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(Lauren's Perspective)
"Calm the fuck down."
Oh wow... that actually stopped my heart for a full second. Rirota's voice really is oppressive when he needed it to be. I can tell why Ren used that tone on me when he explained about his Birth Ability: Paper Gaps.
Oh well, I have an extra burger... which really hurts! I am twenty eight years old! Why do I have to suffer with this tiny body! I'll never have a boyfriend at this rate if everyone kept looking at me like a lost middle school girl in a high school setting!
Eurgh. I wanted to switch my food please. I turn to check on Ren's food. He's got vegan burger just like mine but... I have an extra burger... A child's size burger.
"Haa..."
"Here.", I noticed a burger being put on my tray as the small burger was in turn, changed places with it. I look at him with a smile on my face, "Thank you..."
My little brother, Rirota! You're the best little brother!
I don't really get beef burger but thank you so much, little brother! Is it really alright for me to have this? I looked up to find him already opening up the small burger in his hand while his other hand on his phone.
He noticed me and asked, "You don't like beef? I recall Ren aren't that picky."
"Hey, I just don't like pineapples on pizza-"
"Hah? You don't like it?", Riro shunned him as she swiped one of his cheese wedges from his tray.
"Hey! That's mine!"
What is this... feeling I have?
It's very warm.
"Gimme some, Ren.", he said right after taking his fry, the latter simply shouted at them two, "Hey!"
"Hehe, I'll buy another for you after this!"
"Rirota..."
Oh, that gave me a startle. He was practically getting irritated with taller little brother's attitude for messing with his meals.
Family... can feel this nice.
I tug on Ren's sleeve, making him stop fighting his half-twin brother by looking at me.
"I'll give you mine, little brother."
"Urk!", Ren shattered while a sudden loud laughter ensued in front of him.
"BA--HAHAHAHAH---kuff-kuff!!"
"Haa...", Rirota patted Riro's back after laughing and coughing badly from Ren's reaction toward my words earlier. I too, chuckled as I opened up my cheese wedges to share with everyone.
"You guys can have some."
I told them that as I watched my new little brother's lips opened up to talk, "Y'know saying that while looking like a little girl kinda made us look bad--"
"I'm not a child!!!", I slapped the desk out of anger as I stood up pointing fingers at everyone at our table, "I'm older than the three of you, okay!?"
"Awh, look at the little lady getting angry toward her brothers and sister, darling."
I jolted as I froze on the spot because of the sudden voice from behind us beginning to talk about us. Rirota covered his mouth after accidentally blurting out a chuckle.
"Pft."
I turn to face him. Urgh, my ears are burning because of you guys!
"What the hell is this? Some kind of shenanigans of dumbasses??" - Rirota.
"Language!", I yelled.
Ren laughed heartily, "Hahaha!! Dumbasses, he say!"
"Ren!", I sat back down embarrassed with these two men laughing at our situation! How dare they think that this was funny? Riro, you catch me...
Right?
I saw her cupping her mouth with both of her hands with a red face on her. She's laughing too... Haha...
"Y-You guys!!"
*smack* *smack* *miss* *thud*
=====
Rirota cleverly dodged her punch and let her hit him softly on his shoulder. He then faced her pouting expression which attracted the other bystanders' gazes on them. Mostly charmed by how cute Lauren looked with her frustrated face.
He then looked at the other two who got their heads hurt from her smackings. Riro rubbed her head as a crocodile tear leaked out of her eye, "That hurts, Lauren~"
"Hmph!!", she sat down on her seat, crossing her arms and hugged herself tightly like a sulking child would. Ren sighed as he too rubbed on his head, "How can a tiny girl hit like a truck?"
Rirota and Riro shrugged at the same time. The latter, Riro, picked one of her cheese wedges quietly to munch on it like a hamster. The former, went back to drinking his strawberry milkshake as he faced Ren who was unwrapping his vegan burger to have a bite on it.
