"So, what now?"
Sophie asked Finn because she had never dated before and didn't know what they were supposed to do.
She had already told him that she wasn't comfortable with them touching, but they had to start somewhere.
"Let's take it slow and exchange numbers, okay?"
Finn smiled and she nodded, so they exchanged numbers.
He first wanted to invite her on a date, but he didn't know if that was going too fast, so he decided to take the safe route because if he tried to rush their relationship, he might end up losing her.
After they exchanged their numbers, they agreed to meet up in Second Life to talk more.
Finn would love to talk more now, but he needed to fix his father's problem, and pushing it further away would only make it worse, so he wanted to talk to Jonathan as soon as possible.
"Well then, I will see you in Second Life."
"Hmm…"
Finn smiled at Sophie, and she gave him a nod.
He then walked to the door of Sophie's room and grabbed the handle.
Finn was a little hesitant to go because he wanted to spend more time with his new girlfriend, but they would have time later, so he opened the door, and as soon as he left the room, he heard a voice.
"Finn, we need to talk!"
Nina, who was probably waiting for Finn to leave the room, grabbed his hand and started leading him towards her room.
'Another talk...'
Finn wanted to visit Jonathan, but it could probably wait a few more minutes, so he let Nina pull him through the corridor.
---
10 minutes earlier.
Nina was still sitting at the dining table, waiting for Finn to return, but seeing that he didn't return and left as soon as Sophie did, made her want to investigate.
She excused herself and got up from the table.
First, she checked the bathroom, but she didn't find Finn there, so she went towards the elevator and noticed that it was closing.
Running towards it, she noticed that it stopped on the second floor, so she waited for it to come back to the first floor and then went to the second floor as well.
As soon as she got there, she guessed that Finn was most likely in Sophie's room, so she sneaked up to it and tried listening in on their conversation through the door.
The maids that were walking around her were already numb to her weird behavior, so they didn't even react.
She moved her head, trying to find the perfect spot, and because the door was soundproof, she had to put her ear at the keyhole, where she could somewhat hear something.
First, she heard some mumbling that she didn't understand, but then the conversation became a little clearer.
"What do you think about my sister Nina?"
She heard Sophie ask that question, so she tried her best to hear what Finn had to say.
"I mean, your sister is really cute, and I think she would make a great wife-"
THUMP
Hearing his response, Nina blushed and accidentally banged her head on the door, which made a loud noise.
She panicked and quickly ran to her room.
'Cute… Great wife…'
Nina kept repeating what Finn had said in her head while covering her face with her hands.
Her face was as red as a tomato, and she kept giggling.
'Does that mean he likes me? Well… it is too early to say but he probably does!'
Walking around the room, she kept trying to decipher the true meaning behind what Finn had said as if it were some kind of riddle, and whenever she imagined his face, she would blush and scream into her pillow.
Nina then got up from her huge bed that was the same size as Sophie's bed, but her room looked a lot different.
She liked the color pink, so she had a lot of pink things and plushies all around her room, while Sophie had a plain black and white room with almost no decorations.
Deciding to confront Finn, she left her room and went towards Sophie's room, hoping that he hadn't left yet.
She waited by the door, and while waiting, she tried to listen in on the conversation a little bit more, but all she heard was Sophie saying that her answer was yes, so that only made Nina confused.
Soon she heard someone going towards the door, so she quickly lifted her head up from the keyhole and stood next to the door.
When she saw Finn leave, she grabbed him, and with a blush on her face, she opened her mouth.
"Finn, we need to talk!"
She then began dragging him to her room, where she wanted to make sure that he really did like her.
---
Back to the present.
Pink and white teddy bears were all around Finn as he sat in a pink room.
In front of him was Nina, who had dragged him there, but now that they were sitting down, she was blushing, refusing to talk.
"So… What did you want to talk about, Nina?"
Finn casually asked while hugging a huge teddy bear that he had found on the sofa next to him.
"Actually… You are the first person who didn't know I had rich parents but was still nice to me and even saved me from those men back then… A- And so I wanted to tell you that when you saved me, I fell in love with you!"
