"Of course, honey, but I have to ask. What happened to your face?" Her mother reached forward, briefly touched her scar, then retracted her hand, making Eunbin aware of it.
"I got into a fight, it wasn't pretty," Eunbin briefly touched her scar and stole a glance at Sunless,
"Well, I'm glad you're okay, and besides, I think it makes you look more beautiful, wouldn't you agree, Sunless?" her mother asked with a soft smile and turned her attention to him, the woman's smile becoming wider.
"Yes, it does. Her scar makes her look stunning, but no word in existence would be able to describe Eunbin's properly, as I've never seen anyone more beautiful than her aside from a divine being I came across, of course," He answered without a second of hesitation.
'Oh my,'
Eunbin blinked in surprise.
She was used to hearing his silly yet somehow always true tales. Eunbin shouldn't have been stunned at his statement, as she knew she was pretty. Still, hearing it from him felt different, genuine; it wasn't just to get in her good graces or hope she would give the time of day and take him out somewhere nice.
It was refreshing,
Eunbin felt her heartbeat quicken and immediately worked to calm herself and focus on the topic at hand.
"I'm going to go make something to eat. Let me know if either of you is hungry. I can't believe our Eunbin is back." Her mother said as she stood up with a smile, affectionately squeezed Eunbin's shoulder, then went to the kitchen.
Eunbin turned to her father, awaiting an explanation of what had truly happened that day, but she wasn't sure she was ready to hear it yet.
She stared at his wrist again, wondering why it was on his left instead of his right, and noticing her gaze, her father smiled and fiddled with it a bit.
"There is no rush go on, and have a look around, honey, then we can tell you when you're ready." He said, sensing her hesitation.
Eunbin took a deep breath.
He was right; there was no rush. She would get her answer sooner or later, but for now, she wanted to do something she had been avoiding for the better part of two decades.
Look around her home,
Eunbin stood up, and Sunny gave a squeeze to Sunless' shoulder, signaling for him to stay here for a bit and look at him with a smile.
"I.. I don't want to interrupt any historian talk you three inevitably get into. But Sunless, you're welcome to join me in looking around whenever you want if you'd like."
Eunbin smiled at him and allowed her hand to linger on his shoulder for a moment longer to see if he would comment on it. When he didn't, Eunbin squeezed it, let go, and walked to the hallway.
"You're a historian?" The man leaned forward with interest gleaming in his brown eyes.
"Oh no," Eunbin's mother said from the kitchen with a sigh.
"I am. I've written my fair share of reports, though unfortunately, they were lost a few years ago, so I don't exactly have the evidence to back up my word. Oh, I also run an Emporium that is a memory and cafe." Sunny slightly boasted.
"Nonsense! It's a surprise that young people like you are interested in history and that you're an entrepreneur too; it seems like all you kids want to do nowadays is become awakened and kill, kill, kill. It's good to see that not all of you are like that." The older man began to rant about people foolishly neglecting the importance of history, saying that learning from the past is essential because those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
Sunny silently agreed with every word he said,
"You opened the can of worms. Sunless, now he won't stop talking about it. Oh! Where are my manners? I haven't even told you our names! I'm Jessandra, but you can call me Jess dear, and my husband is Kain." She said, looking over her shoulder at him as she grabbed a lusterless pan and a dull plastic bowl from a cabinet. She also grabbed a plastic spatula from a drawer, then gracefully moved around the kitchen, gathering various ingredients.
That was…..odd
Surely ascended beings such as themselves would be more than capable of buying new cooking utensils. After all, even the masters who didn't see combat as often as their comrades and worked in mundane tasks were wealthy.
Sunny looked around and noticed that the vase holding the flowers was plastic, too. In fact, almost everything in the living room was plastic or lacked shine.
There were also no mirrors, and the only other person without mirrors in their home was Sunny himself.
'Did they encounter Mordret at some point?'
Sunny dismissed his thoughts for later and focused on Kain, who was still talking to him.
"I'll have to show you the artifacts we've found over the years, in the dream realm and the waking world. It'll knock your socks off." He said in a low voice as he leaned back into the couch with a small laugh, the corner of his eyes wrinkling in amusement.
"I'm sure Eunbin already told you, but children used to make fun of her as a child, if you can believe it. They would be eating their words if they could see our girl now; she's grown into a beautiful woman. I know you are a good young man, Sunless. I can tell from the way she acts around you! Eunbin is a lucky girl." Jessandra smiled sweetly, her dark eyes shone with delight.
Sunny was preparing to clear up the misunderstanding about their relationship ever since they arrived at the house, but he didn't want to squash the proud look on Eunbin's parents' faces.
'Ah, when did I become so soft?'
"No, no, you have it mixed up, ma'am. I'm the lucky one," He smiled at him, causing the man to laugh.
"I like this boy, Jess. He appreciates our daughter, and he's a historian! You said you run an emporium, right? Tell me, when are you going to propose to our Eunbin so we can get a friends and family discount?"
