Juvia walked into the guild relatively late the next morning, smiling widely. She was obviously happy about something. It was odd though. Gray had turned her down just yesterday, she had never bounced back as fast as this before. Perhaps she was just getting used to the rejetcions? But if that were true, then why would she keep up her pursuit of trying to win over Gray's affections? She walked over to the bar and sat next to Gray. He expected her to ask him to some activity that they could do together, just the two of them. It surprised him when no such request came. All she did was order a drink from Mira.
"You seem quite happy today, Juvia". Mira spoke with her usual smile and friendly tone. The word quite was an understatement. Juvia was only just short of ecstatic. She nodded.
"Yes, Juvia has plans tonight that she is looking forward to". At first, Mira thought that Gray had finally decided to act after the advice she had given him, but when she saw the slightly confused look on his face, she knew that wasn't the case. He seemed to be just as clueless as what she was when it came to this topic.
"Anything good?" The tone of Mira's voice was now full of curiosity, but so was Gray's mind. He wanted to know just as much as Mira but he wasn't someone who would just go right ahead and ask things like that as casually as the guild's barmaid would. Although he seemed uninterested, he made sure that he could hear as much of their conversation as possible.
"Juvia is going to dinner with someone tonight". Her smile widened as she finished speaking. Now Juvia had really caught Gray's interest. Was she going to dinner with a friend, or something more? He figured that it would have to be a friend. She had been asking him to do the same thing with her just yesterday after all. Mira's advice came back to his mind.
'Women, even those as loyal as Juvia, don't wait around for ever you know. Sooner or later she'll realise she has to move on.' But she couldn't have moved on in just one night. This was Juvia after all, the girl who had been stalking him for nearly a year now, even through all the times he had made excuses not to do something with her. Why should one rejection cause her to move on when countless others had only inspired her to try harder to win over Gray?
Mira's eyes widened with even more curiosity as she told her her plans for the evening. She was going to ask who she was going with, but decided that she had asked enough questions on the subject for the day. Gray sat there in silence, occassionally taking a sip out of the cup that sat on the bar in front of him. The curiosity was eating away at his insides. He was almost sure that there was no way she could have moved on from him so quickly, if at all, but there was still a small part of him that wanted to know who she was going with. It made him feel like he almost had to know. He sat there, o lost in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Juvia stand up and leave to go and get ready for her dinner with the mystery person that no one knew anything about.
Juvia walked into the guild the next morning. Everyone turned to face her. They had all heard of the dinner that she went to the night before. She seemed nervous under all the prying eyes of people wondering who she went with and how it all went.
"So who did you go with?" The notoriously curious and inquisitive Mira broke the silence with the question that was on everyone's minds. Before she opened her mouth to answer the question that had been addressed to her, the person in question stepped into the guild. Everyone's eyes widened in surprise, but it was definitely Gray who was most surprised. He didn't even have to look at the face to tell who it was, the hair gave it away. There was only one person that they knew that had white hair. Lyon.
