The sun had not come out this afternoon, and the night would likely pass without a glimpse of the moon and the stars. Water curtains dripped from the corrugated roofs of the establishments, creating unique tunes as they hit the ground.

Through the foggy glass walls, Sky made out the glimmers of lamp posts and the silhouette of umbrellas in the streets. Some individuals might call this weather gloomy, but the assistant professor found it rather tranquil. The world had been in a constant rush, forever moving in a blur, and it needed a little pause once in a while. Sky didn't mind that the rain always slowed down the time, compelled people to step back a bit in their daily lives.

He lazily swirled the half-empty pint glass in his hand and studied the obscure reflection of the pendant lights before he took a sip of the beer. The liquid warmed his throat, but the sensation dissolved right away, not even reaching his gut. Underwhelmed, Sky put his drink down, picked up the fork, and helped himself to a piece of roasted baby potato. A shot or two of whiskey would have been perfect for the cool atmosphere, but he had made an oath to never consume any hard liquor the night before a working day.

Besides, it's not a good idea to drag him into it, he mused as he directed his eyes to his companion in front of him. He brought back the glass of beer near his mouth to hide the smirk that threatened to appear when he was greeted by the sight of JP scowling at the plates full of different dishes. He could not tell whether the young instructor was worried about being unable to finish the food or upset that he had been tricked into coming to this all-you-can-eat restaurant.

Maybe a little bit of both, Sky decided.

When they had entered this place earlier, he had given JP the right to choose their main course, but the younger man had argued that Sky should be the one to do that since it was a treat for him. Because he didn't want to have a prolonged discussion in front of the restaurant's counter, the assistant professor had shrugged and proceeded to pick the dishes while hoping JP would be fine with his choices—chicken cordon bleu, garlic butter prawns, pork barbeque, spring rolls. And then, they were given roasted baby potatoes, glazed carrot strips, and cucumber tomato salad on the side.

Sky continued to drink his beer without taking his gaze off JP, watched as his light brown eyes seared. Those pair often gave his emotions away, flaring like coals when the owner was ticked off and turning into ashes when he was afraid.

Just from their first encounter, this guy had established that he was not a person who would easily bow down to anyone. Yet, within a few weeks of them working in the same office, Sky had uncovered that he was not as fearless as he had made himself out to be. He had been a witness to JP's few vulnerable moments, and the discovery made him itch to peel off the young instructor's whole brave façade just so he could see more of what was behind the pretense.

The temperature in the room went up just as the thought crossed his mind, but Sky chose to pin the sudden blood-hot feeling in his face on the delayed effect of the alcohol. He abruptly lowered his hand, causing the bottom of the glass to hit the table with a rap.

His unwitting action startled JP. The young instructor stared at Sky with wide eyes while his hand with a skewer stopped just a hairbreadth away from his mouth.

"What? Are you already drunk?" JP asked, placing the pork barbeque down on his plate without taking a bite.

"I guess I am," Sky muttered, lying to the instructor. And more to himself.

"That's weird. I don't remember you being this easily drunk when I went with you and Dion to a bar-and-grill on my first day on the job."

Knowing it was safer not to answer the statement, Sky feigned full interest in the food. He took a slice of cordon bleu from the serving dish.

"You've been in this city for nearly a month. How have you been coping in a place away from home and your family?" the assistant professor randomly asked. He regretted it belatedly as he realized that the subject might be too personal.

A drawn-out beep of a car followed his question, making him grimace. Uncertain whether JP had kept quiet or his answer had been drowned out by the harsh sound from the outside, Sky raised his head to confirm.

The Philosophy instructor was looking down at his plate. A faint smile rested on his lips, and the lack of brightness in his eyes made it clear that the expression was not a happy one.

"Home and family, huh?" JP whispered, poking the piece of unshelled prawn with his fork, "I'm not sure if I still have anything like those. Only my grandma had ever loved me as a family, and since she passed away a year ago, I've never known what it's like to have a home again."

He stopped for a second. And a couple more.

While Sky thought it best not to butt in. There must be a reason this younger man was now willing to bare a part of his soul to someone who was hardly close to him. All Sky could do was listen.

JP grabbed his own glass, gulped the beer down, and refilled it with the pitcher. "I don't think you'll ever relate to what I'm saying though. You're the very picture of a loyal son and a responsible brother, but some people just find it hard to devote themselves to their flesh and blood because, you see, not everyone is as lucky to be born into a loving family like you."