"Oh…"
Just a minute ago, Finn was celebrating his new relationship, and now he was being confessed to by his new girlfriend's sister.
He wanted to reject her, but he wanted to do it in a nice way so he wouldn't end up hurting her feelings.
"Nina, maybe what you feel towards me isn't love but more like appreciation. If you had been playing Second Life, for example, you would have found a lot of kind people who wouldn't know about your background, but you wouldn't come to like all of them."
He took a deep breath.
"...So, I think you should think about it a little more, and I am sure you will find out that you actually don't like me in that kind of way."
He smiled but unfortunately for him, this backfired horribly. Nina became teary-eyed and started glaring at him.
"So, is that a no?"
Finn didn't want to hurt her anymore, so he just straight-up rejected her.
"Sorry, but it is a no. I am already dating someone else."
Nina first looked down, and after letting out a soft sniffle, she looked back up again, revealing her teary eyes.
"It's Sophie, isn't it…"
"Yeah."
She wiped her tears away, but more took their place.
"Y- You told me what I am feeling isn't love, but how do you know anything about what I am feeling anyway? When I saw you enter the dining hall, I felt my heart start beating faster and my face became hotter, is that not love?!"
She stood up.
"When I fed you during the lunch, I felt genuine happiness inside my chest. Is that not love?!"
"…"
Finn was too stunned to reply.
"When I heard you say I'm cute and I would make a great wife, I got butterflies in my stomach, and I blushed at the thought of you smiling at me. Is that not…"
Her voice trailed off because tears were starting to clog her throat.
"...love?"
After a few seconds, she finished her sentence, but she wasn't even trying to wipe the tears away anymore, and they kept pouring down like two waterfalls.
She started sniffling, and Finn realized that he should have just told her "no" without saying anything else.
He wanted to comfort her, but he was scared that if he did, she would misunderstand him, and he didn't want that to happen now that he had a girlfriend.
"I am sorry…"
Is all he managed to say.
But Nina's teary eyes became focused and filled with resolve.
"I won't give up! My sister always took everything from me, and now she even wants to take the boy I fell in love with? No! I won't give up!"
Finn wanted to tell Nina that Sophie never meant to hurt her and instead loved her more than anyone, but it wasn't his place to say these things. He wasn't a messenger, so he kept his mouth shut.
"I am going to continue liking you, and once you break up with Sophie, I will make you mine!"
He was shocked by Nina's resolve because he thought that she would give up after hearing a rejection, but it seemed that she was refusing to stop loving him.
"…You will get hurt in the process."
"I don't care!"
She shouted with a high-pitched voice, still determined to keep trying to get Finn.
"I love Sophie, and I don't see myself ever breaking up with her."
"…That's how you feel right now, but you don't know what will happen a year later!"
Nina felt slight pain in her heart when she heard Finn say that he loved Sophie, but she still refused to give up on him.
"I won't tell you to kill those feelings and find someone else because I know you won't listen to me."
Finn looked at her with a calm gaze, taking the situation very seriously because he knew that what he said now would determine Nina's future decisions.
"You're right! I won't!"
"But promise me that you will give up on me if you find someone better than me who actually loves you and cares about you."
"…"
Nina knew that her resolve wasn't so weak as to promise something like that, but as she said, she wouldn't know how she would feel if she met someone like that in the far future, so she decided to keep quiet.
"That's good enough. As long as you keep that in mind, you are free to do what you want."
When Finn stood up and saw how Nina kept crying, he stopped himself from comforting her and walked to the door.
He didn't say anything else, and she didn't speak either. Both of them had said what they wanted, and now only time would tell where fate would take them.
Not looking back, Finn opened the door and entered the corridor.
He wanted to finally go to Jonathan's office, but he didn't know where it was, so he decided to ask the first maid he would see.
But before he could ask, someone tapped his shoulder.
He turned around and saw Estelle, who had already changed into a different dress. It was also tightly hugging her body, but it was red, and it kept shimmering as if it had crystals embedded in it.
"I finally found you, Finn. We need to talk."
She grabbed his hand, and Finn raised his eyebrows in surprise when he heard that someone wanted to talk to him for the third time today.
'Am I having a Déjà vu?'