To Me from 2000 Years Ago

Chapter 14

Her bus ride had never felt so long before. The two rowdy children occupying the seats in front of her were laughing loudly and rocking against the seats, causing her backpack that was leaning against the backrest to shake nonstop. If this scene were to happen on any other normal days, she would have been irritated and interrupted the children's fun despite feeling bad for being a killjoy. However, she was in a low mood to even feel irritated. While she pressed her forehead against the glass panel, her eyes were glued to the moving scene outside as the bus travelled through the bustling town area. The whole bus was filled with the children's laughter and some middle-aged office ladies chatting rather loudly behind her. These lively sounds did not reach her ears. She felt so disconnected from her surroundings. All she could feel was being stuck at that moment which kept replaying in her head.

The bus came to a halt and more passengers boarded the bus. Sasha noticed many food stalls with bright flickering lights lined up neatly along the roadside, and a small smile formed on her face. With her forehead still pressing against the panel, she tilted her head a little more to the side to have a better look at the delicious food that was being served to the happy customers before her bus took off again. Out of the blue, a squabble between a male and a female began on board.

An annoyed female's voice was heard, "I told you that I will be fine. Stop following me."

"I promise Grandpa that I will take you home safely," a male's voice was heard as well, sounding calmer than the female's voice.

"I have no home."

"I mean, your dormitory."

The female scoffed and said, "Do you know what? I boarded the bus so that I could be at peace. You can just jump off the bus right now and drive back home."

"Don't be mad already. Our relatives didn't mean to put you in that position. They-"

"They are selfish and mean, yes. Just because I am his daughter, that doesn't mean they can sell me off like that!"

"They are not-"

"I am not an item!" the female shouted, startling everyone on the bus.

Sasha flinched in shock as she was immediately drawn back to reality. She turned to look where the quarrelling sounds had come from, and her eyes fell on a beautifully-dressed girl standing at the front of the bus with a very tall man in front of her. The pair was facing each other with the girl glaring intensely at the tall man who was giving her a poker-face.

The girl frustratedly pulled out the ribbon that secured a tiny bun on her head and let her blonde hair fall to her shoulders and on her back.

"I want to live my life. My own life. I don't belong to your family. Not anymore!"

"Kris-"

"The moment they died, I am no longer part of anyone's family. So, please, if you and the others have a heart, don't bring me to those places again. I beg you… I trust that you will stop them because you are my big brother!"

The girl turned away from the man and moved further into the bus, ignoring the stares from the other passengers. The man sighed in defeat and followed behind her. As the girl made her way towards the back of the bus, Sasha managed to catch a glimpse of the beautiful girl's stern face and could quickly recognise her.

The blonde in a beautiful white short-sleeved dress was actually Krista, her friend.

Sasha gasped softly as her eyes followed Krista, not knowing if she should call out to her or pretend that she didn't see her. Sasha shifted her attention to the man trailing behind her and noticed that he also bore similar features to Krista, except that he was more masculine and taller. He had a pair of deep blue eyes, angular jaw, fair skin, and fine blonde hair. At first glance, anyone could tell that the pair was related to each other.

"Sasha?"

At the call of her name, Sasha turned to look at Krista with wide astonished eyes like a deer in the headlights. Krista was also giving her a surprised look as she stood still in the aisle.

"Krista... Hello..." Sasha greeted awkwardly and forced a weak smile at her friend. "What a coincidence."

Krista relaxed her tight muscles between her brows and smiled back. Then, she turned to look at the man behind her. She spoke to him in a nonchalant manner, "I'm with my friend now. She lives with me. You can rest assured that I will return back to my dormitory safe and sound. You don't have to stay through this bus ride, you know?"

The man did not say anything, except staring dully at her as if he had enough of her stubbornness. Knowing that the man wouldn't change his mind about making sure she had safely made her way back to the dormitory, Krista turned her back towards him and momentarily frowned at his lack of response towards her. She walked to the empty seat beside Sasha and sat next to her.

"How was work today?" Krista began speaking to Sasha.

"Uhhh…" Sasha scratched her nose and avoided Krista's gaze as she replied, "Good, I guess?"

"I see."

Sasha looked at Krista again and queried in a concerned voice, "What about you? You don't seem… too good earlier."

"Oh, that. I… I have an argument with that guy there as you have seen just now," Krista muttered, pointing at the blonde male who had already taken a seat on the other side of the aisle. "Nothing serious. It usually happens."

