Solitary.

That was the word that best described the spirit of the lake's life.

She was born and grew up alone. By the time she gained consciousness, years had passed since she was born. It was like she was awoken after years of sleeping.

The first thing she did when she gained her sense of self was to look at her face reflected on the lake. What she saw was a girl with long black hair, deep purple eyes, small nose, and thin lips. She didn't understand beauty or aesthetics, but she found her look pleasing.

Day by day, night by night, she sat by the lake where she was born without having anything in particular to do. She was aware, but she felt absolutely nothing.

That was until one night, as she stared into the clear sky and the bright moon reflected on the lake, she heard rustling in the bushes behind her.

"Oh."

She heard a voice. When she turned around, she found a creature, looking much like herself, standing in front of the bushes.

Unlike herself, though, the creature had a shorter hair. It also had smaller but rounder watery eyes, full lips, and a pair of rosy cheeks. There was water flowing down her cheeks.

The spirit tilted her head in curiosity. What kind of creature was this? She wondered. She had seen smaller yet more ferocious creatures around, standing on four feet, but she had never seen this kind of creature before.

The creature in question seemed to be frozen in its tracks. Its eyes were opened wide while its mouth was gaping. After a few moments, the creature finally let a sound out of its mouth, but the spirit couldn't understand anything it said. She arched an eyebrow and jumped off the big rock she was sitting on.

She approached the creature, which seemed startled by her sudden movement, and reached out to the creature's cheek.

The spirit placed her hand on the creature's cheek. A moment later, the spirit's body glowed for a second before the light disappeared.

The creature looked even more confused about what just happened, its cheeks grew redder and its eyes kept on blinking. The spirit let go of the creature's cheek.

"You can talk to me now," the spirit said, in a voice she didn't even know she had.

The reason she touched the creature just now was to absorb her language. She didn't know how she knew how to do that, but it just came up in her mind. Apparently, she just needed a little touch to absorb minds.

She also found out that this creature was called a human and this one in particular was referred to as a girl.

"Huh?" the girl responded. She then wiped the water from her cheeks and bowed. "H-hello, I'm sorry for bothering you!"

The girl peeked at the spirit with a careful glance.

"A-are you a goddess?" she asked.

'Goddess'?

That was a foreign word to the spirit. But somehow, she felt like that term didn't quite suit her.

The spirit shook her head in response. For a moment, she saw how the corner of the girl's lips seemed to curve down, but they quickly perked up again.

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"Maybe you're a fairy instead!" the girl beamed.

Once again, the spirit didn't know what a 'fairy' meant so she could only shrug.

The girl wiped her face with both of her hands then wiped her hands on her skirt. Even though her eyes were puffy, she tried her best to put on a clumsy smile.

The girl extended her hand towards the spirit.

"My name is Lillian, but you can call me Lilly!"

Gloxinia opened her eyes. Lately she had been reminiscing about Lilly more, especially when she thought about their promise. She couldn't put her feelings into one word, but she wished Lilly were here right now, in the class with her.

Gloxinia heard a rattle from behind her, followed by Vincent walking past her. She watched his back as he walked out of the class and remembered the events yesterday.

Before he transferred in, there were one or two occasions when the class had to do a task in a group. But whenever they did, Gloxinia's group mates wouldn't communicate well with her and they would always avoid her gaze. There was no one who could truly be her conversation partner.

Vincent was the first and only one who would hold a conversation with her.

Gloxinia stood up from her seat and went out of the class herself. She wanted to follow after Vincent, but he was already nowhere to be found.

Weird, she thought. She only took a moment from the time he left the class to follow him, and the corridor was long. He was supposed to still be visible if he wasn't running.

Gloxinia looked left and right, but she couldn't see him. She then placed her hand on the wall and...

Started sensing the whole school.

She started looking from the corridors of the same floor, but he wasn't anywhere. She then expanded her search to cover the whole school, and she finally sensed him.

He was on the roof.

Today too, Vincent stayed on the roof on breaks to observe something and to avoid other people. When he left the class earlier, he could feel a certain someone's gaze being locked on him, and so he just hurried to the rooftop because he felt like it would be a hassle to get involved with her.

Gloxinia wouldn't be able to find him here. The rooftop was forbidden to enter without permission, so there was no way she could find him.

Suddenly Vincent heard the door to the rooftop creaked open and he quickly turned around in alarm.

The opened door revealed Gloxinia, who immediately locked her gaze with Vincent's. When he saw her, many questions popped up in his mind.

"What..." he muttered. Gloxinia closed the door and made her way to Vincent. He stepped down from the edge and faced her.

The winds were blowing hard up on the rooftop. Gloxinia, who had never been up this high before, had a hard time keeping her bangs in place because of the wind. She couldn't even see the front clearly.

"How did you...?" Vincent asked.

"Uhm... I scanned the entire school to find you," Gloxinia said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

Along with her power to absorb people's minds, Gloxinia could also scan things. She didn't know why she even had that ability to begin with, but they helped her adjust to human life quite easily.

Though, using it in a big scale would make her dizzy for some time.

"I wanted to talk to you, but you disappeared," Gloxinia said after she got a bit closer to Vincent.

"I..." Gloxinia started saying, but she trailed off as she saw the view of the ground from the rooftop. The ground was far, and it felt like it got even farther the more Gloxinia looked at it.

What happens if I fall?

As such thought crossed her mind, Gloxinia felt a sudden chill across her body. Her hands trembled and she felt unstable. She felt like if she moved even an inch, it would make her take the wrong step and throw her off the roof.

She was terrified of how high up she was, but she couldn't stop herself from looking down. She was petrified.

Suddenly, Vincent covered her eyes with his palm and took her hand to pull her far away from the edge of the roof.

When he lowered his hand, Gloxinia's eyes met his. The same indifferent eyes, but now with a small frown above them. Focusing on his eyes helped Gloxinia calm herself down. It felt like she was back at the lake, doing nothing but staring at the moon.

"Why did you come to the roof when you're afraid of heights?" Vincent asked. He was staring straight at Gloxinia, as if he was studying an unusual creature.

"... I am?" Gloxinia questioned. She wasn't questioning him, but more herself. She didn't even know she would be afraid of heights because all her life she was always on the ground or below ground level.

That was being afraid of heights? she thought. It didn't feel nice. She didn't like the way she felt like she was not connected to the ground. What she disliked even more was feeling as if her feet were going to make her jump down any moment because of that.

She made notes to herself to not get up this high anymore.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Vincent said, snapping Gloxinia back to her senses.

She grabbed onto the sides of Vincent's shirt, preventing him from scooting away.

"Will you be my friend?"