Upon hearing the last sentence, Sky mirrored the instructor's grave expression. He wordlessly returned his fingers around the pint glass, twirling it in a laidback manner and observing the remaining foam on the beer settle down.

"It must have been nice, right?" JP continued. Despite his muted voice, the sentiment in it was loud. "To grow up surrounded by people who can provide you with everything, including all the love and support that you need."

Sky made a rueful smile, picking out the emotions that layered the other man's words. Dejection. Envy. Once upon a time, he too had been in a place where all he could feel was grudge against the world. But he could not fault anyone for assuming everything had been handed to him on a silver platter when he had been a child.

"Perhaps," he answered calmly before looking back outside.

The rain had eased up; water fell from the roof, drop by drop. The assistant professor took note of the increasing number of lens flares on the road.

"I've been told by the people in the children's home that my biological parents were killed in a vehicle accident when I was barely a month old. No one among my close relatives wanted to bear the responsibility of raising me because they believed I was the bad luck who caused my parents' death, so I ended up in the orphanage."

Sky didn't look at his companion as he continued to talk, but the thick silence was as good as a confirmation of the other man's reaction. His mind provided him with an image of JP's shocked expression.

"You want to know what it's like to grow up with people who love you unconditionally, but I can't give you the answer to that because even I never experienced a perfect childhood."

At the same time as his gaze shifted to the table, his mind wandered back to the days when he would go back to the children's home from school, dirty and full of scratches. The administrator would scold him then for getting into a brawl with kids who had picked on him for being 'a boy with no mama and papa.' It had not been even because of his messy state that the adults in the orphanage had been concerned, but because the bullies' parents had also happened to be one of the biggest donors in the orphanage, so the administrator had wanted to avoid getting on their bad side.

Smart but headstrong as a child, he had grown up always bearing the punishment for defending himself because no one else would do it for him.

"I'd never known what it was like to have anyone stand up for me or what having a real family was until Mom and Dad adopted me as their son when I reached ten." Finally meeting JP's incredulous eyes, Sky added, "I don't have the blood of a De Vera."

He took a moment to reflect upon his last statement and thought that his younger siblings, especially his brother, would not be pleased if they heard him say that again. Cloud and their little sisters had always been aware that he was not biologically connected to them, but not once had they ever treated him differently. And they never liked it when he talked as if he were an outsider in the family.

"You're still a De Vera," Cloud had told him one time, "You're still Mom and Dad's first son and Grandma's eldest grandchild. You'll always be my older brother, and I won't let anyone, not even you, tell me otherwise. I'm pretty sure Rain and Sunshine think the same thing. To hell with blood is thicker than water. That saying is too corny and old school."

Sky overflowed with pride for his brother, remembering those words. Even at a younger age, Cloud had already been well-reasoned.

"I'm sorry."

JP's voice broke through his reminiscence. The Philosophy instructor propped his elbow on the table and covered his eyes with a hand.

"God, I was just being bitter about my life, but I didn't mean to take it out on you," JP mumbled. Despite the effort to hide his expression, his flustered face didn't escape Sky. "I guess I'm the drunk one here. I'm really sorry."

An unspoken agreement to just leave it to that excuse passed between them.

"Don't be," Sky answered. He cut a nugget from the chicken dish, stabbed it with the fork, but didn't bother to eat it. Instead, he emptied the remaining beer from his glass.

JP removed his hand from his face, only to give him a curious look.

"You're not completely wrong after all. Regardless of the life I had as a child, I'm still lucky to finally end up in a place where people never made me feel like I didn't belong," Sky said, topping up his drink.

He remembered that even after he had been adopted by the De Veras, his situation at school had not immediately improved.

His classmates would often tell him stuff like, "You're a fake son, and I'm sure that once your mama has a real baby, they're gonna return you to that place."

When Gemma De Vera had gotten pregnant for the first time, the ten-year-old boy had been convinced that he would be abandoned again. A few weeks before the mother's due date, his adoptive parents had decided to sit him down, and he'd thought, 'This is it. They're gonna tell me to pack my things now and go back to where I came from. Maybe they'd also ask me to return the name they gave me because it's reserved only for their real children.'

He'd been prepared to accept the harsh truth, but he had not been nearly ready for what the couple had revealed to him.