The brunette shifted her gaze to the man. He was looking at the moving scenery outside the bus; perhaps he had already given up on trying to speak to Krista. To Sasha, it did not look like a non-serious matter. Earlier, Krista seemed so crossed and even made a scene on a public bus. Krista was never like this. There were times when Krista would get angry over annoying things, such as the continuous silly fights between Sasha and Jean every now and then. As far as Sasha knew, Krista would never shout at the other person.

"You are probably wondering who he is, right?"

Sasha returned her gaze back to Krista and nodded hesitantly.

"Like Armin, he is the son of my mother's cousin. He is like my big brother," Krista explained with a small smile. "He's actually very nice and kind like Armin. It is just me and my tiredness that got me really edgy and making a huge fuss about everything he and the others said."

It kind of made sense why Krista and that man looked a little alike. What surprised her more was that their fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes traits appeared to be running strong in Krista's family, especially from her mother's side.

"Oh, I see." Sasha nodded understandingly. "Well, you have spent the whole day outside. Of course, you would feel tired. Let's rest early tonight, okay?"

"Yup!"

"Better to calm edgy Krista down with sleep, yeah?"

"Not funny, my girl. I've already calmed down just by talking to you," Krista giggled, circling her arm around Sasha's arm and gave her light nudge. "By the way, we can have some potato chips after our baths. I'm getting hungry, I don't know why."

"Okay!" Sasha giggled along and lightly bumped her head against Krista's head, a gesture which she and Krista would always unconsciously do to each other as a sign of their friendship-affection (they even did this to Ymir who, unfortunately, did not seem to enjoy being bumped by the two girls). Sasha continued, "Krista, I will let you use the bathroom first. I have got some things to do when I get back home."

"Sure, thank you," her blonde friend responded.

After the bus ride, the girls headed back to their dormitory while Krista's relative left to take another bus in the opposite direction. As soon as the girls entered their dormitory, they were greeted by Ymir who was munching on potato chips and watching the television in the common room. Krista went to take a warm shower first while Sasha took a few chips from Ymir before making her way to her bedroom. After closing the door behind her, Sasha threw her backpack on the floor and tiredly climbed onto her comfy bed with her laptop. She lay on her stomach while waiting for her laptop to startup. As her fingers ran through the keyboard, she let out a soft tired sigh.

"I have something important to tell you."

"What is it?"

"We are undergoing some major changes to our system here. It is decided that all branches, including this store, will be opened for 24 hours. This means that we will be getting more workers."

It sounded good to her at first. A convenience store that served its customers after 12 midnight seemed like a good idea. After all, she would love to visit a store that sold snacks if she ever got hungry in the middle of the night. Whoever came out with this idea was genius.

"We will be having two new full-time workers starting from next week. They will be doing night shifts, six times a week. A part-time worker who will be covering the shifts for two weekday nights."

She nodded. It didn't sound too bad. After all, it made sense that they should employ a few more workers to work at night.

"It will be a 12-hour night shift, just like the day shift."

She nodded again. But it was only a few seconds later, it dawned on her that this wasn't exactly a good idea. To her.

"Wait, Levi. Does that mean… I…" Sasha found herself unable to find the right words to continue what she wanted to say.

With almost everyone working 12 hours six times a week, how many shifts would there be left for her to do? Just like the new part-timer who would be doing the night shifts, Sasha would only be working for two days a week at most. That obviously meant she would be at a loss. No, as much as she would like to be supportive of the new changes, she could not let her number of shifts to decrease that much.

Her store manager avoided her shocked gaze and informed, "I will let everyone know their new shifts for next week soon. For this week, we will still keep to same timings and shifts."

"Is there any way… I can take on more day shifts?" she asked him in a soft voice.

He briefly glanced at her and looked away again. "I will see how."

Seeing that there might be some hope that she wouldn't lose most of her shifts, Sasha tried to smile but the side of her cheeks felt so stiff. A part of her knew that it was hopeless. Furthermore, it felt like she was the only person who did not know about the changes. Did Hannah and Franz knew about them? Why was she only informed the week before the changes would be implemented? That was so unfair. Sasha shook her head to drive the negative thoughts away. What if Levi had also just gotten to know about these changes? Maybe that was why he was in such a bad mood, she thought to herself.

"By the way, where were you last night?"

She was stunned by this question although she had been expecting him to ask her about the prank call since earlier. How many more times would Levi keep 'surprising' her with his words?

