Chapter 35: The Rumor

Third Person's POV

The next day, Astra woke up to the sound of loud noises coming from outside. She stretched her body a bit before getting up and heading to her window to investigate. She wanted to check where the loud noise was coming from.

As she pulled back the curtain, she saw that the noise was coming from a drill. There was construction in progress happening beside them. It's a bit far but she can still hear the noise.

Astra opened her curtain slightly wide to let the light into her room, then began tidying up her bed before heading out. She glanced towards where Armann's room was located. The door was closed shut.

She had never been inside that room before, so she was curious about what Armann's room looked like.

She shook off her thoughts and headed to the kitchen to get some water. Before she could even open the fridge door, she noticed a piece of paper with some money attached to it using a bird-shaped magnet.

Curious, she picked up the letter and read it while getting water from the refrigerator.

"Astra, here's the list of things we need to restock. Here's the money. Feel free to add more if you like," the letter said.

There were only a few items on the list, but there was a considerable amount of money left by Armann, which surprised Astra.

Setting down the water on the counter, she headed towards Armann's room to ask. From outside, she knocked three times.

—Knock, knock, knock— The sound of her knuckles against the door echoed faintly.

"Mr. Armann?" She called.

But there was no response. She knocked three more times, but still, there was no sound except for the noise outside.

—Knock, knock, knock— The wooden door still made the same sound.

"Mr. Armann?" Astra called out again. "I'm coming in," she said.

Even though she hadn't heard any indication that she could enter, she immediately turned the knob and stepped inside.

"Mr. Armann? Are you here?" she said, but all she found was an empty room.

As Astra slept, Armann had already left for work. He didn't want to wake her to give her the list, so he simply left it on the refrigerator along with the money.

"He's gone," Astra said with a hint of regret in her voice.

Just earlier, she was curious about what was inside Armann's room, but now she found herself inside it.

Astra scanned the room. Unlike the design outside the room, this room has a weird layout. Armann's room was unfamiliar to her. It has a Japanese and Korean touch of layout.

In the entrance, there's an entryway with shoe storage on the side and an automatic light above.

She stepped a few steps away from the door and saw a king-size bed with side tables. Papers were scattered across the study table, some rolled up around the room, resembling a makeshift library of papers.

On the right side of Astra was a large shelf serving as an enclosure of sorts. Across from it was a door, which Astra assumed led to a bathroom, while on the other side was the bed.

The room was quite empty, filled only with papers and nothing else. Astra had no intention of venturing further inside, so she stood near the door while observing.

With nothing in sight, she decided to leave when suddenly, a piece of paper flew from the desk in front of her, even though there was no breeze inside.

Not wanting Armann to suspect that she had entered, she slowly walked towards the center and picked up the paper. She checked to see what was written on it, but to her surprise, there was nothing.

She placed the paper back on the table and glanced at the other papers, but none of them had any writing on them.

"That's weird," Astra muttered to herself.

Unable to find anything, Astra hurriedly left the room, feeling nervous that Armann might discover she had entered without permission and stay long.

She headed back to her own room to change and be productive. She needs to buy staff and more. She decided to eat breakfast outside since Armann had left plenty of money anyway.

As she stepped out of the unit, Astra strolled around the area to see what was nearby.

She passed by the adjacent building under construction. It was still in its early stages, so the noise wasn't too distracting yet.

Astra continued exploring the area, taking note of the cafes, restaurants, and small service shops like barber shops and nail salons scattered around.

"This place is lovely," Astra praised.

There was plenty of greenery around, showing that the management cared for the surroundings really well.

Some of the people Astra encountered while jogging nodded or smiled at her. Some even greeted her with a cheerful "good morning" and waved, which overwhelmed her. She wasn't sure whether to respond and wave back or just ignore them.

Caught off guard by the cultural difference, Astra found herself smiling back at the people.

After walking for a few minutes, she spotted a beautiful spot not far from the convenience store. Astra went inside the store first to buy some food before searching for a shady spot in the area.

There, she sat down quietly and ate while watching the wide grass field on the other side of the road. There's also a few cars passing by.

"How's the store doing, I wonder?" Astra suddenly remembered her past life.

Because of what happened, Astra forgot that she still had a job she wasn't attending. She also hadn't been going to school.

"It's been a month since I've been living in Mr. Armann's house. I must have missed so many days at school," she remarked. "They might be looking for me," she added, half laughing.

