The move to Faradiso was a headache. Everything else other than the garden that greeted Cerise on the town’s barriers was a headache. The sounds of the engine and the obnoxiously bright buildings and light that seeped through the tinted windows of the van had her groaning in her seat, constantly flailing her arms and accidentally hitting her best friend, Sal with her pillow.
“Don’t even try sleeping anymore, we’ve got a lot to visit.” In utmost concern, she throws the pillow harshly to the side of her head, moving away to the back seats so Cerise couldn’t get her back. Sal was most excited about this, eager to live in a place that values nature unlike their previous home rattled in skyscrapers and noisy streets. This place wasn’t that much different in terms of the structures but Sal sets the thought aside as she writes down more places on her checklist, now landing on Cerise’s lap.
As soon as her eyes reach the paper she begins to feel her inner self give out, sliding down dramatically on an imaginary wall. “Can’t we just rest for one day? We aren’t tourists!” Cerise whines, crumpling the piece of paper with about 10 destinations written on it giving herself a horrified gasp from Sal before she takes it away, a string of curses falling from her lips as she straightens it out on the glass.
“We’ve arrived”
The door opens, the driver gladly does it for Cerise and her luggage, A small ‘thank you’ about to spill from her mouth before Cerise hears her best friend shouting from inside the van. The door was apparently slammed shut before she got out. Cerise fumes, facing the driver with an angry look while he only reciprocates an oblivious one. “Can you please open the door the hollow can’t get out.” Cerise states, placing her hands on the handle to do it herself but she only struggled, her gaze trailing from the man’s hand up to his face. He was holding it closed, a disbelieving look partnered his stare.
‘Another headache’. Cerise counts. This man was a stubborn swan, keen enough to prove what he wanted to as he raises a brow. “you’re either one of those crazy journalists or you’re crazy itself. Tell me, where is the hollow?”
Faradiso was a very well-known place in the country. Reasons being named the town of blossoms. There wasn’t an area here that doesn’t have flowers all over the place. Another for its entertainment industry, many famous acts found and reside in this town including the international models; Tiffany Love and Fleur Jean, but that wasn’t the point right now. This place is an icon for its people, a population of five hundred thousand and only a few percentages of aurums in it.
Conclusion? The majority of swans in Faradiso don’t believe in hollows, and this driver was one of them.
“Do you want your payment or not?” Despite being the gentle coward she was, confidence will always be in her senses if it’s for her friend. No one has the right to treat her as if she doesn’t exist. There was even a time before her graduation that she cried because they wouldn’t allow her to attend, she bugged the organizers the whole day and it worked somehow.
Cerise’s threat seemed to have pierced through the man’s ego, dropping the cocky act, and pulling the doors open for her best friend. Cerise hears Sal muffle a quick thanks, the wheels of her luggage colliding with the steel of the van giving it a scratch.
The driver coughs to gain her attention, raising his brow once again as he waits for his payment.
Unlike the modern way of paying through the phone, Cerise spits out “Sal, can you give this kind swan his cash?” The man’s face morphs from scandalized before turning into fear as a wad of money is thrown directly at his chest, none of it coming from Cerise’s unmoving limbs but from the girl beside her.
After a minute of no response, Cerise thinks that she might’ve broken the poor man. Sal pulls at the red thread on her pinky, tugging Cerise along to walk through the park.
The red thread was for safety purposes, so Cerise wouldn’t lose Sal. Speaking of swans, Cerise was one herself but a tiny bit special, she can hear hollows but she can’t see them.
Sal was like a guardian angel if seen from another perspective, a voice nagging from either behind, beside, or in front of her at all times of the day. She’d only ever seen her through her phone, the reason why her storage is always full as multiple selfies and videos of Cerise and her best friend fill it.
The only real contact ever shared was the thread, one end tied to Cerise’s pinky and the other end tied to hers. A sad but the only reality Cerise and Sal’s relationship could ever be. Shaken away from her thoughts, Cerise asks her friend to repeat whatever she was even telling her. “We’re at Luce park. The flat should be around this area.” She huffs, voice small and somewhat tired from all the navigating.
“Let’s stop by a coffee shop” Cerise suggests, earning a grunt from her as Cerise paced towards the eye-catching shop at the other side of the garden before she could even agree. The Park was relatively empty, only a few swans here and there and Sal takes the chance to (illegally) pluck a good five of middlemist reds along the way.
“Good morning” The bells of the shop jingle as Cerise opens it, a warm welcome given by the woman at the register. Both Cerise and Sal move to a booth by the wall covered in paintings of castles, a childish tint to the retro-styled cafe.
Cerise asks her best friend for her drink as she finishes skimming through the menu under the glass of the table, chanting her orders in her mind as to not forget it. The cashier only made the place even better, her gummy smile bouncing off the sharp eyes yet calm features as she took Cerise’s order. ‘Jenny’ her nameplate read, a name Cerise would surely remember as she includes a nectar dessert to which she gives her a questioning look. “It’s for the firefly,” Jenny whispered.
Cerise’s mouth forms an ‘o’ as she glances back to where her best friend is seated, a red thread floating on the table. “How much?”
