Two days prior, on the day Celeste asked me for a favor.
"Can I ask you for a favor, Cole?"
"Hmm."
"Would you be able to accompany me to Flowerville on the twenty-second?"
After a moment of thought, I replied, "Alright but the reason?"
"I want you to come with me."
"Okay."
She was stunned a little, "You are not going to ask me further?"
"Well, if you don't want to reveal, it is your choice. I wouldn't back down just because of something like that."
Also, for a person who never wanted to burden me, asking such a favor must have been difficult.
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I tried to look out the window to act nonchalantly a little. After being blindsided by her beauty, I couldn't keep the conversation going. I needed to compose myself a little. I used to make fun of those rom-com protagonists acting so weird over every little thing, but I finally understood the difficulty of it.
"You seem to be deep in thought, Cole?"
"Haha, not really."
"Ohh, then what were you thinking for this long, staring out the window?"
I exhaled a bit.
"It was just...I was kinda flabbergasted."
"By what?"
"By your appearance."
"My appearance? Is it not good looking?"
"It is the exact opposite of that. You look too stunning to just look at."
And that is how you create an awkward atmosphere before the trip even started. She bent her head a little in what I presumed to be shyness. I felt my face heat up a little. The embarrassment of my straight forward words came with it.
I fake coughed to change the atmosphere. I seem to be fake coughing a lot these days, huh.
"So, the man in the back is your bodyguard for the day, right?"
"Yes."
She is a celebrity and a rich lady. They wouldn't send her alone even if she wanted to. I was also thankful for the extra security for her.
Soon, the conversation picked up with me talking about the upcoming mid-terms and her future idol works.
She explained that she was working on her new single, which will release by the end of the mid-terms. I also let her know that I liked 'Wondering about you', her latest single and that I was going through her old works too. She mentioned that she was pleasantly surprised that I had taken time to go through her works. Well, they really were good, considering the genre of her music.
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As we got closer to FlowerVille, we could see meadows of colorful flowers lined up all along the tracks. It was refreshing for the eyes after seeing the cityscape for so long.
As we reached the FlowerVille station, we got out to go to the first place in her itinerary. The museum. I wondered what else she had planned for the day.
I will not lie, the museum tour was amusing. They had all these artifacts of humans from each era of mankind. The only thing was that I was today years old, when I learned that dinosaurs weren't a thing in this world. Though there was a time when only magic beasts of gigantic sizes roamed this world, similar to Earth's dinosaurs. And unlike dinosaurs, these things didn't become extinct, only their numbers had dwindled over the ages.
Also, the parallel development of Earth and this world, with only difference being the existence of mana. It had inadvertently accelerated the growth of their civilizations.
Surprisingly, Celeste was very engrossed in these. I realized I never really had the time or chance to know their interests. And with Celeste and Vivienne graduating next year, I didn't have much time left to arrive at an answer. I made up my mind to at least have a grounded answer before the Finals.
We next went to view the statues scattered all around the town. They each had a story about the different conquerors and magicians who have lived here, except one. It was a five-foot tall winged dog. It only had a legend passed down by mouth.
With all that walking, we sat down to eat. After that, we walked around the city for a little longer, before going to the famous planetarium of the district.
I had the most fun in a long while, with all these different activities. And Celeste was like the cool friend you have with you. Not that I had any such friends, but it was what I have seen and heard.
She had calm and collected energy surrounding her. I was praising her a lot, that I almost forgot that this was like a date.
Hmm, it looks like it.
The planetarium was good, except for the fact it was kinda slow. Celeste ended up sleeping on my shoulder, towards the end. Romantic, heh. Overall, the day was a great experience. But now that the day was winding up, I noticed that she was ready to reveal the reason she asked for me.
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We were seated at the station, waiting for our train. The only other person in the station was the same bodyguard, two seats away from us.
I looked directly at Celeste and asked,
"So, are you ready to give me the reason, now?"
She turned to look at me straight, her blue eyes staring at me.
Taking a long inhale and pressing her hands together onto her lap, she answered in a low voice,
"It was because I wanted to go on a.....date with you and spend time with you."
Her voice trailed lower as she spoke. But I heard it clearly.
I probed her further on the sudden interest, even though it might have come across as inconsiderate. But I knew she had another reason for this. She was too worried for just spending time with me. And the answer came out. She had recently seen me and Iris going together inside the cafe near our academy.
She had felt a little scared about losing me, thinking too much space had grown between us.
As she explained, I couldn't contain the smile on my face. It wasn't only because she was feeling jealous of me. It was because her poker face had a scowl on it. A very cute one, she didn't even realize she was making.