Loving You From Stars

Lousy Morning

Zoe of course has a friend named derek from the biochemistry department, only that friend refuses to help because he is busy.

corale intends to find someone else who is willing, but zoe with all her charm is able to convince derek to check.

'i can't believe zoe bribe him.'

because of this, corale was able to find out more quickly what vyrion suspected when this morning he tried the tea he's been drinking lately.

is it true that there are foreign ingredients other than tea and sugar?

corale actually felt that vyrion was saying something to persuade her to return to live in the castle, but she insisted that was not her reason, so she followed his request.

watching zoe's friends work expertly left her in awe of rapidly developing technology.

"hm..." derek muttered looking at the test tube churning inside.

"what? what does that mean?" zoe asked impatiently.

"i found no substance or anything," he said, "everything is normal."

"serious?" corale asked reassuringly.

"yes. if there was another substance, as dangerous as you think it would change color, but not this case," said derek, "to be honest, what made you guys do this?"

"are you curious?" zoe asked, when getting a nod from crane she continued confidently "i'll be happy to tell you if you pay me~"

"forget it." the crane immediately refused quickly.

"see? just do your job, derek~" zoe joked. even though he wants to pay, he also doesn't know the reason why corale does something like this.

corale c*m chuckled at the behavior of the two of them. meaning that his guess was correct that vyrion only had the intention of making him return to live in the castle.

vyrion invites him to stay again actually, but he refuses because there's a lot he doesn't know about his father.

'no way i'm going back while vordelia's still there.'

somehow vordelia's response to last night's 'event', vyrion said he would take care of it, but corale couldn't stop worrying about what might happen.

he was sure that since vordelia came back, he would be with vyrion all the time including sleeping in the same bedroom.

vordelia must have noticed vyrion's departure.

'what should i say if i meet him?'

what happened could include an extramarital affair, although vyrion claims the current vordelia is not the real thing.

vyrion is still trying to figure out who is trying to mess up their lives, but there is no suitable candidate except for the king, which is obviously impossible because why did the king go that far?

create a vordelia clone?

but... on the other hand, vyrion's curse hasn't gone away which is what makes him wonder whether the king is involved.

"corale~!"

"oh!" corale gasped when she heard her name being called loudly, "y-yes?"

"there's nothing else we can do here, how about we go shopping as promised?" zoe suggested, tired of being in a lab filled with strong chemical scents that didn't make her nose uncomfortable.

coral nodded.

only shopping, he can accompany without having to go shopping too.

corale actually gets pocket money from scholarships, but it's relatively small. he doesn't want to take the risk.

***

zoe invited some other friends to make the atmosphere more lively, mostly women, of course.

corale is more often silent because they are chatting about expensive clothing brands that are unfamiliar to their ears or complaining about today's lesson. he wanted to finish quickly so that he could quickly return home and sleep in peace.

but with so many friends that zoe has invited it seems it will take longer than expected.

corale really loves spending time with zoe except today, she really wants to spend her time in bed instead of him.

when he was almost at the bustling main gate of the university, corale took the time to first check to see if there was someone waiting for him, considering that he hadn't told gabrielle that he was coming home late today.

corale, who initially intended to look for gabriel or the driver, actually found a silhouette of vordelia standing right at the gate while her aqua eyes darted here and there looking for something—someone—which must be her.

who else is vordelia looking for? he has no acquaintances here, he just came back a week ago.

corale knows this is cowardly, but she can't face to face with vordelia yet. a deep feeling of guilt immediately rose in his heart as soon as he saw her face.

how did vordelia get here without vyrion and vega knowing?

'i can take advantage of the crowd and get back inside the building.'

corale was about to do that without even telling zoe, but a loud scream made her whole body freeze.

"corales!"

vordelia's voice, called out to her.

he got caught.

no blurry words now.

"corales!" vordelia called out once again.

corale took a deep breath.

'you got this, corale.'

corale slowly turned back towards the gate, then took small footsteps past the people while her eyes continued to refuse to meet the vordelia.

he doesn't want to know anything.

he is nervous.

"corales?" zoe's voice called her softly.

coral ignores him. he knew zoe was wondering who vordelia was, but now wasn't the time to talk about that.

now how to explain what happened.

he was sure vordelia came straight here to see him wanting to talk about vyrion.

during this week, corale had lost contact with vordelia, and he had no reason to contact her either, considering the fact that she had been imprisoned in his heart all this time.

corale stopped in front of the gate, she raised her head to make sure she was in front of vordelia, then when she did, she lowered her head again looking at the toes of her shoes.

serious.

he wanted to say something, start a topic—following vyrion's advice to act normal if this actually happened, but when it happened in the real world, his lips were tightly closed in a thin line.

vordelia didn't seem to have any intention of saying either, she was silent as well.

seems to be waiting for corale to bless something?

the atmosphere between them was really awkward, even though the atmosphere tended to be crowded.

corale herself mustered up the strength to say something to break the silence between them.

quite a long time.

after corale was sure he could, he raised his head so that he could speak while eye contact, unfortunately before he could do all that, a hand was already moving quickly towards him.

slap!