“It’s on the house” the cashier replies in an instant, arms crossed as a sign to reject Cerise’s payment. Cerise’s face flushes in deep pink, insisting that she take the money but she only shoo-s her back to their booth with a strange grin. The moment Cerise’s bottom makes contact with the seat, Cerise hears Sal roar in happiness, the nectar dessert disappearing as soon as she touches it. “Thank you so much~”
“It’s from the owner.” Cerise lisped before chugging the matcha tea down, an exhale of satisfaction as she finishes it halfway. Cerise’s best friend mutters something along the lines of ‘sweet’ and ‘aurum’, but that thought slid to the back of her head, preoccupied with how things are going forward from now on.
Overall the place wasn’t bad, with only a few asshole swans and aurums outside, a clear balance to the haven-like town. Back in Omelaisse, Cerise never would have thought to sit down in a coffee shop, with calm winds surrounding the atmosphere. It was hell-coaster back there, something straight out of an overly-dramatized action film in a busy city unlike now where everything felt like a dive through a child’s imagination.
--- Aurum - Gold --- Blind. Cerise and Sal were blind. For the next hour, the two of them had circled the entire garden trying to find the damned flat. Apartment after apartment stuck together like a piece of odd-colored bricks and neither of them bothered looking up to see the humongous sign that says‘Casa Apartelle’. It lead Cerise to go back to Amor's for directions that she couldn’t have asked for earlier and it’s only then that both she and her best friend fume like kettles when she points outside the window, directly at a mansion-looking structure informing both of t
--- Fleur - Flower --- “Fleur Jean.” And the day stops just like that with Sal running off and Cerise shouting for her to come back as she heads off to their destination. Sadly enough, in the eyes of the swans, it’s a crazy woman shouting at nothing, and in the eyes of the aurums, it’s a master angered at its escaping hybrid. Sal shrugs away the negative thoughts, skipping her way towards the entrance of ZM dance academy. If Faradiso was a town of blossoms then Omelaisse would be a city of passion, with drunks driving their way back home and singing their hearts out for their crushed ambitions and kids chasing their life away for dreams before the chance is tak
In RubyLust's building was no normal afternoon. Cerise was the hot potato of each department, having no idea that there was an 'heir' moreover being introduced with an unexpected meeting. Even heating her popularity further in the building as they didn't expect ayoung swanas the next director. The room is filled with sounds of aggressive typing, in front of the monitor, and unaware of being the topic of the day, Cerise's mouth dries cursing the same words from earlier a thousand times more."I hate you Fleur Jean"she continues muttering and her father points out with a deep sigh that she's become a nuisance as soon as he came back
"Get out of the way!" Cerise snaps out of a daze and turns her head in the direction of the shout, there, by the corner of the studio building dashed a man, his hand clinging to the pole to swing his body away from the crossing and to escape the men chasing after him in suits. "Janoir? Why are you running-" Janoir pulls the three of them into the nearest open door, shutting the mahogany block behind him and leaning on it to catch his breath. Cerise stood quiet, mind in a panic for her safety, she decides to use Jean as a shield in case this Janoir is actually a runaway prisoner. He rests his hands on his knees, throwing his head back to get rid of the sweat."fan c
“I’m never going to talk to you again,”Sal grunted in regret, unable to forgo divulging such humiliations she had as a dancer and now this aurum is never going to let her live it down. “I’m only teasing you”June cackles, pinky twirling in an X motion, repeating ‘wrong' to let the other continue dying in embarrassment. “highly unlikely, I feel threatened.” Why did she even agree to ‘20 questions’? June gave no mercy even if all Sal asked were ‘favorite color, pet’ and the like. “Okay, I’ll be nice with the last one, what was the call about?”She
2 PM In the situation they're in, she's supposed to be running. So she's running as fast as Sal is, breaths lodged in their throats as she's pulled by the shoelace.“hide honeyass!”She shouts, only able to watch while Cerise trips face-first to the ground. The garden walls are prickly with the vines and thorns stuck on it, the smell of Lysichiton plants nothing close to pleasant as she crawls around it.what an awful hiding place Despite being amidst the unfamiliarity of the place, there’s a sense of deja vu present, Cerise is always being chased. She's not supposed to open her eyes but she does. All of it felt like a blur, happening to
A week later, "She's supposed to come with me, I'm training her." "She's coming with me I'm the one she's managing." Coming to work early in the morning was a choice Cerise decided to make. Last night, she found out that Jean is at least a hundred years old. Because of a street sign she recognized to be the same as the one in the photograph in her father's office. And where is Jean now? In the headquarters, arguing with Trinity on who gets to come with who. Cerise is left typing aggressively on her keyboard, trying to drown out the noise of the two men behind her. "I get to decide where she goes, I'm managing her!"
"Where are you going again? It's the weekend."Cerise questions Sal, who she knew was going out because of the loose thread on her pinky. "I'm going to dance! bye."Sal leaves in a hurry. These days, Sal has been drifting from Cerise, always at ZM and never having time for the two of them anymore. Sal doesn't visit her at work or at college too like she said she would. Cerise is left to sulk in her bedroom. The apartment they shared was cozy and modern, with monochrome furniture decorating the place and tall windows aligning the walls. Suddenly, Cerise remembers the last time someone broke into their apartment, where they ended up running and Sal wouldn't spill about anything that had happened. She still needs to