The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

228 On a drizzling night

The two of them ended up in an almost empty cafe. The place would close in about an hour. In fact, Marcel knew about it. But he just wanted to hear more about Kathy’s story. Maybe what the green-eyed girl had would make him feel better.

“So, what changed your mind?” Marcel asked after their drinks arrived. Not to forget, he ordered a cheesecake for the girl in front of him.

Kathy smiled faintly. It turned out that this was what made Marcel hold her back from going home. “I found friends who changed my mind, or rather, my world,”

“The first time I met Emma. She told me that I shouldn’t judge someone based on their looks only. From there, I realized that when I judge someone by their appearance, it would only make me harder on myself. I tended to feel not satisfied with my appearance. I felt that God was unfair for giving me an unattractive face,” She continued.

“You’re attractive. Why would you think you aren’t?” Marcel said immediately.

This stunned Kathy for a few seconds. Marcel didn’t even realize what just came out of his mouth for a while. Until their sanity had returned and made the two of them feel awkward.

“Geez.. You know this cheesecake is delightful. Thank you for ordering it for me,” Kathy said hastily while cutting the soft cake and then took a bite.

“I see you ladies often order it, so it’s as a thank you because you are willing to spend your time for me,” Marcel said before clearing his throat and glancing at his eyes in a random direction.

Kathy nodded slowly. “Continuing our topic.. Basically, after meeting my true friends, I realized that all that I was chasing all this time was actually in vain. They could accept me as I am. They never saw my physical or status. Even though my style was a mess, they never walked away from me out of shame, but helped me dress up instead. When I eventually realized how they treated me, I changed my perspective to not judge people based on their appearance. And that made me no longer judge myself. After that, I could focus on pursuing what I really want: that is my passion for computers science and my dream of becoming a great hacker,”

.....

“You’re lucky to meet those people,” Marcel said.

Kathy nodded. “Thanks to them, I realized that I didn’t have to try so hard to make myself valuable in the eyes of others. I just needed to find the right people who would consider me worthy,” Then she looked at Marcel with a gentle smile. “I’m sure you will find those people too, Marcel. Therefore, you must stop limiting yourself,”

“Why do you think I limit myself?” Marcel asked.

“Because you look tired,” Kathy replied immediately. “I don’t know what you’re dealing with, Marcel. However, I want to tell you this: Don’t take other people’s gazes as a burden for you to move on. In the process of achieving dreams, there must be many things that make us worry. However, worrying about those things won’t make it any easier for us to get what we want.”

Marcel was silent as he looked into Kathy’s green eyes. The girl smiled as she scooped up the cheesecake and hung it in front of Marcel’s mouth. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You have to taste the sweetness of life. Sometimes, your tongue needs sugar,”

Marcel chuckled before opening his mouth and taking the sweet. Then he nodded slightly. “Indeed delightful,”

“Anything sweet is basically delightful,” Kathy said with a laugh.

***

The snow had melted and the rain that often hammered made the roads wet. The dark alleys looked even more sinister as the steam from the sewers flew out to close visibility.

A girl with short hair was walking alone in the middle of the drizzling night. She had just finished attending a friend’s birthday party and had to go home alone because most of her friends were drunk.

After getting off the bus, she had to walk to her flat at the end of the street. As she walked, her ears filled with the sound of drizzle knocking on her umbrella. But she immediately looked back when she heard the sound of footsteps that seemed to follow her.

But once she looked behind her back, she found nothing. The girl’s face looked frightened. She tried to catch her breath to calm down. After that, she turned her body back to the front. She was startled when she found two men already standing in front of her. Before she could scream, her mouth was covered with a handkerchief and her body was dragged into the dark alley on the side of the street.

***

“Crystal disappeared?” Kathy raised her eyebrows high.

The girl with glasses nodded. “She is! She hasn’t been home for three days and there is no news about her at all. Her parents have called me. They are looking for her,” The girl whose name was Lucy explained.

“Where was the last time you saw her?” Emma asked.

“Our last met was at the birthday party of our classmate, Tody. At that time, Crystal didn’t give any suspicious behaviour. She was acting as usual and when we were about to get home, there was nothing strange about her.” The girl answered.

“Have Crystal’s parents reported it to the police?” Poppy asked.