She averted her gaze from him and replied, "I was in my dorm the whole of yesterday. It was my friend's birthday… so we had a small party in our dorm."

"I see."

She cautiously shifted her gaze back to Levi and asked, "Why did you ask?"

"No, it's nothing. Just wondering… if you can do Sunday night shifts from next week onwards. That's all."

It was obvious that Levi was also trying to cover up the phone call last night after finding out that it was probably not Sasha who had called him. Sasha lowered her head with a small frown. She knew that it would definitely sound contradicting if she said that she would rather him telling her about the weird phone call than him avoiding the whole subject and replacing with an excuse that did not make sense. Her doing night shifts? Really? What about the new part-timer? The fact that how Levi had known that it was her who had called him was a mystery. As much as she wanted to know, she could not bring herself to carry on with this conversation. Some things were best not to know. Some things were best to be kept in silence.

However, she had more important things to worry about. Her job. Her monthly salary. Her rent. Her school fees. Food. The list went on and she felt burdened by them. She could wait for her store manager to sort the schedule out for her as there was little hope that she could continue with what she had always been doing. She had to do something about her situation. After all, things were usually better if there were alternative plans to fall back on.

Search engine: Part time jobs for university students

Enter.

-:-:-:-

"So, yesterday was my big day and today is my best friend's big day. Basically, she plays archery and oh boy, she's a pro at it. You guys have to watch her shoot some arrows. And yes, I know you guys haven't seen her before. So, today is the chance! I told her that I couldn't make it for her competition because I got into the quarterfinals. What she didn't know is that I have come all the way to the National Indoor Stadium to watch her shoot after my games. Shhhh... I'm going to surprise her! I bet she is already halfway through the games, probably taking the lead now!"

"Connie, stop standing there! You can do this later!"

The buzz-cut lad turned to his parents who were already a couple of metres away from him, standing near the entrance of a stadium. Connie raised his palm to signal them to wait for him. Then, he turned to look at the lens of his camcorder again with a wide grin.

"My parents are already calling for me. They are pretty excited to watch her shoot arrows too. Now, let's go in and watch her!"

Putting his camcorder on standby mode, Connie caught up with his parents and the Springers family entered the stadium. Loud cheers could be heard as the electronic scoreboard updated the players' score. It was already past 12 noon and it seemed to Connie that the players from the second category had just started the first round.

"Interschool Indoor Archery Recurve Women?" Connie's father read out the pixelated words at the top of the scoreboard. "Hey, does that mean we are somewhat on time?"

"It has already started not too long ago," Connie answered while scanning the side faces of the players in the arena. "I can't see Sasha."

"Looks like Pieck Jung is taking the lead now," Connie's mother stated as she pointed at the scoreboard. "And where's Sasha? Hmm… Oh, I found her name!"

"Where?"

"She…" Mrs Springers bit her lips worriedly as her eyes were glued to the numbers next Sasha's name on the screen. "She isn't doing too well, it seems. Fourth last place."

-:-:-:-

Earlier…

Brown eyes staring intently at the brown dirt on the wall, Sasha brought up her arrow and pulled back the bowstring. On the count of three, she let go of the bowstring and heard the swishing sound made by the string cutting through the air next to her ear.

Bullseye.

Sasha smiled to herself and pulled the bowstring again. She focused on the brown dirt once more and let go of the bowstring, imagining herself shooting real arrows. If this wasn't called a shooting stimulation, she had no idea what kind of cool name to call this practice. As she was about to pull the bowstring again, she heard footsteps coming from the exit staircase behind her. As she was afraid that the exit door might suddenly fling open and hit her, she quickly withdrew her bow and scurried away from the door. True enough, the door opened, revealing the faces of her team captain and the participating team from her archery club.

"There you are, Sasha. We were looking everywhere for you!" her team captain said crossly. "What are you doing in the third-floor lobby?"

Sasha grinned sheepishly and held up her bow. She answered him, "Practicing by myself."

"Without arrows? Are you serious?" a male from the participating team scoffed. "That's what beginners do before learning how to pick up an arrow, girl."

Sasha's grin was wiped off by that insolent male's comment. Well, not like she could be shooting arrows wherever she liked, right? Couldn't this male senior let her off without saying sarcastic remarks towards her all the time? She was just fooling around alone by herself, and it wasn't even her turn yet! She swore that this guy had always said mean things to her ever since her team had lost the previous competition.

