The dried leaves crunched under his feet. His path seemed clear for he had been in that forest countless times in search of one thing— the meteorite. He swept past the foliage and dipped his legs into the stream to reach a section of the forest tucked away under layers of sediments. In his bag, he carried the appropriate tools to excavate the stone. As he rummaged through the debris, he finally found a proper foothold and began carving and chopping away the hardened ground. After many hours, he finally managed to dig around the stone to reveal the purple luminescent mass.

“This never becomes any less exhausting..” He let out a sigh and reached for his huge duffle bag.

Inside, an uneven ball covered in newspaper sat right in the middle of his other equipment. It resembled the size of the glowing stone on the ground. It did not carry the same alluring purple aura as the one on the ground but it had the abilities to fool amateurs. His task was to replace the fake one with the real thing before sunrise. Time was against him and he had to move fast before he clocks in for work the next morning.

After the deed was done, he quickly got up and left without a trace… or so he thought. To his farthest left he heard subtle footsteps approaching his way. Being equipped with a heavy baggage he didn't have much space or time to scurry away. He quickly turned to the nearest tree trunk and hid behind it hugging his bag. Before he could breathe out a sigh of relief his metallic right arm began to beep to alert him that the battery was running short.

“Shit. Not now..!” He fumbled with its exterior casing to shut it down. He leaned back on the damp bark and scanned the area intently, but just as suddenly as those rustles appeared, the noise and the person he suspected of pursuing him vanished into thin air.

He got up dazed with his right bionic arm dangling down, unable to grip the duffle’s handles anymore. Confused, but still with his wits sharp, he ventured on.

***

A couple days after the police incident, Suiren decided to lay low and not cause herself any more trouble and the red-head was the root cause of it all. But Lucio had other plans, he was determined to make sure Suiren believes his words and eats her own. Countless times, he tried to drag her to the forest to prove to her, or rather shove it up her face that he isn’t insane. His ego was at stake – not that he had any to begin with. Suiren’s ideals could not be budged, she continued to reject all his offers and firmly advised him to stay away as well.

And finally on a day like any other, Suiren, as per routine, was on her way to the bus stop only to come to a devastating conclusion that she had somehow managed to miss it. Dejected and standing helplessly on the sidewalk, she called up Ms. Clara, in hopes that she would come pick her up. But even that ended in vain since being a caretaker wasn’t her only job during the day.

Suiren couldn’t bother her more on this matter and decided to walk all the way back home. And this simple task came with certain complications. She had to walk through the very street she avoided like the plague. The place with the dirty little park where she, Mel and their childhood friend, Sunny, used to play. There are some things better left in the past and this was certainly one of those.

She couldn’t imagine going there again, it would only bring back the memories of a simpler time when all they needed was each other and all the pains would instantly drown in their laughter. As she walked closer to the park which had gotten more rundown and also expanded at the same time. A little away she noticed the book store that Sunny’s parents owned. After an intense game of football on the muddy soil, all three would end up at the doorstep of the store making a complete mess of the place every time. They never learned their lesson, but it made it all the more fun.

“I miss those times…” she mumbled to herself with a saddened smile.

As she reached the pavement connecting the park to the road, she noticed a bigger figure amongst the usual crowd of tiny humans. They were hogging the swings and they laid back down on one of them swinging slowly. Some kids gathered around said figure and a deep seated argument was about to begin.

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An older boy, about eight years old, stood with his arms crossed in front of the moping person on the swing. “Not you again! How many times have I told you not to set foot inside here ever again?! This is our turf! Get your sorry ass away right now!”

“Uh-huh…? Good to know…” They responded weakly with their phone resting on their chest and staring off into the sky.

Another kid came along, “ Stop that Ben! What’s bothering you, Lucio?”

“At least this kid’s got manners…” Suiren clicked her tongue and carefully listened along. “Wait- Lucio..?!”

“There’s this girl…” he began, exhausted.

“Ugh- all this for a crush… pathetic!”

“Guys get out of here!” The kid turned back to Lucio, “And?”

“She is the most stuck up person I’ve ever met.” He got up with a sudden fire in his eyes.

“Well that went differently in my head.” The kid sat down on the ground willing to listen to the sad man’s wallows.

“I give her a once in a lifetime chance to witness a revolutionary, mind boggling experience that no human could ever grasp within their puny little minds. Something so brilliant and out of this world that not even god can create! And she rejects it?! HUH? Who does she think she is?! To reject my offer for something nobody could ever even imagine is a whole new level of stupidity I cannot comprehend. Seriously, rejecting my charity…Psh!”

“Yup… this is definitely about me.” Suiren watched in cold sweat. “I better make a run for it before they notice me…”

She quickly sprinted away without looking forward and ended up collapsing a bicycle resting on the railing.

“Huh?!”

She turns back to notice a tiny plastic car underneath her feet that caused her to trip. In the driver's seat, the kid pulled down her black sunglasses to judge her top to bottom. “Tsk- You youngins are always so distracted.” She strolled away without another word.

“Suiren?!” The boy called out from the swing set.

“Shit.”

Suiren with her cover blown somehow got roped into the weekly ‘Park Council meeting’, a tradition amongst the humble folk that reside in the residential areas behind the park, run by none other than the fellow miniature humans that dwell on those common grounds.

“My name is Cindy, and I will now officiate the council. We shall get right to it, Ms. Suiren, are the accusations made by Lucio true?”

“Why am I here?” Suiren has zero comedic timing.

She sat next to Lucio on the swings and the kids gathered around in front of them with makeshift bow ties made out of fallen leaves.

“Is it true, Ms. Suiren?” For odd reasons, there was an ominous aura radiating out of the little girl and aptly, Suiren felt the need to comply with her demands.

“Well, it’s true that I rejected his constant pestering to see his delusions.”

Lucio gasped audibly.

“Lucio, refrain from such overly exerted reactions.” Cindy instructed sternly.

“Ok, first of all, it’s real! I can prove it to you if you ever bothered to come down to the forest!”

“For the last time! We aren’t allowed there. We never were and yet you had the audacity to go there anyway. Do you want to get arrested?!”

“The police left a long time ago! They got what they were looking for and left without a scene! You’re the one over here causing a scene like it’s some big deal that I entered the forest!”

“It is a huge deal! Because we broke the rules, we are already on the hit list and if you keep going there it would only lead to more consequences.”

“Why are you such a stickler for rules? Don’t you understand how much time travel could change lives? This is bigger than all those stupid rules…”

“…” Suiren grew quiet in her rage.

“You think I don’t know what time travel is capable of? You think I haven’t thought of trying to reverse time to go back to the way things were? Stop making me believe I can see him again!” She couldn’t stand to listen to what she had said herself, all this talk of time travel screwed up her mind and she didn’t need that sort of medicine, for the wounds had already numbed.

She quickly stood up and left.

Lucio watched as her expressions grew heavier, he had gone too far as well. “Suiren…” he called out weakly.

“You think that’s gonna make her listen, go after her you dingus.” Cindy instructed him with a snarky expression. “This meeting is adjourned.”