The girl nodded. “Yes. But there is still no news about the continuation of the case until now,”

“Handway Police is useless,” Rachel muttered.

Emma nodded. “They are. God.. I’m so worried about her. I’m afraid it’s more serious than we think,”

“You’d better be careful, guys. I heard that street crime is on the rise again.” Lucy said.

“You have to be careful too, Lucy. Don’t hang out outside at night,” Poppy replied.

After the ballet class was over, Emma and her three friends went to the café to buy drinks before going back to their respective homes.

“Poppy, are you going to the studio after this?” Emma asked while taking a sip of her Matcha latte.

Poppy nodded. “Today, Linda and her friends will come to have a look. They said they’d start next week.”

“Nice to hear that. It turns out that your tutoring class gets busy quickly, doesn’t it?” Kathy said after receiving her Iced Americano.

Poppy answered with a happy smile, “So far, I’ve got about twenty members. I’ve also found an additional instructor to teach while I was in the study.”

“You have to be careful when you come home at night, Poppy.” Rachel said.

Poppy nodded. “I know. I’ve got an electric shocker in the purse.”

“That’s good. I’ve been feeling bad lately. Should we go patrol again, Rachel?” Emma asked.

“I think we should,” Rachel replied.

After the Creeper and RJC cases were over, Emma and Rachel were no longer doing the patrol because they hadn’t encountered the street crimes that Creeper usually committed with their branch headquarters. In addition, the coursework was quite a lot these days, so they should focus more on studying.

***

Several weeks passed quickly. Poppy stood at the reception desk of her ballet studio to check the attendance list for today’s students. She was still wearing ballet clothes, but covered with a long coat.

“Hey.. Are you guys going home?” Poppy greeted her three friends who had just come down from the second floor.

It was late at night and there were only four of them left in the studio. Poppy knew that the three girls had been gossiping on the second floor, like they usually do.

“Yes. You still stay here?” Britney asked.

Poppy nodded. “I’m checking a few things. Thanks for your time today,” Then she looked at the glass door in the front. “Oh, looks like it’s drizzling outside. You can use the umbrellas beside the door. But don’t forget to return it, okay?”

“You don’t have to worry,” Linda answered by walking towards the door. “Well, I’m going to the mini-mart for a while. I’m out of tampons. You guys wait here. I’ll be right back.” Linda said to her two friends.

“Okay. We’ll wait here. Don’t take too long. We’ll miss the last bus,” Cecil said as she leaned against the reception desk.

“I know. I take the umbrella, Poppy!” Linda said by taking an umbrella from the shelf next to the door before exiting the glass door.

“Are your houses nearby?” Poppy asked Cecil and Britney.

“Not really. But our bus goes the same line,” Cecil answered.

“Anyways, where are your three girls?” Britney asked.

“They’re on their own business,” Poppy answered.

“Hey, Poppy. Is Kathy around with PB?” Cecil asked in a whisper.

“What?” Poppy looked at her questioningly. “I.. don’t think so. I’ve never seen them together,”

“Well, well.. Are you guys really friends? A few weeks ago, I saw Kathy and Marcel alone at the campus cafe.” Cecil said.

“They were?” Britney looked at her best friend with wide eyes.

Cecil nodded confidently. “I’m sure I didn’t see wrong. The two of them had an intensely deep conversation,”

“Oh.. It seems like it was just a coincidence. The four of us are indeed friends with PB. Maybe they just crossed paths and ended up chatting at that time.” Poppy said lightly.

“AAH!! GOD!!” Britney suddenly shouted by staring at the glass door.

It made Poppy and Cecil look back reflexively at what made Britney hysterical like that.

They were shocked to death when they found Linda in front of the door. The girl was with two men dressed all in black with their faces covered by masks. She tried to free herself from the grip of two men who were still trying to drag her away from the front of the glass door.

“Oh my, Linda!” Poppy exclaimed as she ran outside.

Linda stared in horror through the glass door at her three friends who were behind the door. She tried to get away from the two men who were trying to cover her mouth with a handkerchief, while trying to scream for help. Luckily, she still managed to escape before being dragged into a dark alley a few meters away.

Quickly, Poppy opened the glass door and kicked one of the men in the ear with the high kick she had learned from Emma.