"Fulfilling my end of the Deal"
The sound of footsteps echoed inside Octavinelle's hallway, as Azul was the only figure in sight. It was late at night, everyone is probably and should be asleep at this hour but his housewarden duties simply took a hold of him once more.
He was tired — sevens know how dire his need for sleep was — and yet he couldn't. The silence was far from comforting. He hated nights like this, as they invited unwanted thoughts and memories into one's mind. And such memories did like to haunt him at night.
The memories of how Yumiko got to work inside the Mostro Lounge and the contents of their contract came back to haunt Azul once more. Her time working there was surprisingly short-lived. Why wouldn't it be? She hates working here. She despises me — of course she does. Why wouldn't she? Azul thought once more.
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"I believe things are going well with you and the prefect?" Jade took a sip from his teacup.
Azul paused, taken aback, before going back to sorting his paperwork once more. "Of course. I believe she will be working here in no time."
"Oh my." Jade laughed under his breath. "I just hope you won't get attached to her in the process."
"That's nonsense, Jade." Azul scoffed. "Don't mistake me for a fool getting attached to a mere magicless human being."
"Of course not. I wouldn't dare impose such a thing," Jade said in his usual condescending tone.
"She is alone in this world, with no family to run to, with phenomenal cooking skills that are out of this world, that mind you, she does not even know she possesses. Who knew sitting alone at the beach would get her to open up that easily." Azul rambled on about the prefect to his confidant while Jade seemed delighted to hear how things were progressing.
"Just a few more days and everything will fall according to plan." The sound of a muffled gasp and porcelain shattering on the floor interrupted Azul's speech. His stomach dropped as he saw Yumiko standing right there at his office doorframe, tears forming in her eyes.
"Oh, I didn't expect we would have a visitor today. It seems I forgot to close the door earlier." Jade excused himself, this time shutting the door behind him on his way out.
The silence between them felt like forever as his eyes widened.
"How long have you been…"
"Long enough," she gritted her teeth,hands balling into a fist, trying to hold onto whatever composure she had left. "Long enough to know that everything about us was a lie."
Azul quickly stood up from his chair. "Yumiko, No. You've got it all wrong…"
"Don't talk your way out of this, Ashengrotto. I heard it loud and clear." This was one thing Yumiko hated the most — her own feelings betraying her. She paused as tears finally began to fall. “Je n'arrive pas à croire que je t'ai fait confiance…” “I thought you were different."
A quiet sob escaped her lips. "I thought you had changed." She paused.
"Am I truly nothing but an asset to you?"
His hand reached for her. He wanted to reach her, he wanted to close the distance and yet his pride held him in place, leaving him standing behind his desk. Azul Ashengrotto, housewarden of Octavinelle, the man known for his perfect choice of words, found himself mumbling incoherently, desperately trying to say something, anything, to fix this. And yet the right words simply wouldn't come out of his mouth.
As Azul fumbled for words, Yumiko looked down at the shattered pieces on the floor before wiping her tears. "Give me the total amount."
"What…" He was taken aback as she walked toward him.
"Since you seem to know me well enough and this is all part of your plan, fine." She picked up the pen from his desk. "You should know me well enough to know that I hate being indebted. Give me the contract."
"You don't have to. Please, Yumiko…" Before he could stop her, she had already finished drafting a contract using a blank one from his table.
"I will work here until my debt is repaid." She paused once more to wipe her tears for the last time, as she then signed her name on the paper.
"Mais après ça…" she gathered what was left of her composure, looking down at the man in front of her. "I never want to see your face again."
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It has been officially one month since Yumiko fulfilled her end of the deal, it's been officially one month since Azul poured his heart out inside his office, and one month since he got it broken. He, out of all people, knows about the importance of fulfilling their end of the deal. As much as it hurts, he is honoring their deal the same way as she did. That is to say “she does not want to see his face again” but that does not mean he could never see her from afar.
He wants to hate her for what she did, for taking his only beating heart away and smashing it to pieces as if it were nothing. He wants to feel things and do something, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to hate her the same way she hated him.
His thoughts came to an abrupt end as a giant shadow loomed over his figure. As if fate could not toy with his feelings enough, a giant phantom jellyfish came floating by their dorm’s aquarium. He stood by the glass, close enough to see the creature a lot clearer but not close enough to touch the glass. He found some odd sense of melancholy seeing such a magnificent rare creature. Sometimes he wonders if it would be a lot easier if he was just a jellyfish, if it would be a lot easier if he was just like her. Heartless and unable to feel pain.
Oh what a foolish man he truly has been.
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