Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Change Of Heart
"What should I do? What should I do?" Walking along a pebblestone paved path, a young child sporting a head of fluffy shoulder-length sky-blue hair furrowed his brows and scrunched up his nose in thought. A hint of worry and the dimming light in his eyes uncovered his low spirits.
Just as he was about to walk around the bend, his body froze, his eyes straightened.
The sight before him was simply indescribable.
Furry, soft, cute, light pink with long ears that folded to the sides as it nuzzled against the outstretched pale hand that was about to caress its soft fur.
With only his slanted side-back profile facing Rip, the other party rubbing the head of the contented rabbit did not notice Rip's presence.
Rip bit by bit moved his gaze up from the rabbit to the pale hand and then up to the body and face.
A bomb set off in Rip's mind.
Black hair and pale white face like he was sleep-deprived, even without seeing their face in its entirety, Rip instantly recognized him to be Blake!
Except, he wasn't the Blake he knew.
The gloomy aura haunting him that never seemed to leave his side dissipated almost completely in this moment. None of the usual unpleasant feelings prickled Rip's skin much to his surprise.
Just then, something even more unbelievable happened.
Rip felt the glass within his eyes that was his world view shatter into millions of pieces, never to be recovered.
But that wasn't as important as what was unfolding before his wide, unblinking eyes.
The slow, but definitely not illusory, curve of the other's always flat straight lips.
It brightened up his entire face, under its light even his dark circles faded a lot.
His previously gloomy and expressionless eyes were wiped clear and translucent.
In Rip's daze, he seemed to hear a crisp, pleasant melody floating around in the air, reaching out to gently touch his eardrums.
At first, the sound was faint and barely audible, like inconspicuous gentle air caressing his ears. Then as if having courage from knowing they were alone, the humming strengthened and became louder and clearer.
That's when Rip realized that he was not hallucinating, someone really was humming!
No one else was here besides him and Blake. He himself definitely wasn't humming, so the culprit could only be one person…
Rip set his eyes on Blake.
Rip at once traced the source of the melody to Blake's closed lips.
The delightful and clear melody moved Rip's heart inexplicably. Although no words were sung, Rip felt as though many words that spoke directly to his heart danced in a flurry around his head. Dripping one at a time into his heart, causing it to gradually overflow with unexplainable emotions.
His voice was… beautiful…
Was Rip's heartfelt feeling.
It was one critical hit after another.
Before Blake discovered him, Rip decided to leave with the mental image of what he had coincidentally stumbled upon ingrained in his mind, replaying itself over and over again as he made his way back, his body swaying.
Suddenly sensing a presence, Blake looked back at the exact corner where Rip had just been. Luckily, Rip had left before then, otherwise, he might have been found out and put on a spot.
Not seeing anyone, Blake calmly went back to playing with the cute light pink rabbit. A pink, sparkling aura shrouding his body.
*****
Chase was checking out his bank account while sighing.
During this period of time at the special training, he hadn't been working on any jobs or taking on any work, so the amount in his account was pitifully low.
Thinking of the approaching date to pay the hospital bills, dark, gloomy clouds loomed above his head as an execution knife hung in the air, ready to see blood at any time. His orange and yellow hair dimmed in the threat and no longer brightened up the room.
In the middle of another sigh, the door to the dorm was loudly opened and a dazed and dreamy Rip walked in stumblingly.
He instantly tripped over the leg of a bed and fell flat down on his face with a thud.
Chase winced, that must've hurt.
Putting down his cellphone, Chase walked up to the downed Rip and squatted down.
Chase asked playfully while poking the unmoving Rip, "Hello? Is anyone home~?"
As if responding to Chase's inquiry, Rip flipped himself over. The first thing Chase noticed was Rip's wide-open, sparkling blue eyes that shone so brightly they overshadowed all the stars in the sky.
Uncontrollably, the corners of Chase's lips bent up. His joy was contagious.
"What got you so happy?" Chase asked and helped Rip up.
Standing wobbly back on his two feet, Rip reached out and grabbed onto Chase's arms, surprising Chase with his sudden, unexpected action.
"What?"
With the other's head bowed, Chase was unable to see Rip's expression. Suddenly, Rip's body started trembling as if enduring something.
Worried, Chase kept asking him what was wrong and if something happened.
The other slowly raised his head, Chase was taken aback to see the shining pair of eyes aimed at him and the beaming smile on Rip's lips that reached his eyes.
