"Now, don't think about The Constant again, alright? Because if you do…"
she trailed off, pinching my cheek lightly.
"Then I will erase that memory whether you like it or not."
I didn't argue, I just nodded, doing my best to forget whatever it was that had nearly undone me moments ago.
"Miss Anathasia," Rania began, "about the Collective Sphere—"
"What's this?"
A melodic voice drifted in from the kitchen, and in the next heartbeat, a honey-blonde woman materialized in the center of the room, her shoulderless Japanese dress and detached sleeves flowing as if caught in an unseen current.
Anathasia's brow twitched.
"And what are you doing here?"
Rania vanished, then reappeared behind the woman, clamping a hand over her mouth.
"Don't talk," she hissed under her breath. "We're in Miss Anathasia and her partner's residence, do you really want to anger her right now?"
Anathasia merely leaned against my shoulder, arms crossed.
"Bothersome…"
"Who's that?" I asked quietly.
"Roselia. The Fourth Outer God, for all she's worth." Anathasia rolled her eyes.
"If I'm Continuity and Structure Preservation, and Rania is Equilibrium, then she is Causality."
"Sounds… heavily philosophical…" I murmured, watching the two of them bicker in the kitchen.
"Well," she replied softly, "isn't philosophy, throughout history, just humanity's attempt to formalize knowledge, reality, and existence?"
She shrugged.
"I figured saying it like that would be easier to understand. Talking about everything in abstract riddles, acting all pompous and 'beyond comprehension' like some stuck-up deity… it's just exhausting."
Her voice was casual, almost dismissive.
Anathasia glanced toward the two other women, still leaning against me as she spoke.
"So," she said lightly, her expression flattening, "what brings the two of you here? I was just about to start washing the dishes… so keep it brief."
Rania and Roselia immediately stopped bickering. Both of them straightened almost in unison as they turned to meet Anathasia's gaze.
"Regarding the Collective Sphere," Rania began. "Everything is functioning as expected… however, there is something that may be of concern."
"Concern… is this about that Demiurgic Image cluster?" Anathasia replied, occasionally glancing at her hands while still using me like some sort of backrest.
"…Not quite," Roselia chimed in. "The Second Outer God just informed us that the Ruins… are beginning to come back to life for reasons we can't determine."
What the hell are they talking about…? Should I even be here hearing this?
Even with their concern, Anathasia still looked utterly blasé.
"Okay," she said simply. "Is there any immediate threat?"
The two women hesitated.
"…Not exactly," they murmured. "We assumed you may not have noticed—"
"I remade them myself," Anathasia cut in flatly. "I don't see why SOG had to dramatize everything. It's just simple reconstruction."
The two Outer Gods were left speechless.
Then Anathasia snapped her fingers, and in the next moment, they were gone. As if they had never been there at all.
She gently pushed off from me and walked around the counter.
"I'll be washing the dishes now, then."
A soft humming filled the room in place of the silence that followed their disappearance.
That was… weird…
And it was.
—
The next day. Saturday
Well… things definitely happened yesterday.
First Noah. Then two Outer Gods. Then… whatever they were talking about.
But that was yesterday.
Today was different.
"I'm bored…" Anathasia grumbled, sprawled lazily across the couch, her phone lying on the table in front of her.
"Manwha chapter updates are taking so long… should I just time-skip—"
"No," I cut in immediately, glancing up at her while smoothing out my notes and transferring them into a PDF. "What if you mess up the timeline?"
Silence.
She stared up at the ceiling.
"I was just kidding… but this is still unbearable."
She glanced at me as I kept typing on my laptop. "What're you doing?"
"Summarizing notes," I answered. "Arianne and Joseph asked if I could send them copies of our lessons."
She slowly sat up. Then suddenly appeared beside me, sitting down and leaning in to look at the monitor.
A small whistle escaped her lips.
"These look clean… are these from the files our professor sent a few days ago?"
"Yeah," I replied, leaning back against the couch with a quiet exhale. My eyes drifted to her hair, and before I knew it, my fingers were already tousling a few strands of her white locks.
"But nothing too tiring. It's just ten pages."
A familiar chat bubble suddenly popped up.
"Oh. It's Arianne."
"You talk to her?"
Anathasia's eyes narrowed as she leaned closer to the screen. "Then how come she never sent me a friend request…?"
She muttered under her breath, lightly resting against my shoulder while occasionally glancing at the laptop as I opened the chat.
"I think she did, actually. Have you ever checked your requests?"
She paused, raising her hand slightly. Her phone flew back into her palm.
"…I think there was one. I just… didn't check."
Anathasia stared at the screen for a moment, then, without saying anything, leaned back against my shoulder again.
"Something wrong?" I glanced at her, feeling her arms loop loosely around mine.
"Nothing…" she murmured. "I just feel a little… needy?"
"Well that was… incredibly straightforward."
She huffed softly, then suddenly brought my arm up toward her face. Before I could react, she lightly bit down on my forearm.
Not hard, but enough to leave a faint mark.
A dark bruise slowly surfaced where her teeth had been.
She lingered there for a second too long… then began to lick over the spot almost absentmindedly.
"Okay. Stop that."
