"Hi Claire," I greeted as I strolled right in. "How've you been?"

Claire looked up from sweeping her strawberry blonde hair into a ponytail. She was the kind of neighborhood girl who was motherly to everyone younger than her, and she'd kept Rosa and me out of trouble too many times to count. I probably owed her my life.

Her face lit up when she saw me. "Filian!" she said, her usual lilt in her voice. "I haven't see you around in so long!"

I sighed and put a hand over my heart. Glancing at Lindent, I said, "Don't you just love that accent?"

Lindent's only response was a twitch in his eyebrow.

"Oh, go ahead and look around a bit." I waved him away and ran up to Claire instead, a wide smile on my face. "I've been meaning to visit since, like, forever. Heard you guys started selling apple bread."

"It's been a few weeks, yes," she answered, patting her hair into place and beaming at me. "My cousin, Danny, came up with it."

"Danny!" I said triumphantly. "That's actually who I came for."

"Did someone say my name?" Danny popped his head out from where I presumed was the kitchen the same time Claire asked, "You know Danny?"

We all sort of paused, I said "what," and then we all kind of chuckled.

"Come on out, Danny," Claire laughed, and Danny walked out. 

"Hey, you're the apple girl," he said as a greeting.

"Yes, I am," I greeted. I arched my head back to look up at him. "I hope you haven't forgotten your promise?"

He slapped his knee, indignant. "Of course not!" he said, then went back into the kitchen. "Hold on, let me get that for you."

Claire looked at me inquisitively, and I grinned at her, spreading my arms wide. "You are looking at the source of inspiration for your newest apple bread."

"C'mon, you weren't that important," Danny called.

"I threw that apple at you, so yes it is!"

"Ohh," Claire lilted, clapping her hands together. "You're the one who threw the apple at Danny!"

I made a mock bow. "That's me."

 Danny reemerged from the kitchen with a bag of bread, shaking his head. "I can never remember names. Sorry about that."

"No problem," I said, taking the bread. I opened it and took a sniff. "Ooh, smells sweet."

"It's our bestseller," Danny boasted, raising his nose in the air.

I snorted. "Of course it is, I helped you come up with it."

"What--"

While Danny and I began arguing over how much my contribution was truly worth, Claire looked past me.

"--be thankful I'm not asking for royalties!" I was saying, when Claire nudged me. I immediately switched to a nicer expression. "Yes, Claire?" I said sweetly. I ignored Dan's incredulous scoff in the background.

"Who is the friend you've brought?" she asked, nodding towards the back.

I turned around. "Oh, him?" I said, looking at Lindent awkwardly browsing the shelves of bread with a serious expression that didn't belong in a bakery. I smiled wryly. "He's a, uh, a customer." I shrugged. "I think."

"You think?" Claire repeated.

"Well, I kinda forced him to accompany me. Hey Lindent," I called. He looked up, and I waved him towards us. To Claire, I said. "I'll introduce you guys to him."

When he came over, still looking serious (like dude, lighten up), I patted him on the shoulder (he recoiled, but I pretended I didn't notice) and announced, "This here is Lindent. I don't know much about him, but we fought those bandits together when they came. So we're kind of friends, but maybe not."

I turned around and gestured to Claire, who smiled. "And Lindent, this is Claire, the sweetest person you'll ever meet in Minstia. She's super nice. Oh, and back there is--"

"I'm Dan, but call me Danny," Danny burst in, flashing a winning grin. "Nice to meet you. I made the apple bread."

I rolled my eyes. "Is that, like, the only thing you have to say for yourself?"

Claire shushed me with a look and concentrated on Lindent again with her motherly smile on. "Nice to meet you, Lindent. May I ask what your age is?"

"Right," I said, turning to Lindent too. I'd never asked and kind of just assumed he was one of those younger-looking twenty-somethings, since he was a government official and all that. I looked at him expectantly.

He blinked. "Nineteen."

I raised my eyebrows. Younger than I thought, then. "Wow, that's younger than I thought. How'd you become a government official so quickly?"

Lindent glanced at me once but didn't answer. I huffed. So he answers Claire but doesn't answer me, is it?

"I see how it is," I mumbled to myself, glaring at Lindent, but Claire was talking to him again about how long he'd been in Minstia, and he was too preoccupied to hear me. 

"Danny, get another loaf of apple bread," Claire said, and Danny shot off like an arrow. She smiled at Lindent and handed him a bag of bread, which he took with a nod. "Feel free to come back anytime. You too, Filian."

We walked out of there with a bag of warm bread each, and I waved bye at Claire and made a face at Danny, who made a face back. I turned to the front again. "Lucky you, getting a free loaf of bread."

He looked at the bag I was holding and gave me a side-eyed look.

"My bag is compensation for giving Danny the idea to make it. It's like, pay."

He nodded in understanding.

"I have to say, you talk a lot more when you're with other people than with me."

He shrugged.

"If I'd been a more sensitive person, I would think you didn't like me. And why would you? I'm such a good person, even getting you free bread like that." I flipped my hair behind my shoulder in signature pride mode.

He didn't respond, but I saw the corner of his lip twitch up.

I arched one eyebrow and said, in mock incredulity, "Wow, am I supposed to take your lack of response to mean that you actually don't like me?"

He shrugged again, though his lips were pressed into a thinner line, as if he was trying to hold in something.

I rolled my eyes and decided, right then and there, that I would make him laugh out loud. I fisted my hands together and thrust it towards my stomach, taking a step back, as if I was getting stabbed in the stomach. "Urgh..! You've just stabbed me in the stomach with your words, Lindent," I gasped. "The pain. The betrayal. It hurts."

"But I haven't said anything," he said, something like amusement in his voice.

I glared at him and cried out even more. "The pain! The betrayal!"

He smiled, raising one hand to hide his mouth. "Sorry," he said.

"About what? About stabbing me in the stomach?" I made a face at him and straightened up. "Sorry isn't going to cut it, you know. Sorry doesn't heal stab wounds, do they?"

Lindent nodded in agreement. His hand dropped back to his sides and he tried to look serious, but I thought I could detect a mischievous glint in his eye that hadn't been there previously. He looked around, as if he was searching for something, then held out his apple bread.

I gasped. "You're giving away Claire's nice gift to you? How rude!!"

He hastily withdrew his arm, his smile getting more and more prominent. He shrugged, raising his otherwise empty hands.

I put the back of my hand on my forehead and squinted against the sun. "I see the light, Lindent," I said faintly, "the light. It must be coming to get me. It must be." I turned to face him, and with the most sentimental expression I could make, I drifted away from him, whispering, "Farewell, my friend... Take care of my apple bread for me..."

The apple bread did him in-- he began with a loud "pfft!" and then all but clapped his hand on his mouth, his head bowed and his shoulders shaking. 

I laughed too, dropping my dying act and coming up to him. We resumed walking after a while, and he seemed to be in a better mood now.

"Oh, there's the restaurant," I noted, then waved bye at him. "Mkay, see you around, Lindent!" I said (he nodded to me, a lot more relaxed than we were in the bakery) before running off.

I walked into the restaurant stretching my arms into the air. Ahh, I felt so much more refreshed now, like I always did after a good laugh. I looked up as I did, stopped, then began backing out again. 

"Where are you going, Filian?" that voice cooed, instantly sending chills crawling under my skin. 

I didn't answer, stumbling towards the door instead.

"Catch her," the voice said quietly, and I dropped the bag of bread in my hand and ran.