"You stupid idiot brat!" Hye-jin shouted, pinching Evan's cheeks and pulling hard.
"I'm sowyyy," Evan tried to say around his stretched mouth.
"Yeah! Say that one hundred more times! Do you have any idea how much worry you caused me and your brother? You're lucky I only got to you now because work has buried me. Otherwise you'd be facing the full brunt of my anger."
Evan could only suffer in silence while she continued his punishment.
The three of them sat at an outdoor table at a small café, sheltered from the afternoon sun by a large cream-colored umbrella. The smell of coffee and baked pastries wafted out through the open door.
"That's enough, Hye-jin. At this rate you'll make his cheeks swell," Reid said.
"And you!" Hye-jin turned on him. "I thought you'd be angrier about all this! Your brother did something incredibly moronic, and you forgave him that easily? Or are you just as idiotic as he is? Did you even discipline him?"
Reid looked away.
Rubbing his sore cheeks, Evan doubted Reid would dare to be harsh on him over the incident, not after Reid had recently pointed a gun at his head, mistaking him for a demon.
"You two are hopeless." Hye-jin gulped down her cappuccino.
Seeing that his punishment had been put on hold, Evan picked up his caramel macchiato. Reid had stuck with plain black coffee, and Evan recognized Reuel's old preference. Some tastes, apparently, survived even a second life.
"Anyway, I heard you're planning to bring your brother to District 1?" Hye-jin asked.
"Yeah. I sent the request yesterday," Reid said. "Evan's situation is different from mine, so approval might take longer. I should hear back within a week or so."
Evan still didn't understand how that was supposed to work. An F-rank applicant should have been rejected on principle unless he was connected to some powerful family. Reid might be an A-rank Healer, and while any Awakener school would have gladly accepted him, that didn't mean he could simply get Evan into arguably the most prestigious school in Nova Terra.
Then Director Shin came to mind. As head of the RCB, she was unusually close to Reid and already knew Evan. Had she played a part in his enrollment? Was this what people meant by nepotism?
"You'll be returning to District 1 tomorrow, right?" Hye-jin asked.
Reid nodded. "Yes, so I have a request. Can you stay with Evan until the admission letter arrives?"
"Wow, you're really that confident your little brother will get accepted, huh?"
"Let's just say I like his chances."
"Well, I don't mind. I'll have to stay at your apartment, though. Mine only has one bed, and I doubt you'd want your little brother sleeping on the sofa for several days."
Evan saw no point in making Hye-jin his live-in babysitter, but he kept the objection to himself. After being kidnapped, claiming he could live alone and handle himself would have been more than a little ironic.
The next morning, Reid left for District 1 by train, and Hye-jin made herself at home in the Whitfields' apartment.
"Whoa, this place is really nice!" She dropped onto the sofa, taking in the spotless interior. Even the windows were clean, and not a trace of dust remained on the furniture.
Evan wasn't particularly tidy, but during Reid's short stay back in District 20, the apartment had returned to its original state. Sometimes he wondered whether Reuel had always been a germaphobe or simply approached everything with the same intensity, right down to something as trivial as dusting.
"Which one of you usually cooks?" Hye-jin asked, tearing open a bag of chips and switching on the TV.
"My brother. But I can cook for myself."
"Cleaning the apartment?"
"Also my brother, but I help sometimes."
"Laundry?"
"We take turns."
"Did he sing you lullabies to help you sleep, too?"
Evan ignored that and finished the last of the dishes, then started for his room.
"Hey," Hye-jin called after him. "You should try being more careful."
"Hmm?"
"I don't think you're uncaring." She crunched on a chip. "But your brother already has a lot on his shoulders."
"I know." Evan tightened his grip on the doorknob.
"Outside of work, the number one thing he talks about is you. Evan got a full score on his test, and Evan gave me this gift. It's always Evan this, Evan that."
"What's your point?"
"I just want to tell you that you shouldn't give your poor brother any more grief. And don't drag me into trouble either. Stay out of trouble while we wait for your admission letter. I don't want to have to call Reid and tell him his little brother has gone missing again. Once you get to District 1, be even more careful. I know it sounds exciting, but you know how it is. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. So wise up a little, will you?"
"Thanks for the lecture," Evan said, and shut the door behind him. Under his breath, he muttered, "Should've said that to the System."
[(^_−)☆]
***
Making the news of his transfer public felt pointless, partly because he doubted nepotism alone would be enough to get him into one of the most prestigious academies in Nova Terra. But Yuyan and Marcus were his friends, and he wanted them to hear it from him.
"You're moving to District 1?!" Yuyan shouted.
Evan clamped a hand over her mouth and glared. "Scream louder, why don't you? The whole school hasn't heard you yet."
Yuyan slapped his hand away. "Ease up. Everyone's talking, so nobody's listening to us."
Around them, the students talked over one another, their loud conversation proving her point.
