Best Friends
Astrol couldn't help but smile as she stared at her two closest friends - Bora Go and Hinari Chen - while they were busy playing video games on the TV screen. They were currently hanging out at Hinari's place. Hinari lived in a multistorey building that made use of elevators due to how huge it was. Their house was really big, mostly because of the anscenstral library they had in the house. The library was enormous, and it only got bigger as it moved on from one generation to the other since her family line was that of history keepers.
They were inside Hinari's room, which was spacious and designed in a comfy yet luxurious manner. She had a walk in closet, several mirrors and lots of male celebrity pictures pasted on her walls. As Astrol continued to stare at her friends, she couldn't help but remember the day she first met them. She met Bora first, and she was really grateful to her because she saved her life....
That day, she'd just gotten beaten up by her seatmates after the incident with Mr Cha. She felt so helpless, weak and tired. At that moment, she decided she was going to end it all and jump off the school railing since she was very high up. She was busy with the thought when a girl suddenly approached her and handed her a tissue. At that time, she didn't care and completely ignored the girl, letting her do whatever she wanted to do, till the girl started praising her for her looks. She became filled with nothing but hate and immense anger. She expected the girl to leave seeing how angry she was, but then the girl unexpectedly hugged her telling her that if she wanted to cry, she should do it properly so that she could at least feel better afterwards.
Astrol felt too weak and all she needed at that moment was a shoulder to cry on. She didn't know why but she burst out crying.... crying out all the tears that she'd been trying so hard to hold back and conceal for so long. After that day, she went on with her normal life but the girl just wouldn't stop bugging her, and as time went by, they grew to become really close friends. Bora introduced Astrol to Hinari in grade six back when Hinari was a transfer student to their elementary school. Turns out that Hinari and Bora had been good friends for a long time but it never occurred to Bora to introduce them to each other till they met.
Astrol was apprehensive of Hinari at first because she was a royal descendant from her mother's side, and although she wasn't full royalty, her dad was the royal history keeper. However, Astrol eventually came to really like Hinari partly because she was close to Bora, and mostly because Hinari was such an amazing person, it was easy to like her and get comfortable around her. Astrol chuckled as she remembered Nanny Yu's reaction when she informed her that she'd revealed her true identity to Bora and Nari.
Nanny Yu had actually fainted. When she regained consciousness, she instantly voiced out her concerns to Astrol. Nanny Yu wasn't worried that Nari knew, her family was that of the royal history keepers after all, so she was bound to know eventually. Nonetheless, she was worried that Bora knew. For some reason the fact that Bora's last name was 'Go' made her feel uneasy. 'Hae' had long evolved to 'Go', so there was a possibility that Bora might be linked to the Hae empire somehow, and if that were the case, her knowing would be very risky especially since they wanted to remain unnoticed till Astrol was ready to take back her rights. Nanny Yu soon calmed down after Astrol spoke with her. She trusted the young princess's decision. Besides, these days anyone could answer any last name right?..
Astrol's gaze landed on one of Nari's mirrors as she looked at her reflection. She remembered when she used to be so scared to look in the mirror before. It was because as she grew, she began to resemble her mother a lot. So each time she looked in the mirror, she would constantly be reminded of how she'd failed to save her parents from the nightmare turned reality, and guilt would immediately cloud her senses. But now, now she could freely look in the mirror without any worry or anxiety at all. 3 years had already passed since she met Bora. She was 12 years now and was already done with the first term of grade 7 in middle school at New Dawn International in country Z.
In those 3 years, she'd changed a lot. She got rid of most of her fears and traumas thanks to Nanny Yu and her friends, though she couldn't get rid of her nyctophobia ( fear of the dark ). She was still going for therapy from time to time and had improved a lot. She could now at least manage to maintain her sanity for a reasonable amount of time in the dark before she could find a light source.
"Earth to Astrol, hey what's got you zoned out like that?", Bora asked standing to approach her. "Uh, nothing just thinking", Astrol replied. "You've been doing a lot of thinking these days should we be worried?", Nari asked with a smile. "No you shouldn't, I take martial art classes remember? Plus I was just thinking of how lucky I am to have best friends like you guys by my side", Astrol replied again with a light chuckle this time. She had started taking on martial arts classes to learn to defend herself because she promised her parents and herself that she wouldn't be that weak Astrol anymore. "Aaaw, stop! You're making us blush", Nari said in an exaggerated manner making them all laugh. "Oh! it's already past time. We're going to go now Nari. I'll drop Astrol off at her house", Bora stated after she'd read the text she received from her family driver. Soon Bora and Astrol bid Nari goodbye after being escorted to the car. They drove off and Nari waved one last time before the car completely disappeared from her sight.