6 A Cool-looking Boy

For a moment, Lady stayed unmoving and quiet, taking in the appearance of this cool-looking stranger who showed up before her all of the sudden.

He is a slim boy of average height with short, messy pitch-black hair. It is parted to the right so that the longer chin-length clumps on his left obscure much of his face, and around the sides, it appears to spike upwards. He also has a pair of olive-green eyes that seem too keen and sharp to be considered that of a child his age.

Lady takes a closer look.

'He appears to be a little older than me, and he is quite attractive, but...' she thought to herself while she studied him from head to toe.

'He kinda looks edgy. Like an emo shorty.'

The boy raises a brow at her, puzzled as to why she is peering at him intently.

Unbeknownst to her, he is already aware of who she is, though it does not seem to be the same the other way around - or perhaps, the reason why she appears to be somewhat examining him is because she is trying to recall who he is. She should already know, of course, considering that she is that man's child.

His uncle's child.

"Hey, you..." she eventually began after a moment of silence between them.

"You've got a really cool hairstyle. I like it."

He stills at that, dumbfounded.

Just when he thought she finally recognized him, she suddenly pointed out something that was totally uncalled-for. She is even beaming at him, and seeing that genuine smile alone, he knows that she means that compliment. Still, he has to remind himself -

This girl is that man's child.

He's more than sure she is.

"Say, you're Lady Mireille, right?"

"Yeah, that's me! Pleased to meet you!"

Lady meant that as an amicable greeting.

But for some reason, he now appears more stumped. It's like he can't believe what he's seeing and hearing - an expression of mixed bemusement and skepticism. This gets her slightly tilting her head to the side, feeling perplexed herself.

"So, you know who I am..." she continued if only to move the conversation forward.

"May I ask who you are?"

The boy didn't reply.

Instead, he only regards her in silence, taking his turn to scrutinize her. He shoves his hands into his pockets and leans back a little, his chin lifted up for a bit. It was only when he drew out such a laid-back and casual stance that she realized he had a solemn and refined posture earlier.

Under his detached and haughty gaze, she feels kind of underestimated.

"Well, this is quite unexpected. You are Uncle's daughter, but you don't even know who your relatives are? I thought for sure that he'd at least tell you about us. If you happen to not recognize Grandfather and Grandmother either, they won't be happy about it."

Lady froze.

Hearing him mention that he's her relative had the gears in her head turning. She tries to remember him from her story, but she only comes up with a few side characters whose personalities and backgrounds she can't quite recall. There are her two uncles and two aunts, but as for her cousins, she has no idea at all.

Lady can only stare dumbly for some time, unsure of what to do or say.

"Fallon..." he then suddenly blurted out, taking her aback.

"The name is Fallon."

"Oh, I see...!" she chirped, smiling all sunnily.

"Fallon, then! Nice to meet you! My name is Lady!"

"Yeah, yeah. As I said, I already know who you are."

"So, are you about to go in, too? Wanna go together?"

He furrows his brows together, a frown tugging at his lips. She doesn't know why, but she seems to have disappointed him. That's the look of someone whose expectation hasn't been met - she knew because she'd seen it many times in her previous life.

'Hmmm? What could be wrong? I tried to be as friendly as I could. Maybe I said something he didn't like? I have little to no clue when it comes to making friends since I rarely go outside, so I'm not really sure what may be the matter,' Lady pondered, concerned and confused by Fallon's unsettlingly ambiguous reaction.

It's not only the unimpressed look that he's giving her, but the air around him is kind of standoffish as well. She's not one to judge straight away, but going by how he keeps regarding her as if she's some lowly thing, she can at least tell that he holds some sort of bitterness towards her.

Lady was about to say something again, but before she could utter a word, she heard footsteps and chatters coming up from behind Fallon.

"Hey, who's that girl?" chimed a boy around their age.

"Wait, could she be that girl?!" said another one from the side.

"You mean that girl?! Uncle's daughter?!" exclaimed the other one who came with them.

"What's this? She doesn't seem to be anything special."

"Yeah. She does resemble Uncle because of her hair and eye color, but she still looks plain and boring to me."

"I've heard from Mom and Dad that she couldn't read and write. She must be pretty dumb, too."

Lady scowls at the three boys, her brow twitching in annoyance.