Legacy of the Betelgeuse

I open my eyes and I look at the time. It\'s already 1 P.M. and I\'m still tired for some reason. I think it\'s because of that quest. I didn\'t get a nice sleep last night, I kept waking up for no reason, but thankfully I didn\'t have any nightmares. I was able to finally get a proper sleep when the sun is already up.

I go downstairs and check the dining room to see if anyone is there. I open the door and I only see Chelsea eating her lunch while looking at her phone. She looks at me and waves. I sit in front of her and then the servant immediately goes to the kitchen and tells the chef to cook lunch for me.

I\'m rubbing my head because I\'m having a headache. Chelsea is staring at me while slightly smile.

"Good afternoon. It seems that you just woke up."

I yawn and nod.

"Yeah. By the way, where\'s everyone? Did they have lunch yet?"

Chelsea shakes her head.

"No, everyone is still asleep. You\'re the first one to wake up, I think. When we logged out from the game, we were talking until 3 A.M. in Ivy\'s room. They were talking about the forest and their fears. It surprised me when I heard about everyone\'s stories."

I\'m humming with understanding.

"What about you? You seem fine compared to the rest of us when we logged out from the game. Did you encounter your fear, Chelsea?"

Chelsea nods.

"I did. But it\'s not really a big deal. I saw those things all the time, but I kept ignoring them as if they didn\'t exist in the first place."

I raise my eyebrows.

"And what is your fear?\'

Chelsea is humming while swirling her finger.

"Something gigantic... You know, like if you dived into the sea and then you saw a sunken gigantic ship at the bottom of the sea, and you were right in front of the gigantic propellers. Yeah, those massive things."

Chelsea suddenly shakes her whole body and then scoffs.

"Just reimagining that makes my whole body shivering."

I chuckle when I see her expression. Then the servant is serving my lunch.

I put the fork and the knife on the plate. I exhale deeply because I\'m stuffed now. Chelsea is still playing with her phone, and her lunch is untouched. I keep reminding her to eat her food because she always forgets when she\'s already absorbed with something on her phone.

I\'m staring at the glass door behind her that leads to the garden. Chelsea is tilting her head and blocking my view.

I raise my eyebrows.

"What\'s up?"

Chelsea stands up and stretches her body.

"You want to see my workplace? You haven\'t gone there ever since I got here."

I\'m humming and then nod.

"Yeah, sure. I need someplace quiet anyway because of my headache."

Chelsea nods.

"Perfect! You will love it then."

I enter her workplace, and as soon as I enter the room, I immediately can smell the flowers. She puts so many different types of flowers on each corner of the room. I see mannequins and they\'re wearing some kind of dresses that are unfinished. Chelsea is pointing at the sofa and I immediately lay down on it while Chelsea is starting to draw something on a big piece of paper on the floor. The quietness, the sound of her pencil scratching her paper, and the smell of the flowers somehow make me feel relaxed.

I look at her from behind. I can see her face is covered by her white-greyish hair from here. She\'s as beautiful as her sister, especially when she\'s looking so serious like that. It reminds me of when Emma asked about it to Ivonna at the airport when we picked up Chelsea.

Someone is knocking on the door. Chelsea looks at the door and stands up.

"Come in."

A maid enters the room with orange juices on the silver plate. Chelsea smiles and nods.

"Thank you. Oh, can you bring me another one, please?"

The maid smiles while bowing.

"Yes, Miss."

Chelsea thank her and then the maid leaves the room.

Chelsea grabs both of them and she walks towards me. She offers one of the orange juices.

"Here, for you. It helps to get rid of the headache. It works every time for me."

I grab it and look at her.

"Thanks."

Chelsea just smiles and then walks back to continue to draw on the paper while drinking the juice.

I look at the time and it\'s already 3 P.M. and I never thought by just watching her work can be this mesmerizing. The way she\'s designing the mannequins, cutting the cloth, and sewing it into something like a dress is so relaxing. What interests me more is that she\'s already drunk 3 glasses of orange juices in the past two hours and poured it with something inside the flask that she grabbed from the drawer.

Chelsea is stretching her body and cracking her joints. She sits next to me and leans on the sofa.

"If you want to smoke, you can smoke here. I don\'t really mind since all my friends all are a smoker."

I squint my eyes and look at her.

"Is it really just because of that?"

Chelsea is holding her smile while staring at me. I scoff and shake my head.

"You have a pack in this room, don\'t you? You want me to be your scapegoat if Ivonna comes here, huh?"

Chelsea is giggling and then she runs towards a drawer and opens it. She shows me a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She then walks back and hands them over to me. I grab one and light it up. She immediately grabs one as soon as I light my cigarette.

She puffs the smoke while leaning on the sofa.

"Do you even know how hard it is to hold the urge to smoke? Nobody is a smoker in this mansion. So when I saw you smoke on the balcony that day, I was so happy and immediately bought a pack of cigarettes. You will be my smoking buddy from now on."

I chuckle and shake my head.

Chelsea looks at me and then facing at me.

"So, I heard this Jessica woman from Emma. You want to tell me about it?"

I\'m looking at Chelsea from the corner of my eyes.

"Let\'s make a deal. I will tell my story and you have to tell me the story about that guy from Ivonna\'s fear."

Chelsea is humming while rubbing her chin.

"That\'s quite a bargain... deal!"

I sigh and lean on the sofa while staring at the burning cigarette.

"It was 5 years ago. I was in a modeling career, and I met her there. She was my junior if you want to say it like that. We were pretty much had the same interest, hobbies, and so on. we ended up dating 4 months after that day. She was my everything. That night I popped her cherry and at that moment I realized that she has become precious to me. I thought that she was the one."

Chelsea is surprised and raising her eyebrows. I light up another cigarette.

"Then, the next day. There\'s a new guy who just got transferred to our agency. Well, he\'s not really new, he\'s been a model for quite a while like me, and he\'s quite famous. Well, long story short, I barely spent my time with her since that guy came."

I groan and rub my forehead.

"One day, I saw them inside his car on the day of our two years anniversary. I saw them doing it. I saw her body is full of sweat and I saw that guy\'s neck is filled with her lipstick. The funny thing is, that night after I saw them doing that. We went to the restaurant to celebrate our two years anniversary. She kissed me on the lips after she spent all day with that guy. The worst part, she knew that I knew, but she kept doing that and turns out, she has been doing it with him since he came to our agency."

I scoff and shake my head. I chuckle nervously and look around.

"I need a drink..."

Chelsea offers the flask on her back.

"Here."

I grab it and drink it without thinking about what\'s inside the flask or how strong it is. My head stings and I immediately groan while gritting my teeth. I sigh and look at Chelsea.

"The weird part is that it was extremely painful, but I couldn\'t let her go. Deep down, I still want her to stay by my side. Even though she did those things behind my back, she still cared about me and being sweet to me like when the first time we met. It was like, the image of her is still the same from when I first saw her. I was blinded by something."

I scoff and look at Chelsea.

"I\'m pathetic, huh?"