Beyond Love

For the Eyes

A/N: I find it super funny and amazing how my readers reply to the messages that other readers write on my message board like when there are questions and stuff like that. Thank you for having my back and helping me out whenever I'm off burying my face in textbooks and school ;u; hehe. Here's a chapter for you.

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"How did you get here?" Miss Rachel appeared genuinely puzzled, or upset for the matter, that she were. The furrow of her brows made her seem like an entirely different person.

I must have stared blankly at her for a couple of seconds because she proceeded to wave a hand in front of my eyes and repeat her question. S-still, it didn't change the fact that I had completely no idea what to say in return.

"Um. How? Just—my brother...? Drove us here. In a van," I gestured to a random passing van to illustrate my point. "Y-you know, drive. We drove here. I mean my brother drove, not me but yes that's how we got here."

I was laughing awkwardly, crossing my fingers behind my back and praying that my hopefully friendly disposition was good enough to fill in the gaps in my confidence. Which was kinda always the case for conversations with strangers.

"No," Miss Rachel frowned harder and looked at me strangely. N-no? What did that mean? ;-;

"No?"

"No, I meant how you managed to receive an invitation without making a name for yourself," she specified, stepping a little closer and lowering her voice. "Was it the organizer? One of the critics you paid? Or did you happen to know one of the specially invited guests?"

"Um..." Oh. She was looking down on me. "I'm not sure what you mean by that, but I was invited by the Baker's Times. Just, the editorial team making the picks," I smiled.

Miss Rachel appeared genuinely surprised. "Really? Wow...I'd assumed otherwise. Everyone else here are big names. Don't you feel at all intimidated?"

"Ah, of course I do," I admitted frankly. After all, there was no reason to lie. "I always feel intimidated being compared to others. It's a scary thing, being put against one another. Standards differ from people to people, not being able to meet every single one of them is what I fear the most."

"But at the same time, it's almost inevitable that I run into people that I cannot please," I went on, seeing that Miss Rachel was staring at me and did not seem as though she wanted to add anything. "So...yeah. I do feel intimidated. What about you, Miss Rachel?" O-oh! I just realized that we were having a proper conversation. Yippee!

"Well," Miss Rachel made a fairly strange sound that was like a cross between snorting and laughing. "I can't relate, really. We'd speak on different levels, on such a topic. It wouldn't be fair to ask for my opinion on this because naturally, we'd give differing answers."

I was about to awkwardly respond by saying that I didn't mind hearing a different answer at all (it was kind of the point anyway) when I spotted Mr. Dempsey at the entrance, waving me over with a very stern expression that reminded me of a discipline master.

"Oh, um. I think—someone's looking for me. So sorry. Let's...let's talk some other time, Miss Rachel! And maybe then, you can tell me more about yourself," I turned to wave before retreating back into the dome, making my way towards Mr. Dempsey.