💃🏽🥳💃🏽

The hours rolled around and when evening time came, Jamie had a little meeting with the Argeryan Family guards who were scattered all over the hotel before returning to Tiris’ room.

They discussed their strategy on how to move out of Krovale the next day, and just as they finished the meeting, Jamie went down to the lobby and was just walking around aimlessly when he sensed something in his spatial perception.

’Two of the guards and one of the Merc Parties disappeared? Where the hell would they teleport to at this juncture?’

Jamie stopped in his tracks, sighed and facepalmed before shaking his head.

’Oh well, I guess this would help draw out that one who’s been shadowing us since the beginning.’

With those thoughts, Jamie headed back to his room which was right next to Tiris’, where Miranda was making a late lunch for him.

The aroma of roasted chicken filled the air, mingling with the scent of the wildflowers placed in a vase on the dining table.

"Jay?"

"Who else would dare enter here?"

Jamie gave such a reply as he walked up to the table and plopped down, before throwing a question to Miranda.

"Did you see the way Tiris tried to hide her surprise when that squirrel jumped on her shoulder today?"

"Hm? Oh, you mean the part where she almost screamed so loudly across the entire Mall?"

Miranda replied with a laugh as she remembered the scene. Even Tiris’ three friends couldn’t hold their laughter when they saw how freaked out she was by the Flying Squirrel.

As Miranda set their plates and dished out the food, the two continued to chat, their conversation meandering from Tiris’ reaction to the squirrel to memories of their adventures in the past year on Gnocyl Prime.

"Remember that crazy merchant who tried to sell us ’enchanted’ stones that turned out to be just regular rocks?"

"Oh yeah, he was quite the character."

Jamie replied while taking a bite of the chicken, chuckling a bit as he remembered the look of the man who couldn’t believe he had been caught.

As they finished their meal, Jamie stood up and began clearing the table, stacking the plates and utensils. He moved everything to the sink and while he was there, he saw some fruits lying on the counter and got an idea.

"Mira, you want a milkshake?"

"Sure, that sounds great."

Miranda replied as she leaned back on the chair and stretched, prompting Jamie to quickly clean up the dishes with magic and then pull out a blender from the cupboard.

It didn’t take him too long to conjure up two milkshakes and just as he was putting away the blender, Miranda hit him with a question straight out of the left field.

"Jay..."

"Whatsup?"

"Do we look like we’re dating?"

"..."

Jamie froze when he heard this question.

"That’s out of pocket..."

He spoke as he put the blender back into the cupboard, and then picked up the peels of the fruits on the counter and asked.

"Why’d you ask that?"

"Well, it’s just that people are always assuming we are. There was Tiris earlier today, then her friends, then when we were picking out clothes."

Miranda listed out the numerous times this assumption had been made as she rested her head on the table. She then suddenly sat upright and looked straight at Jamie as she asked once again.

"Do we really look like we’re dating that much?"

"Well, given people are always assuming we are, maybe we probably do."

Jamie gave this reply as he turned the fruit trash to ashes, before picking up a rag to wipe the counter. As for Miranda, she had a puzzled expression on her face as she spoke.

"But we’re not. We’re just friends."

"Exactly. We’re not."

The man chuckled lightly as he said this, picking up the tall glasses and setting them on the table in between them. He then slid hers over to her just as she hit him with another bombshell.

"Do you want us to?"

"..."

Jamie froze.

His grip on the glass nearly cracked it but he managed to control his strength at the last moment, before sighing and letting go of it.

"Mira."

Taking a seat, Jamie questioned.

"Do you understand the implications of the question you just asked?"

"Huh? Of course, I do."

Miranda picked up her milkshake as she replied, but Jamie gave her a doubtful look as he queried her again.

"You sure you do?"

At this, Miranda felt like Jamie was making fun of her and dropped her glass, narrowing her eyes as she replied.

"Jay, I understand what it means for two people to be in a relationship."

"No, no, no, Miranda. I’m not talking about ’two people’."

Jamie shook his head with a sigh, shifting in his chair and leaning forward while continuing.

"I’m talking about what it means for you...Miranda Violet Scott, to be in a relationship with me, Jamie Franklin Westley.

You don’t understand that."

Again, Miranda narrowed her eyes at Jamie, confused at why he was so confident that she ’didn’t understand’.

"Why are you so confident that I don’t?"

She voiced out her thoughts and Jamie sighed for the nth time and got to his feet as he began.

"For starters, you have zero idea about why people assume we’re in a relationship even if that’s not the case."

"Huh? Isn’t that simply because we’re childhood friends?"

"There are millions of other close childhood friends out there Mira, and not all look like couples."

Jamie walked around the table and stopped right in front of Miranda. He placed one hand on the table beside her drink and the other on the backrest of the chair, before leaning towards her.

This prompted Miranda to lean backwards but Jamie kept leaning forward until it nearly became a problem for her to balance herself.

Then, Jamie stopped, at a distance so close that they could feel each other’s breaths. Looking right into her eyes, Jamie took his right hand off the table and touched her cheeks.

At first, she was confused, but when he gently rubbed her cheek, Miranda’s eyes closed and she snuggled into his palm. As if on instinct, her hand moved up from the table and touched the side of Jamie’s face, quickly moving on to his hair. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Seeing her expression, serene and content, with a hint of a soft smile, Jamie sighed and shook his head.

"When you figure out the reason why people always assume that we’re dating, we’d have this conversation again."

His sudden statement made Miranda open her eyes and stare at him with confusion, but Jamie kept on speaking as if he didn’t notice.

"Until then, please do me a favour and don’t bring this up again."

"Ja-"

Miranda wanted to speak, but Jamie just planted a light kiss on her forehead and stood upright as he said.

"I’m going to bed. Goodnight."

"?...bed?"

Miranda was confused. So confused that one could see imaginary question marks floating around her head.

Jamie was on a level where he could stay months on end without sleep and still feel physically fine. Besides that—

"Jay...it’s just 5 pm."

Even if he wanted to sleep, this was far too early of an hour for this. Jamie, however, didn’t reply to Miranda and silently teleported out of not just the room, but the entire building.

This allowed Miranda to finally understand that Jamie simply didn’t want to have that conversation and saying he was ’going to bed’ was just a means to end it.

Still, the young woman genuinely did not understand why Jamie did this.

Meanwhile, Jamie sat at the remains of the tower he had erased earlier in the day, looking down on the city of Kauron.

"That girl really likes testing my reason..."

The man’s lips curled into a wry smile and he spoke.

"Who was it that said getting into a relationship was easy if you both liked each other? I need to smack them in the face."

He said this to himself as he got up to his feet, putting on a pair of sunshades which covered his glowing blue eyes.

Despite how he felt when he saw Miranda’s obliviousness to both his and her own feelings, now was not the time to address this.

’I left an echo of my presence in the Hotel. Only Mira would realise that it’s not really me but everyone else would be fooled unless they get within a 5-metre radius...even deities watching from afar.’

The man cracked his knuckles, an evil smile playing on his lips as he spoke.

"Now then, let’s find out what their little plan is."

With those words, Jamie disappeared from the top of the tower.