For the next two days, the same type of banter with Iris was all that took place during my shift. It was nice, I will not lie.
Since I had a free day and Iris had work to attend to, I didn't have anything planned. The Penguin also told me that there wasn't any new dungeon to raid. Being free for once really bored me actually. It was weird after an eventful week.
*Ding*
It was Vivienne. It was weird for her to message me at this hour. She usually only messaged me good nights. So, this was new.
Opening it, the message read, "EMERGENCY!!! COME TO MY STUDIO IMMEDIATELY!!!"
Followed by a location pin which she mentioned to be her studio.
_________________________
I was standing in front of the location she sent. As any normal person would, I immediately rushed over.
It was a high-rise apartment in the richer side of the city. After getting her permission to come up, I went to the sixteenth floor of the building. The view, from here, showed the whole city and there were still twelve floors above me.
I was adjusting my attire to press the doorbell, but she opened and looked out before I could press it.
"Welcome. Welcome. Please come in."
I entered to only find the place sparkling. Nothing like what you would expect of a streamer's place. (No offense to any streamers but I have seen quite the examples.)
Without even waiting to sit down, I asked her what the emergency was about.
She began getting shifty in her body language. She blurted out that it was a streaming problem. (?)
Though I was perplexed about why she called me, I tried to help.
It seems something was wrong with her camera. Though I didn't know how the setup worked, I still checked the working of the cameras. They worked.
She laughed awkwardly stating that they weren't working until now. It was clear she called me for a different reason. Who would call a person, with no technical experience in this kind of things, to solve their clearly technical issue?
"So, what exactly did you call me for, Vivienne? Surely this was not it."
Awkwardly laughing, she tried to brush it off, "It really was that. I don't know why it worked now. Must be the luck of yours."
Under my continuous silent staring, she sighed and gave in.
"Don't scold me, please. I wanted to talk with you. That's why."
I was flabbergasted.
"You know, you could text me for that?"
"Ahh, the thing is I am not very good with texting. I always double check even sending you good night messages. And multiple times, I have written and then deleted messages that I wanted to send to you."
That explained the dry texting whenever I messaged her. She was just awkward with texting.
"Is texting anyone awkward for you or is it just with me?"
"Just you."
That stung a little.
I let out a sigh of relief. I was worried about what kind of emergency it could have been.
"So, what did you want to talk about?"
She looked at me fidgeting with her fingers.
"Just.....about stuff. It felt like a long time since we last spoke."
I laughed at that, while she scratched her head embarrassed.
"All right, I have got the whole day left. We can talk as much as you want."
She gave her signature warm smile. The atmosphere had become mellow and relaxing. She was like the calmest enthusiastic person I had ever seen. Contradictory, but true.
With that, we settled down comfortably.
"So, what were the messages that you deleted just before you were about to send to me?"
"They were about hanging out like a....date. But then I thought I should give some time to you and not make you uncomfortable."
"If it is just hanging out, you can always ask me. It is just I might not be available on a few days, due to my part-time."
"Right, you mentioned it last time too. So, how has it been lately?"
_______________________
We spoke until my curfew time was near. Honestly, there was never a moment of silence throughout the conversation.
The moment that I mentioned about the time, she had a bittersweet smile. Happy that we spent a long time together, while distraught by how short it had felt.
This time, I reached home before curfew to spare me the lecture.
___________________________
The next morning, I opened my eyes to see a green transparent screen floating in front of my eyes. A pleasant surprise.
Stats.
It had the simplest screen interface, only representing my magic capabilities. Just like I had asked Penguin earlier. I always hated those system screens that have too much information. But this was good. Just giving me a quick rundown on my current level.
At the lower end of the screen, my current power level was visible.
Power level - Second Circle Magician
Clicking on it, I learned about the hierarchy of it. I was the second from the bottom of the list. There were ten circle levels - one to ten. Not bad, considering that I was just below the average mana user. It meant third or fourth circle was the average. Good, now I have a clear goal and progress checker. The day has started on a very good note.
Getting out of bed, I got ready for school as usual. Before leaving the house, I checked my calendar once.
A date near the end of the month was circled, roughly two weeks from today. It marked the start of the mid-terms. Theoretical and then Practicals. Half the school year was coming to end.
Today, I went to the rooftop again. Celeste was there, having her lunch all alone. She was surprised upon seeing me.
"Running and hiding again?"
"Not really. Just wanted to have lunch with you and give you some company."
"Well....I appreciate the offer but I wouldn't want you to go out-"
I stopped her from continuing, "It is because I want to. If it makes you uncomfortable or disturbs, I can leave right away."
After pausing for a bit, she replied,
"It doesn't make me feel uncomfortable or anything. You can stay."
"The pause doesn't make it very assuring." I said with an awkward laugh.
"I was just wondering why you chose to have lunch with me."
"Just because I wanted to?"
"Is that so?"
We continued with eating our lunches.
We conversed a little before I stood up to leave first. Just as I turned to leave,
"Can I ask you for a favor, Cole?"
Celeste asked in a low voice.