"Who am I kidding? Nobody's looking for me. No one would bother to search for me even if I disappeared forever. They probably don't even realize I'm not attending school," she said.

She glanced at the convenience store as the bell on the door rang, indicating a customer. It reminded her of her job.

"Maybe they've replaced me already," Astra wonders.

As she pondered, a breeze blew through, bringing an idea to Astra's mind.

"What if I stop by there today? Besides, I don't have anything else to do," she said.

Even though she was alone, Astra found herself smiling at the thought. She was looking forward to seeing what she would find at the store.

For hours, Astra wandered everything about their house. She is lost in thought when she finally decides to leave.

She called a taxi to get to the grocery store, but before doing so, she decided to pass by her old house since it was on the way.

Astra paid the driver and stepped out of the car. Just like when she came here with Armann, she stopped at the sight of the yellow tape. She still wasn't ready to approach their burnt-down house.

She lingered there for a while, unable to make a decision to leave the place. She only bid farewell to the house, as if it were a person who would respond in return.

"House, I'll be going now. I'll come back next time, okay?" she said, turning away from the house.

As she walked, her feet led her to her school. There were a few students entering, while others were leaving.

Due to an uneasy feeling for some reason, Astra hurriedly left the place. She was avoiding others who knew she would appear any time soon.

She went to her intended destination. She ended up at a relatively large grocery store because it was the only place she knew that sold everything on her list.

Upon entering, she grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it towards the vegetables aisle. She picked up the cooking essentials listed on her paper including garlic and onion.

"What else?" Astra asked herself as she read the items on the piece of paper. "Oh, eggs," she added.

As she headed towards the poultry products, Astra was unaware that some of her classmates were also inside the store. They had just finished class and were here to buy snacks.

"There's no indication of how many I need to get. Should I take a dozen or just half a dozen?" Astra pondered to herself as she decided how many eggs to pick up.

While she was busy picking, her classmates were approaching her direction. They were too engrossed in their conversation to the point of not noticing Astra.

"Hey, did you hear about that girl? Lately, she hasn't been coming to school," began one of her female classmates.

"Yeah! I heard their house burned down recently," replied another classmate.

"Have you heard why their house caught fire?" asked another girl with long hair.

"I heard that the reason their house burned down last time was because of a left candle. Maybe she forgot to extinguish it when she was doing rituals," added another female classmate.

"Yeah, I heard she's been collecting all these creepy things for some kind of ritual. No wonder their house burned down. It's all her fault," replied one of them.

As Astra listens to the conversation, she feels a mix of shock and confusion.

"What do you mean creepy things? Some sort of dark stuff?" asked one of her classmates who wasn't aware of the news.

"Yeah, I heard she's like a witch or something. People say she does all sorts of weird rituals," added another.

"I saw her one time hanging out near the abandoned building. It was so creepy!" commented another.

"Seriously? I heard she goes there to practice witchcraft. Like, she's summoning spirits or casting spells or something there," chimed in another classmate.

"I also saw her with this weird book, like some kind of spellbook," said another.

"Yeah, I heard she's been reading all these ancient texts and stuff. She's definitely up to something dark," another added.

"My cousin swears she saw her talking by herself in the road last time, looking around nervously," mentioned her classmate.

"Whoa, that's intense. I always knew there was something off about her," commented one of the girls.

"No way! That's freaky. I'm staying far away from her," added another.

"But you know what? What if those rumors aren't true?" the girl with glasses asked, thinking logically.

"They are true. Ask Lucy, she's known her for a long time," replied the girl confidently.

Though Astra didn't want to hear the conversation, she couldn't help but overhear it due to their loud voices. They didn't mention who the girl in the rumor was.

Astra couldn't help but wonder if they were talking about her behind her back, so she glanced behind her to see who was talking.

As she glanced back, she noticed that the girls were about to leave, so she couldn't recognize them.

This made Astra ponder deeply. Based on what she heard, she felt like she was the girl mentioned in the rumor.

Astra couldn't even decide how many eggs to get because of her thoughts. She almost forgot to pay for the items she had already picked and walked out of the grocery store in a daze. Fortunately, a staff member noticed her and called out.

After paying for her groceries, Astra walked with deep thoughts. She didn't realize she was heading somewhere.

~ To be Continued ~