The clock shows it’s time to go home for almost everyone in this office. Valerie is tidying up his desk and preparing to go home before he takes a glance at his best friend’s desk and gives a slight grin. Suddenly, some idea popped out when he saw Rio’s face, which almost looked like a dead fish. So, the blonde man approached and put his hand on Rio’s table to support his body.

“Alright, brother. Let’s go out quickly. I really don’t have any mood for work today so let’s hop out. Are you interested in some donuts? There’s nice a promo for today.”

“Ah no. I have overtime,” said Rio briefly.

“What overtime?” Valerie furrowed his brows. He doesn’t feel their current workload requires overtime, even though it’s packed enough.

“I have a plan to contribute more to our mission. So, I need to prepare for it.”

Valerie noticed Rio’s gaze as he straightened his back. Perhaps, that’s something he saw in Rio before. “Ouh, seems like it’s a big thing. Are you sure you want to do that? As far as I know, we can still contribute well by incorporating a pre-planned work program from the future in this division. You know, we only need to do what our standard operating procedure should.”

“I’m certain. Thus, I can’t go with you this evening.”

“No big deal. Alright, see you tomorrow.”

Since Valerie left the room, Rio shifted his attention to focus on the information he had gathered last night. One by one, he reviewed the data to formulate a firm idea by identifying which were doable and which were not.

Several other co-workers greet Rio as they go home. He responded casually and got back to working on his proposal. Not long after, the figure of a middle-aged man realized that one of his subordinates was still glued to his desk.

“Rio, still working hard at this hour?”

“Mr. Rudy. Pardon me, sir. I still have some things to work on.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

“Of course, sir!”

As Mr. Rudi–his superior–disappears behind the door, Rio is the only person who stays. It is getting darker when he gazes out the window to take a break for a bit. After one full gulp of a glass of water, he went back to his seat and stared at the screen once again, unfazed.

It’s almost two hours off total concentration as Rio retakes a break for a little longer. He is certain that there are no other people here, so he activates his communication ring to display Arisa’s profile. He could see how she smiled, looking straight to follow the requirement for a profile picture inside the Ringnet.

“…”

Rio closed the display and went back to his work again on his computer screen.

Don’t be distracted.

Rio admitted that he wanted to do all of this to forget the ache of rejection. His head remembered Valerie’s advice back then. He wants to prove what Valerie said by making himself busy.

To kill two birds with one stone, right? Hopefully, it can work that way.

Two full hours of total focus had passed as the room’s temperature had become chilly than before. Rio turns off his computer while stretching and yawns, then stretch his neck until he hears light-crack sounds. It seemed enough for today, so he tidied his desk. The lights outside were also blazing brightly, dispelling the darkness with artificial light. It’s time to go home since he still has to work tomorrow.

When Rio made sure all the lights were turned off and cleaned up, he walked out and closed the door of the office room—

“Good work, Rio.”

Someone is waiting for him to finish outside the room while leaning against the wall. Her smile is almost like a torch amidst this calming darkness.

“Rita? You’re not home yet?”

“Not yet, haha. I’m working overtime too.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Basically, you’re in the greenhouse alone?”

“Correct.”

The dark-haired girl offered a warm drink with faint steam fog on it. He didn’t expect to meet Rita by chance when it was quite late like this. He can guess that aside from the security staff, the people remaining in this place are only him and Rita.

Rio smiled as he received the drink gently. Then, he leans against the wall imitating the girl’s current position since there’s no seat nearby. A faint sweetness quickly spreads on his tongue, and somehow, he can feel his fatigue fading away. Perhaps, this is the best tea Rio has ever had.

The hallway of the building is quite dark as far as his eyes can see. Only a few places were lit faintly, including the passage where Rio and Rita were. The hums of crickets can be heard under this cold night, giving the two of them more comfort in this darkness in the absence of other noises. Rio feels like he can rest with Rita, just being together like this. He can also feel his chest warm aside from the sweetness and warm sensation on his tongue.

Tantoris is located near the mountain, so the temperature can be freezing when night comes. Still, Rio doesn’t mind it at all. He needs no scarf nor any thick wear to keep his temperature. Just that tea will do.

