Chapter 260 260- Unwanted Meeting

Chal's question took Aria by surprise. She never thought she would be asked such a question out of nowhere.

Chal watched the girl's expression change with clear amus.e.m.e.nt but she didn't say a single more word since she was seriously curious about the answer. Every girl that is around Kai showed endless affection toward him for one reason or another so she wanted to know if Aria was the same.

From what she could see, however, Aria didn't seem to be as close from Kai as the other girls. Being very experienced in love, Chal noticed the weird relations.h.i.+p between Kai and Aria. The two didn't seem to particular hate each other but they also don't seem to be close enough to be considered lovers.

'Something about this feels fishy. I want to get down to it.' Chal thought to herself secretly.

"I We're acquaintances. That's it." Aria wanted to say something different but then changed her mind and decided to just say the same thing she just said.

"Hmm, that doesn't seem like it, girl. I can feel your conflicted emotions right now. You aren't good at lying when you can't hide what you truly think." Chal puffed a cloud of smoke as she pointed her cigarette at Aria. "Well, let me change my question then. What does Kai think about you?"

"Uh" Aria opened her mouth to answer before she closed it again. This question was something that she asked herself before and she reached the same conclusion time and time again. 'He hates me.'

However, in the past few weeks, Aria noticed that Kai didn't show that hatred as often anymore. If anything, he was treating her rather nicely. That made her even more conflicted than before.

"I I don't know. What I know is that He used to hate me."

'Oh! Why did I say that?!' Aria held her mouth as she cursed herself inwardly for letting her thoughts leak.

"Oh, hates you? Now that's new. I never thought that boy was capable of hating someone considering how it's impossible for people to harm him." Chal raised an eyebrow. "Why does he hate you?"

"That's not I can't say."

"I see. Fair enough, secrets aren't meant to be spilled. But, I don't really see where this hatred is, if what you're saying is true. I have noticed that he doesn't particularly show affection toward you. But I don't see hatred either."

"..." Aria's hand clenched slightly. "Is that so?"

"Yes. Are you sure he still hates you? I a.s.sume that hatred is for a good reason, right?"

"It's for a good reason."

"Is that reason still vivid to this day?"

"Yes Maybe." She replied.

At this point, Aria wasn't sure if Kai really still harbored the same degree of hatred toward her as before. She was sure he didn't forget it, but it wasn't apparent anymore. He doesn't show it to her and the proof of that was the accident when he found their old picture still with Aria.

He specifically said that he didn't mind her having that old picture and that he still remembers those days when they were kids fondly.

"Why don't you apologize then?"

"My sin is too grave for a mere apology to fix."

Aria did apologize, many times, but she never expected to be forgiven. She simply apologized because that was the only thing she could do.

'I have no right of being forgiven. I will carry this sin for the rest of my life.'

"Who told you that?" Chal asked with a serious expression.

"I know."

"Again, how do you know?"

"I just know!" Aria replied with a frustrated expression. If it wasn't for the noise coming from the boat's engine, Kai and Kaya would've heard them.

Aria felt offended for being questioned like this. She was already suffering day and night because of it, so if someone questioned the validity of her mistake, she felt as if that was a mockery toward her and Kai.

"What do you even know? You don't know anything about this." She added with a cold tone mixed with hidden anger.

But, when she realized what she said, she shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"You don't know, girl. The fact that he didn't do anything to you and didn't even show his hatred toward is because he's already starting to forgive you. If I know one thing about Kai, it's that he isn't someone who tolerates people he hates for no reason, let alone people like you who he doesn't even show any animosity towards. You're blinded by your feeling of regret that you forgot about the whole point of your problem, to gain his forgiveness."

Aria's expression changed when she heard those words. It was as if realization just hit her out of nowhere without any prior warning.

'What was I doing?'

It was indeed true that Aria forgot about seeking forgiveness seriously since she a.s.sumed it was impossible. However, she didn't even try to gain it in the first place to confirm that.

She had lived with Kai, saw his life from up close and saw everything about him that she didn't see for 11 years. Kai wasn't the same person after all this time, he was different, more mature, stronger with clear goals for the future.

On the other hand, what did Aria do in the past 11 years? She lived far away from people's eyes, in seclusion, regretting a grave mistake she did years ago. Never did she try to seek fixing it or at facing Kai seriously.

'I was a pitiful coward that feared death. I thought that if I don't face him, that would be better for Kai and yet I realized that it was a bunch of nonsense from my cowardice that feared Kai. Now, when I faced him, I didn't even try to fix what I wronged.' She murmured to herself as she held her forehead.

Chal noticed all those emotions on Aria's face. 'She's starting to get it. Good.'

So, the woman simply walked away and left Aria alone to think about it and digest her word properly. She knew that it will take some time before she truly understood what she had to do.

'Well, if there is anything we have here, it's time.' She thought to herself with a smile.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere far away, a beautiful girl was racing through a building. Her face was pale and her breathing was ragged. That girl was Eva and she was now inside the first Origin Academy, heading toward a particular office.

Her expression wasn't normal at all as she clenched her phone in her hand. The past few days have been really horrible for Eva as she not only could sleep, but she was always holding her phone, making calls every few minutes.

Kai hadn't contacted her for the past 5 days. He had told her before disappearing that he was going to search for the remains of the progenitor's a.r.s.enal and so he won't be able to come back for a day or two.

However, those two days pa.s.sed and then another three days pa.s.sed with no trace of him. Even the tracking device on him didn't show his location at all. Eva didn't know what to do at first since she trusted Kai.

However, she also knew that if he was in trouble, she needed to act and act fast. So, the first thing she did was to travel to the place where he was last seen which was the academy. There, she snuck in and headed toward Kaya's office after acquiring information that she worked there.

Now, she was heading toward that place in a hurry. She had no time to waste if Kai really needed her.

"Please be safe, my love!" She murmured to herself as she reached her destination and looked around her. There weren't anyone walking in the corridor so n.o.body noticed her entering.

Walking inside the office. The office was empty and had been empty for a few days now. But, since Eva had no leads, she thought that this place would be the perfect start for her search of her beloved.

Looking around, Eva started searching the place. She looked into every place she could put her hands on.

'Old hag must've left at least one thing that indicates where they went.' She murmured as she picked up one of the maps in her office.

When she opened it, she found an X mark on it.

"The southern dessert." She murmured as she realized the location.

"They went to the southern desert."

'However, where exactly? That desert is vast and they could be anywhere. I need more leads.' She thought to herself as she started rummaging through the office again.

However, as she was like that, she suddenly heard a voice behind her.

"What are you looking for, Miss?" The voice was feminine and quite gentle and soothing to listen to.

However, in her situation, Eva didn't feel that gentleness at all as she lifted her head and looked at the person that appeared behind her without alerting her senses.