The city of New Beginnings.
Late afternoon.
Mellow sky.
South-bound winds that were neither too warm nor too cold.
A black-haired guy with emerald green eyes and a clear complexion is seen waiting for someone besides a large, array-run fountain. This is the Lifestyle district of the city. It features various shops and activities that cater to the leisure interests of rankers.
The black-haired guy is wearing a semi-formal outfit. Dark blue denim pants and a simple white shirt paired with a long jacket in a dark brown shade. His eyes are glued to the scroll his hands are holding stretched in front of him. As if trying to make the right use of his idle time.
"You are always on the clock, aren't you?"
A serene feminine voice sounded from behind the guy. He smiled while still looking at the scroll. He closed the reading material and stored it in his storage, then turned toward the source of that voice.
Beautiful.
This one word was enough to describe the young girl that was approaching the green-eyed young man. She walked with unparalleled grace. There was a certain charm about her movements that couldn't be explained with words.
She was as mesmerizing as the most exquisite of paintings. Ethereal and timeless.
Her blue eyes sparkled when the sun rays hit them directly. It was as if a deep blue sea was trying to fit into that tiny iris.
Her lustrous blond hair was left loose. She didn't seem to care much about them as she just adjusted the bags by tucking them behind her ears.
The blonde girl had worn a sophisticated black-as-ink dress that looked elegant from every angle. The black-rose embroidery details on the dress and black-rose frills over it bode well with the dress' visual appeal.
'I thought sometimes her beauty couldn't be put into words. But I have to admit I did a good job anyway.'
The young man applauded himself for being so creative. Then he felt proud that he was going on a date with someone this stunning.
"Well… what are you looking at?"
The blonde girl had walked up to the green-eyed young man without him realizing. Or to put it more precisely, he was so engrossed in describing her beauty to himself that he lost track of time and place.
"Hm? Oh! Oh, yes. I was saying to myself how beautiful you are looking today of course. How can I ever look away from something this charming?
I almost want to throw my cleverest cheesy pick-up lines. All of them. Every single one. In the hopes that at least one would crack you up. At least one of them would work on you."
The young man, for the first time in a long while, spoke his truth and nothing but the truth. Even he was surprised by how easy and liberating it was to just state the facts.
These days, he has been nothing but a scheming womanizer. So he liked being an honest womanizer for a change.
The blonde girl laughed when she heard the young man's opinions about him. She also felt flattered and delighted. Glad for the fact that she was going on a date with him. Glad to know it was happening. And finally, glad for the fact he was being hopelessly romantic about her.
"Oh? Interesting. So very interesting.
Hmm. Why don't you tell me how beautiful I look as we make our way to our reservation?"
The blonde girl spoke and held the guy's arm in hers before starting to walk in a particular direction. The black-haired guy was all smiles when that happened. It was a smile that seldom appeared on his face. Otherwise, his smile screamed certain doom for anyone who saw it on his face.
Praises and poetry.
The young man had a certain way with words.
His praises were on-point and personal. Sometimes very odd. But felt all the more welcoming to the girl who was receiving them with the way they had been said.
To the young girl's surprise and delight, she also found that there was a poet somewhere in there in the body of a 6ft tall close combat expert, who on his usual days, was trained to harm people up close.
A stark contrast to his otherwise persona.
The pair was in a bubble of their own. They didn't notice things happening around them even when the late afternoon's hustle-bustle was too loud and rambunctious to ignore. It was as if they had found a new world in each other's company.
Away from the schemes. Far from the brutality of the world. Distanced from their problems.
The place they were heading to did not have to be picturesque. Their journey toward that place was what mattered to them.
The young girl kept on listening as her partner praised her, talked with her, and made plans with her. He would sometimes go off-topic and talk about his crazy venture.
A new guild. A new city. A new play that would change his life, for better or worse. But he was out there. He was taking chances. He was moving ahead.
She listened to everything he had to say with the utmost attention without ever interrupting him. Because she knew those things were being spoken in the depth of her partner's heart.
She was happy for him. She was also excited for him. She had been watching him make use of every chance he got to maximize his profits.
Maximize his rewards. It was as if the man was on a mission. As if he wanted to prove to somebody that he wasn't a failure. She was inspired by that tireless pursuit of his.
She was selfish enough to want what he had and what she was lacking. An ambition. And a passion to make that ambition a reality.
Seek and ye shall find. She found her goal. She aspired to be a better ranker than him. She wanted to be close to him. She wanted to reach the top of this world with him. That's because she could see that that's where he was heading.
And in the end, she wanted him.
The young man was still a bit far from tasting the fruits of his labor. But she knew it was only a matter of time. The blonde girl had only seen one other man this driven and set on accomplishing big things in life. His story and the heights he had reached told her that the young man would soon reach that height too. Maybe surpass him one day.
They soon reached the place they had reserved for themselves. Against the young man's wishes, the blond girl had asked him to book the entire terrace of a fancy restaurant all for themselves.
This was a huge waste of money according to the young man who seemed to be struggling with his finances. But she seemed to not care. Because she knew he would be rich soon enough.
She had his promise that he would do everything she asked of him. And that's what he did. Albeit begrudgingly.
The blonde girl was a bit introverted. She wanted alone time with her guy. Yet she wanted to do everything a date was supposed to be. So this expensive compromise was her logical conclusion.
