Noel

“Okay class. Our lecture will end now. For those who are absent in today’s lecture, student head, please inform them to come to my desk and retrieve their module.” The lecturer said before letting the students leave the class.

In the hallway, Noel was putting his things into the locker situated in the hallway of the university. While putting away his books and looking at his schedule, Noel heaved sigh. Recently, he realized that he sighed a lot. Probably because living in this world is quite tiring, unexpectedly. To add, even though this world has modern technologies here and there, the fact that magic is not the main source of their life energy anymore put a burden on Noel, especially since he’s an avid magic user. All of his folks were also magic users back in his world.

Noel pondered for a bit. Melancholy rang the bell of his consciousness.

"I wonder what happened to my subjects? I hope they're fine." Noel muttered to himself, as he glanced at the schedule again. There was no class after the last lecture, meaning that he could go home.

"Hey." A familiar deep voice greeted him from his back, along with a gentle scent of lavender.

Noel’s ears unconsciously perked up, before he turned around to see Ricky, whom he had bathed earlier in the morning, standing behind him, along with his friends at the back. His expression was hard to decipher.

"So…" Ricky hesitated. He broke eye contact with Noel and looked away for a bit. From the movement of his Adam’s apple, Ricky seemed to be swallowing.

“Sorry for the bad experience yesterday. Some of the kids here are pretty stuck up. But most of us are just chill, so don’t be anxious.” He began. The tone of his speech indicated a continuation, and his hand was fumbling inside his backpack like he was looking for something, so while he did, Noel chose to stay silent and regarded his actions.

After a short while, Ricky took out Noel’s pouch. He handed it back to Noel as he said, “I’m also sorry for taking this from you.”

Noel passed his gaze between the pouch and Ricky’s face. He seemed to want to say something again, but more than that, the movement of his eyebrows suggested Noel taking the pouch first. Noel quietly took the pouch from Ricky’s hand.

“We’re kinda involved with the students’ committee,” Ricky motioned himself, and his friends behind him—the bronze guy nodded, while the freckled guy cracked a cheerful smile as he waved. “So, we have the responsibility to ensure that there are no suspicious activities happening around school.”

Ricky’s blue eyes pointed towards the pouch. “We thought that the pouch is something suspicious, so we had it checked. But,” There was hesitation in his tone. Noel gazed into his eyes long, that it made him flutter his eyes for a bit, before looking back at the pouch.

Don’t tell me…

Did he just give him Pouch of Greed yesterday? The pouch will grant one what they want, be it money and anything this world can offer, but if that person’s greed exceeds what they are worthy of, all of the things they wanted will disappear or turned into stone. Apart from that, Pouch of Greed will cast illusions for the people who opened it, mainly in a form of gold.

Could something may have happened that made this person in front of him hesitate that much?

Noel was curious, so while the air is silent in between them, Noel opened the pouch, pulled Ricky’s right hand, and stuck it inside.

“What are you-” Ricky was flabbergasted. He tried to pull away from Noel as gentle as he could, given the difference in body size, and him no wanting to hurt Noel.

“One moment, please.” Noel spoke. Shortly after, he pulled Ricky’s hand out, with his hand holding a glistening semi transparent stone the size of his palm.

“This is…” Noel’s eyes widened in amazement. There was a subtle zap in his hand as he was holding Ricky’s hand to guide his movement, but the astounding sensation beats all the discomfort he felt. He lifted his gaze to meet Ricky’s eyes.

For a moment, Ricky saw a sparkle in those lunar grey eyes, which caused him to tense up a little out of shock. He stayed frozen until Noel shifted his gaze down, towards their entwined hands. Noel then loosened his grip, which made Ricky also loosen his grip and drop the glistening stone back into the pouch. He then let go of Ricky’s hand.

“Do you know what that was earlier?” Noel inquired.

“I don’t… know?” Ricky was rubbing the back of his hand, his gaze towards Noel was filled with bewilderment. His two friends who were with him—and were standing at a distance—began pacing closer.

Noel was about to answer Ricky’s question, when all of a sudden, his reasons kicked in. He had almost forgotten that he is not in his original world. Most people of this world won’t know about magic, and what he just did, wasn’t anything short of a something they would call sorcery in this world. Noel immediately clammed up; his eyes lowered as he pondered for a bit.

“That was… magic.” Noel motioned his hand like he just did a magic trick. “Tadaah.”

Ricky fluttered his eyes. Because his friends have arrived next to him, they also fluttered their eyes. All of them looked at Noel in confusion. Noel felt a little embarrassed by that, somehow.

“Anyways, thank you for returning this pouch.” Noel cleared his throat and placed the pouch inside his bag. “I should go now. I hope you’re not suffering too much from hangover.”

Noel immediately walked away.

“…What was that just now?” Adam commented. Taylor shook his head in response, while Ricky could only blink.

“…Wait.” Hangover? Ricky thought. His head snapped back to the direction where Noel had gone to. Realizing that he had gone far away, Ricky rubbed his face, now mortified. All the pieces seemed to return to him one by one; of his embarrassing acts in front of the new kid, and how, for some reason, of him being bathed by him. But, why did he only remember the deed, and not the place?

Joseph

Joseph lit up the tip of the cigarette as he stood in front of the glass window of his room, looking at the empty and quiet neighbourhood of Westwood at night. He exhaled and smoke came out from his mouth.

"This town is pretty quiet I must say..." He muttered, taking another puff of the cigarette.

Suddenly, the corner of his eyes caught movements behind the bushes at the opposite side of the road, where the park is located. He squinted his eyes, sharpening his view of what he saw earlier.

Behind one of the bushes, the leaves rustled, as if someone was purposefully shaking it, but the probability that it was some street cats that were out playing that night was also there. After a few moments of shaking, the bush stopped. Then his eyes widened.

Coming out from the bushes, a few tiny lights flew and head towards an unknown direction. Rather than heading straight, the pattern of the lights was uneven as if they're dancing as they twirled with each other.

Joseph's eyes glinted out of excitement.

"Fairies...?"

Immediately, he took out his notebook from his suitcase on the bed before writing on the phenomenon of what he just saw.

"Flying light, sparks bigger than a firefly, abnormal pattern as if dancing together...."

Joseph stopped at the word 'together' when he was struck with a sense of nostalgia. He stared at the word for a while before stroking the word gently with the tip of his fingers. Then, he sighed.

"Serah, you're still there, aren't you?"

He went back to the window and gazed at the starless night sky.

"Please come back..."