“…why I doubt it when you said you got overtime, huh?” asked Rio suddenly.

“W-what do you mean?” Rita was utterly unprepared for that assumption.

“Just trying to guess. I also guessed that Valerie told you that I haven’t gone home yet. So, you’re doing something else while waiting for me to finish,” he said casually.

“…”

Rita is facing away because she doesn’t want him to notice that her face is bright red right now.

No way! Why could he see me through?!, Rita thought in panic.

Rio is looking curiously towards her because Rita seems to throw her face away suddenly.

“Rita?”

“A-ah! How about we just go home? It’s getting late, you know,” suggested the girl hurriedly.

Rio nods to her suggestion, so they walk together through this dark hallway. There’s nothing to talk about between the two individuals until they reach the exit and greet the security staff. Even though what actually happened is, Rio can’t help to think about his plan all the time. At the same time, Rita’s thoughts are scattered over the place just because of Rio’s question.

“Alright, we will part here. See you later, Rita.”

“Ahem. See you, Rio.” Now, she can control her thoughts.

“It’s just that what you gave me tonight really astonished me, in a good way.”

And her thoughts scrambled once again while Rio was walking away in a good mood.

Geez. What do you mean by that, Rio?

Rio looks up to the night sky while enjoying the cold breeze on the way home. Some glowing celestial object from thousands of kilometers away respectfully greets his gaze. He saw the sky several times, but he couldn’t get bored of this era’s night scenery.

He couldn’t enjoy this kind of atmosphere in the future. Therefore, he truly hopes that this journey to the past will bring significant changes to the planet in his original timeline.

So that humanity can undo the mistakes they’ve been regretting.

Rio arrives at his house and goes inside, tiptoeing. He knows that everyone is asleep at the moment.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vemia is watching a television show about marine life documentary. Even though it’s already late, one of the twins is still glued to the information about the activities of the fish hundreds of meters below sea level.

“Vemia, you haven’t slept yet?” greets Rio as he notices that there’s someone who is still awake.

“Rio!!” the little girl suddenly stormed to her brother excitedly. “Did you know that there is a type of jellyfish that cannot die aside from being eaten? Its name is Turritopsis dohrnii or I call it never-die jellyfish!”

He is not convinced by the random trivia that is suddenly thrown into his face and quickly confirms it. Rio pats his sibling’s head gently as a reward for memorizing such a complicated scientific name.

“Tomorrow you still have school, right? It’s better if you go to bed now,” suggested her brother.

“I will soon! I will only go to bed when I’m finished reporting what I’ve did to help you to save the planet in the future!”

“Interesting. So what do you got?” Rio takes a seat in the living room and starts to listen to his sister.

One of the twins told him an almost detailed report about how she tried to help Rio’s mission through her way. Slowly but still enthusiastically, Vemia explained what she did at school. She discussed with her teacher how to improve her school’s environment, found realistic ideas that could be implemented, and made a pro-environment proposal with the teacher’s guidance. By doing so, Vemia could realize her ideas by submitting them to the school’s schedule.

Witnessing how one of his siblings was so passionate about helping him touches Rio’s feelings when this has nothing to do with Vemia, a native of this timeline.

Rio didn’t regret it when he revealed his true identity to this little girl.

“...that concludes my report. I’ll tell you again when I’ve done more!”

“Thank you for the hard work, that was amazing. I hope that you also enjoy this process, okay? Don’t stress it out.”

“Hehe, no problem! I really want to help my own brother!”

Your brother, huh? I guess you’re something on your own, Vemia.

“Vemia, come along to my room.”

“Hmm?”

The moment Rio closed his door, he made a call using his communication ring for a few minutes. The other party accepted the two-way communication as their faces appeared on the floating screens.

“What do you mean calling me this late,” Valerie yawns and wipes his eyes. “Do you really have something urgent?”

“Yes. I wonder why too—wait a minute. Rio, that one beside you…?”

“Alright, guys. Let me introduce her to you. This is Vemia and she already knows that the three of us came from the future.”

Those two shouts are in sync.