Ch5--Extra

It was the year 20XX, with summer in full swing, flowers blooming brightly and the

sunshine was especially harsh to those who usually stayed indoors all day long. Charles was

one such person.

"This is too hot for me," he complained, even as he sat right in front of an AC, which was

turned on at a comfortable temperature.

"Heeh, is that so?" the person beside him asked, amusement colouring her tone.

Drinking a whole bottle of water in one go, she let out a satisfied sigh. "I don't think it's too bad if

you keep yourself hydrated."

"Easy for you to say, you're a spider… you only need a little bit of water to survive these

harsh conditions..."

"Harsh conditions, eh?" she laughed. "You're speaking as if we're in the desert!"

"We might as well be, considering the temperature outside," Charles grouched, to which

the girl laughed.

"Well, it wouldn't be so sweltering for you if you're in the lab."

"But it's my day off," he whined. "I want to at the very least spend my days off with my

girlfriend..."

"Oh? And here I thought you'd forgotten about who I am to you, considering how you

keep talking about that person, frozen in ice for decades… I've almost thought that you'd fallen

for him..."

"You just-- you haven't seen him yet! And I don't ever want you to!"

"And why is that?" she asked with a teasing smile. "Afraid that my heart will be stolen by

him like he did yours?"

"My--my heart belongs to you and only you!" he exclaimed, before freezing as he

realized what he'd just said. Red coloured his face, from the tips of his ears to his neck and further down, under his shirt, as the girl smiled at him.

"I love you too," she said cheerfully, happy that her teasing had made him react in such

an amusing way.

Ducking his head, he severely wished that he could go dig a hole and just die in there.

Sometimes he wondered, shouldn't it be the other way around, with him teasing his girlfriend?

But even with such thoughts, he couldn't say that he entirely disliked it.

The sky was clear, with almost no clouds in sight. When he peeked to look at his smiling

girlfriend, her unruly dark hair shining from the sunlight coming in from the window, he'd

wondered once again how she'd accepted him to be her boyfriend.

In his heart, he sighed. He missed such peaceful days, with his girlfriend right beside

him, talking about whatever came to mind. Recently, work has taken him away from his

girlfriend, and since her little sister got into a coma four years ago, she's been going back to her

family's place to take care of the various family companies that her sister has been managing all

this time.

With the frequency of them meeting up decreasing, he's been thinking about marrying

her for a while now, thinking that at the very least, he could support her in a way after marriage.

Though, to be honest, he's far too shy to ask for her hand without any preparations, and that's

what's truly stopping him from proposing her right then and there.

"By the way, Charles, I made something," she said, turning around to rummage at the

drawer behind her. "I mean, since I was kinda bored and, maybe you'd like this too… Ah, it

actually suits you, don't worry," she grinned, clipping something onto his hair.

Curious, he reached up to touch what it was--and found a hair clip holding his front hair to the side, preventing it from getting into his face. His girlfriend put a mirror in front of him.

Reflected upon the smooth surface was a face he couldn't be more familiar with; thick,

round glasses that hid half of his face was perched on his small nose, his wide, light brown eyes

were visible in the mirror; his slightly chapped lips slightly open from surprise as the summer

sunlight was refracted on his pale-ish skin; shoulder-length brown hair, hanging loosely from his

head as he didn't deem it necessary to tie it up despite the weather being so hot, his bangs

were held to one side by a colourful, bordering on tacky hair clip.

"Pretty, right?" she grinned.

It couldn't be said that she's wrong, since the hair clip, while tacky, was actually pretty. He honestly didn't know what she sees in him, to

have agreed to date such a wimpy-looking guy. Compared to him, who's only good at studying

and research, she's good at everything, be it sports, academics, socializing, everything. Everyone gravitates towards her, and she deals with them wonderfully.

At first, it was jealousy. He knew that he was jealous of her, but… He'd later realized that beneath all

that jealousy, he liked her. He liked her with a passion that rivalled his curiosity towards the

being trapped in ice. And so he came clean with her.

"It's tacky," he said honestly, just as he'd been back then. She just laughed in response,

her voice and smile brighter than the sun.

Warmer than the currently hellish weather.

But he was alright with that, because it's her. He'd worried before, that when he

confessed to her, she wouldn't accept him. But she'd hugged him, and with a trembling voice,

accepted his feelings.

It made him treasure her all the more.