Chapter 05: Could Be, Could Not Be

Before they started eating, Amethyst finished her drip and Slate removed it for her.

And as they eat, she couldn't help but exclaim, "This is truly delicious."

Her eyes were shinning as she looked at Slate who was stunned for a bit by this sudden and enthusiastic compliment before nodding his head and continued eating.

Amethyst kept eating with a smile and Scarlet could only chuckle at this sight.

"Hmmm, but I can seem to taste something else in this vegetable broth," she once again commented as she tasted the broth.

"Oh, he must have included a few spices for your anemia and the fact that you didn't seem to have eaten," Scarlet answered as she took a sip of the broth as well.

Since they were spices, they were not bad for her as well.

Amethyst looked at Slate in amazement.

"Just keep eating," Slate then said as he couldn't hold her stare any longer.

Amethyst blinked a few times before she happily continued eating.

Scarlet returned to their unit after having the meal for she was already getting tired, while she had Slate stay to help Amethyst clean up. Insisting that she was still a patient, despite Amethyst's refusal.

In the end, even Slate told her that she is indeed still a patient and she was left with wiping the table while he did the dishes, much to her embarrassment.

He took care of her as a doctor, made her meal and now he was even cleaning up for her. Just what kind of situation was this?

She couldn't help but sway as she kept thinking about this.

"If you are still not feeling well, then go and rest. I will leave once I am done with this," Slate noticed this and commented.

"I think I'll accept that offer if I can offer you a tea or coffee at the very least," she replied before sitting down and looking at him.

Slate could only sigh as he wiped his hands, he can tell that this person is as stubborn as his sister.

She had been going on and on about repaying them while having their meal.

Plus, the fact that she still opened her store with all the lack of sleep and even still had the energy to smile at her customers no matter how much she was feeling unwell. That was enough proof of how stubborn she was.

"Then I shall accept your tea and please do go back to sleep after this," he could only say in defeat as he sat down on the seat across the one she was sitting on.

Amethyst smiled and stood up to prepare some tea.

Silence enveloped them but she didn't bother for her back was facing him and she does not feel any awkwardness.

"Here you go, please do enjoy," she then said placing a cup in front of him before sitting down on her original seat.

The sleep and the food and now this tea somehow allowed Amethyst to regain quite a lot of her energy.

'How long has it been? Since the last time I had enjoyed my meal with other people?' she couldn't help but think.

The tragedy of her other life happened while having a meal with her family, that every time she has a meal with people, her whole world would turn into a colorless one.

The one a while ago was a first, that the colors didn't fade and her feelings were not heavy.

"You can already rest if you can no longer hold it in," she heard him say and when she realized it, he was supporting her from the side.

He was already standing up and she was leaning on him.

"When did I?" she asked as she tried to sit straight.

Slate clicked his tongue, "Will you stop getting depressed? That affects your health as well."

Then he just went ahead and carried her to the room.

He noticed it that after she sat down, the air around her started dropping until it reached the point where even he can feel that she was down.

By the time he looked up from his cup, she was already falling to the side, about to collapse.

Amethyst couldn't retort for she was suddenly feeling much more unwell and the energy she seemed to have regained disappeared the moment she remembered her family.

"Go on and sleep," he then said as he helped her with her blanket.

He no longer needs to tell her to do so for the moment her head hit the pillow, she was already asleep.

Slate could only shake his head, something is going within her, in her emotional state that affects her health.

"Tsk," he once again clicked his tongue.

In order for him to really diagnose her, she needs to tell him what it is that makes her suffer. He can't just keep guessing for he was a doctor not some kind of psychic.

He once again helped her with the cups they used and checked on her one last time before heading to the door.

And as if remembering something he returned and apologized inwardly before taking the key of her unit and leaving a note on her bed side table.

It is better than calling for the guard to open her door if ever her health deteriorates even further.

"How was she?" upon coming in to their unit, he found his sister by the window taking in some fresh air.

"Have you taken your medicine?" he asked.

"Don't worry I am not neglecting it," was her answer.

He nodded before going to the kitchen to get some water.

"So, how was she?" Scarlet asked once again.

"She went back to sleep, it seems to be a psychological one rather than a physical one," he answered.

"Hmmm, could it be a reoccurring one? Remember two years ago? And I also noticed something was amiss a year ago," Scarlet commented.

The pattern was the same for every year and it always happens every last month of the year.

"Could be, could not be. But despite being neighbors for the past four years, we barely knew her so we will not understand unless she herself opens up," was his reply.

"But I like her," Scarlet thought for a bit before saying.

Slate furrowed his brows before sighing, "Are you telling me to be her personal doctor and help her?"

"Not entirely if she herself does not want to be helped with but we can watch over her as well. Plus, I think I am starting to understand the attraction I had been feeling towards her all this time."

Slate just looked at her, Scarlet had been telling him for a while now that she could feel some attraction towards Amethyst but she couldn't understand the reason behind it.

"And if I am not mistaken then there is a big chance for her to help me in my last project," she then said before pointing at the laptop in the table.

Slate walked over and checked it, in there was a site with books that seemed familiar to him at the same time not.

"I seem to have seen these books somewhere just recently," he commented.

"Of course you just did, you just came from the room where those books were displayed," Scarlet said with a laugh.

That's when it hit him, it was in Amethyst's room, sitting in a shelf together with a laptop that looks like it was not used for a long time now.

Then he furrowed his brows, she has a different laptop back when he bought a book in her store.

'Was that destroyed or something? It has some sentimental value? It doesn't seem like it was left there on its own for dust was not covering it nor it's edges. It was clean,' was his thoughts as he looked at the five books in display.

All of which was written by one person alone, Astral.