10 Regrets

"Well it does seem more ancient than ordering things with a tablet," I nonchalantly replied.

The food that came from the tablet probably tasted better and fancier than this restaurant. Plus, the food from the tablet would instantly appear after the order, which meant that there were no people involved in serving or making the food.

While Luke looked around the humble-looking restaurant, the server placed our food onto our table about ten minutes later. Even though the food didn't look bad, I could tell it was inferior to the food that came from the tablet. However, both Luke and I were starving after all that shopping that we gobbled up all the food to leave the restaurant shortly after.

I wondered what we should do next after checking off all the items on my list in things I could do. The only item left was going to the bookstore.

'There would be things like manga and light novels, right?' I thought while walking towards the map.

It seemed that the bookstore was all the way across the other side of the mall. I spotted the hours of operation on the bottom of the map.

'Four hours before the mall closed.' I concluded after I subtracted the time remaining.

It was enough time to look through all the books that I was hungry for after landing in this world. I quickly ran towards the bookstore while Luke was nowhere to be seen when I occasionally looked back.

'He is probably struggling with the bags,' I dismissed the thought of Luke.

Whenever I was in the bookstore in my past life, I wouldn't leave until the store closed as I got too engrossed in the books. My eyes tinkled as I entered the manga section hidden in the second floor near the back.

When I immediately picked up the familiar 'book' and I couldn't stop reading.

'It's been six years since I picked up a decent 'book' like this,' I almost cried from the thought.

Maybe that was why I didn't notice the marble that kept on vibrating in my pocket. When the bookstore announced that it was about to close, I ended up buying several interesting new 'books'. I pleasantly skipped out of the mall towards the same entrance I entered to catch the bus.

I frowned when I detected a young boy with panicked eyes with tons of bags in both his hands pleading for help to the people around him. Naturally, he was surrounded by a large crowd that couldn't ignore an beautiful child asking around if they had seen a young girl with red hair and unique orange eyes.

I instantly turned my gaze away from Luke with a great amass of guilt immediately after he spotted me outside.

"Hey Luke!" I nervously greeted him.

I forgot to contact Luke after I was engrossed in reading some manga in the bookstore. I did feel some faint vibration in my pocket, but I ended up ignoring it while telling myself that I would answer the call later.

[Block All Calls] I changed my setting when I got annoyed from the buzzing that kept on interrupting the climax part of the book.

Luke dropped the bags he was holding while he promptly sprinted towards me. He lightly pinched my cheeks while I pretended to wince in pain.

"I'll hold the bags from now on?" I asked cautiously.

I bent down to pick up the bags, as Luke let go of my cheeks after he relieved some of his former panic.

The crowd dispersed while some passersby sighed with relief.

"Well, I'm going to go catch my bus now. See you next we - eekk?" I was stopped from running to the bus stop after I picked up my bags.

Luke stood frozen in his spot while he grabbed onto my wrist.

The next time I blinked, I found myself standing in front of a large mansion.

"Can you grab Rika's bags and deliver it to her house?" Luke asked to the maid coming towards us.

Luke's mansion towered over me as I immersed myself into his other worldly life. I guessed rich people really did live a different life than my average room filled with cheap stuffed dolls and princess dresses from when I was four.

When the maid took my bags away, Luke grabbed my hand to drag me into a room that resembled a fancy living room with fancy leather couches and crystal glass tables. He signalled me to sit down as I silently sat down onto his couch.

"Do you know why you're here?" Luke angrily asked.

At this rate, it looked like Luke was going to start another lecture again. I knew when his eyes started to narrow with a certain smile plastered over his face, I was in for another scolding.

I made myself swell up some tears and started to knell down on the couch to make me seem more pitiful, "I know it was irresponsible of me to behave this way, but when I picked up a book in the bookstore, I lost track of time."

"Next time, I'll make sure to get your calls when we go out like today and I'll go shopping on my own to not get you involved," I added when Luke was still eerily smiling.

These lectures usually started when I slacked off too much in our study sessions together. I struggled to keep my focus up for long periods of time as I was tortured with preparing with the SATs every day in my former life. But even when I studied for the SAT, I would reward myself with tiny breaks by sleeping throughout the night.

However, I couldn't even have that small reward in this life due to the time-space rooms. It would feel like an eternity had passed by once I left the study room with great exhaustion.

Every time I felt like I was going to pass out from all the studying, my respect for Luke grew as he displayed no signs of exhaustion even though he was going through the same things.

"I'm not mad because you called me out to go shopping together. It's because you ran off on your own and I had no way to contract you as you weren't getting my calls." Luke replied madly.

"I told you that we should stick together. I read that the third district is dangerous because it's still underdeveloped compared to the second and first district." Luke added to support his initial message.

"Well nothing happened today," I softly muttered.

"I hope you figure out what you've done wrong in this room tonight. The maid already left a message for your parents that you'll be sleeping over tonight." Luke left me alone in the room.