Lauren sighed after watching everyone at the table have minded their own meals as she bite on her beef burger.
Rirota watched how Lauren chomped on the burger quietly and smiled faintly from noticing her little bite mark on the burger. He then faced his small sized burger with a large bite mark on it as he laughed internally, [Haha... big sis really didn't want to admit that her body's a literal child... Was she actually tall back in her own world?
I should ask Ren about her height of her past life, maybe she was tall as him?], Rirota wondered by himself regarding Lauren's possible past life. He then stopped sipping on his milkshake to begin with a different topic for everyone at the table.
"Why are we here? Being in this merged world with our completely separated memories of our own events?"
Ren stopped munching on his burger to wipe down some bits stuck on his right cheek with tissues provided by the establishment. He then faced his front for Riro's reaction to his half-twin brother's question.
Riro sighed lightly as she could only shrug at the question, "I don't know, are you implying something that we commonly experienced together? Oh, is it him?", she remembered her interaction with a certain person in white and how Rirota too have his own exchanges with the same man in white.
"Man in white.", Rirota smirked as he replied to her.
"Man in white.", Ren said his piece at the same time. The three of them then faced toward Lauren as to ask if she too has met with this person in her past world and life.
She put down her burger and cleared her throat after taking the spotlight on her, "Right before I die. I did say that I went out drinking, but never told you with who, Ren."
The person she's talking to nodded, he hasn't caught most of her stories yet. He turned to find Rirota's keen eyes. He already speculated this much? He thought as he was internally impressed with his unnatural deductions.
Riro on the other hand, was curious of Lauren.
"...He approached me on the night where I went drinking my stresses away from both work and handling with various overtime issues. It was also my first time of drinking in my twenty eight years of lifetime."
...
"May I sit over here, young lady?"
"Ughh---hicc? I'm already in my late hic twenties'..."
Lauren lifted up her eyes to face the 200 centimetres tall of a human wearing cleanly in white. He gave her a small smile as he lifted up his own mug of beer.
She then glanced at her sides, noticing the empty seats around them and he chooses to sit in front of her?
[Do this guy have a fetish with smaller girl like me? He's tall as hell.]
"There's other empty seats and hic! You chose to sit at my table?", she was already too intoxicated to properly address the man politely. It's not like she should act as such as she wasn't there for business. She was there to release her tension from work.
She then squinted her eyes to watch his handsome and mature looks, she could see the aged eyes and hair of his from the pale golden colour of his eyes and pale blonde hair.
"Aren't you too hicc-- old to pick up girls, you look like a family man."
The man in white ignored her little jab at his appearance as he sat down in front of her, he faced her hands on her bottle of room temperature whiskey that's been half drunken by her.
He asked with a concerned voice for her health, "You drank quite a lot, are you frustrated by any chance?"
"What's hicc- wrong with you men bothering with other's personal life?"
"Because I'm worried, drink some water."
His words irritated her, "You're not my dad."
"I know.", he said nonchalantly. She glared at him confused for a moment as she looked down at his mug of beer, untouched.
"What's your problem?"
"Hrm?", he was rather surprised to hear her asking him if he's got issues in his own life. He sighed lightly as he faced into her eyes, "What would you do... if you were to find out that, your last living relative... was found dead without you knowing of their existence?"
"... I'm not sure if I catch your drift, old man."
"...I lost my last family member, who were five years older than you, young lady of Aurgo. You too... felt something was off with the death of that girl who sought the truth about a certain black company? Eight years ago?"
He asked her questions, "What was that feeling that you felt? Was it sadness? Guilt? Or perhaps, anger?"
Lauren... couldn't understand what he was trying to say yet she did feel like what he told her about eight years ago. The death of Rirota Xalysia (female).
"All of them?"
"...What happened, happens. So please, live on with knowing that, you could still change the course of this world..."
"By being who you are. Not how you are."
...