主妇丈夫倡导的户外生活

When Mina woke up, she wasn't expecting to be waking up right next to Roland in another fancy hotel. This time, the decor had straight lines instead of curves and was very rigid. No floral decors, only perfectly straight lines and black and white tiles.

She jolted when she saw him right next to her. But Roland didn't see it, as he was sitting on the side of the bed facing the windows outside. He seemed to be staring directly at the perpendicular lines that formed the window bars.

One horizontal line, one vertical line. A cross.

But Mina realized that he was also looking at the stars outside of it. It was dawn, so some of them should have remained.

It was the planet Venus that they could see from the window. The Morning Star, as people call it.

He seemed to have noticed Mina staring at him. People could feel when they were being watched, a phenomenon called scopaesthesia or the 'psychic staring effect'. Roland turned and when he looked at her, Mina didn't know why….

But she thought that Roland looked like he was crying. And yet there was no sign of it.

His eyes weren't puffy, his face wasn't red. He wasn't sniffling or making any movements to show that he had recently been in tears. But Mina was still sure of it, deep in her heart.

"Oh, don't worry. I just brought you here because you passed out after that scream. I was on the same bed to guard you, I didn't try anything." Roland chuckled lightly. "I wouldn't be able to stomach it anyway since you really look too much like m…. like a relative to me."

"I know. I just thought that you were.... I'm still a little out of it, I guess." Mina held her head, trying to rack her brain for what happened earlier.

She and Roland went to the Fashion Week gala, then she followed Tao and Clement when she saw them moving, and entered this club. Elysium, she thinks. She fought with the people there, then she fought Tao and Clement, and then….

Did Roland help her out? She vaguely remembers someone else fighting the other monsters for her. Just wild dark shapes…..

"Is Harker not here yet?" Mina said. "Did you call him to go here?"

"I did. I sent a message on a direct communicator that doesn't need to use radio waves. As long as he was within the vicinity of London, it would reach him even under ground or somewhere with no signal coverage." Roland said, showing the device. "He said he and Joan would be here."

"He and Joan….." Mina mumbled.

Roland furrowed his brows. He seemed to consider well what to say next, and eventually said:

"Mina… I'm not in the position to tell you what you should do about your relationship. You're Harker's girlfriend. He knows that, everybody knows that. But can you let me say something first? Not as an advice just…. Just something that I felt like I needed to get off my chest."

Mina had a sort of feeling that she couldn't explain when he said those words. Like she knew what he was going to say, and it would be something genuine and evocative. Which scares her, because it was like she'd let herself be influenced.

But that's also wrong. It's not influence, it's wisdom. A realization that would change everything, that's why she's so scared to hear it.

In the end, Mina had steeled herself to go and nod.

"I understand how you feel, wanting to be the only person that matters to the one you love. To your whole world— no, your whole universe." Roland spoke softly to reassure her. "You want to be their only favorite person forever. It's much worse when it's romantic love, because it always is the most complicated one out of all types of love."

"But in the end, your favorite person will receive love from other people, no matter what. Not just romantice, but from friends, family….. everyone. It would feel like everyone in this world was trying to steal him from you, but that's not true. They are giving more to him. Giving him more happiness."

He placed a hand on Mina's shoulder. "And it would make him miserable if people try to fight over who gets to give him happiness. He's suffering too. I know it, I could feel it. What I'm trying to say is…."

"When you love someone, if you truly care about them and not just the happiness you feel when being with them…. Then you would have to learn how to share them with everything else that gives them happiness."

Mina lowered her eyes at this, and sighed.

"I know that. I….. I will talk to him and Joan. I don't want Harker to suffer, I'm just scared to be left behind…." Her eyes become glossy, but she tried her best to fight off the tears. "I don't want to get left behind…."

Roland nodded. "It hurts when that happens, I know. It happened so much to me that I got used to it. But he won't leave you behind, not in this lifetime. I'm sure of it."

Mina gave him a hug. "Thank you…. I really needed to hear that."

Roland returned the hug, patting her a bit. "Thanks for listening."

As they pulled away, Mina then whispered softly, full of genuine sympathy.

"Thank you…. and I'm so sorry…"

Roland's eyes widened at this, then he only wore that same strained face that made Mina think he was crying. He was just not showing it.

"Well….. Let's go check on the lobby if they arrived."

Soon, Harker and Joan did came to the hotel. But Harker was limping, and his skin had patches of first degree burns. Yet even though he had burns, he was very cold and shivering. Roland and Mina soon realized these burns were windburns, not regular burns from the fire.

Since they know Harker could have easily healed these, the damage from the winds must be so bad. A wind as strong as that would have been deadly and enough to blow someone's flesh off them.

The people at the lobby looked a little alarmed, but they thought he was simply a victim of the earthquake or something relating to that.

Mina rushed to him and touched his freezing face. "Oh, Harker…. What happened to you?"

Joan surprisingly spoke up. "It's Victoria. We saw her, and she… she got away."

Mina turned to her, and Joan was expecting to see that murderous glare again from seeing her with her boyfriend hurt. But instead…..

There was a look of a mutual understanding. As if she understood that it must be hard for Joan to see Harker hurting too.

"Let's get inside and get him warmed up. Then…. Then we'll talk about everything."