Book 4, Chapter 1 - Harry’s Birthday

I had chosen Raffles to be my fiance during my seventeenth birthday.

In the beginning, I had needed some time to get used to us being engaged, and even though things between us could finally go back to normal, I was not able to get used to the way other people kept looking at us.

But I believed that it would get better over time.

Raffles and I had predetermined our future relationship according to Noah City’s tradition, but this had made Williams very sad. He had liked Raffles for very long and had also prepared a ring for proposing to him. My girls had said that I had luckily saved Raffles. Otherwise, Raffles would have really become our ‘sister.’

I did not want to see Raffles becoming our sister.

One more thing that embarrassed me was the Love Hut.

Raffles and I stood in front of the Love Hut and blushed hard. None of us could muster up the courage to open the door using the access card that Elder Alufa had given us.

It was so embarrassing and we found it hard to get used to it.

In the end, Raffles took the keys and opened the door. I saw a cabin that was far more spacious than my original room. The cabin was decorated into a small house.

In the middle of our room was a shared area. On both sides, there were two rooms—one for myself and the other one for Raffles. The rooms had their own ensuite bathroom too. Hence, it seemed like we were living in the same house, but with our own spaces within it.

The shared area in the middle was our living room, where we ran into each other quite often. It was still a little awkward for us when that happened.

Due to this, Raffles would even stay in his lab and not return to our home to avoid the embarrassment of running into me in the living room. However, we were still living together after all. Quoting what Sis Ceci and the other seniors had said, “We needed to cultivate our feelings.”

Very soon, we found out a way to avoid feeling awkward.

Once I had seen Raffles reading in the living room after returning from my duties. He was reading four profound books, all at once. They were the books about space that I brought back from the library.

I recalled that I lacked knowledge in this subject-matter. So, I got him to teach me about it.

I no longer needed to study politics, history and language, and I felt at ease.

Raffles had tailored a syllabus for me aiming to adapt it to this world. He reckoned that literature was a must, but that was our only language class. According to Raffles, literature could level up a person’s language skills as well as one’s culture and temperament. It could make one look less like a gangster.

He believed that mathematics was a necessity because it could strengthen a person’s logical thinking. In other words, all scientific foundations in this world. Whenever I headed out for missions, I was required to know corresponding knowledge about spaceships. I couldn’t just know how to drive one, without knowing how to fix it.

Hence, there was an extra program.

Plus, I had to learn geography, weather, habitats and characteristics of the animals and plants. I counted the list of subjects and realized that it was much more than what I had learned back in my own world.

I sat at the dining table and there was a holographic laptop.

There was a huge holographic image that was the same size as Raffles. It was a photo of a spaceship’s structure.

“This is NY37. This spaceship is suitable for the loading of commodities, and has the logistics of the completed fighter planes, which can also be used for rescue missions. Contrary to Snowstorm, its body was lighter, making it difficult to advance in snowstorms…” Raffles explained seriously.

We had decorated the living room cozily. There was a cloth-art sofa, which was Raffles’s favorite. It was an antique, with a classic and beautiful print. He liked to sit and read on that sofa.

By the side of the sofa, there was a streamlined coffee table. It looked like a waterfall and there was a glass vase on it. We had put a fresh lily in our vase.

Then, there were things that everyone had given me. The seat cushions and soft toys were all in the living room.

The bowls and mugs were put away in the recessed cabinet.

Raffles and I could see each other’s things everywhere and all over the place. Our lives were slowly getting intertwined. It was different from how we used to eat and play together, but we were still like a family. We were slowly blending into one another’s lives.

“This data is very important. This is the pressure on the external...,” Raffles said solemnly. He pulled out data from the holographic screen. The ring on his left ring finger glimmered in dark luster, “In an ordinary situation, the spaceship’s AI would remind you. However, there are times when AI could break down. Then, you will have to judge on your own…”

I looked at the rolling data, and my vision went blurry. I also started getting a headache.

I rubbed my eyes and he stopped.

He gently sat down next to me, “Tired?

“Mm,” I nodded. “I don’t have two brains, like you.”

He smiled and got up to make me a cup of milk. He put it in front of me. There was a half heart on the cup. Then, he poured himself a cup of water and put his cup next to mine, which was the other half of the heart from my cup. Our room was filled with couple’s items. Every time I saw them, I would blush for a bit.

“Oh yeah, I went through your homework,” he waved and my homework appeared on the table. He was looking more like my tutor at that moment.

I picked up the cup and drank as I looked at his feedback.

He reviewed my answers solemnly, “You did this formula incorrectly. You should use Bellu Formula. So, it’s like this, like this and cube of that, square root of that would be sixty-one.”

Sixty-one… I found this number familiar. I suddenly recalled, “Tomorrow’s Harry’s birthday!”

I exclaimed in surprise and looked at Raffles. Raffles was taken by surprise too, “Yeah, tomorrow is Harry’s birthday!”

In Noah City, the guys didn’t pay attention to their own birthdays. So, they were mostly overlooked.

I was happy, “What should we give Harry as his birthday present?”

Raffles looked at me for a while and smiled, “You decide.”

I held the cup and thought. Recently, Harry seems to be avoiding us. “Raffles, don’t you think that Harry is avoiding us recently?”

Raffles lowered his head and nodded, “Maybe because we…” he blushed, “...got together.”

I blushed too. Didn’t we say, I could just book him for now…

“But Harry told me to book you, so we could return to how we were. But then… he is continuing to avoid us…” I let out a sigh of disappointment. I was too silly, as it turned out that we couldn’t go back to how we used to be.

“Harry said that?” Raffles looked at me in surprise. He looked moved.

“Mm, on the night I went to look for you, I told him that I didn’t want it to continue. He lied to me again!” I supported my head on one hand and spun my cup in the other. Harry had brought Raffles and I together, but he had left us ever since. He hadn’t carried out his promise about us.

Although I knew that we couldn’t force him, I felt rather disappointed.

The triangle was missing one of its corners.

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