Project: Socialize

I woke up the next morning to the sound of the alarm on my phone. I grabbed my phone and opened one eye to check the time and turn off the alarm. Then, I closed my eyes due to the fact that I still felt awfully fatigued, probably because I had fallen asleep only at 4:00 AM and that it was currently 7:30 AM.

After rolling around on my bed for a few more minutes, I slowly forced myself up right to a seated position on my bed and I opened my eyes. I thought I saw someone standing before me, so I rubbed my eyes and looked over again. Sure enough, someone was standing there, and this person was a stranger to me. I closed my eyes and shook my head to try and rid myself of the drowsiness before I opened my eyes once again to confirm whether or not someone was truly standing there. Sure enough, someone is.

"Good morning," she smiled.

"Who are you?" I asked, feeling oddly calm. Maybe it was because I was too tired to react at all.

"My name is Emilia Gabrielle Zartlich," the woman standing before me introduced herself. "God has assigned you to be under my care."

"God?" I asked, still seated on my bed. "What do you mean?"

"Ralus...he's been suspended from his duties for the time being," Emilia explained, "and is now...running errands for God."

"So he's punished?"

"That is correct," Emilia nodded. "Therefore, it is now my job to assign you missions and reconstruct you."

"Reconstruct me?" I muttered. "So would it be like before? You guys just assign me some random missions and I complete them?"

"Mr. Edel," Emilia suddenly said in a serious voice. "What do you think is the purpose of these missions?"

"Purpose? God told me it's because he is bored..."

"Is that your answer?" Emilia closed her eyes. "If So then very well...This might be a game to you, but trust me it has a higher purpose than simply entertainment for boredom."

"Then what is it?"

"I cannot tell you at the time being," Emilia responded.

A moment of silence ensued, bringing with it an awkward atmosphere as I sat there on my bed, still in my sleep clothes that consisted of a comfortable T-shirt and shorts. Well...it felt kind of weird that I sat there with all these casual clothing on while she stood there, formally and elegantly as an angel should be.

"So um...is that all?" I asked after glancing over at the clock on my phone and discovering that time was ticking and I still have school.

"That is correct," Emilia nodded.

"So are you going to like go back to Heaven or something?" I asked. "Like suddenly disappear or teleport?"

Emilia shook her head. "My assignment was to closely monitor you while also assigning you tasks for rehabilitation."

"Monitor me?"

I observed her, from that mysterious smile of hers to the way she stood. Nothing was able to even provide me a hint of what her intent was. Instead, her mysterious smile seemed to draw me in, absorbing every part of my focus. The way her purple eyes seemed to conceal her inner thoughts captivated me, like a moth drawn to a flame, it makes me want to get closer, makes me want to know more about her. Why is it that even when you try so hard to conceal it, why is it that the pain still spills through that smile of yours?

"But what about my daily life?" I tried to gather more information.

"I will make my presence as least invasive as possible," she responded, smiling faintly. "However, in the mortal realms, my powers are severely limited, so a hint of disturbance should be expected."

I sighed as I finally come to terms with the fact that this will be my reality for the time being. I got up from my bed and hid a smile.

I have my ways to test to see the extent of the monitoring.

I started taking off my T-shirt, allowing my naked heat to come into contact with the air. I glanced over from the corner of my eye at her, and was surprised that instead of any flustering, what I saw was a calm and mature smile on her face.

What the hell? Is this what maturity does to people?

Unwilling to give up, I proceeded to bring my hands to my shorts. I sneaked a glance over at her, and allowed a concealed grin to show on my face. There's no way that one can maintain a straight face after this.

I then took off my shorts until I was left with nothing but my briefs on, and with a look of content, I glanced over at her.

What the hell?

She still appeared as calm as ever, almost as if nothing had happened.

"You should get dressed," Emilia said inconspicuously. "Even though it's still summer, you still run the risk of catching a cold."

Not only is she so calm about things, she even reminded me to put on clothes...I don't understand. Why?

After I finished changing into my school uniform, I grabbed my school bag and walked over to the door. With one hand on the door handle, I glanced over to Emilia.

"So um..." I reluctantly said, "what're you going to do when I go to school?"

"I'll go with you," she responded.

"I don't know if you understand but if you're not associated with the school, you're not allowed to enter campus without a good reason."

"Is that so," she frowned.

"Don't try anything weird you know," I said. "So where're you going to be staying?"

"Here," Emilia looked around.

"That's not happening," I immediately responded. "This isn't my house. My aunt—"

I paused and looked down towards the floor. With a look of sorrow, I sighed and turned to face Emilia once again.

This morning has been...so weird. With what happened last night, I already expect myself to not be in my normal mental state the next morning, but now with Emilia? That is just out of my mental capacity.

I gazed at her.

She's a total stranger to me. The only connection I have with her is God, and I don't even know much about God himself. So...basically we are total strangers. Who is she? What is she like? These questions plagued my mind.

"If you want to stay here then go ahead," I agreed as I was not in the mood to object any further. "But don't leave the room unless your alone in the house or only I'm home."

