Pyramids: The Gateway to Stars

Chapter XXXIV

Chapter XXXIV
Honey

That was a joke.

That was the stupidest joke I’ve ever made.

I like him? Hah.

That has got to be a joke.

“Hesperia!” A voice shouted in a distance, pulling me back from my thoughts. “Earth to Hesperia?”

“Huh?” I gazed at Dalia’s direction absent-mindedly. “Are you joking something? I-I mean, are you saying something?”

The other girls, who were part of the performance, were looking at me too. Dalia stepped forward and approached me with the kindest smile.

“You seem out of it today,” she said. “Are you nervous because of our performance tonight?”

“Uhm, well…” I was thinking about that earlier too—before Khufu crossed again in my mind. And now that I’ve come to find the most possible reason why I was thinking of him this whole time, I just couldn’t accept it!

How could I’ve fallen in his trap?

Dalia gripped my shoulders, as though giving it strength. “Don’t worry much about it, okay? You’ve been doing so well.”

I smiled back. “Thank you, Dalia.” She had been one of my support system whenever I’d get anxious about our performance. As a leader, she handled us very well.

“Say,” she faced the other girls, “let’s have one last rehearsal and then we’re done.”

After all of our countless practices every morning, finally today had arrived. Today was the start of the two-week Opening of the Year festival, which they’d call it “Wepet Renpet”.

Processions were already held this morning, and later this afternoon, offerings and sacrifices would be offered to the temples of their gods, particularly to their sun god, Ra. There’d be feasting, rituals, and interpretation of prophecies too. And, of course, dances.

Our performance would be tonight before the feast.

After one last round of practice, we exchanged good lucks to each other and finally called it a day. Now, I was left at the garden.

I wanted to try performing the dance alone but amidst my solo practice, Khufu again crossed my mind.

He didn’t come to visit today.

The past few days, he’d usually appear at the places where we’d practice. Although most of those times, he didn’t approach us nor made his presence seen by the others. At first, it was distracting to have him appearing everywhere but eventually I found myself looking forward to it.

And now, I feel a bit upset.

Though he’d be certainly busy right now. He just attended the processions earlier. I shouldn’t expect.

I made a huge sigh and focused on my practice. But even though my body was moving, my mind was residing somewhere, thinking of someone.

In the midst of dancing, a faint sound of footsteps approached me. Only one person popped into my mind.

“Hey—”

“Khufu!”

I turned to face him only to see it was just Abayomi. Just like me, he looked at me with a surprise expression as he eventually made a chuckle. “Woah, chill.”

“A-Abayomi. It’s you...” I tried to act normal and looked away in embarrassment. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

He tilted his head, trying to catch my gaze, and crossed his arms. “Khufu? Were you referring to the Pharaoh?”