LOGINDinner went off without a hitch. The Maxwell siblings couldn’t stop praising Esther’s cooking, raving about how lucky whoever married the eldest Rodrigo would be. Amber and Jack admitted they couldn’t cook at all, and Amber even asked Esther to come by more often to teach her. The conversation flowed easily, touching on Elson’s busy schedule, Amber’s work, and even Jack’s engagement plans, which he claimed would take place in Switzerland next summer. By the end of the night, Esther had somehow landed herself on their guest list.Gaara’s name came up a few times, but otherwise Esther was grateful that the siblings were considerate enough not to mention anything about their youngest brother’s connection with her. Still, the youngest never showed up not even by the time Elson and the Maxwells said their goodbyes.“Esther, can I get your phone number? Just to make planning easier,” Amber said as she stepped toward her car.“Of course,” Esther replied cheerfully. Her contacts were finally
“I started realizing that when I was dating Gaara, at least you’d start noticing me. I thought if I started dating your friend, you’d start wondering why the hell I’d bother with him, and maybe… just maybe, you’d get interested in me.” A tear slid down her cheek.“I was such an idiot. Even to the end, my stupid hope of making you see me never came true. Instead, I dragged an innocent person into this mess. Even though Gaara wasn’t the type to take our relationship lightly, he never left me. He was always there when I poured my heart out, even when I spilled about you. He’s not the attentive type, but whenever I struggled, he helped. What we had wasn’t anything romantic to me. But apparently, he saw me as more than that. Unlike me, I just used him.”Closing her eyes, two more tears ran down her face. “After dating Gaara and realizing I couldn’t go on like that, I thought I needed to talk to Nelsy about it. But of course, fate hates me. I got wasted at our high school graduation party.
“Before I tell you anything, I need to warn you this happened a long time ago. Whatever happened back then is done, sealed, and it won’t touch the present. Can you promise me that?”Vinson nodded. By then they had already moved to a small café not far from the arcade. Since the place accepted cards, Vinson ended up treating Grace to a drink. He ordered a hot chocolate, while Sakura asked for a strawberry milkshake. They chose a quiet corner, hugged by two soft red couches.If anyone asked whether Vinson wanted to know what was going on between the girls, of course he did.He’d known Grace for as long as he’d known Nelsy. Both girls filled his childhood memories as his closest companions. The three of them grew up spending afternoons together, especially back when the girls used to visit Mr Yamazaki’s farm just to play. Even through middle school, nothing changed. Grace and Nelsy stayed inseparable, true friends from the start. Vinson simply existed between them, carrying his quiet cru
“Thirty coins.” A cigarette hung from Vinson’s lips as he dug through his wallet, trying to pull out some bills. The cashier, chewing her gum without a care in the world, dropped thirty arcade tokens onto the counter. Her eyes never left the game happening right in front of them.“Shit,” Vinson muttered when he found nothing inside his wallet. He hadn’t refilled it with cash, and this old place still didn’t take cards. At least the ATM wasn’t far. “Hey, I’m out of cash. I’m still buying the coins.”The woman only shrugged. “Whatever, man.”Vinson rolled his eyes and turned around to leave, but he stopped short when he bumped into someone standing behind him in line.“Hi,” Grace greeted, lifting her hand and patting his shoulder like they hadn’t just run into each other. “I got it.”Since she was already holding her wallet, she pulled out some money and slid it to the cashier. “Add thirty more coins.”Vinson didn’t say a thing. He just stared at her, surprised she’d step in so casually
Esther tapped his arm gently with her forefinger, her voice barely above a whisper. “Mr Felix… Mr Felix… are you all right?”Her touch pulled him out of the haze of his own thoughts. He turned, finding her no longer the small girl tucked behind short hair and a bright hairclip, but a young woman standing at the quiet edge of adulthood. The sight felt unreal, as if memory and present moment were trying to merge yet failing to match.“Yes, I’m fine, Miss,” Felix replied, offering her a soft smile that tugged lightly at the corners of his eyes. “What about you?”“I… I am all right. But I became concerned because you suddenly went quiet for quite some time. Was there something on your mind?” Her expression tightened with worry.“No,” he said, though the word lingered uneasily between them. After a moment, his voice drifted back. “But, if you don’t mind… may I ask something a bit personal?”“You may, but it depends on the question. And I cannot promise I will answer if it feels too private
Vinson woke when the bus was already humming along the road, fifteen minutes away from the Rodrigo ranch that had once been their whole world. The boy blinked hard, his gaze darting from seat to window, as if trying to understand how the morning had changed without him.“Where are we, Big brother?”“We’re on our way to our new home.”To Felix’s quiet surprise, Vinson didn’t cry or protest. He simply turned toward the window, pressing his small hand against the cool glass. Tall trees drifted past like silent witnesses, their branches brushing the sky. The world outside felt different, as though the bus carried them through a space suspended between what they left behind and what waited ahead.After a long silence, Vinson whispered again. “Big brother… why do we have to move? Is it because I was bad? Or because of the accident that happened to Esther?”Felix hesitated. He weighed the truth in his mind, turning it like a stone he wasn’t sure he should show. It felt kinder to let the boy