I pulled my arm back slightly, brows knitting together. "What's gotten into you?"
She went quiet, her gaze drifting away from me.
Then, almost without warning, she let herself slump forward, settling into my lap.
Her voice dropped to a low murmur.
"My lower half hurts… a lot."
My hand instinctively moved to her head, fingers threading through her white hair as I gently stroked it.
"And I feel really irritable… for no reason…"
She shifted slightly, her brow furrowing.
"My head's aching too… I don't know why."
I paused.
Pain in her lower half. Irritability. Headache…
A thought clicked into place.
Wait… is she having dysmenorrhea or something?
I studied her for a moment, her furrowed brow, the way she shifted restlessly in my lap before speaking.
"Okay… I think you should rest instead," I said gently. "How about I bring you to bed? I have a feeling this is… something girls experience monthly."
She rolled over slightly, looking up at me.
"What… menstrual cycle stuff?" she muttered, reaching up to pinch my cheek. "I've never experienced this. Like, ever since I got here."
Her expression flickered, then she glanced briefly at the laptop on the table.
"Besides… Outer Gods aren't supposed to experience things like this."
She trailed off, lips pressing together.
"I know I copied human physiology perfectly, but still…"
"A little too perfect?" I cut in softly, my hand still slowly running through her hair.
She hesitated for a second before nodding.
"I can walk just fine… but I feel like I might snap at the smallest triggers…" she whispered, even as I slowly lifted her off the couch. In a princess carry, since she wasn't exactly heavy. In fact, she felt like a twig in my arms.
"Why do I feel like I'm being patronized right now?" her expression shifted, turning flat as she looked up at me.
"But you are light, just so you know," I said, carrying her upstairs to her room.
Once there, I gently set her down on her bed before tucking her in.
"Stay here, alright? I'll be back with a warm compress and some food."
I brushed a stray strand of her hair away from her face. "What do you want? Something easy to eat like… porridge? Or some soup? I can make you some."
Her gaze lingered on the ceiling for a moment, distant, before she glanced back at me.
"I'll go with a soup… your chicken tinola especially… I want it."
I nodded, leaning in to plant a brief kiss on her forehead.
"Alright then. Don't hesitate to enter my mind… or whatever if you need me, okay? No need to raise your voice. It'll get hoarse if you push yourself."
She hummed softly before letting herself sink back into the pillows.
—
Around an hour passed before the tinola was finally done. It was a bit rushed, especially the prep, but it was good enough.
After transferring some of it into a bowl, I went back upstairs, carrying a tray with her soup and the warm compress I had prepared earlier.
She hadn't called for me, which was a little strange.
But the moment I entered—
"Anathasia…?"
She was already fast asleep.
Her expression was so serene it looked like it belonged in some classical painting. Untouched, almost otherworldly.
I quietly placed the tray on the small cabinet beside her bed. From where I stood, I could see her chest rise and fall slowly with each breath, steady and unhurried.
For a second, I just watched.
Then, while sitting on the edge of her bed, her eyes slowly fluttered open, landing on me.
"Kyle…?"
Her voice was soft… almost childlike even. It was… honestly rare seeing her like this. An Outer God, the one who even other Outer Gods can't even consider opposing… looking like—
This.
"Mhm, I'm here," I smiled as her hands tried finding mine. "I have your soup here, you should eat it before it gets cold."
I reached out for the soup bowl on the tray, my other hand being held by her while she watched.
"If it's too much, I can spoon-feed you as well," I added, slowly turning to face her. "But I'll need my other hand back first."
She gently let go of my hand, then sat up on the bed. Still half asleep.
She's… strangely obedient like this… but anyway,
Anathasia stayed completely silent as I spoon-fed her, only nodding or humming softly whenever I said anything. And for the first time, I caught myself doing something I wouldn't have done for others back then. Even if I did help people without asking for anything in return, I still had my boundaries.
So this is what it's like to have someone you care about deeply… huh…
It was something I'd always known instinctively. I'd just never slowed down enough to actually reflect on it.
And honestly… it wasn't a bad feeling.
—
Roughly a few days later. Monday
Anathasia eventually recovered from her dysmenorrhea. Apparently, she'd "reverse engineered" her body so she wouldn't have to go through that again. At least, that's what she told me. Though I wouldn't have minded taking care of her once more.
"Kyle?" she called, stepping in front of me as we filed out of the classroom. "What're you thinking?"
Our eyes met for a moment.
"It's nothing," I replied dismissively. "Anyway… any suggestions for lunch?"
She crossed her arms, brows furrowing slightly in thought.
"I think I'm in the mood for fried chicken… western style."
"Buttermilk fried chicken, then?"
"Yeah, that one."
"I can make that, sure… though the marinating might take a while…"
Her gaze drifted aside as she hummed.
"How about I tenderize the chicken with a bit of… reality manipulation? Just localized. I won't mess up the world, I promise." She flashed me a bright smile. One I didn't entirely trust.
I sighed.
"Fine. Localized only. Alright?"
Her face lit up immediately as she nodded.
"Alright, leave it to me!"
Before I could even respond, she snapped her fingers and the space around us blurred. The next moment, we were standing in the middle of the kitchen.
From the hallway. Again.