His and Mine... (Katerina)

When I woke up today, the air felt a lot calmer. I could hear the silence as I got out of bed and got ready for school at my own comfortable pace. As I left the house, I felt a warm breeze brush past me. It didn’t drag me away. It just slowly flew around me as if it were greeting me.

Once I got to school, I made my way to the classroom. I spent some time trying to gather the courage to go inside. With a peek out of the window, I could see sunlight bouncing off the leaves of the trees in the courtyard, making them look like they were sparkling. I hadn’t really noticed that before.

There was a lot that happened over the past few weeks, but I felt like I could leave it all behind now. So with a lungful of air, I turned around and finally opened the door to the classroom.

“Oh, hello Kat! It’s nice to see you.”

For some reason, Midas was leaning against the wall right by the door, almost like he’d been waiting for me. He was honestly a little weird. I barely knew him, but he acted like we were friends.

“Hi…” I hesitantly said.

“Soren is inside. Just letting you know.”

I was confused, but then I realized that he probably had all the latest news on our relationship. He was friends with both Soren and Adella, after all.

“Did they tell you what—”

“Ah, ah, shh! You shouldn’t make your presence known. Here, let’s tiptoe around him.”

He slowly began to take steps from one end of the classroom to the other. I didn’t follow at first, but he eventually looked back and noticed.

“What are you doing?” he whispered. “Come on, hurry!”

He made me feel like I had to. So with some embarrassment, I reluctantly followed his lead through the desks and chairs. We ended up at Adella’s seat, and she was there waiting for us.

“Why did you guys tiptoe over here?” she asked.

Adella had looked over at Midas while saying that, but he had his back turned and was staring across the room. In order to get his attention, she grabbed the pencil laying on her desk and, with a scary amount of force, stabbed him on the arm with it.

“Ow!” he shrieked, looking back at her. “Was there really any need to do that? I do find pain arousing, but—”

“Gross.” Adella stabbed him a couple more times with the pencil.

“Ow! Ow! Ow! Hey…that actually feels…kinda good…”

She immediately stopped after he made that weird comment, looking at him with utter disgust. I guess this was what their relationship was. He was always strange, and she would just have to deal with it. I felt bad for her.

“Just answer my question already, weirdo.”

“Hm? Oh, you wanted to know why we were tiptoeing? To avoid Soren, obviously.”

“Is that even possible? I doubt it’d work.”

Midas didn’t say a word, and just looked at her for a few seconds.

“...Did it?” she asked.

“You’re right.”

“Huh?”

He smiled and rubbed his neck.

“Soren definitely noticed us!”

Adella instantly groaned, but I actually thought it was funny. I giggled a little.

“Do you guys always flirt like this?” I asked.

“Flirt!? What are you saying, Kat?”

Midas shrugged. “More or less.”

There was a pause, and we both looked at him to see whether he was joking or not.

“...Does cilantro taste like vomit to you guys too?”

He had quickly changed the subject and was back to being random, and it was easy to realize that he wasn’t serious about anything ever. I shot Adella a glance that said I feel for you.

“Anyway, Kat, I have to talk to you about something,” he said, looking over at me. “Can we meet after school? Is the courtyard fine?”

“You want to talk to Kat? Alone? Why?” asked Adella.

“It’s none of your business. Sorry.”

“I won’t let that happen. You of all people can’t be trusted to be alone with her.”

Midas groaned. “Ugh, fine. You can come too.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to, Kat. He’s really dangerous,” Adella said to me.

“I’m not!”

I thought about saying no to him, but there was no reason to. He seemed like a nice person.

“Actually,” I said, “I don’t mind. What do you want to talk about, Midas?”

He grinned. “You’ll see.”

***

After school ended, all three of us gathered and left the classroom. We walked through the halls and then outside to the courtyard. It was still nice and sunny outside, so we sat on one of the several benches scattered throughout the open area.

“Well? Are you going to get serious and tell us what you wanted to talk about?” Adella asked.

Midas yawned. “Maybe. I’m a little tired right now.”

“Don’t tell me this is all just some sort of elaborate—”

“Boop.”

Midas had poked her on the nose with his finger. It was surprising, but she slowly began to blush.

“Hah! Look, Kat, she’s like a tomato! You do it too!” he exclaimed.

I normally wouldn’t have wanted to, but it was really funny. Trying to hold in my excitement, I got up and poked her nose in the same way that he did.

“Boop.”

Midas laughed. “Nice! Let’s take turns now.”

“Boop.”

“Boop.”

“Boo—”

“Stop! Stop it already!” Adella yelled, slapping away Midas’s hand. Her face seemed to be more red out of anger than embarrassment now.

“Aw. It was fun while it lasted, I guess.”

I giggled. “Sorry, Della. It was pretty funny.”

She sighed. “I have to go wash my face now. I don’t mind when you touch it, but Midas is a different story.”

“Why am I a different story?!”

Ignoring him, she stood up and started to walk away. “I’ll be back.”

She had left, and Midas and I were now alone in the courtyard. I had mixed feelings about this.

“...Did she really leave because I touched her?” he asked. I didn’t think he could be so self-conscious.

“No,” I said, “I think she just used it as an excuse to go to the bathroom.”

“Oh, I see.”

“...She really likes you, you know.”

“I see.”

“...Do you like her too?”

He didn’t respond right away, and instead got up from the bench to face me.

“It doesn’t really matter.”

It seemed like his entire attitude had changed. As soon as Adella left, he had become a lot more serious.

“Why not?” I asked.

“...The Devil doesn’t succumb to temptation, Katerina. He leads others into it.”

This must’ve been what Adella meant when she said he spoke in riddles.

“What?” I said, making a confused expression.

He shook his head. “Never mind that. Now that Adella is gone, I’d like to talk to you about Soren.”

To be honest, I knew that this was going to be the topic of conversation when he first asked me to talk earlier today. There was nothing else that really connected us like that.

“We broke up,” I said. “Our relationship is over.”

“Don’t you still like him, though?”

I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me.

“What? How could I after everything that happened?”

“I wouldn’t really know. Love is too dramatic for my tastes.”

“...”

“It seems like you’ve been trying to forget him, but there’s no point in that. You won’t be able to.”

“Why are you saying this? I have no reason to talk to him ever again. It shouldn’t be hard to move on.”

“Oh, come on. Do you think that just because you’ve broken up with him, it’s over for good? Even the author didn’t take your relationship seriously.”

“...What? You aren’t making any sense.”

He sighed. “Listen up, Katerina.”

I went silent.

“Each and every one of us has a role to play in this world, and in this story. No matter what you do, you can’t change that. It has already been determined.”

He steadily raised his arm and pointed at me.

“I am here to tell you that, whether you like it or not, your role and Soren’s are fundamentally intertwined.”

I stood there in shock for what must have been a minute. It was hard to take in what I’d just heard.

“I’m back. Did Midas do anything weird while I was gone?”

Adella had just returned from inside. She walked over to me and patted me on the shoulder. “Are you okay, Kat?”

“Y-Yeah…”

While Adella was checking up on me, Midas went to the bench and grabbed his bag from it. He slung it around his shoulder and began to walk away.

“I’m going home,” he said.

“Huh? Already?”

I picked up my bag as well. “I’m going home too, Della. Sorry.”

She asked me a few questions, but after I gave her some indifferent answers, she eventually said goodbye and we all left.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Midas’s words on the way home. It sounded so bizarre, and yet…I felt like I had to believe them. All I could do was wish that they weren’t true, but the feeling was still there. My stomach was in knots and I didn’t know how to stop it.

I’m scared… I thought.