Zeres somehow found himself back at Little Flower library, staring at its front door in silence.
His throat hurts. His chest hurts. But it was the kind of pain that hurts so good. Damn it! What does that even mean?!
He kicked the air and leaned his back against the library's door, raking his silver hair as he fixed his gaze up into the night sky. The sky was totally clear from any clouds. All he could see was the dark sky and little twinkling of the stars that dotted the night sky.
After a long stretch of silence, a long sigh escaped his mouth. Then suddenly, his thoughts just drifted to when this door had been closed in his face as he was being asked to leave.
Before he went to the cabin and saw Alicia and Kiel together, his thoughts had been already pretty distracted – chaotic even. All because of Iryz's unexpected confession before she shut him off. He did not know how to react to it. It was all too sudden that it caught him by surprise. He had not expected to be confessed to by Iryz.
This afternoon, he just stood there for a long time, staring at the door before he eventually turned around and left.
Now here he was, back here as though he was a homing device that would aim itself here. As if this was a place that he could return to. Even though she had told him he was not welcomed here anymore and reminded him not to come back here in the future.
"Boss." A voice echoed and Zeres shut his eyes after hearing that voice.
"What."
"The girl is actually still not home." The information came quickly.
Zeres' eyes flew wide opened at the news, pushing himself off from the door and the lazy posture he had on earlier totally gone as he faced the bodyguard. "What?!" that single word came out with a hint of panic.
"She left an hour ago. At that time, she was with a friend, and I believe they were headed to maybe a party based on her clothing that she had on."
"Where?!" his voice was a little loud as he demanded for the location.
"Err… I don't know. They took a cab and –"
"You, idiot." Zeres cut him off. "Why didn't you follow after her? Or send someone else to follow after her at least?"
The man blinked and then he scratched the back of his head. "But boss, you only ordered me to watch over if some suspicious person came here to cause trouble for the young lady. You didn't order me to follow her everywhere. And I don't think you have anything to worry about boss. It's normal for a lady her age to go out like that. She's been stuck with you inside her house for many days, don't you know that? Let her –"
"She's still injured for goodness' sake!" Zeres almost roared out. He could already feel a massive headache coming on at the thought of Iryz getting hurt again even before she was properly healed from the previous incident. He pressed at the space between his brows and drew in a deep breath.
"I think she's doing really alright now, boss. She's wearing something like a cosplay getup. I heard her friend said 'wow, that looked so realistic! I never thought you're such a good make-up artist!' and when the friend tried to touch it, the young lady had said 'no touching, you don't want to ruin my work of art'. I also heard her mentioning that she'll only be staying at the party for a couple of hours at the most. So I don't think there is anything to worry about. Her friend seems nice too. Why don't you go inside and wait? There should be only another thirty minutes before she would be home." The man spoke so fast and nonstop that Zeres had no chance to interject what he wanted to say.
Zeres could only sigh a little in exasperation. His expression was dim. He did not understand why she would leave the house now when she was supposed to be recuperating obediently at home right now.
"Go find her whereabouts and report to me immediately. If she's not back here in thirty minutes… I'll be personally going to pick her up." He ordered grumpily and the man nodded quickly, not daring to protest.
Once the man rushed off and could no longer be seen, Zeres impatiently paced up and down in front of the door. Five minutes passed and Zeres found himself unable to take it any longer. Just waiting there without doing anything was killing him! He disappeared and materialized back into her room. He thought that he had to grab a jacket for her or something to warm her up just in case she needed it. She was still not fully recovered. What was she thinking going out like that and gallivanting on the outside when the air is so cold? He could not help but be worried for her health.
To his surprise, he saw a jacket draped over the back of her chair. That girl… she must have forgotten to bring that along, right? The fact that it was nicely folded over and placed in such an obvious position, she must have intended to bring it along as she left the house.
He tsked and grabbed the jacket. Shaking his head, he thought of how forgetful she was. However, something else that was sitting on the desk caught his attention as he turned to leave.
Shock and disbelief quickly colored his face as he stared at it with widening eyes at the painting on the table. The painting… it was an image of a person dressed all in black. Everything was covered except the eyes.
Those clothes… those eyes…
His heartbeat raced as he moved closer to the table involuntarily. His fingers trembled as he reached out to pick that painting up.