"Can you really cook?"
"Yeah, of course! Back in the military, I used to cook for myself all the time."
"All right, fine. please chop those veggies first."
"Okay, Chef!" Henry says with a smile.
After Henry and Selena return from their 'date', the day begins to turn into night. Henry then decides to cook dinner together with Selena to help her. They have both returned from the city, so it must be tiring for Selena to do it alone.
Before he starts helping Selena, he puts the flower in his room first. He's looking forward to surprising Sera with the flower after dinner.
While cooking, Morgan can be seen coming back from his work. He is surprised after seeing Henry but says nothing and just trades glances with him. He then goes upstairs to shower and readies himself for dinner. He must be drained from his work, Henry thought.
After Henry and Selena finish cooking, they place it on the dining table and talk while waiting for Sera and Morgan to arrive.
They begin eating their dinner together as soon as they arrive. The dining table atmosphere can be described as cold. Sure, they talk a bit here and there, but most of the time, the table is just filled with silence, possibly because there is an unexpected new guest at their dinner table today.
Henry attempted to strike up a conversation with Morgan several times, but he only received a short response. After that, he just gave up on trying to create a conversation and decided to continue eating silently.
"When did you get back here?" Morgans suddenly asks Henry. After all this time, he finally is the one who starts a conversation.
"Umm.. yesterday. Selena is the one who takes me inside." Henry says softly.
"Hmmm.. You have been in the army for six years, right?"
"Yeah?"
"So, how is your rank in the military?" Morgan asks with a firm voice.
"As of right now, I'm only at Seargent First Class."
"Is that a high one?"
"Kind of, at least for a non-commissioned officer. But I get to join the Red Cro-"
"So you are just a normal soldier? Is that it?" Morgan didn't even let Henry finishes his sentence before coldly replying while looking straight at him.
"Yeah.. you're right.." Henry murmurs softly after hearing what Morgan says. It's not the kind of response he is expecting from him.
"Oh, come on, Morgan! He's tried his best." Selena suddenly joins the conversation to defend Henry. He just returned from his service in the military, and now Morgan, her husband, wants to belittle him? Give him some slack, will you?
"But didn't I just tell the truth?"
"Yeah, bu-"
"Let's just eat the food, mom." Sera cuts Selena's word.
After that, the dining table atmosphere turns gloomy again before Henry mentions something.
"Do you know that Red Lieutenant will reveal himself next year? I have a reservation for all of you. Do you guys want to go with me?"
Henry tries to lift the heavy atmosphere by coming up with a different subject,
"No need; I already got one for three of us."
but failed.
After that conversation, no one starts any topic and just continues eating their food silently.
Morgan then returns to his room while Sera goes to the living room to watch television. Henry, on the other hand, goes to the kitchen to assist Selena with dishwashing.
"I'm sorry for what Morgan said back then, Henry." She apologizes to Henry as she wipes the plates.
"Nah, it's okay. He may be just having a bad day today." Henry assures her
to not be worried.
"Yeah.." She mutters softly as she continues doing the dishes.
'He must have been disappointed that I was no one in the military, but at least next year I can prove it to him.' Henry thought to himself to make himself feel better.
He's worked hard to be the Red Lieutenant, and he's only a few steps away from making Morgan proud of him. Morgan will undoubtedly see him in a new light the day he reveals his true identity to the world.
After he finishes cleaning the dishes, he goes to Sera to say something. As he makes his way to her, Sera can be looking, getting ready to get upstairs.
"Wait, Sera. Can I meet you outside? I want to give you something."
"Okay? But please hurry up because I need to go to work tomorrow." She says with a confused face.
"Okay, just waits there for a bit. I am going to grab it from my room first."
Henry then dashed upstairs to his room to retrieve the flower. He then walks to the front door to meet Sera. As he walks, he smells the flower to ensure it is fresh. He wants to make sure the flower is still in perfect condition before handing it over to Sera.
*creak* He opens the door.
"Hi, Sera."
"Hey.."
"Here, I wanted to give this to you. A few years ago, I could not give it to you, so now, I want to finish the job."
When he shows the flower, Henry can see that Sera is also taken aback, just like Selena. It looks like everything is going to be okay, he thought.
"Thank you, Henry.." Sera takes the flower from Henry's hand before staring into it.
"Did you like it?"
"Yeah.. I love it very much." Sera says as she smells the flower.
"By the way, Sera. Do you want to go on a date tomorrow? It's been a long time since I hung out with you."
"..."
"This afternoon, Selena has brought me to a lot of places, and she has shown me a lot of good spots for dates."
"Henry.." Sera start calling for him.
"Oh, you have work tomorrow, right? What about the day after that, or any other days you are free?"
"Henry." He just won't stop talking.
"How about we go to that restaurant again? You know the one before I go-"
"Henry!" Sera finally yells at him.
"Yeah, Sera. Jeez, no need to shout; I'm just five feet away from you." Henry says after noticing Sera yelling his name.
"We can't go for a date, Henry." Sera says with an apologetic face.