"Kain! Quit it, or you'll scare the young man off. Besides, we just met our daughter again after two decades; this is supposed to be a big deal. Please, for once, try to take this seriously." Jessandra snapped at her husband from the kitchen.
"Right er- sorry dear! I'm just trying to lighten up the mood, you know?" The older man coughed in embarrassment.
"You've always been bad about that. There's a time and a place." The woman shook her head in annoyance.
"To answer your question, I don't know," Sunny couldn't help but smile at the man's infectious enthusiasm, even though Sunny and Eunbin were nothing but friends.
"Ah, I suppose it's too soon, just let a guy know, huh?" Kain said in a whisper, drawing a glare from his wife, prompting the man to clear his throat. "Um, anyway, tell me how that old goat Julius is doing? Is he still alive and kicking?"
"He is, I've seen him at my emporium when I was living in Bastion for a time before moving to Ravenheart."
"Well, that's good to hear. You know, we thought about moving there, but we held back until we found the courage to face Eunbin, as we thought she would hate us if she saw that we were alive and well and thought we faked our deaths to abandon her."
As they continued their conversation, Eunbin silently listened as she explored her old room, bathed in darkness, the curtains drawn against the afternoon sunshine.
It was just as she remembered it, the drawings she had made of her father and mother were still framed on the wall to her left.
Her old bed, with pink sheets and a pink blanket woven with flowers, was still tucked and pristine; her nightlight was unplugged, sitting on the luxurious dresser her mother bought for Eunbin for her sixth birthday.
It was a lot shorter than she remembered.
Eunbin leaned down, picked up the nightlight, and examined it for a bit before leaning down further to plug it into the wall outlet.
The nightlight cast a dim glow in the corner of the room, making her smile slightly as she sat on her bed, and the wooden box spring creaked beneath her as she settled in.
It reminded her of a time when things were much simpler, when she did not care about anything in the world except her parents.
'How times have changed,'
She sat there for a few minutes in silence before getting up and walking back to the living room, where her mother, who had returned from the kitchen with plates of food resting on the kitchen table, was now sitting down on the couch. Her father and Sunless were also seated beside each other, looking at… well, she didn't know actually.
What were they looking at?
Her mother was holding a book of something, smiling as she pointed to the pages.
Terror washed over Eunbin like a tsunami.
They were looking through old photos, meaning Sunless would eventually see what she looked like when she was younger.
'Gods no!'
She had to stop this at once!
Eunbin quickly walked over to where they were, and as her mother turned a page, Eunbin promptly grabbed Sunless by the arm, seating him where he had been initially. Before anyone could protest, she spoke up.
"Why is it on your left wrist instead of your right, like how it used to be when I was a child? What really happened the day the nightmare gate opened on top of you both?" She quickly asked as she sat down beside Sunless again, ignoring the amused look she saw that he was giving her out of the corner of her eye.
Sunny sat beside her, staring at Eunbin in amusement at her evident embarrassment. But he silently wondered the same thing.
It was strange for Eunbin's parents to appear out of nowhere after all these years.
He had a feeling these weren't her parents at all, but instead were reflections that dwelled within the mirror maze beneath true Bastion, called the "others".
Or rather, theoretically, they could be anywhere that had a reflective surface, but luckily, they only seemed to be able to come out in True Bastion and nowhere else.
That was likely due to something the demon of imagination did; he would have to ask the prince of nothing about the history behind that if the bastard was willing to cooperate.
But Sunny digressed. Eunbin's birth parents probably died in the dream realm, but he didn't want to make any spontaneous decisions and end up killing innocent people.
He also didn't want to have Eunbin loathe him for the rest of her life. Eunbin not talking to him was the last thing Sunny wanted, and it bothered him more than he'd liked to admit.
Sunny hoped he was wrong, since they were already growing on him, and he didn't want Eunbin to have to kill her parents after just getting them back. Besides, there were historians, and he wanted to see their findings!
"It's on my left wrist because of an incident that took place before we 'died' over twenty-five years ago. I'm sure you noticed, but that's the reason why we have no mirrors or objects that can reflect anything. That's only the result of the event that took place; the beginning of it is much more complicated than you'd imagine."
"What kind of incident? And what do you mean by more complicated?" Eunbin asked with a slight frown, prompting Kain to sigh as he went into the hall and presumably his room to grab something.
Sunny heard the sound of a code being punched in and something opening. When Kain came back, he was holding something wrapped in paper.
Strangely enough, the sight of it caused Jessandra to shiver and look away, then hug herself.
It must've been something horrible to make two seasoned masters frightened.
It couldn't have been because of the paper itself…..Right?
Unless…..
Sunny's eyes widened as the dots connected and the truth hit him like a PTV.
He was a damn idiot.
Why? Why didn't he figure it out sooner?!
Sorry this took so long, don't kill me over the cliffhanger :)