"Why? I was warming up," Sasha retorted as she narrowed her eyes at the male.

"Hey Brett, come on. Don't always be so mean to your friends," a female member from the participating team chided her male teammate. Then, she turned to Sasha with an excited smile and announced, "Sasha, we have good news!"

Sasha looked curiously at her female senior as the senior hopped to her side and held her wrist, giving it a light shake.

"Our team got into the quarterfinals!"

"Oh my gosh! Good for you all!" Sasha squealed loudly and embraced the female senior in excitement.

"Well, of course, we can get into the quarterfinals. We are pros," the annoying male boasted aloud, earning a hard stare from his female teammate.

"Call yourself a pro after we win this whole tournament, Brett."

"Right. You are still hundred years too early to call yourself a pro," their team captain agreed, lightly nudging the male's arm. "Oh, and Sasha, the Recurve Women category is starting in fifteen minutes. So, please head down to the waiting area to prepare yourself. I was wanting to tell you that since just now."

Sasha released the female senior and straightened her back in an attentive manner. In acknowledgement of her team captain's words, she nodded and thanked him for informing her. The team captain extended his arm towards her and patted her on the shoulder with an encouraging smile.

"You can do it, Sasha. The Ace and I have faith in you."

"Thank you. I will do my best."

"Don't go around shooting without arrows, Sashie!"

If Sasha had an extra pair of eyes at the back of her head, she would have rolled those eyes many times each time that annoying guy opened his mouth. At first, it was Sashey when they had first met during the shooting trial the year before. After that, it went from Sashey to Sashimi. Then, from Sashimi to Sushi. After her first failed competition, he called her Sa-fehler. Sasha was curious enough to look up what fehler meant on the internet after noticing some club members giggle at her new nickname. It was only then she had realised that he had just called her a failure in another language. What she hated most was to be called a failure; so, of course, she got really angry and avoided talking to that annoying senior for weeks until he finally called her by her name. Well, it was only that one time when he had really called her Sasha. Afterwards, he returned to his name calling games again.

"Brett, it's Sasha. Sa-sha."

"Sash."

This time Sasha let out a loud groan as her eyes rolled upwards in disbelief. "I swear to God that my name is getting weirder each time you try to pronounce my name."

"I'm not even trying."

"I can tell," Sasha muttered irritably to herself in a soft voice. "Gosh, you are worse than Jean."

"Huh? What are you muttering about?"

Ignoring his question, Sasha turned to face her team captain again and gave him a thumbs-up. She was ready to take on the upcoming challenge. She had been training so hard for this day and she really hoped that she could bring home a medal. She wanted to make her father proud by showing him the medal that she had won. Clasping the bow between her arm and her body, Sasha lowered her head to her seniors and walked past them through the exit door. She climbed down the stairs to the ground level and made her way to the waiting area where all the other archery players should be at. Just when she was about to push open the large doors to enter into the waiting area, she heard a man's voice echo in the long walkway. It sounded distant.

"Chris?"

Thinking that it was someone calling out to another person along the walkway, Sasha ignored the person and went ahead to push open the door. Cold air rushed out of the stadium and brushed against her face. The aromatic smell of fried chicken was surprisingly present in the stadium and that no doubt made her stomach growl a little. She had just stuffed herself with two crepes and a potato salad, which were sold in a nearby diner. But the smell of fried chicken was irresistible. She had to order a tub of fried chicken when she returned back to her dormitory after the tournament!

"Chriselda?"

Sasha froze. Her hand rested against the door, leaving it open as she turned to the source. Standing a few metres away from her was a lanky, middle-aged man with a thin beard along his jawline and wearing a black coat over his police uniform. His eyes scanned her from head to toe before looking away with a small frown. Then, he adjusted his peaked cap and smiled apologetically at her.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I have mistaken you for someone else. Please don't mind me."

With a bow, the man walked away from her and entered the stadium from another door. Sasha continued standing next to the doorway, feeling stunned and speechless. Did a police just call out her name? It could be a coincidence, right? Without thinking, she rushed into the waiting area and looked up to the tier of seats near the door which that police that walked through. Her eyes scanned the audience, searching for him. However, he could not be found.

"Sasha!"

Sasha turned around and found a small figure jumping frantically on her seat on the other side of the stadium, trying to get the brunette's attention. A smile made its way to her face as she realised who was calling her from afar. She was extremely happy that her friend had come to watch her. Oh, how she wished that Connie was here as well! Unfortunately, since he had successfully entered into the quarterfinals, he couldn't watch the archery tournament as his match fell on the same day as hers. Nevertheless, she knew that she had his support.