Sometimes, Luke tried to act like my second parent. I knew I appeared a little unreliable due to my lost memories of my early childhood, but sometimes Luke stepped over the line like today.

I took out the new 'book' that I bought earlier today out of my shirt and starting reading as I had no intention on 'reflecting'.

In my second year of elementary school, I started to order my uniforms a little bigger than my actual size when I realized it was practical for hiding stuff. I hid my secret stash of junk food I bought from the tablet into my pyjamas to snack on during the night.

Oddly, it eventually became a habit of mine as I kept on putting small things inside my shirt that I wanted to hide from Luke.

Half-way through the book, I heard footsteps coming towards the room. I quickly hid the book back into my shirt before I heard the door opening. Luke entered the room with a tray full of lavish food that was likely my dinner. The waft of delicious food entered into my nose.

"I'm not so hungry, so you can take the food back." I told him when he was about to place the tray onto the table.

Unfortunately, I ate half of my stash of junk food to commemorate reading some manga for the first time in six years. I reminisced about the best thing I did in my former life and it was eating junk food while reading a piece of manga.

Since I wasn't planning to eat any more food today, I pushed the tray back towards him.

Luke's eyes started to narrow with his familiar eerie smile instantly plastered onto his face.

"What are you hiding Rika?" He studied me carefully.

"Nothing!" I answered with a bit of panic in my voice.

I abruptly took a step back for every step Luke took towards me. Unfortunately, I encountered a dead end few steps later as Luke observed me intensely to try to find the 'thing' I was supposedly hiding.

Luke suddenly grabbed my shoulders to shake me lightly to revolve his suspicions. My book awkwardly fell out of shirt, but luckily my secret stash of junk food was taped to the inside of my shirt so it didn't fall out.

I always carried around a tiny roll of tape in my pocket of my school blazer. Thankfully nobody ever imagined someone carrying a practical item on their bodies in the first district other than sparkling accessories.

"What's this?" Luke asked.

"The 'book' I bought at the bookstore today." I replied back while wincing at the folded cover of my new 'book'.

A friendly cat-girl brightly smiled as she posed in a typical Japanese school uniform. She was hugged by her similar loli friend with white bunny ears that complemented her long neon-colored hair. I sighed as the book with a semi perverted cover had to be the one that fell.

Luke picked up the book on the ground, "Is this 'thing' the reason you're not eating dinner?"

I rushed towards the tray of food on the table as I flushed with embarrassment and grabbed a fork to start eating, "No, I'll eat the dinner that you brought me now."

I forced myself to eat some egg salad as I tried to appear obedient after taking a quick glance at Luke's scary expression.

Luke walked over to sit on the couch to look over the 'book' more closely.

His eyes widened up as he flipped through the fascinating graphics of the girls clinging onto the male protagonist to become energized with more power. Occasionally, I found Luke's eyes to broaden from interest when he encountered something he had never imagined before. Unfortunately, most times it happened, it was bad news.

He probably never picked up a 'book' like manga before because he grew up in a sheltered family in the first district. Luke's curiosity quickly turned into disapproval as he frowned after closing the 'book'.

After I finished stuffing more food into my mouth, I asked, "Can I have my 'book' back now?"

"I'll be confiscating it for now," Luke avoided my hands that tried to grab for the book.

"Please finish the rest of the food to -"

"I'm not hungry anymore, I can't eat more than this. Plus, I want to go back home now. I'm pretty sure I learned my lesson now, so I think you can stop with the lecturing." I whined as I interrupted him while my hands captured air instead of the 'book'.

"I'm sorry that I ran off on my own and I promise from now on I'll stick with you if we ever go out." I continued while sulking.

I promised myself that I would never go out with Luke in my holiday again. It was bad enough to stare at his expressionless while he analyzed the manga with his bright eyes. I blamed myself as it was my fault for inviting him during our precious break time as I hid from the shame of carrying a mildly perverted shounen manga.

Maybe it looked as if I was reflecting with my head down from my depression of others reading my embarrassing book.

Luke walked to sit beside me to pat my head while comforting me, "I'll let you go back home today because I think you have figured out what you have done wrong. However, I'm still going to take that book."

'Please don't take that book!' I internally screamed.

However, I needed to get home soon to organize my thoughts. I blindly nodded as Luke escorted me to the teleportation gate in his mansion.

When I fully regained my awareness of my surroundings, I found myself back in my bedroom with a toppling number of fancy shopping bags placed in front of my bed.

I jumped into my fluffy bed to cheer myself up as I tried to get rid of bad thoughts.

I could always hope that Luke would throw out the book on his own. Even though I was curious to read the other half of the 'book', I always had the chance to the library to borrow one out.

After going through the eventful day like a fast- forwarding spiraling film, I sank into the darkness as I thought: 'I'm never ever bringing Luke anywhere with me if possible anymore~,' with great regrets.