"I understand," Emilia nodded. "You live with your aunt Loriana correct?"

I nodded.

"Did something happen?" Emilia asked, she walked closer to me and brought her hand up to my face, sweeping up my bangs so that she could look into my eyes without any obstruction.

"N-nothing," I said, leaning back so that I can distance my face from hers out of nervousness.

"It's Ralus isn't it?" Emilia sighed. "I don't understand. When did he become like this?"

"You know Ralus?"

"Yeah..." Emilia frowned. "We have a history..."

I maintained silence as I observed her. She appeared to be deep in thought, which was a fresh side of her that I had yet to seen, well...this is only the first few minutes I've met her. This troubled expression of hers however made me quite relaxed in her presence, however, due to the fact that it makes this goddess-like angel appear more down to earth, while also maintaining her ethereal elegance.

"You don't have to say it if you don't want to," I said as I opened the door slightly. "I'll be home at around 4:00 PM. In the time being, do what you want once we all leave the house. You don't have any restrictions."

Once outside my room, I proceeded straight to the washroom to brush my teeth. Afterwards, I entered the living room area of the house. There were no signs of Loriana in the kitchen nor the living room, which led to me speculating that she's still asleep because I did close her curtains all the way. But...I'm reluctant to go knock on her door and wake her up.

However, this was something that must be done. Therefore, with nervous footsteps, I walked back into the hallway and stood in front of her door. I took a deep breath and quelled the rapid beating of my heart. I slowly brought my knuckles to the dark wood door, and that was when I heard the sound of running water from the washroom in her room.

"Loriana?" I called out with a trembling voice.

"I'm awake," her voice responded from the other side of the door.

"I'll get breakfast ready then," I said, slowly retreating my hand back to my side and walked back into the kitchen.

Once there, I blanked my mind and pressed the on screen button on our electric stove to start it up. I then adjusted the flame with the slider on the smart screen before placing a pan on top of the circular area outlined by a white line.

I then proceeded to prepare breakfast. First, I wet the pan with some oil. After that, I cracked open two eggs into the pan and watch as it sizzled and cooked. As the eggs cooked, I took out some slices of bread, set them on two plates, and took out the jar of jam from the refrigerator.

I then checked back on the eggs, and seeing that they were almost fully cooked, I stood by the stove waiting for it to finish cooking. Once they were done, I took two plates out of the kitchen cupboards and poured the eggs from the pan into the plates.

Then, I placed the pan back onto the stove, letting it heat up once again. As it heated, I walked to the refrigerator, took out some bacon, and placed the slices of bacon onto the pan. As the bacon cooked, I took out some fresh vegetables and began preparing a simple salad which I then placed into two separate bowls.

As I went to check on the bacon, Loriana exited her room and sat down on the dining table. I glanced over from the corner of my eye and discovered that she appeared to have no knowledge of what happened last night and merely sat there and yawned. She might not have any knowledge but I do. Because of this, I could not bring myself to look into her eyes when I brought the food over to the dining table and set it down on the table before her.

"What's wrong?" Loriana asked as she observed me with the apathetic look on her face.

"Nothing," I said, recalling that this was the second time of the day that someone asked me that question. Is it so easy to tell if something is bothering me?

"..." She stared at me as I sat down to eat as well. "If something's bothering you, make sure to tell me alright?"

"Got it," I nodded.

Then, I toyed with the piece of bacon my plate as I allowed my face to rest on my left hand. My heart ached as I recalled what happened last night, and how I had betrayed her by doing those things to her.

"Lori..." I gathered up the courage to speak to her.

"Yes?"

"If I ugh...did something wrong," my voice was weak and lacked confidence as I spoke. "Would you forgive me?"

"Of course," Loriana responded. "Did you do something?"

"N-nothing," I said. I then sighed as I realized that I still lacked the courage to admit what I had done.

"Hmm?" Loriana continued to observe me for the next few minutes. "Since school has started for quite some time now," Loriana began speaking once again. "It's time that the university put out projects that I will have to take part in."

"So like last year?" I asked.

"Right," Loriana nodded. "So I'll be home late from now on until the project is finished."

"Got it," I said with a lowered head.

"So...you'll have to eat dinner alone again..." she looked apologetically at me.

"It's fine," I responded. "You should get going soon," I said to change the subject. "Or else you'll be late for work."

Loriana looked at her phone and checked the time.

"You're right."

"Leave the plates for me," I said. "I'll clean them. I still have a few minutes to spare."

"Thank you." Loriana got up from her seat, grabbed her purse, and after saying bye to me, she left the house.

As the door closed behind her, I let out a sigh of relief and slipped down my seat. I was relieved from the overwhelming amount of guilt, and this feeling of relaxation was as if a huge burden was temporarily lifted off of my shoulders.

"I should get going," I whispered to myself as I forced myself up from my seat.

After washing the dishes, I walked back over to my room and knocked on the door.

"I'm leaving now," I said to Emilia. "There's food in the refrigerator if you want anything."