She ran towards that direction and stopped right behind the metal barricade that marked the boundary for the waiting area. Sasha waved back to Krista who began waving back to her… with two fried chicken drumsticks in both hands. Next to Krista was Ymir sitting calmly on her seat and tearing the chicken meat with her teeth while her other hand was holding up a placard that was written 'Go Sasha! We love you!'. Sasha giggled. So, this was where the fried chicken drumstick smell came from.

"Save me some drumsticks, Krista! Ymir!" Sasha shouted.

"Okay!" Krista shouted back and jumped off from her seat, throwing the drumsticks into the tub on Ymir's lap.

Sasha saw her scoot over to another crowd of audience where she could barely see who was among those people. Not long after, the blonde left the crowd while making quick frantic gestures towards someone as she walked backwards. Then, Krista pointed at Sasha. Curious by her gestures and wondering who her friend was trying to communicate to, Sasha squinted to have a better look at those people in the crowd. Just then, she saw a tall dark-haired male pushing his way out of the crowd while his eyes were staring intently at her. He managed to leave the crowd and stood right behind the metal barricade that bound the audience seating area. Two more people followed behind him and also came to her view. It dawned on her that Armin and the Jaeger siblings had arrived.

Feeling touched that more friends had come to watch her match, Sasha found herself tearing up. She felt so happy that she wanted to cross over the barricades and ran over to the audience seats to give everyone a big hug. She wished that she had spent some time wandering in the audience area so that she could at least be with her friends. She knew that Krista and Ymir would most likely come despite them telling her that they had to check their schedule first. They were always there for her no matter how busy they were. Jean and Marco had gone to watch Connie's match. But she did not expect Eren, Mikasa, and Armin would come to watch hers as well.

Closing her eyes, she wiped off her tears with the back of her palm. She told herself that she would definitely win the first round and not disappoint those who had come to give her their support. She looked over to her friends again and waved. Her eyes unknowingly fell on Eren and her heart fluttered at the reminder that she was wearing the armguard he had given her on his birthday. She bit her lower lip shyly as she raised her left arm higher in the air. Then, she pointed at the armguard, showing him that she was wearing it as promised. Seeing his eyes light up and his mouth curve into a smile, Sasha returned a cheery grin and dropped her arm to her side.

"May all the participants gather for a quick spot-check. Take your bow and arrows with you."

I gotta go now.

Like other competitors, Sasha headed to the booth at one corner of the waiting area to mark her attendance and have her bow and arrows checked. Then, she was led to her standing spot which was 25 metres away from her target in the arena. Sasha would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous at all. When she was practising in school, she did not have so much pressure to get her shoots right as compared to the actual day of competition. Sure, she was usually hard on herself during practice as she aimed for a perfect score most of the time and couldn't forgive herself if she missed the bullseye. But the difference between practice and competition was that she could always correct herself after making mistakes during practice; whereas in competitions, scores for each end would be publicly known to the audience and there was little chance to pull up her scores if she flunked the first few ends badly. She remembered having a nervous breakdown on her first team competition, resulting her to aim incorrectly and miss the target. The subsequent shoots got slightly better but she could not stop her hands from trembling after realising that she was pulling her team down.

Sasha closed her eyes and took in deep breaths to calm herself down. She could do it, she mentally told herself. She must bring home a medal.

After everyone was lined up in his or her position, the announcer gave an overview of how the whole competition would like and some instructions and safety rules to follow. With a blow of a whistle, the first round officially started. For each end, archers were supposed to shoot three arrows within two minutes. Sasha grabbed an arrow and attached it to her bow. Then, she got into her shooting stance and aimed her arrow at the first target. While the other players had started shooting, Sasha couldn't bring herself to let go of her bowstring. The trembling had come back again.

"Calm down, Sasha. It's not the time to be like this," she muttered softly to herself. Shoot, come on. Shoot!

'Snap!'

Before she knew what was happening, her fingers that were holding onto the nocking point slipped and the arrow flew. Dumbfounded, Sasha's jaw dropped as she watched her arrow glide to the ground after flying a few metres away from her. Her panic increased tenfold. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she could hear someone from the audience jeering. Without further ado, she quickly reached out for her second arrow to save herself from embarrassment. However, her hands fumbled with the arrow as she took it out from her arrow holder, causing the arrow to drop on the ground. Sasha stooped down to pick up the arrow and got into her shooting stance again.

