Chapter 142 The Past - Part 4

It was Saturday.

I didn't really know what there was to do. Life in the facility was completely planned out by the higher-ups. Some of the other children had things they wanted to do, however, I would always just do whatever they told me. It wasn't like I liked doing anything in particular.

I was now standing out the front of the mall, in the wide, spacious parking lot. The bright sun glared down towards the tarmac, causing some wavy effect. Cars drove past me as I slowly made my way towards the entrance. I came here because Hannah said that this was what she did on her days off. I didn't know what I was meant to do here though.

I made my way inside to be greeted by the cold breeze of air-conditioning. There were a variety of stores to choose from if I so desired to buy something. I had a decent lump of cash, provided by the facility when they dropped us off. I had spent very little of it, my room was quite minimalistic, with not much furniture aside from an empty cupboard and a bed.

The school provided us with meals and most essentials that we would need to stay hygienic and healthy. I wasn't sure what most of the other outcomes did, but Hannah did talk about buying things from the mall on her off days. I didn't have anything I wanted to buy, all I needed was already provided to me, I just wandered around the inside of the mall aimlessly.

As I looked at some of the meaningless storefronts, I managed to catch a glimpse of a girl, sitting alone, crying in the corner of a retail store. I decided to go and have a look at what was going on, it was going to be more interesting than wandering around the mall for several hours. She was huddled up in a ball, with her arms wrapped around her knees, and her face tucked into her legs.

"What's wrong."

It wasn't that I necessarily cared about her condition, but I needed to keep my fa?§ade of normality, so showing empathy would be an important step.

It was obvious that she could hear me, however, she still chose not to respond. At this point, I contemplated whether I wanted to continue attempting to console her. Even if she decided to speak to me, it would still be a hassle from then on. I wanted to get back to the school to have lunch in the dining room.

I decided to try one last time.

"Are you okay?"

She seemed to show a slight twitch of movement, however, she still did not respond verbally. It looked like this side-show was going to be more pain than it was worth.

My mission always took priority, anyways.

After looking down at the crying girl, I decided to turn around and leave the store. I might get some flavoured toothpaste or something, that might be interesting to try.

"Wait."

I guess this wasn't over just yet.

I stood still, waiting for the girl to continue.

"What's wrong?" I asked again.

"I'm lonely."

It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It seemed I was going to be building the persona of the nice boy then. This would likely draw some attention, although sometimes being overly inconspicuous is suspicious in itself. In the end, it was all about making sure no one knew who you were.

Her answer was quite vague, I had no idea how she managed to get herself into that situation in the first place, judging from her appearance, marks on her clothes and the fact that she was in this particular mall, she had likely either run away from home or got abandoned by her friends. That was the conclusion I came to, although it didn't really matter.

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. It was quite an overt thing to do, but this was the best way to quell such a situation. If she was lonely, then I would accompany her. It seemed her state of mind was still off, so I would have to take the lead at the moment.

"Huh?"

She was surprised by my distinctly forward actions. I pulled her by the wrist and dragged her out of the store. She was still shocked by what I was doing, however, my goal was to take her mind off whatever was troubling her and help her regain her composure. This way I would then be able to properly communicate with her.

I quickly scanned the different stores and decided that the optimal store would be the big superstore, a large retail chain. It had a wide open area with lots and lots of distractions in the form of products and advertisements. It was the best way I was going to distract her for a little while.

I got a few odd glares here and there but it was all expected. Eventually, we made it to the home section. Whilst we were making our way over, I glanced at several of the products, considering which one would be the best for me to talk about. I was not acquainted with any of the products on display, however, just the cover and tags on the items would give me enough information to start talking.

I stopped at a cute-looking pillow. I concluded that this was going to be the best choice when it came to calming her down. I quickly read the packaging, logo and tags in order to gather a baseline understanding.

The pillow seemed to be based on some television show that I had never watched before, although, from what I could tell, it looked like a kid's show about underwater sea creatures. That was enough to get me started and I began talking to her about the funny shape of the pillow and how fluffy it was.

I looked over and saw that it was working, her distant demeanour had lightened, and she seemed to be listening to what I was saying. I continued talking for a little longer and eventually, she even responded to some of the things I was saying.

****

I guess my sister could do with another friend.