Aster Veren
Episode 92

- Carel

Thank goodness I brought her here, my mind could not turn away from the happy expression of Aster who was enjoying cotton candy in his hand.

It was a great relief to see her gloomy expression had gone from that adorable face of hers. Then I turned my attention to the scene before me, paying attention to the atmosphere of the festival this afternoon. Really very crowded.

"You want to?" Aster's voice again caught my attention, I saw he had brought half a cotton candy in his hand before my face.

"No." I answered slowly pushing his hand, keeping the cotton candy away from me.

"Yes already." He said back to enjoy his cotton candy while humming.

"It looks like your feelings have improved, huh?" My murmur felt both corners of my lips drawn upwards as I watched Aster devour the rest of his cotton candy cheerfully.

"You said something?" Asking as he brought his face closer, suddenly made me feel surprised and moved away from him.

"What are you doing?" My words tried to cover my face that was warming up, but Aster quickly grabbed my left wrist with his right hand while his left hand held a cotton candy stick.

"I was just asking did you say anything?" He said near my ear, "I don't hear because it's too noisy." It made me feel ashamed half to death because he spoke near my ear with my hand held by him.

Yes, the atmosphere is getting crowded because the day is getting late. We also had to return to the academy immediately before being caught disappearing from the dormitory. But somehow, I still want to linger with Aster.

"... ti–no. Is there anything you want to buy again? If there's no we go back now." I said I can't return Aster's look that looks so tempting.

"Hee... are you back now?" His screams surprised me while releasing my hand.

"What's? Of course we should go back, right?" I stopped when I saw him smiling ignorantly at me, "what's wrong with your ignorant smile?" I felt something was wrong with him.

"none. Let's go back." He answered while taking my hand again and holding her.

Without asking much more, I followed his light steps. "Get me that thing!" I said grab a cotton candy stick in his hand, then throw it in the trash I passed.

"Ha~ah, I feel relieved now." His words made me glance at him, noticing his purple bead that was returning misty. "Thank you for bringing me here, Carel." Next time I meet you. Then her big smile again adorned her beautiful face.

"Next time I'll take you to see the fireworks." My words immediately threw away my gaze from the purple bead.

Shit, what's wrong with me? My mind felt my unusual heartbeat racing at this fast speed when I saw the expression Aster made.

"... Do you hear me Carel?" The voice of Aster surprised me.

"Ya–what?"

"Ma–maaf, hehe .. so, what are you saying?"

"... about the accident of the grandmother at that time, is the news true as Kalea said?" Asking suddenly changed the subject while looking deeply into my eyes, I saw his eyes radiate a hint of hope that he wanted the inexistence of what he was hearing.

"I hope what I heard wasn't true. But all the articles I saw ...." The next one sounded out, according to my guess. He did not want to acknowledge the truth before him.

"Unfortunately it's all true" I said after gathering all my courage, breaking a shred of hope.

"But why? What's wrong with Aunt Claretta and her mom? Why did they plan such a bad thing on Grandma? I ... I really can't understand." He stopped his footsteps right in front of the festival entrance. We managed to get out of the crowd and pull over from the middle of the road.

"You know? The Veren family used to have problems with their families. The matter was so great that the Kalea family held a grudge against the Veren family. I don't know what the problem is, but do you remember when your father almost married that woman? Let's just say they avenge them." I obviously can't explain the whole truth. I just don't want him to think about things that a kid his age shouldn't think about.

Besides, I also did not want to get into trouble from the old man, he himself asked me to keep my mouth shut as much as I could. And I promised her that until she found out I'd laid it all out to Aster. He'll definitely finish me off. So I think it's not time Aster found out about it. And if he should know, it's not me who has the right to tell him.

"Just because you're not married? Isn't that too evil? Aunt Claretta is married and happy with Mr. Albert, right? He also showed his daughter. Then why take revenge now? It should be if you want to take revenge when papa cancels his marriage, right? But, wouldn't it be strange if they took revenge on Grandma? Shouldn't they take revenge on Dad? And now people say the Veren family framed Aunt Claretta to destroy the Alaric family. Doesn't that sound ridiculous? The victim was a member of the Veren family. But what I heard ... do they think the Veren family is stupid? Why would we go so far as to sacrifice my grandmother's life to trap Aunt Claretta, don't they think about getting there? A bunch of stupid people!" He said at length with his up and down voice, looking very upset and slowly his purple bead began to glaze over, his lower lip began to be bitten by him with anxiety to hide his body that began to tremble.

"... I can't accept that they did something this bad to my family. I–hiks, if I had never met my family. Maybe at this time granny–" he continued with tears that began to spill, his body was even more trembling due to sobs.

I grabbed her tiny shoulder with both hands and looked at her fixedly, "Aster, don't ever say that you've never met your family. If your father were to hear this, he would definitely feel very sad. Your mother wouldn't like to hear that either. If you hadn't met your family, wouldn't we never have met?" I said before hugging her body that looked so fragile when I found out this shocking thing.

Though I brought her here to cheer her up, I thought she could finally return as cheerfully as ever. But ... who would have thought that he would explode on the way back to the academy. I continued in my heart while patting Aster's back gently, trying to give him peace. Even though my heart was upset with the two women.

***

- Kalea

The time is 03:45 pm. But there's no sign Aster is going back to the room. If he knew the situation would be like this, it was better for him to know the truth from someone else.

No, I made the right decision. My mind trusts the actions I have taken.

"... I'll look for him one more time." Break me up while leaving the room, walk quickly down the stairs and leave the dormitory.

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Thanks for reading...