How a hard-working young man turned into a spoiled brat

"Looking at how calm you are right now, it's hard to believe you ever had a rebellious phase," Claire said with a small hint of a smirk on her lisp, a clear attempt at easing the air around us now that I've brought up the topic that inevitably made it tense up. 

"It's but a result of getting burned for all my mistakes and nearly going way too far due to my own stubbornness," I admitted to a part of myself that I've long since accepted. "But back then…"

I closed my mouth, making the two of us walk in silence for a short while. 

A short while that then extended all the way to the point where we left the cultivation district, only for Clarie to call in an automated cab to get us all the way back to the outer part of the town's suburbs where our villa was located.