NOVEL NEXT Chapter 495.
Chapter 495. Rekindling Old Flames before Parting Ways at the Break of Dawn. (3/3)
I’d seen enough and started walking toward Rosa who was hugging Dawn.
“Wait!” As soon as I passed by Aurelia’s side, she grabbed onto my hand and stopped me.
“What is it now? I’d rather not intrude on your touching reunion.”
“You did the exact same thing last time slipping away when no one was looking and I didn’t get a chance to thank you before.”
“There’s no need to thank me. We were just two meddling kids sticking our noses into other people’s business where it didn’t belong.”
“But... I definitely have to repay this debt… though... I don’t really know how I would.”
“If you want to thank me just e-Transfer me $2,000 for the family consultation services provided.”
“Just money?”
“Yeah, I’m a lowlife chasing after money. Is there a problem with that?”
“No… but isn’t this a bit… too cheap considering what you’ve done for my family?”
“It’s more than I get in a month at work so I’d say it’s fair.”
“So little?”
“Yeah, so little, you got a problem with that?”
“I’m a surgeon… it’s not like I’m lacking money right now… you could ask for more if you were trying to be considerate.”
“I don’t want it. Save it for your daughter. And don’t even think of trying to send any more than what I ask, I’ll just decline the transfer. You can send it to this email address. Just for the record, it’s a burner email.” I handed over a small torn-off piece of scrap paper with the email address written down.
“As for the security question, just set it to ‘What is your name?’ and leave the answer as Ran. Anyway, we’ve got to go. Ugh. I’ve got work starting Monday.”
“Hold on, you still have two days, don’t you have plenty of time still? You don’t need to leave right away.”
“Yeah we do have to leave now or we won’t make it in time for work on Monday.”
“Is your flight long?”
“Flight? We’re driving.”
“Huh? That motorcycle wasn’t a rental?”
“Nope.”
“You’ve been traveling on that?”
“Yeah.”
“I can arrange a flight and cover the cost for you. I can also have your motorcycle shipped back.”
“Thanks for the offer, but it’s fine.”
“But why? Isn’t it uncomfortable and exhausting to travel like that?”
“It can be, but it’s refreshing. You should try it with your husband sometime. You might enjoy it. You’ve got a lot of time to make up after all.”
“Boy, yuh may have won our little bet this time, but don’t get cocky.” Dawn’s father who finally settled his emotions got a word in.
“Bet? What bet are you talking about?”
“It’s nothing.”
“I bet him you’d get back together before you showed up and he lost miserably. It was a pretty good show. I didn’t think Dawn’s father was such a big cry baby though.”
“Shut up.”
“He's always been a big crybaby.”
“Aurelia, don’t tell him that. And don’t say that so loud.”
“What are you getting so embarrassed about?”
“Dawn doesn’t know that. I’ve never cried in front of her before. I have to keep my dignity as a father. If my daughter doesn’t ever cry in front of me there’s no way I can cry in front of her and look so weak.”
“Isn’t it a bit late for that? You were crying a lot just now though.” Aurelia poked his chest and teased.
“But that’s because I hadn’t seen yuh in so long.”
“I’m leaving now, I’m really not interested in watching a stupid couple flirt.” Seeing it and remembering how Rosa and I did similar stuff on a daily basis made me want to bury my head in a hole and die.
“Can you at least... properly say goodbye to my daughter before you hit the road?” Aurelia made a hesitant request.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Besides Rosa’s already saying her goodbyes. There isn’t a need for me to say anything to her, is there?”
“Can yuh… please consider it? Having someone she’s grown to care about quietly leave without saying a word… I don’t want her to experience... the same sort of thing...” Dawn’s father made the same request.
“Haaaaah. I don’t really like goodbyes, but I guess I can at least say a word.”
I approached the pickup truck where Dawn and Rosa were, opened my mouth, and said with a deadpan expression to Dawn’s face loud enough for her father to hear, “A word.”
“Yuh little bastard! Yuh know that’s not what I meant!”
Dawn had question marks floating above her head.
‘I am much confusion’ was written all over her face.
“Old man, be more specific or people won’t understand what you want.”
Aurelia covered her mouth and giggled, “Pfft. He really went and called you an old man.”
“Damn brat. Just because it’s true doesn’t mean yuh have to go an say it.”
“Don’t sulk. Even if you’re an old man now, I love you just the same.”
“Mom, Dad…”
“What is it?”
“Can yuh please go inside? Yuh’re embarrassing.”
“Aurelia… our daughter called her father an embarrassment! I’m a failure of a father!”
“You’re always like this, overthinking things. She just said we were embarrassing her in front of her friend and her first lo-”
“Mom!” Dawn snapped at her mother again. Seeing the way Aurelia was able to tease her daughter, it seemed they’d grown much closer in the few days they’d spent together.
Aurelia made a fake gasp, “Oh my. A slip of the tongue, how careless of me. Don’t mind us, we’ll excuse ourselves now.” Even though Dawn knew everyone here already knew it seemed she still found it embarrassing being called out.
