Preshow ✧ 4

“To your right, dumbo.”

My right? Where the young lady was sitting? I took a quick look at her and noticed her lips moving. The mysterious sound was coming from… her?

Involuntarily, I let out a gasp. She noticed it—as my reaction was embarrassingly loud—and stopped to look at me. I stammered to explain myself.

“Ah, um, that was you? It sounded so… pretty… so I got curious, and—”

She had a somewhat angry expression on her face, until she heard me say ‘pretty’. This made her eyes widen, and she opened her lips to respond.

“~”

That mesmerizing sound entered my ears once again. It was difficult to describe, it was like… It was like…

“Let me help. It sounds like sea waves. Just like her hair. She must be an Aberrant of Speech Divergence.”

With the help of the resourceful Mimi, I grasped the situation. My eyes widened with joy.

“You're an Aberrant! That's awesome! I mean, I am one too, but you know, erm—”

I was spewing random nonsense because of my excitement. I didn't even know why I was acting like this, as it was absolutely not my first time getting into contact with someone of my ‘condition’.

She chuckled (or that's what I thought, judging from her warm expression) and started searching her bag. Her tiny hands inside the bag somehow added to my awkward excitement. As I curiously awaited what she would bring out, she took out a blue pen, alongside a rather worn out looking notepad. She placed it on her lap and started jotting down something. My tangerine colored eyes curiously followed her every movement.

“People usually make fun of me. Thank you for saying my voice is pretty”

Possibly because she was writing on the paper, somehow I felt like I had to communicate silently too. I waved my hands hastily as if to say ‘Of course I wouldn't make fun of you’.

She continued to write. Her handwriting was slightly messy, yet had an artistic flair to it.

“I felt relaxed so I ended up humming without realizing. I usually keep quiet. My name is Nilsu. I'm sorry I couldn't introduce myself sooner. I am very apprehensive of strangers”

I shook my head. This time, however, I replied with my voice.

“That's not a problem at all, as an Aberrant myself, I totally get you. Nice to meet you, Nilsu!”

Nilsu… A beautiful name, fitting for a girl who was as refreshing as a flowing river of a summer day. She smiled brightly, bowing with her head to indicate she was happy to meet me as well. Afterwards, her aqua eyes curiously scanned me up and down, seemingly trying to understand what kind of Aberrance I had.

“Ah, my difference doesn't lie in my appearance, it's inside me. You see, I sort of operate as two people, you're talking to Rai right now. As for Mimi… well, maybe you'll meet her soon?”

“Say my greetings to her.”

“Ah, she tells me that she extends her greetings towards you. We kind of switch randomly, but you'll surely understand if you meet her!”

She seemed to be rather fascinated with the entire concept of our Aberrance, and we spent the rest of the way chatting—with her writing down questions and me answering them. It felt… sweet and warm. It had been a very long time since someone had taken a positive interest in me. And I could somehow sense it was the same for her…

By the time we got out at our stop, it felt like we had become friends already. I couldn't help but smile ear to ear, now I had a friend to watch the Circus with! It hadn't even begun yet, and my heart was overflowing with excitement…!

With Nilsu tagging along behind me, we arrived at the ticket stand after a few minutes of walking from the bus stop. A cheerful yet slightly odd piece of music was playing from the circus tent and looking around, I realized that it wasn't as crowded as I thought it'd be. Still, it was livelier than any event I could attend in our village.

“I can feel dad sneezing every time you slander our village.”

Sorry, dad… I was just reporting the truth…

After a kid with a red balloon bought his tickets with the assistance of his mother, it was our turn. I smiled at Nilsu and gestured for her to go first.

“Ladies first!”

“...you're a lady too, Rai.”

Something about Nilsu made me act in rather awkward ways, much to Mimi’s dismay. I could feel her cringing as she observed my interactions with her…

Despite my words, Nilsu shook her head and patted my back, signaling me to go first. Right, perhaps she didn't want to have her voice heard. What a shame, as it was such a cute one…

I took out my purse and said that I'd get two tickets. The person handling the ticket sales seemed to be a girl of around sixteen years, hair and eyelashes white as snow. She was sitting on a wheelchair, and her fingers handling the paper bills were so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if I saw her in the Circus show itself. She could make for an excellent illusionist, if she liked…

Putting my fanciful thoughts aside, I took the two tickets handed to me and left the line. Nilsu tugged on my hand and tried to give me her share of the ticket price. I chuckled.

“Naw, it's fine…”

She shook her head rapidly as if to say ‘no it's not!!!”

I tilted my neck to the side and gave her a smile.

“As a commemoration of our budding friendship, it's all okay!”

However, she crossed her eyebrows and jammed her money inside my purse, not taking no as an answer. I sighed and let it go. It was too early to spoil my friend… It was understable that she was unable to accept it just yet.

“You're leaving the city in a week, by the way.” Mimi chimed in with a reminder that made my heart ache.

How many times would I be able to see Nilsu? Maybe tonight was my only encounter with her… Trying to keep a sad sigh from escaping my mouth, me and my cute friend entered the Circus tent.

There were a lot of people inside already, though the seats were nowhere being full. Regardless, the music and the lights made my anticipation go up. We found ourselves two seats with a comfortable view, and waited for the show that would begin in around fifteen minutes.

Wanting to take this opportunity to chat, I leaned towards her and said “This circus… do you think the owner is actually a kind and supportive person, or just exploiting people's differences for profit?”

I asked her what I had thought of the night before, but she had no way of answering, as it was too dim to write on paper. The colorful light show was not exactly enough for comfortable writing. She merely shrugged and started looking around.

Curious about the percentage of Regulars and Aberrants, I found that the audience was of an equal mix—though of course, to an outsider I looked like a Regular as well. It was impossible to tell just from looking. I turned back to Nilsu, and pointed out some unique and interesting things in the environment surrounding us to pass the time. I suspected that she was getting more comfortable with me, because she was using gestures and expressions to convey her thoughts to me more actively.

So very cute…

“Allllrighttt, Ladies and gents and variations thereupon! Sit tight because the show is about to begin~!!!”

An incredibly loud voice announced the beginning of the show, cutting my thoughts into half.

“First of all, ouch. Second of all, good, ‘cuz your thoughts were getting a bit embarrassing.”

Mimi, let me be, it was not always I got to have such an adorable friend… I agreed with the first part, though. The microphone was absolutely not tuned well. Thankfully, when the blonde person with the short stature started talking again, it seemed to be fixed by the audio crew.

As she announced some general viewing rules, I noticed two things. First was that she had a heavy accent, which made sense; as a touring crew, they must have been from various countries. Second was that she kept on glancing at her hand. I slightly snorted. Not in the mocking way, I just found it amusing how she tried to look all cool and fluent in Tamamiran language, despite probably knowing three words at max. She really sold it though–she had an aura of pure confidence. Some people were really meant for the spotlight, I supposed… I could never be this natural in front of such a crowd.

When Mimi was about to suggest that maybe I could do a good job, as I liked doing school presentations, we suddenly switched. I found myself in our metaphorical spectating seat, and thanked the heavens we could share eyesight information. Imagine if I had to miss out on the performances just because of this…