Cold sweat glistened on her furrowed brows as she tried her best to concentrate on the target again with her trembling hands clasped tightly onto her bow and the nock. She was left with a minute and ten seconds to shoot her remaining two arrows. She had to stop stalling or else, she really couldn't catch up with the others after this end.

Now!

Sasha let go of the bowstring and watched her arrow flew forward rapidly. This time, it hit the target but it landed on the 5th ring, which was the blue range. Sasha squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head to clear whatever troubling thoughts she had. She had no time to feel relief or disappointed. She had one more last arrow to shoot to raise her score.

"Sasha! Don't give up, yeah! It doesn't matter if you win or lose. Papa will always love ya!"

Papa?

If her ears weren't playing tricks on her, that was really her father's voice. She was sure of it.

Sasha turned around and scanned the crowd of audience behind her to search for her father's figure. She had definitely heard him. There was no way she would mistake her father's voice.

"Sasha! Shhoooootttt that ahhh-roooow!"

Right. She had no time to search for her father when time was running out. His voice was enough to tell her that he was right here with her, watching her and supporting her. She swore that she did not tell him anything about this tournament because she did not want him to travel a long distance just to watch something that wasn't very important. Hence, she was very surprised that he had known about her special day and had even come all the way to the city to watch her shoot some arrows. She let out a soft laugh and raised her thumb up in the air. If her father was among the audience, he would definitely see her physical assurance.

Turning her attention back to the last target, Sasha picked up another arrow and hooked it on the nocking point. She had less than thirty seconds left to shoot this last arrow. She inhaled deeply again and withdrew the bowstring.

It was then she felt a gush of heat coursing through the veins of her arms and feet. Her legs no longer felt heavy. Neither were her arms. They felt as if they were too ready to take flight if she were to jump off a cliff right at this moment. Her heart pounded so hard and rapidly against her chest that she could literally hear her pulse inside her ears. Her eyes widened with a deep frown as she focused on the third target. Since when had she last felt this way? That sudden gush of intense confidence and adrenaline...

"Papa, look. I caught a boar. All by myself!"

"Papa, I am not going to stay like this for the rest of my life. I am going to join the military."

"I am a hunter who serves my village. Not a farmer, not a refugee. I'm sorry if I couldn't live up to your expectation… You may see me as a failure now, but one day when I return, I will show you that my decision is never wrong."

'Snap!'

"Say this exact same thing to me when you return. Not as a pathetic coward like you are now, but as a respectable soldier. A real hunter whom everyone looks up to, a hunter who fights from freedom… that was what I have been raising you to be."

Sasha's arms fell to her side as she stared at the spot where her arrow had landed. Her eyes welled up once more and her nose began stinging in pain. She stumbled backwards but quickly regained her posture when she felt someone gently hold her by her arm to prevent her from falling.

"Oh my god, oh my…" her voice quivered as she looked at her last target again in surprise.

She did it.

She earned nine points for landing within the yellow range, close to the bullseye.

Wow! It has been a year since this story was first posted! Honestly, when writing this story, I didn't think I would be so focused on writing this continuously for a year without giving it up or starting a new fic (but I admit that I did procrastinate because of schoolwork).

Just some update on what I am currently working on and some plans I have for this story:

1) This won't be a 15- or 20-chapter fanfic anymore. I kept thinking that I will complete this story in less than 20 chapters. But guess what? I am currently writing Chapter 21 (I always write a few chapters ahead) and it is nowhere near the ending.

2) I have already settled on the pairings. Some are not evident as of now but they will be gradually built over the subsequent chapters.

3) Levi has his reasons for being late in informing Sasha about the new changes :)

I would like to thank Hope and Xiumin Snape for reviewing the previous chapter. Xuimin Snape, I'm so glad that you enjoyed the little humour too! Although I was the one who wrote that, I still found it funny each time I read it and I couldn't believe that I came up with such jokes. XD

Preview of Chapter 15:

"More than just 'even cooler'," he stated with a gentle smile. "You are pretty… because you are yourself."

Then, he dropped his hand to his side and lowered his gaze to the parchment paper before him. His eyes softened once more as he looked tenderly at his own sketch.

"What I see in your eyes, they are blazing with a hunter's spirit and resolve. They are beautiful." He gazed up at her again with a soft sigh. "Really beautiful, Alexandra."

Till next time!