Arc 0: Chapter 8 - The Perks of Benevolence

ideal /ʌɪˈdɪəl,ʌɪˈdiːəl/

a standard or principle to be aimed at.

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“Lloyd!”

Once the name came out of her lips, Juno Ashford followed it up with a deep sigh. With twilight dawning in the sky, she stood in the middle of her garden, watching her surroundings with a solemn expression. This was her family’s garden, or more particularly her great grandfather’s garden, whom she had never met but heard so many stories about. Her great grandfather was an odd fellow, she was once told. A garden full of roses and lilies would be much more to his liking than to do anything else.

Being seventeen years of age, Juno understood none of it. It was not common for a girl her age to be interested in such a dull hobby, at least that was what she believed. When it came to who she was, there wasn’t anything particularly special about her — a girl who was almost average in everything. Only carrying smiles and bright eyes to her face, she wore the standard school uniform most of the time, and made little to no effort to give her appearance a sense of uniqueness. However, she was known for standing out within groups with her foolish demeanor. And instead of being met with strange looks, her mystical charm granted her the privilege of becoming a source of joy for many of whom she knew in this humourless town.

Though that mystical charm entranced all that met its gaze, there was one person, who seemed entirely unaffected by it: the boy with no ambitions. Opposite to her manners, yet similar all the same, the boy sat down on the grass right in front of her, humming a lullaby and admiring the plethora of flowers encasing the edges of the garden.

“Hey, Lloyd!” She nudged him with her foot but once again, she was met with no response. Despite being almost of Juno’s age, a rather young one, that boy was the gardener.

It was just around this time of day years ago when her mother had stumbled upon him in an empty lot on one of the backstreets. With no one or shelter to call home, and only a single name to his identity, he was a nobody in the eyes of many, an extra baggage that would soon bring trouble. But Juno’s mother, weak of heart, grew rather fond of the little boy and immediately adopted him into the family.

Now, almost ten years later, he still remained with family, never to pose any trouble. Though it was something greatly discouraged by her mother, even till this day, he chose to work for the Ashfords, a small price to pay the debt he forever owed the family, he believed.

“Hey…,” Juno called out. With their circumstances, it could be easily said that she and he were more or less childhood friends, siblings even. “What are you doing?” She tried to connect with him over anything, after all, they were just friends in name only. True to his nature, he had kept himself rather distant from her, treating her with the respect one would give to their employer — something that somewhat saddened Juno. Annoyed by his lack of response, she kneeled beside him, eying the flowers with wonder before looking back at him, “Stop ignoring me!”

“I’m not ignoring you,” he finally answered, “I’m just too focused right now. We can talk later.” Turning to look at her, he almost gave her a look of disappointment before carefully pushing up her head, “And don’t stand like that! Your injury is not fully healed yet, you never know what might happen if you tilt your head too much.”

“Oh?” She backed away and touched the back of her head, which was encased with a bandage, “Ehehe, I had almost forgotten about that.”

“Hey, watch it!” Lloyd shouted.

At that moment, she was startled by his sudden loud voice as he walked backwards and almost lost her balance. Lloyd instantly came up to his feet and pulled her back. It was quite an amazing feat on how he managed to catch her so quickly.

Standing in front of each other, Juno easily towered over him, causing an awkward difference in height, which he didn’t seem to be bothered by. Rather, he was bothered by something else entirely, “You almost stepped on the flowers!”

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Hearing that brash response slightly irritated Juno, “You little…,” she twitched and clenched her teeth, “You little jerk! I almost fell and crushed my head, and all you care about is a stupid flower?! I thought you were worried about my injury.”

“It’s not a stupid flower,” he crouched and shielded the flower with his hands, “It’s a living being!”

She sighed, “Doesn’t make this any better.”

“I really don’t get you…,” he let out a deep exhale. Getting up on his feet, he walked over to Juno to check up on her injury, “You look fine. Besides, it’s not my fault if anything happens. You’re in no condition for any outside activities. Still you flounder around, doing whatever you please, like nothing’s wrong.”

Due to an accident in an attempt to save an upperclassman of hers, Juno fell into the hands of the hospital for a couple of weeks. Miraculously, however — be it an act of divine or not — both she, and the boy he had saved, suffered major injuries that weren’t impossible to treat or overcome — not to mention their smooth recovery in less than a week. It truly was unbelievable. Anyone facing the speed of a giant truck at a hundred kilometres per hour would surely be six feet under right now.

Coming to terms with her situation, Juno wore a somber look. “...I know that already…”

Lloyd had a similar expression on his face, although he was feeling sorry for her rather than being sad himself. It was unusual for the girl who always smiled to give such an expression. “Hey… H-Hey, I was just having a laugh — God, I’m horrible at these.”

“It’s all right! I…,” she held her tongue for a moment. She looked at Lloyd and put on an apologetic smile. “I’m all better now. But you should work on your jokes. Anyone else might have taken it differently.”

“I know. I know,” he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “Enough rubbing salt on the wound.”

It was at times like these — which happened more often than not, to say the least — that she was reminded of his age. Though he would act responsible at times, he was still a childish teenager that wasn’t exactly better than her. However, such realization would only bring a smile to her face each time she remembered, it was a reminder that all was well.

“But man, I can’t believe I missed Halloween!” She laughed, letting her usual demeanor back. She believed in a positive outlook no matter what, she could not spend her time moping around when she could still do something. “I sure was looking forward to it, especially after the work I’ve put in.”

“Don’t worry, you didn’t miss out much,” he tapped his hands on her shoulder twice, as a sort of gesture to cheer her up, before he walked away to pack up his gardening tools, “It got cancelled after all, and… you know… with what happened.”

“Oh…,” she held her hand over her mouth, “Right…”

「I almost forgot.」

That wasn’t something to be easily forgotten. She started to wonder if the accident really racked her mind more than she thought.

Before she could dwell on it further, Lloyd was one step ahead of her and smacked her on the head with a rolled up paper in his hand.

“Ouch!!!” She cried as she quickly put her hand over her head. “What’d you do that for?”

“Beating you before you beat yourself up over nothing you have no relation to.” He said with a firm look on her face, “Stop the self-reproach and just live like everyone else.”

“I don’t think it works like that, Lloyd…” She grunted.

“Oh, cheer up!” He punched her arm lightly, to give her a “poke” of some sort.

However, she did not take it as so. “Gah! Would you please stop? Not everyone in the world is built like a pony wall.” It resulted in her blurting out words that she should have thought twice about saying.

“Who are you calling a midget?!”

Despite not being said directly, he knew that comment of hers was for him specifically. When she looked at him, she saw his eyes shine bright with malice and a wide irritated smile on his face, and to top it all off, he cracked both of his knuckles. In his eyes, it was a scene of a demonic being ready to snatch the soul of its victim without remorse.

“Uh hehe,” she chuckled nervously.

“Hey, you two!” A voice called out from the distance, “Stop your quarrels and get in here already! The sun’s almost down.”

The two teenagers turned their heads to the caller. It was ██████.

“All right, we’ll be right over there!” Juno shouted.

Her call had come at the right time.

Other than saving her skin from Lloyd’s wrath, there was something that she hadn’t taken notice of up until now. It was almost time for the curfew.