Without Wish realizing, weeks passed since the situation happened between her and the guard. She couldn’t face her coworker, and avoided any confrontation, fearing that Miao was still mad at her. Wish spent most of her time locked in her room, reminiscing about the past, binge-watching the shows and movies of her time. It was a distraction, but only temporarily. Whenever there was a second of silence, her mind snapped back to her interaction with Miao and her mood soured along with it. 

Knowing that this can’t go on forever, but still not ready to speak with the guard, Wish turned to talking therapy at the Healing Temple. She was surprised to see that her doctor was another recruit of Gwady’s, Dr. Lylaniff Aplacitien, or as most people call her, Red.

She explained what happened between her and Miao, the cleaning, the remembering, the session, the pain, the relapse of her room, and finally, the misspoken word. She didn’t enjoy recalling any of it, but it was necessary for the talk.

“Ah… I see.” Red responded in a low, concerned voice. “Miao comes from a warring country, in which they had to surrender.” The therapist started to explain, sorrow starting to rise as she spoke. “Her parents quickly became a secondary citizen and were looked down on, and unfortunately due to that, she was only able to go as far as being a butler.” 

“Oh, I didn’t know that.” Wish regretfully admitted. “You really do your research when it comes to the recruits from Gwady, huh?” She hinted at the therapist that she knew about the creepy grinning lady being their superior. Upon saying it, she also started to wonder how much of her own surroundings were controlled by Gwady. The people who entered the Library and were assigned to her for a session; the neighbors that were living near her room; even the therapist. Red’s response brought her attention back to the conversation at hand. 

“Well, we are from the same country, just a different time.” Red explained, “In fact, my grandparents often talked about the hardships, but things were not as bad during my time.”

Wish took in an anxious breath of air and held it in for a bit, now realizing more of what’s making Miao so upset. The answer was very clear at this point. She needed to apologize. There was no way around it. The sooner the better. 

With determination to dissolve the discomfort between them, Wish went for the Library straight after the therapy session. “Hey, Miao.” Wish sheepishly walked up to the guard, still trying to rehearse what to say to the woman in her head. 

Seeing the blonde walking up to her with no ill intent, Miao relaxed her expression. “Good day.”

“About… the other day... What I said... Um…” Wish stuttered her words, unable to even look at the guard straight in the face. She knew apologizing was hard, and was prepared for it, but it still felt difficult to say the words. “I’m-....” She shook her head, trying to force it out. It dragged out for a few good seconds, Miao started to tilt her head, intrigued by the blonde’s behavior. 

It was at a moment like this, did Wish realize how proud of a person she was. How much she didn’t like to admit mistakes and apologize for them. How much her childhood and her up-bringing didn’t allow her to have the opportunity to be vulnerable and humble. 

“I’m sorry.” Finally, the words came out. “Whatever I said, that was uncalled for. I was wrong.” 

There was a subtle smile on the guard’s face. “Missed you at work.” She replied, knowing that the blonde would rather have the topic changed as soon as possible.

“You did?” The attendant spoke with surprise. “Did you have to reject everyone that came up to you?” Her mind immediately jumped to the new conversation at hand, just as the guard predicted. 

“No, I believe Kritios took over for your shift.” Miao replied, “I understand you and him have some type of competition? He claims he’s winning.” She didn’t know exactly the details of what the race was between the blonde and the man, but delivered the message as it was told to her.

“What?!” Wish exclaimed and gasped as her jaw dropped. “Let me in there, I’m not letting him surpass my record!” Miao swiftly stepped aside and allowed the woman to get straight back to work. 

Once her shift was over, the attendant walked out of the Library and was glad to see Miao was still at her post. She couldn’t help but ask if Miao was adapting well to the Realms, wanting to make an effort to get to know her more. 

The moment the guard mentioned words like ‘short messaging’ and ‘games’ on a ‘device’ that has a ‘typewriter’, Wish knew that Miao was having troubles understanding technologies that were beyond her time period, and offered to help her set it up. According to Miao’s description, Dr. Dienoss and Dr. Aplacitien from the Healing Temple had offered to spend time with her, but she never found herself available due to this little hurdle. 

It somewhat amused Wish to see that all Miao could manifest in her room was a non-functioning black box with nothing inside. The wires weren’t connected properly due to her not understanding how it worked. It was Wish that adjusted the object to put it in a functional state, similar to what others in the Realm would have. The blonde double checked everything she knew of computers, wondering why it still wasn’t able to function. It was when she noticed Miao’s confused look, did she realize that the woman’s lack of understanding was causing the disruption. The computer couldn’t be turned on, not until the owner of this room had a more proper introduction to it.  

Explaining it through purely words wasn’t progressing anything, so she had to take the guard back to the Library once more, using visuals to teach the subject. Though they were not from the same universe, the session itself provided a clear enough explanation of the history. Once Miao was able to understand how technology improved and how society progressed, she was finally able to get the computer in her room to function properly. Alongside that, Wish introduced the messaging app ‘Rune’ to her, along with the mobile devices that can connect to it as well.

Things were pretty much the same since Wish had returned to work. She met new clients and welcomed some returning ones back. One of which was that woman who would talk to her when sessions were over. There was a sense of familiarity about her as she went through her memories. It only clicked when the scene turned into something that had plagued her mind the last few weeks, a party. The party.

“...You were there?” The blonde couldn’t help but ask and make her presence known during the session that was supposed to be left undisturbed. 

The woman turned and looked at the attendant, not bothered by her interruption. She awkwardly smiled and chuckled to hide her bashful expression. “Yeah, This um… This was a party thrown for me after a successful expedition. I’m an archeologist, you see, and well…” Judging from the behavior, this person didn’t seem to like to be at party events, especially if the spotlight was on her. She’d rather focus on her work than managing her social life. She was only there because it had to be done.