"I still don't want you shouting it at the top of your lungs," Evan said. "And it's not certain anyway. I'm an F-rank, so my chances of getting accepted are basically zero."
"I'm sure your brother's word carries some weight." Marcus took another bite of his pad thai. "He's an incredible Healer, by the way. My cousin made a full recovery after Reid treated him."
"Eh, I doubt it." Yuyan pointed her chopsticks at Evan. "Maybe if he were someone like the legendary Healer Jung Hwa-yeon. But he's just a new Awakener. An F-rank like you would need stronger connections than that."
Evan didn't mention that he technically had one and went on eating. When his plate was half empty, he asked, "By the way, how was Captain Whiskers? Did the cat finally come back?"
"Oh! He did." Marcus grinned. "A nice old lady found him and has been taking care of him all this time. She said he got trapped inside a storm drain and was yowling until she came. My cousin cried when he came home."
"How is your cousin? Any lingering effects? Nightmares?" Evan finally asked what he really wanted to know. Even a minor curse could leave a lasting impact, especially on someone Tyler's age.
"Hmm... he said he has some nightmares, but nothing too serious."
"That's good." For now, the curse seemed to have done nothing beyond concealing Tyler's memories of Isaac and the strange Rift. Evan only hoped it stayed that way until they found a way to remove it.
When the school bell rang, Evan meant to go straight home because of Hye-jin's warning, but Marcus and Yuyan had other plans. They took him to a nearby mall, stopping at shop after shop before finally making their way to a game arcade. Rows of machines filled the floor, from classic fighting cabinets to the latest VR setups.
Evan had never been able to justify spending his meager savings on arcade games, let alone expensive PCs or consoles, so he was fascinated as the two pulled him from one game to the next. Yuyan gravitated toward the rhythm games, while Marcus preferred the VR rigs. Evan had little luck with either, but that hardly mattered. He was enjoying himself too much to care about it.
"With you in District 1, there's no way we'll be able to hang out like this anymore," Marcus said as they played the basketball arcade game.
"We'd have to go our separate ways eventually," Evan said, tossing his own ball. It bounced off the backboard. "Once we graduate, we'll all be busy with work."
"How can you say something so cold when we've spent years together?" Yuyan asked.
"I'm just being realistic."
"Geez, when did you get so depressingly gloomy?"
Evan cursed inwardly for failing to keep up the charade. The original Evan had been cheerful and outgoing, and while they shared some similarities, that well-loved kid would never have said such a thing. "Oh, sorry, I—"
"Don't worry, I understand. It's hard being an F-rank." Yuyan gave him a pitying look.
Marcus nodded and patted him on the back.
I take that back. You two can go to hell. Evan gave them the middle finger in his head.
"That's why we, the generous and kind best friends we are, decided to give you this!" With a flourish, Yuyan pulled a rectangular box from her shopping bag.
"That's..." Evan blinked. He had seen Yuyan buy it at the mall earlier and assumed it was for herself. It was one of those handheld gaming devices kids begged their parents for, the kind that had once sent a boy into a screaming fit in an electronics store when his parents refused to buy one.
"It's the latest Orion Deck!" Marcus said.
"It's the Pro version, even better than mine." Yuyan eyed the device with a hint of envy.
"Why would you buy me this?" Evan asked.
"So we can play together, duh," Yuyan replied. "You've always wanted one, right?"
"Yuyan and I split the cost," Marcus added.
"So what do you think? You'd better like it! That thing was expensive!" Yuyan said.
Evan held the box in silence for a long moment. It was the first present he'd ever received. As an orphan, he'd had no parents to buy him anything, and his exhausting minimum-wage job had left him with neither the time nor the opportunity to make friends who might think of him that way. After a lifetime of being overlooked, someone in this new world had finally thought of him.
A small part of him insisted the present belonged to the other Evan, not him. Yet he couldn't hide his smile. "Thanks. I love it."
***
Days passed, and somehow Evan found himself holding an admission letter to Central Awakener Academy. The paper was thick and slightly textured, with an embossed crest. His name was written in elegant script rather than typed, and nothing about it suggested a fake or an elaborate prank.
"So you did make it." Hye-jin whistled. "Congrats, then. Need help tidying up?"
Evan shook his head and went to his bedroom. Reid had promised he'd be accepted, so most of the packing was already done, and his train ticket had been bought. Somehow, it still hadn't sunk in. He was going to Central Awakener Academy. He, an F-rank?
On the platform the next morning, Evan half expected someone to tell him the letter had been sent to the wrong person. Nobody did, and he sat in his seat with a dazed expression until his phone buzzed with a message from Reid.
[On the train?]
[Yeah], Evan replied.
[Good. I'll meet you at the station when you arrive.]
[Okay]
Evan sighed and turned to the window. The city blurred as the train gained speed, and on the horizon, the Tower rose above everything else. The heart of Nova Terra. He wondered what it would look like up close.