CHAMPION | NCT

o28

C H A P T E R
T W E N T Y - E I G H T

It happened so fast.

I was alone inside the city, walking past its rain-soaked streets.

"Don't lose the goggles or the medal. Protect it as if you're life depended on it," Kun warned me before we parted away.

"Head straight to where Ten told you to go. He's the only person you could trust so much in this wrecked city," Wendy, eyes heavy with distress, told me before I went by myself.

It felt good to have acquaintances remind you about your safety. For once, I'd always thought I was alone in this fight, this mess, this mayhem. But with the people sorrounding me the past few days, it seemed like I made friends as much as I made enemies.

The citizens of Neo City never changed, neither did the city itself. People were hurrying to pass the intersection with colorful umbrellas, their boots and shoes and heels creating a puddle of water on the ground. Morning rain was least expected, so I never brought an umbrella with me. Good gods, I had nothing but weapons in my bag right now.

I shielded myself from the rain by standing below a shed. I mentally said a thank you inside my head for Mark's goggles being water resistant.

Standing beside me was a person with a bright yellow raincoat. I couldn't resist to look at the box of cake he was carrying, its familiar brand, its lemonade-and-strawberry-colored outside design matched up with a doughnut with a smiling face. The Happy Bakery. It was my favorite sweets shop when I was young, maybe even until now. I stopped eating too much sweets because Sicheng's mom told me it might turn my teeth bad, or might add excess fats on my body. She cared about appearance so much that I just wanted to vomit.

The man was talking with someone on his phone, his voice challenging the light thunderstorms from above, causing me to hear the conversation unintentionally.

"Sorry, sweetheart, Papa's about to go home. I am just stuck up in a rain."

Five seconds clicked by.

"Yes, Yes. I brought the cake you told me to. Yes! It's their last stock, baby. But don't worry, Papa was able to make it."

A soft smile curled my lips upward.

I remembered Baba. He would do the same. Instead of a cake from The Happy Bakery and the rain getting in the way of his delivery, Baba's would be apples and snow respectively. We're apples and snow. Apples. Snow.

That's gone forever.

Out of nowhere, I asked under the rain, "No umbrella?"

Can I just stop sticking my nose on someone else's life? Answer: no.

He glanced at me as if a moth just landed on top of the cream of his special delivery cake for his daughter.

"The Champion," he muttered in disbelief.

I didn't know what to say. Was I that popular already? I wished every drop of falling rain could erase each memory of me embedded into every strangers' minds.

"Oh, Sir, you flatter too much. I am not the Champion," I smiled and raised both of my brows.

"But..but... You look exactly the same."