking them up?". He took a huge bite of the ice cream. "Tsk" He said through a full mouth."Humans are really too inhumane". Nova was silent for a while and quietly moved away the ice cream on its way to her mouth. She quickly realised her error and tried to correct it, but Craig was already in stitches laughing.
"Pfft" He almost spat out his ice cream. "You actually believed that?"
"Shut up! never said a blush creeping up her face
It wasn't her fault. She had gotten used to blindly believing his words. This guy may have looked dumb, but what over the past few weeks, she had noticed he was actually a library that would just spout random facts. For instance, they might be passing by a train station and he might say, "You know, on average, 1000 humans die of train related accidents per year. That means, 1000 humans die from a train accident every year". Then, he'd continue as though nothing had happened, leaving her to process what had just happened.
Nova looked at Craig who was trying to clean up some ice cream that had spilled when he was laughing just now. She seriously considered his profile and felt that Craig was very good.
'He's handsome, smart, funny, mature…'
"Uwaaaahhh!" Craig looked at Nova with teary eyes after his ice cream fell from his excessive movement.
Nova smiled gently and quietly reconstructed her world views while shoving her ice cream into his mouth to shut him up before he could start throwing a tantrum.
'He's handsome, smart, funny…'
After considering it for a while… "Be my boyfriend,'' she said suddenly.
"Huh?" Craig looked up in surprise, almost choking.
Nova into his eyes and firmly repeated herself. Her mother had told her that if she liked something, she should go for it. She wasn't going to play a game of "I run, you chase" with him. Humans only had so long to live. and she wanted to spend it with the person she liked.
His eyes curved into beautiful crescents and the sun illuminated his figure, making him look almost holy. "Sure!" he replied. Why not?
***
Ren made it to the stream. He was initially supposed to go over to Dera's house to check on cookie, but decided against it as he just wanted some peace and quiet. He was as surprised to see Chiyo as she was him. "You're here?" she asked, delight colouring her tone. Ren laughed and lowered himself to the soft grass. "Yeah, I'm here". He didn't want to tell her about the problems his parents were going through. He just wanted to forget. Besides, he felt it would be insensitive as her parents were dead (unconfirmed). After talking for a while, they ended up on the topic of where the stream ended. "Hmmm… the stream has to stop somewhere. I wonder how long we need to run to reach the end", Ren placed a hand on his chin, tugging on his imaginary beard. Then, he turned to her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Race you there!" He yelled, and without waiting for her reply, he dashed off. Chiyo remained kneeling for a while as she recovered from the shock, before stumbling to her feet and running after him. "Hey, that's not fair!". She called out. Ren paid no attention and even sped up. Seeing this, she was rendered speechless and hurriedly caught up to him. After running for a while, they actually came to a bridge. Ren laughed. It turned out there was actually a bridge here! If he knew earlier, wouldn't he have long crossed it? Ren stopped in front of the bridge, holding on carefully to its railings and looking at Chiyo before him. Actually, this bridge seemed very old and rickety. If he were to fall… Ren shook his head and gritted his teeth before walking onto it, holding on to the railings for dear life. He could feel the sweat rolling down his back. Only two words remained in his head at that time. "Dontfalldontfalldontfall…". He fell. In fact, this stream was not too deep. If he were to really fall, logically speaking, he should have been able to stand up. If the water pressure was too strong, he would get swept away. But even then, the worst that could happen was probably a few bruises, as well as ingesting too much water. However, the second he hit the water, he felt that something was wrong. He could vaguely hear Chiyo's voice calling him, but he realised he seemed to have lost control of his body. He could not call out, and could only helplessly lose consciousness and sink to the bottom.
When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that Chiyo was nowhere to be found. He frowned and looked around, planning to find his way home, but upon taking in the appearance of the place, his pupils dilated, and a gasp escaped his lips in wonder. For a moment, he forgot where he was, and all sense of danger faded as he lost himself in this world so similar yet so different to the one he knew. He seemed to be in a forest of sorts. There were little blue lights all around illuminating the surroundings, but he couldn't figure out what they were, as, if he tried to focus on one, it seemed to disappear. There were glowing translucent mushrooms attached on the barks of trees and elevations in the ground. He was currently under one such elevation and reached out to touch one curiously. He found that while his hand was irradiated, he couldn't actually touch it. Distracted, Ren wandered out from under the stone canopy and instantly recoiled in pain. He slipped and fell onto the mushroom and let out a sigh of comfort as he felt the stinging sensation being washed away. He realised that what he had actually taken for a gentle shower of rain was actually an acid like substance that burned upon touch. Carefully inspecting himself, he found that although he wasn't physically hurt, he clearly felt that he was burnt back then. Ren was taking all of this surprisingly well considering he was in a strange place he didn't know with strange lights and strange mushrooms. Perhaps it was because he had not absorbed the info yet, but he felt strangely at home. After a few risky tests, he realised that the mushrooms healed, and that he wouldn't be affected as long as he was not in direct contact with the rain, so he decided to take a leap of faith. literally. After steadying himself on one, Ren leaped from the mushroom to another one. There was a brief moment of stinging, but the comfort brought after made him feel it was worth it. And so he made it out of the forest. He passed pools of what seemed to be fish, though he questioned how they were able to live in such stagnant water, frogs that croaked in harmony, and dragonflies playing catch with leaves. Despite the mesmerising beauty, there was always a strange clicking sound from afar which sent a chill down his spine and unnerved him. It seemed like he had been walking forever and had a bad premonition. He kept walking and eventually came to a road. However, just as he placed his foot on it, he noticed something was wrong and tried to retract it. Unfortunately it was too late. What had clearly been a road before him just now turned into empty nothingness. Just as he was about to fall to his death, a hand reached out and grabbed him. Hanging precariously from the cliff, Ren felt his heart pounding like a drum. The figure was able to easily pull him up and as soon as he was back on land, Ren collapsed onto the ground. After calming down, he turned to the side and looked gratefully at his saviour. It was a pity his face was hidden behind a long, black hood.
"Thank you", he said sincerely. If it wasn't for this person, he probably wouldn't have even known how he died.
"You - " The figure had also laid down just now, but when he heard Ren's voice, he scrambled up and looked at Ren in shock and confusion. Well, Ren couldn't actually see his face, but for some reason, he could imagine the question marks that must have appeared on the figure's face.
"Do you know me? Can you help me get out of here?", he curiously inquired. The figure was silent for so long that Ren assumed simply wasn't going to answer. Just when he had given up hope, he saw a subtle nod before the figure got up and moved in a direction, indicating for him to follow.
The sun was going down and Ren was yet to return. Nova anxiously paced around before eventually deciding to call Dera. "How is Ren? Is he with you?" Noticing how worried her tone was, Dera instantly sobered up. "He's not…" 'with me', was what he wanted to say, but he spotted something from the corner of his eyes that made him change his words. "…coming back home tonight… probably". He said instead. Nova sighed. "This must be hard for him, I know. But… Please tell him I love him and I understand if he needs some time to think it over. And if ever wants to come back, I'll be waiting here with his favourite dorayaki(japanese snack). I'm glad to know that he's safe with you". "Yeah…" Dera said distractedly. "I have to go now, so…." "Right, right," Nova laughed weakly and hung up. Dera turned to the figure outside his window. It was a person dressed in all black, their face obscured by a hood. The person slipped through the window and into the kitchen. "Explain". Dera said coldly.
A/N;
Um, I know this chapter jumps around a lot, but I'm trying to tie up the loose ends in order to move the story forward. Thank you for understanding