It was my brother's time to shine. He finally brought a woman to date in this fine afternoon today.

It all started when he was hurrying to grab his jacket and it was sight to see that he was wearing casual clothes this weekend, he should be busy by the morning yet he went out at noon hastily. It definitely felt like someone was forcing him to hurry himself.

This was very suspicious.

So, I was determined to follow him and guess what? He was in a shopping center near our neighborhood.

With a woman.

She was pretty from afar, dressed in a cute yellow summer dress with a white baseball cap. Her skin was as white as snow and she wore many bracelets on her left arm. She hooked her arm around my brother's and they strolled closely to the food court section. My eyes almost fell out, my brother with a woman?

My brother had always been busy with work, work, work. I thought he would even marry his job sooner or later, which Mom and Dad always nagged him to date as fast as he could to secure his future more. I followed them like a stalker. It was a relief when I spotted a crochet hat in a booth and bought it out on a whim.

I stared at my brother's behavior, he was shaking his leg like a trembling deer. He was clearly nervous. Just then, a familiar gray jacket was in my sight and I fell on the ground just to see Cassian with his black cap holding his head as if he was suffering from a headache.

Even an immortal still got headaches from alcohol.

"Why are you even here?" Irritated Cassian decided to lend me a hand and I gladly accepted his help.

I told him my plan today.

"That's your brother? That fairy would-"

Cassian squirmed, clutching his palm into a ball and avoided my eyes.

"What fairy? Who's the fairy? The woman beside him?" Curiosity flooded my mind and I begged Cassian for a long time to tell me the truth.

"That's Zen's sister." He lied.

"Don't lie, liar. The truth." I demanded, jokingly stomping my foot like a toddler.

Cassian sighed for the umpteenth time this week.

"The woman is a fairy and I know her well." At last, he spilled it all.

But I was baffled.

"Wait, fairies exist in this era?" I dragged Cassian into a nearby bench, since we would be caught by my brother if we kept talking in the crowd.

Cassian continued, "They exist, but it's different from the tales. Fairies like to feed themselves knowledge and they always chase knowledgeable men from the beginning. I'm sorry to say that your brother could have been tricked by my... acquaintance..."

An awed feeling coursed through my body, fairies did exist! And they were so cool! They liked clever gentlemens...

Wait a second, my brother sounded like a clever gentleman...

I slapped myself.

Cassian face-palmed himself.

"What are we waiting for? We have to save my brother!"

We ran like maniacs while holding our hands together, that warm feeling went through my body again like how cupids shot arrows into humans' hearts. A glimpse of my brother was sitting across us and he noticed us when we made a 'stop' sign.

My brother coughed as he drank the soda.

"W-what are you two doing here?"

Oh no, my brother may not know that we were stalking them. Suddenly, Cassian saved the day like a mighty warrior.

"We are hanging out today." Very, very convincing indeed, Cassian.

"Oh, it's good to hear that..." My brother faltered.

It was time to see this woman's face, and so I turned around and oh la la.

She resembled a beautiful goddess.

"Hello, nice to meet you, Ray's little sister." The fairy greeted with an angel's smile.

"And oh! Cassy-cutie, you're here too!"

Cassy-cutie?

CASSY-CUTIE?

I must have lost my mind.

"Stop calling me that, fai- Sevillie." So her name was Sevillie, what a unique name.

My brother invited us to join together and we both took a seat across Sevillie and my brother. Throughout the meal, Sevillie was a brave woman. She flirted several times and my idiot brother couldn't take a hint at all. We ate in silence and I ordered a chow mein, meanwhile Cassian bought plain water from the stall. Idiot 2.0.

Cassian brought up some topics as well, mostly Sevillie was the one who asked Cassian to reply back her questions but Cassian also initiated in her words as time went by. My brother and I just looked at each other and lightly squirmed uncomfortably. Fortunately, it was almost nighttime and we spent the day by buying ourselves smoothies to close the day. Sevillie offered her drink to my brother and he refused, she offered her drink to Cassian and surprisingly, Cassian took her drink and gulped down the contents.

My heart throbbed heavily, my mind tingled.

What was this feeling?

Today was pointless, I shouldn't have come and ruined my brother's date.

We bid farewell to Cassian and Sevillie and they walked home together like close relatives would do. Was I probably... jealous?

"Brother, is that woman your girlfriend?" I asked abruptly.

My brother choked again in his water.

"What? No! She's just a co-worker who likes to pester me sometimes," My brother answered.

"Why do you ask?"

I hesitated, "Well, I just... you seemed close to her."

"Well..." My brother repeated, "she did say that she liked me..."

I made a disbelieving face.

"Oh God, I'm heading upstairs. Sleep early." My brother's flustered face accompanied him to his bedroom as I became confused by his actions day by day.

I should sleep to clear my mind too.

Oh, maybe a face mask sesh would be nice.

***

Isis, Katarin, Genevieve and I held a poll yesterday night and we decided to hang out in a mall for a while to buy dresses to one of our classmates' sweet seventeen party she would hold this week. We agreed to meet in the mall near a sports store and after everyone gathered around, we would walk together to eye some cute dresses for the party. Of course, we also thought about our budget too, which was hard to find a cute dress with rational prices. Cue the cries.

We circled the mall at least twice and my friends had to find dresses that they would like to try on. Isis bought two because she felt like it, meanwhile Katarin tried on an open shoulder black mini dress and her eyes beamed in delight. I gave her a thumbs up, she looked very great on it and she immediately bought it off from the boutique.

The dress code was semi-formal black and it was hard for me to choose the dress when all I wanted to wear was a colorful theme. Genevieve chose a squared neckline short sleeves A-line dress with buttons in the middle. It seemed like I would be the last one who would get out of this mall. When I spotted a cute dress right across me, Zen strided towards us and made jokes on Isis. Isis was fuming and it was our cue to drag her along with us and wandered the mall again to find my dress.

Not until Cassian came into the picture.

I unhooked my arms around Katarin and approached him. But remembering yesterday's sudden meet-up, I grew wary and found myself hiding around Katarin and Genevieve.

Cassian tried to approach me, yet I still hid. Isis, who observed us both were scrunching her eyebrows, wondering what was wrong with me. It was normal for them when I approached Cassian first, nonetheless seeing me timidly unreaching himself, they became wary too.

Of course, he frowned and I was stunned when he called my name.

"Rheanne." His authority voice filled with gentleness called to me, his genuine eyes depicted his feelings. He was sincere this time, unlike our previous accidental meetings where he sometimes called me without my name. Zen caught sight of our unreadable tension and I went closer to Cassian, his forest green eyes unwavering when my eyes finally took himself upon me. He was wearing his usual jacket, nothing special but still admirable.

Just when I was about to reach Cassian, the floor was shaking and cracking sounds were everywhere as we drowned into a dark, deep hole. I miserably passed out before little rocks rolled down, knocking my head as I tried to call for help. I felt a hand grasping mine, and I held tight on it, not willing to let it go as my final sight was a familiar gray jacket draping my shoulders. A voice kept calling me to wake up.

As if hours had passed by, I opened my eyes.

Great, I was trapped.

Not alone, but with Cassian.

How could we get help when we were trapped like mummies inside their coffins?