[Elsword] - Formulated Hearts

Act 10 - Bears

...

'What the hell was I doing?'

Add wasn't too crystalline clear regarding what he undertook earlier during history class, nor did he know why he even executed such a performance. His bitterness to the Queen was uncalled for, but he could've attempted to make things right at Eve's residence. The least he could've done was to have her opinion about the date and time he had selected; too late now.

However, his original last-minute reason that urged him to be the authoritative one was because...

1) By having the meet-up at Eve's house, it granted him the opportunity to explore her Nasod inventions, which as mentioned before, were things that he had a great interest in, though he often tried to keep it secretive.

2)  Five o'clock seemed to be a suitable time; not too early, nor too late. If he was too late, it would've meant less time to scavenge the Nasod contraptions. Refer to reason #1.

A little while of more heavy thinking occurred, as the Esper was casually relaxing at home before heading over to the Empress', his feet rested on a table while he was chilling on the couch.

'Tsk, whatever. I promise that I will make it up to the damned robot later...'

'Argh! Why am I frigging arguing with myself... how pathetic!'

~

Meanwhile, Chung was out shopping. Shopping for teddy bears. He had taken Ara's suggestion, and decided to purchase a stuffed toy for Eve, as embarrassing it may have sound in Prince Seiker's mind.

The entire time he was browsing the store, he asked himself various rhetorical questions.

'Would Miss Eve like this one? Or maybe that one, instead?'

'Would she like a classic brown bear? Or a pink one?'

'Should I get a large one? Small? Medium? What if it doesn't fit well with her other belongings?'

'Would Miss Eve... even accept this gift?'

The last one had stung him quite a bit, but he still believed in himself. He had to, after all the encouraging words Elesis and Ara had pitched in.

"Excuse me, Sir~? Do you need any help?" a bright, cheerful voice approached him.

The Chaser turned his head, only to see Lucy, the merchant from Hamel. He had recognized her, as he was from the Senace Kingdom, as well.

"Ah, um... I'm looking for a teddy bear. But I'm not sure whether to get the brown one, or the pink one, and I'm also not quite sure about which size to get, too." he quietly murmured, a faint blush dusting his cheeks from the uneasy feeling just talking about it.

"I'll take a wild guess, and say that... you should choose a medium, fluffy pink one! Trust me!" Lucy smiled, pointing to the bear she had described, which was on one of the lower shelves.

"Okay, I'll trust your judgement, Miss Lucy." he timidly grinned in return.

As the cutesy female was softly grabbing the bear, a ding dong sounded, indicating that there were more customers in the vicinity.

Out of pure curiosity, Chung glanced at who it was.

Elsword and Aisha.

Elsword, being his best friend and all, was not someone who would be in these kinds of stores, from what Prince Seiker knew about him. (Which was an awful lot of information and details)

Aisha, on the other hand, probably would be, however, Chung didn't know that much about her to begin with to be the judge.

The redheaded Rune Slayer's eyes widened when he saw the Deadly Chaser. "Hey, Chung! Is that you?!"

He slowly nodded.

At that moment, Lucy shoved the toy into Chung's arms, which wasn't helping the situation very well.

"Why on Elrios are you here?" Elsword blinked, confused. He had his hands in his pockets, not bothering to acknowledge the girl that was with him.

"I could ask the same to you."

"Well, uh, you know those fake heart and key thingies? Apparently, I got matched up with her." he paused, to point at Aisha for a moment, before placing his hand back into his compartment. "I lost a bet, and now I have to buy her one of these... So, hurry up and choose already, Aisha."

"Hmph. You're so impatient! Give me a few minutes..." Aisha scowled, glaring at her boyfriend.

"Well, uh, I'm here because... I'm getting something for the girl I... l-like." he murmured, the flush soon making a comeback onto his face.

"Oh! So you got a pair now, too? Who is it?" Elsword's interest was immediately ignited, his eyes glimmering with excitement.

"I don't really know if she's my pair yet, though..."

"Then what's the point of that? I mean, there's a ridiculously low chance of you and her being a match, anyway--"

Aisha cut off the rest of Elsword's sentence. "Gee, you're sure good at being a supportive best friend." she rolled her eyes. "I want that one. The brown bear with the mustache and top hat. It's fancily classy, and I like it."

"Laaaame." the redhead scoffed.

"SHUT UP, ELBRAT!" she spat, fuming.

"Loud, noisy, magician! Okay, shop-owner-girl-person, we'll take the toy that the shortie just described."

"Okay! If both parties are ready to pay, the cost of each bear will be one million ED~!" Lucy innocently winked.

"O-ONE MILLION?! C-Can't you possibly lower that crap?!" Elsword stuttered.

"Elbrat, you're buying that for me, no matter what!" Aisha stubbornly puffed her cheeks out.

"No can do! Take it or leave it~!"

Chung chuckled, taking out his wallet. He handed Lucy the two million ED for both bears. "There you go, Lucy."

"Thank you, Chung! Have a nice day, friends, and make sure to come again soon!" Lucy put the two bears into plastic bags, waving goodbye to them afterwards.

"Thanks, Chung. I owe ya one!" Elsword simpered.

"Yeah, yeah." he glanced down at his watch only to realize... he was going to be late for his project with Eve if he didn't hurry soon. "Crap. Gotta go, see you two later!"

Chung ran out of the mall district as fast as his two feet could carry him, thankfully Eve's location wasn't too far away.

...