VIII - Lost & Found

Naria stepped aback for receiving such a hit even as a martial artist herself, her cheeks went red and swollen, drastically giving color to her drained exhausted skin.

The slap given ironically shocked the aunt too, she had her hands wrapped around her grimacing expressions as she watched her niece reacted so weakly.

So did the person recording, she was so astonished that she left her phone unknowingly hanging from her shivering hands, at least it consistently kept the whole scene shown intact.

Silence finally occupies the hallways for a while, signifying that not just Cheska alone but the two had so much to process over one day. After 3 months, things still have occurred too early yet so late at the same time.

Her hair came off loose and freed itself from its tight binding coiffure, no more sitting still and looking pretty, she apathetically chose not to keep ahold of the slapped part of her cheek, let alone her long streaking black hair of mess cover it.

This makes the aunt sympathizes with her niece so much aftermath, her hand which was once the instrument of her impulsive attack, now changed as it slowly reaches close to Naria's skin, brushing off every bit of the long mess on her hair and gently tucking it over her shoulder. Wishing to find once more the buried light under Naria's blue but deep-sea empty eyes. For Naria, she's finding as well when will she forgive the chaos between them.

The aunt's bottom lip shudders, Naria waits and gets her hopes up, until her aunt has spoken; "Let's pretend that nothing happened, and we're only here to celebrate."

Wonderful.

Instead of light in her eyes, it darkened "No, I'm going home." her wish is not granted.

As soon as possible, Naria gently removed her aunt's hand away, despite her attempt in avoiding her aunt from keeping in contact closely with either her hair or herself. "And why?" questioned the aunt, bringing back that memorable dominating tone "You're not going anywhere."

Cheska still lurks behind, she had thought the same as Naria about ending this on good terms. However, that expectation doesn't seem very likely to happen anytime now.

Her arms almost went numb from holding the phone and recording them the whole minute, she plans on probably letting go of it as she's sure of how problematic kind of relationship they have.

So, she sneakily tries to make a big stretch before she prepares herself on leaving the scene, but then all of a sudden during the heated moment between the two, Cheska accidentally makes a distraction.

As she was inattentively focused on her escape, it failed when her phone slipped from her hands.

That loud smack of her phone being dropped on the frigid hard floor caused to quickly halt the two celebrities from afar. Their heads quickly took a turn from that startling sound out of nowhere, luckily Cheska wasn't seen and so this unknowingly saved Naria under her aunt's control.

"What's that?" The older woman alarmed, "Guards, guards!" The bodyguards could've been nearby and easily spotted were the panicking college girl was lurking, thank the museum it's spacious and they can go wherever.

The aunt was frantically jerking around, impatiently waiting for her bodyguards to obey her command. Well, Naria didn't get time for that, she already left. Meanwhile, Cheska's frozen in place and hugged her phone.

The fidgeting has come to stop when she realized her niece is no longer beside the aunt, "Naria, come back here!" but looking back her bodyguards are about to arrive. She has a choice to make, but this time it changed her mind, she wants to see her niece, and that strange noise she heard all to herself.

"Mrs. Elyas, the 'guests' are here. They want to speak with you." Couldn't get even more difficult, "Ugh, not now."

The second bodyguard takes his turn to reply at her, "It's urgent, madam, they've been looking everywhere for you." the businesswoman became even more irritated as she winced infuriatingly. Having her mentally wild goose chase find a good decision which one she should do first in a matter of seconds.

But back in the main attraction, things have settled down quite a bit. Students were given their break time and rested, some prefer not to as they'd like to spend exploring, especially Denise, though she has a different reason for this one.

"Has anyone seen Cheska?"

A small group of students altogether shake their heads.

"If you recognize one named 'Cheska Flores', have you seen her around just earlier?"

Several noes from the strangers either, it was no help. Denise stands by the middle of the museum, little by little people have already left and went for their reserved seats for the grand catering nearby. There are only a few people left, and Isaac came approaching "No sign of her yet?"

She sighs, taking one more look around the lesser crowd before she answers his question, "No, not at all." she looks away with a discontented look.

Isaac isn't satisfied either, so he joins with her scanning their wide surroundings until he found something "Have you tried asking Cheska's friends?" She curiously follows his gaze where exactly it's pointing. The trio with a couple of unfamiliar colleagues are on their way out of the museum's exit.

"Nevermind, they look happy," says sarcastically by Isaac, he's unfortunately right. "Gosh, their jaws could fall off laughing so hard like that-"

"Oh my god stop"

"What, I'm right, right? Look at them so shamelessly loud." Oh, how they both wish they were lying. They're bemused by the constant change of their mood, earlier they were so close, that all the hugs and patting were showered on their humiliated friend, today they decided to let it go right away hanging out with different colleagues as if nothing happened as if she was forgotten.

"I wanna talk to them about it."

Isaac didn't want to answer, he just gave her a face disagreeing with her idea, she squints at his hilarious silent reaction "Isaac."

"I'm sorry if this sounds rude but I'm gonna try to knock the sense out of you, girl, do I have to recall the way how they treated us?

"What does that have to do with asking them where Cheska had gone to?"

"Think about it, what do you get in return?" They continuously observed the girls "I'm sure they're doing fine, they were probably just giving Cheska some time alone."

In their brief observation, they seem unregretfully having fun, it ridiculously made Isaac roll his eyes "And I'm no way saving your ass from their stupid insults over the simplest thing."

"Pfft, fine. " She pats his shoulder, as they watch the view of those happy trio of friends get smaller further away out of the exit. He's right, she thought "I'll just go to the restroom."

"Want me to hold your bag?"

"I'm good, thanks."

"Go, dummy. I'll wait for you, okay?" She left chuckling at Isaac and went, she took her time to find a nearby restroom.

Thankfully it had a noticeable logo sign of gender-specific restrooms. She enters and the first thing she sees is a mirror, beside Denise's display as a morena girl with her smooth bronzed skin, streaking natural hazel hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes is reflecting a tall lady.

She appears to be removing her pearly headpiece, its clip had a similar shape to a slithering snake beaded with silver and specks of diamonds.

Its claws dangerously looked sharp that it could cut smoothly like butter into the lady's skin.

An image of a snake, tackling towards the first view of a winged creature pictures in Denise's mind as soon as she noticed the golden earrings, it doesn't match with the headpiece's design. it's like both animals battling to take over the tall lady's appearance.

Denise wants to back up realizing it was the celebrity the whole time.

That face though, for some reason feels nostalgic, like she's seen her a few times before. She's stuck trying to remember how she remembered this person so clearly.

But the problem is, this is her first time meeting her.