Season One: Summer - How things respond to heat.
It's funny how the high temperatures of summer affect us. The sizzle in the air makes us all feel. The warmth of the sun reminds us that we are alive. There is something magical about the toasty weather that never fails to amaze me.
"Baphomet walks into a bar and the bartender asks, Why the long face?"
I stared at Emilia and tried to fake a smile in acknowledgment. As usual, she pretended that she didn't know that it was all charade and went on.
"Then, a marina followed. So the bartender approaches it and says, Why so blue?"
A lot of things were on my mind that time. She knew this. And perhaps, this was her way of showing that she cared. Emilia was never the serious confidant. Heck, she's never serious at anything other than her hobby of collecting monster cards. Not even her Acolyte training.
"Afterwhich, the Baphomet then orders. He shouts in a really brash voice, I'm hungry. Give me a novice! Shaken, the bartender nervously pointed out a sign behind him. Sorry, boss. We don't serve minors!"
I scratched my head and looked at the ever-optimistic girl. Personally, I really didn't like the joke. But I saw the effort she put into delivering them and that, I guess, was enough for me. I smiled, sighed and went finally back to my melancholy.
"You know Red, you really should get a move on. What is it about that girl anyways? It's not like she's the fifth girl... whoops... me and my big mouth!"
Emilia covered her mouth and started running around the bench like a silly child. Her animated expressions caught a passerby's attention every now and then, which was quite enough to make me shrink in shame.
Just to stop her antic I finally replied, "Vina's the sixth, actually."
A warm summer gust blew in the middle of the Pronteran Park just outside of the West Capital. Emilia stopped running around and slowly went back to the bench.
She sat extra-close to me and stared at me the same way she did back when we were still kids. She always does her puppy-dog eyes when she wants something out of me. Somehow, she always gets what she wants this way.
"Tell me about it. I'm listening."
I sighed long and hard. It wasn't like she couldn't have guessed most of the things that I was going to tell. Perhaps she just wanted to hear my stupid story one more time. Or perhaps because telling my story is already therapy for my part. Whatever the reason was, I just recounted everything again.
I'm Red, the hopeless romantic incarnate. I really didn't have that much social skill to mix well with the opposite sex. Aside from my childhood friend Emilia, most of my friends are guys. I was the first one in my peer group to fall in love with a girl and ironically, I found myself as the last one who will get a girlfriend (if ever that is bound to happen). I really don't know what my problem is. I have been rejected so many times, and yet I still am clueless as to why it always happens. I slowly recalled how each girl found a way to turn my hopes down, all six of them.
I finally broke out of my shell and raised my voice for the very first time at Emilia.
"Am I that horrid a person to not be liked by any one of them!?"
Emilia's reaction was fear. And then just sheer disbelief. I was always the quiet type. Everything that I had to say seriously, I did so with great calmness and finesse. I guess I surprised her that time with my loud voice.
She didn't say a word. Instead, she ran towards the shaded area by the woods, where she stood unmoving for quite a while. And then she turned around, with her usual cheerful visage and teasingly asked me in return,
"Do you think I'm cute?"
I didn't know what to say. I swallowed my saliva and looked at her playing around by the trees. It has been quite a while since I looked at her. To me, she was still this snotty little kid who liked to play all day. As her childhood friend, I never did notice that she was just a year younger than me; that the young Emi that I knew had grown up along with me.
And grow up, she did.
Her short golden locks are no longer short. They have now become long and elegant, the way she wanted it when we were still kids. Even her face has changed. She has grown up to be far from the sniveling amnesiac that she was when we were young. If her childish behavior weren't there, I'd say that she has become quite the opposite girl that I grew up with. But I never did take the time to realize that she had changed before my eyes. That moment, I began to see a different Emilia.
Perhaps it was the sudden darkness coming from the woods and the shards of light that pierced through its leafy canopies. Or maybe it was the hot wind, I really didn't know.
But I saw what I saw.
I looked at her blue eyes, smiled, and pretended that nothing has changed.
"Yeah. I think you're cute."
She gracefully spun around her noticeably matured body in her tight acolyte outfit. She stopped and ran towards me. She closed up to my face and replied,
"See? You easily say I'm cute because we've known each other for so long now. It's harder to not fall in love with something that has already taken up a special corner in your heart. You should try to become friends with her first. That's the only way to go."
I was surprised. For the first time in her life, she didn't make fun of me or just laugh. In fact, she made a good point with what she said. Could it be that the child within her is giving way too? I could only stare blankly at the darkness of the forest yonder.
"Hey, Red, classes are starting soon. We ought to start walking back, or else Father Anthony will hit us with his stupid cane again!"
And with that, Emi started running the same way she had been doing for the last seventeen years.
Then, she stopped, turned around, looked at me with an angelic face that I have never seen in her before and yelled back,
"For what it's worth, I also think you're cute..."
I was out of words once more. Did she mean what she said?
"...for a freak of nature!"
Geez. She'll say anything to get my spirits up. Why do I even bother? But then again... nah. Perhaps it's just the heat of the summer that drives us all insane.