Chapter 45

"You broke that vase?" Olia Isema asked to confirm after Uriel confessed what he did inside the house while she was busy talking with the woman.

"I'm really sorry," Uriel bowed his head in shame, prepared for some scolding. "I panicked a lot and broke it. The vase was even so beautiful, it's such a waste. I'm really sorry, grandma."

The old woman let out a giggle and patted his head with a kind smile. "Come on, dear, it's alright. That wasn't such a big deal. Before I had it, the vase was already broken and was only repaired by a good potter."

"Is that what those golden outlines are for?"

The old woman noticed the scratch on his hand and gently lifted it up. "That's quite right. And is this a wound from that incident?"

Uriel nodded and let the old woman treat his wound afterwards despite telling her that it's fine.

She insisted that they have to clean it and properly put ointment and band aid on it to make sure it heals without causing infections.

While looking at her carefully treating his wounded hand, it felt surreal how much he seemed to hate the idea of being with her before. The intrinsic fright and unexplainable discomfort he felt being by her side felt so stupid and useless now.

All this time, the only person who gave the effort to help him, take care of him, and entertain him was this woman.

She couldn't share his pain, but she could soothe it with her kindness and warmth.

The crackling flame from the hearth of her house was something similar to her within the chilly place they are in right now.

She is old and yet, she's more reliable than he could ever be.

Afterwards, she took a bath and rested on the bed, seemingly quite exhausted for the day even if it's too early. Uriel thought that her conversation with that woman before must've been a bit draining.

Uriel felt bored a little later with the silence of their room and since he had nothing else to do anyway, he went down to the lobby again.

He met the boy from last time who had a laptop and greeted him cheerfully, inviting him towards the seat beside him.

It was quite odd that he kept on saying that he's introverted and uninterested with interacting socially, but seems more friendly than Uriel is.

The boy seemed excited showing off the game he's playing, which eventually interested Uriel. The boy let him borrow the laptop to play the game while he continuously talks about some random, nonsense things.

With that, it was easy enough to focus on the game until the boy beside him had said something that triggered his attention.

"You know, I've looked into the news article you searched on my laptop," He began. "I remember that incident because my family was quite near the area when that happened. It was reported on national television briefly the next day, so I thought it caused quite a bit of a ruckus. I almost forgot about it until I looked further into what you searched for. I think there's a child along with the two adults that died from the accident."

Uriel paused the game and flipped his head towards him swiftly. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"The parents were reported dead, but there was a child who survived the accident. It seemed like the mother protected him, as reported and as we've also seen. That part wasn't mentioned in the news article you read, but some journalists included it. The child had lost a lot of blood, but was able to be saved at the last minute thanks to the emergency team who rushed at the site. It was quite a heavy blow to that kid, so I was wondering. Are you perhaps that child?"

Uriel was taken aback, clearly unprepared of that question.

He looked away, but couldn't hide anything at all.

"I see. I knew it was you. It's easy to figure it out, really. But that's the strange part. Since that child was you, something doesn't make sense to me."

"W-What is it?" The boy stared at him with so much intensity until he broke it off with a heavy sigh.

"Nah, it doesn't matter anymore," He shook his head. "I guess people just have to deal with what they're given. Anyway, it's really fun playing with you. I hope we meet again."

The boy stood up, closed off his laptop, and was ready to leave.