Aurelia dragged Dawn’s depressed father inside as he mindlessly muttered to himself. “I’m an embarrassment. An embarrassment. Embarrassment…”
Was this how her parents were like in their younger days? I couldn’t help but think they were a rather eccentric duo. I didn’t expect under her father’s exterior shell hid a side like this. I suppose he only let it come out in front of Aurelia.
She knew all of his weaknesses and strengths. Both the good and the bad. Despite that, she still loved him even now. I suppose that was what marriage entailed.
“Where are yuh going, Rosa?” Dawn asked when Rosa started to walk away.
“I already said my goodbye, so I’m just going to wait by the motorcycle.”
“Yuh don’t need to-”
“Don’t worry about it, consider it my parting gift.”
“S-Sorry… for being a bother…”
“You’re not a bother, you’re a good friend I made on this trip. I’ll get mad if you call yourself a bother again. We’re sisters who’ve drunk from the same cup of wine.”
Dawn nodded back to her. What the hell? Further words were unnecessary between sisters? Is that what that meant?
Seriously though? They became sisters in a week? Isn’t that way too fast? How? I don’t understand.
“I guess… this is really goodbye then…” Dawn spoke quietly, holding her left hand in her right, fidgeting with them in front of her body at hip level.
“If that’s how you want to word it then sure.”
Her eyelids lowered halfway, she was fighting something back.
“You gonna cry?”
“I’m not.”
I took out my phone and started recording.
“What are yuh doing?”
“One of my hobbies is making girls fall for me then coldly rejecting them so they cry. Once they start crying I record them. I’m a real piece of shit you know.”
“I said I’m not going to cry.”
“Haaaah. I see. What a shame. I was hoping to post the video of you crying like a baby for the world to see. I’m sure I’d get a lot of views.”
“...”
“Nothing else to say?”
“...”
“I see. Then I’m going.”
“Wait…”
“What is it?”
She raised her trembling hand and tugged on her sun hat.
“Can yuh… uh... keep this safe for me?”
“Your sun hat?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re giving it to me?”
“No. I want yuh to temporarily keep it.”
“Why do you want me to keep it for you?”
Obstructing her face with the sun hat in her right hand, she said, “So the next time... we meet… yuh can return it.”
“Isn’t that sun hat important to you?”
“It is. So can yuh promise me yuh’ll keep it safe for me and not lose it or let it get damaged?”
“I’d rather not.”
“Why... not?”
“I don’t really like taking things for nothing. If I receive something from someone I give something back in return. That’s my policy.”
“Yuh don’t need to worry about that since yuh’ll be giving it back to me in the future anyway.”
“I see. So a rental of sorts. But even then a rental has a price.”
“Then I’ll hold onto something of yours and return it to yuh when we meet again.”
“Hmm… but I don’t really have anything of value on me that would be considered equivalent in value to serve as collateral.”
“Anything’s fine. A pen or something.”
“Haaaaaah. A pen? You could be more greedy than that, you know. Well, whatever, I did buy some souvenirs and I did happen to buy one with you in mind. I wasn’t planning to give it to you in the end, but I suppose I will. Just keep in mind, it’s pretty cheap, less than $5, it really isn’t worth anything.”
I stuck my hand into my pocket, pulled out a cheap gold bead bracelet, and slipped it on her left hand.
“Th-... thanks.”
She really didn’t want me to see her face.
“Here.” She turned away from me as she handed her sun hat over.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, forcefully turned her to face me, and mercilessly snapped a picture on my phone.
“What are yuh doing!”
“So that’s what you look like when you’re crying. I was convinced it’d be a mess since you were trying so hard to hide it… didn’t think I’d be so off the mark.”
Out of respect for her wishes to not let anyone see it, I’ll keep her crying face to myself. If anyone saw it… I should stop thinking about it.
I placed my hand on her head and kept quiet. I wasn’t good at dealing with crying girls. I criticized Aurelia, but I guess I wasn’t much better.
“Yuh’re the first person... to ever see me cry…”
“I am? I’ll have to apologize to your future boyfriend in that case.”
“Yeah, yuh will.”
“Alright, it’s really time for me to go now.”
“O… kay.”
She was trying to keep herself together even now.
“Until the next time we have a vacation, whenever that may be. See ya then.”
“Mm… see yuh.”
I walked past her and hopped on my motorcycle in front of Rosa. Once the key was in the ignition I revved the engine and took off without looking back. We blew past Dawn’s side kicking up a gust of wind blowing her hair to the side.
When we were fifty meters away I sneaked a peek in the side view mirror behind us.
Dawn fell to her knees. She’d broken down and was no longer able to fight back the tears. They were no doubt flowing out without stop. The last twig that held a dam together had snapped. The dam had finally been broken after eighteen years holding the floodwaters back.
The break of Dawn...
Departing at the break of dawn… what a coincidence.