"H-huh? Oh, yeah, it's about your work, right? Don't worry; we can do the date whenever you're free; I can wait for you." He says with a smile to assure Sera.
"Are you that dense?"
"Dense? Isn't that the word you always describe the main character of the anime you liked a few years ago?" Henry says jokingly. It looks like he is the only one making light of the current situation.
"Listen, I'm gonna tell you something, and I will say it as nicely as I can." Sera says with a serious face.
"Y-yeah. Is there anything wrong?" Henry finally starts to get worried after seeing Sera's expression but still holds a slight smile on his face.
*sigh*
"I don't like you anymore, Henry. Please stop doing this."
She says with a sorry face.
"H-huh, w-what? You're joking, right?" He says as he laughs softly.
"No, I didn't. Do you really think I will still have the same feelings for you after all this year? I've tried, Henry. Do you remember when you sent us your letter that you forgot to put your address? I've tried everything I can to reply to it. I even told my parent to go to the local E.D.F. center to find you, but I still failed. I've waited for you to send another letter again for two years, but I didn't receive anything."
"I've sent it. I send the second, the third, and so on. But Selena herself says that you guys never receive that letter. I've tried after that too, Sera."
"Then, if you know it doesn't work, why do you never visit us? You should've realized it yourself after we didn't reply to that letter, shouldn't you? Do you really never think of that? And didn't you serve in the army anyway? Do you never once get deployed all around the country and never once think to visit us?"
"Yeah, I did, but that's because I was busy. There is a lot of-"
"Too busy to even visit me, your girlfriend?"
Henry turns quiet after hearing what she just said.
"I've waited for you, Henry. I have waited for a long time for your return. But, what do I get? A few years of loneliness? Do you really think I will hold the same feelings to you after all this time?"
"I.."
Henry wants to say something before realizing that it's all his fault. He is even deployed overseas, making him feel a little embarrassed to admit to her. How did he not even visit his family if he could travel to Italy, Canada, and Russia? What is he thinking? Why did he think it was okay to do it? Is it because he is still young and unable to reason?
Sera, seeing him depressed, continues to say what she is going to say.
"Three whole years after you've gone missing, without even contacting me back, I start to think that you don't love me anymore. To fill in the loneliness that year, I start to date a few guys to forget about you. After that, my feelings for you dissipate little by little, and now, there is nothing, Henry." She explained with a troubled face.
"H-huh? But why? I still love you after all these years, aren't I? I even got a flower for you? Why can you wait for me?"
"Wait?! How can I wait if I don't know that you still love me?! After those letters, you never even tried to reach for me again, didn't you? Do you want me to hold on to that string of hope, that you even still remember me? God knows who you have met there and how often you talked to another girl."
"I never do tha-"
"Then what makes you never even think of contacting me again, even for one time? Do you want me to believe in that too?!" Sera yells with a grievance in her voice.
After that, the front house becomes quiet for a few moments before Henry decides to say something.
"Okay, I apologize for not reaching you all these years, Sera. Can you forgive me?" Henry apologizes to her. He regrets his past action and now wants to fix their relationship.
"I will accept your apology, but it's already too late to fix anything, Henry." Sera says softly.
"But you are not dating anyone now, right?"
"Yeah, but what's that got to do with this?."
"So then, can we star-"
"No, we can't. I don't feel the same about you as I did back then. Do you even hear what I say to you just now? I'm really sorry, and thank you for giving me this flower.."
Sera then starts walking back to the house's front door.
"Sera, wai-"
*SLAM*
Sera didn't even look back at Henry as she closed the front door leaving him alone. There is only Henry and the sound of crickets chirping in the night.
'Great. First, it's Morgan who keeps giving me cold shoulders, and now Sera.'
He thoughts to himself as he sighs before sitting on the house's front stairs. He kept looking at the moon. The same moon he stares at every night when he stays in the rebel camp and the military.
'I guess it's you and me again, huh. Somewhere in the middle of the night, as I share with you my story. Looks like today you can see it yourself how it ends.' He says as he sits holding his remorse.
'...'
*Slap, slap*
Henry slaps himself softly with both of his hands.
"It's okay, Henry; she is still single right now. I can still make her fall in love with me again. You have made her fall to you once, and you can do it again." He said to cheer himself up as he started standing up.
"I really need to show her how sorry I am after all these years. I have made a big mistake to her and need to redeem myself. Tomorrow, I'll start my plan to make her love me again. I'll call it Operation: Meltdown!"
'...'
"Pffft. What kind of name is that?" Henry laughs at himself for coming out with the operation name.
'Let's just relax here first. It's been a long time since I felt the cold air, anyway.' He thought to himself before sitting down the stairs again.
As he slacks there, he keeps thinking about how he will get Sera's love back while enjoying the night. Today is full of good and bad events for him, but he will not let that destroy him to keep moving forward.
After a few minutes, Henry then makes his way to his room to have enough sleep for tomorrow. He needs to do many things if he wants to fix everything with Sera.