"Sky," his adoptive mother had started, calling him the name that was meant for a De Vera child, "Do you know that long before you came into our life, your dad and I had been trying to have a baby, but with no luck at all? Then one day, we just gave up on the idea and decided that we'd have a boy from the children's home instead. That's you. But just a couple of months after you arrived at this home, this gift that we had been wishing for in a long time also arrived. Do you know what it means, honey?"

"It means you no longer want me," he'd answered in a shaky voice while gripping the fabric of his shorts tightly.

The memories of that day were still vivid in Sky's mind. He could never forget the big, warm hand of his father that had ruffled his hair reassuringly, as well as the kind words of his mother that had made him begin to see the once-ugly world from a new perspective.

"It means you're our lucky charm. We believe that you're the one who brought all these great things into the family. And I just want to ask, honey, once our baby boy comes out, will you help Mom and Dad play with him? I'm sure Cloud is excited to meet his big brother."

That was when the dam had broken. Before he'd known it, young Sky had been crying in the arms of the De Vera couple, asking in between sobs, "Can I really stay here with you? Can I really remain as your son? You're not going to take back my name and return me to that place? I like the name Sky, and I like the baby's name Cloud too. I promise I'm gonna be a good big brother to him."

True to his words, Sky had become a responsible older brother not only to Cloud but also to Rain and Sunshine, who had been born a year apart from each other, to the point that his younger siblings had grown so attached to him.

"As soon as I graduated from college, those so-called relatives of mine managed to find me somehow and wanted to have me back." Sky let out a low, humorless chuckle, tightening his hold around the pint glass. That certain flashback left a bad taste in his mouth, making the beer he was drinking way sweeter in comparison. "After all those years, they claimed to be my real family, simply because we were of the same blood."

Even then, the De Veras had proven that if there were people most worthy of calling themselves his family, it was them. The younger siblings had been nowhere near the age where they could fully understand the gravity of the situation at that time, but when they had discovered that some strange people had been trying to take their older brother away, they'd decided to have a sleepover at his room every night to make sure that he would not be stolen from them. Sky's blood relatives had backed down and left him alone only after his parents had warned that they would press charges against them for harassing their son.

"People say you can't choose your family, but that has never been the case with me. I'm convinced that my whole life has been founded through my and other people's own free wills."

The assistant professor eyed the long crimson entity, which he had been pretending he could not see for a while. He let his gaze roam around the area, surveying the tangled strings that extended from the people who were oblivious of their existence, before he fixed JP with a cool stare. Later, he could blame the alcohol for another episode of his tactlessness. "So I've been thinking, if I was able to make choices about a lot of things, why can't I do it with a partner whom I want to spend the rest of my life with? I don't want anyone, or anything, to dictate me about the people whom I want to keep close to me."

"I see," JP answered quietly. There was no trace of hard feelings there. Not in his voice. Not in his eyes. Not in his regretful smile. "So that's why you're so against these strings of fate, huh?"

Sky didn't answer. Murmurs, shuffles of chairs, and the clinking of glasses and silvers from the nearby tables riddled the place. The tick of the clock played in his head with each passing second.

A female server came up to their table, disrupting the uneasy atmosphere between them. She asked Sky if they wanted to order any of their add-ons, to which the assistant professor answered that they were fine now and that they wouldn't mind having the bill anytime. Nodding, the waitress went back to the counter.

"But you don't have any problem with Cloud being bound to that young lady whom he obviously has a crush on," JP said in a matter-of-fact tone as soon as they were alone at their table again. His attention was all on the food now.

Sky briefly noted that the young instructor's plate was already packed with dishes. Picking up his fork, he muttered, "I know Cloud's affection for her is genuine even if he can't see these strings." He shook his head lightly, an ironic smirk flitting on his lips. "No, it's especially because he can't see these stupid strings that I believe his feelings for Artemis are not forced at all."

If JP had a response to that, Sky didn't get to hear it as the waitress returned, handing out the bill to him.

Without saying anything, the assistant professor opened the tab before his eyes drifted to the rustle in front of him.

"How much is it?" JP asked, rummaging through his bag.

Sky kept his amusement at bay. "Don't worry about it," he answered solemnly, and he fished his wallet out of his pocket.

"What—" JP directed his confused frown at the older educator. He opened his mouth. Stopped. Blinked his dubious eyes. His scowl deepened. "But I'm supposed to be paying."

"There's still a lot of next time to make it up to me," Sky said with finality, slipping his debit card into the bill holder and giving it back to the female server, "I won't mind if you treat me once you receive your first paycheck."