"You won't believe what I saw!" Rip exclaimed as he shook Chase hard. Though with his shorter stature and weaker, child's strength, Chase wasn't shaken by much if at all. The slight back and forth movement of Chase's body was only Chase indulging Rip.
Rip did not notice, even if he did, he would not have cared at this moment, because what he saw today truly shook his heart and mind so much that his legs went weak and his mind was in chaos. At the same time, his mind has never been so clear! The previously drowsed fire in his heart burned anew with added fuel.
"What, what did you see?" Chase asked hesitantly, what could it be for Rip to be so excited and… crazy?
"He smiled!"
"He smiled?" —Who's he?
Rip shook his head up and down rapidly, almost unable to contain his suppressed emotions anymore. "Yes! He smiled!"
"Who?" Chase asked, still very confused as to what's going on. Somebody smiling was no big deal. He and Rip were always smiling as well, what's so novel or exotic about this person smiling?
"B-B-B-B—" In his extreme excitement, Rip kept stuttering, out of breath, unable to release the entire name from his mouth.
"B?"
"B-B-"
"??"
"Blake!!" Rip screamed at the top of his lungs. Finally getting out the name stuck in his throat.
The entire building shook from the force of his voice.
The trainees, no, they should be called applicants now, were all startled by the sudden shrill scream that spooked them.
They thought that whoever made that sound must really hate this "Blake" person very much for them to use such force and ferocity to say their name. Although curious and wanting to go out and see, none of the applicants left where they were, still struggling to think of something to showcase on the day of the test. Those who already knew what they'll be doing were starting to prepare the props and practicing for that important day.
"Blake! He smiled!" Rip repeated to get his point across to a confused Chase.
Heaving and panting from the physical and mental exertion, Rip wiped off the thin layer of sweat on his nose.
"Phew!" Rip sighed with a light-hearted smile, relieved to finally get the secret off his chest.
Extending his perception outward, Rip immediately burst into laughter. Falling to the floor and rolling around.
Chase showed a silly and moronic expression that trumped even Rip's previous exaggerated actions.
Coming back to his senses and then hearing Rip's merciless laughter, Chase frowned and sulked, "You're kidding with me, aren't you?" He questioned suspiciously.
Rip tried to speak but was unable to, for some reason, he just couldn't stop laughing!
So he could only keep shaking his head, using his body movement to answer Chase.
"Do you have any evidence to prove your outrageous claim?" Chase interrogated a crazy Rip who continued to roll around on the floor like a sugar-rush puppy.
This time, instead of shaking his head no, Rip bobbed his head up and down.
Taking the time to pull his phone out of his pants pocket, Rip handed the phone to Chase in the gap of rolling around.
With three points disbelief, one point worrying Rip had gone crazy, and six points curious, Chase opened the phone's gallery and opened up the most recent photo.
With a single tough on the phone screen, the photo expanded and covered the entire phone screen.
Almost similar to Rip's reaction, Chase collapsed to the floor.
Not knowing when, Rip had stopped his fooling around and turned to look at the shell-shocked Chase.
Smirking, Rip voiced triumphantly, "See? What did I tell you? And you didn't believe me. Humph!" He was really smug and had another good laugh at Chase's uncool reaction.
Chase numbly nodded his head, saying dryly, "...I believe you."
Then he paused, hesitated, but decided to try anyway. "...Are you sure he doesn't have a twin brother?"
Rip pursed his lips. Then shook his head. "I don't think he does. I can tell that it was Blake, not another person. Besides, even if he does have a twin brother, there's no way they can come here without young master Ian's permission."
—After the incident last time, Rip had changed to calling Ian "young master" when in front of others. Only calling the other "big brother" in front of the person himself.
Chase thought it made sense and accepted it.
"So? What do you want to do now?"
Rip immediately smiled. He knew he and Chase were like-minded, the other even knew that he was leading onto something with everything he did.
"I really, really want to be friends with him."
Rip fisted his hands. His eyes sincere.
Crossing his legs on the floor, Rip honestly expressed his opinions and thoughts, "I think we should directly ask Blake if he wants to be friends with us rather than trying to get him to warm up to us first. We weren't completely right for following him around and pestering him. It might work for some people but not him, and we were only disturbing him in the end. We were stupid for coming up with those plans when we should have been straightforward with him in the first place."
Chase nodded in agreement. It's true. They were too extreme.
Chase revealed a smile. "True friendship should have sincerity and honesty."
Rip smiled as well.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone