"Filian," Rose said, turning me around to face her. I avoided her eyes, but she was relentless. "Stop hiding it from me when the duo comes."

I forced myself to laugh. "It's nothing much."

"Your voice is half an octave higher when you're lying," she replied sharply. "And if it wasn't for your back, I'd be kicking you in the butt right now."

I sighed, pushing her hands off my shoulders. "Alright, I'm sorry, okay? But I don't want to worry you or Mother Lily. And don't you dare lie to me," I said, giving her a look. "You already told me that the High Duke's wife isn't letting you get any money. Which is totally unfair and something you really need to take up with the Duke himself." 

She shrugged, throwing her hair over her shoulder. "I haven't planned the best route yet. Can't make any fast choices." She pierced me with her gaze. "But that doesn't mean Mother and I are broke, you know."

"You have the little ones to think of."

"Yeah, well, you have your back. And your mom told me that they're upping the fee?"

I sputtered. "When did you meet mom?"

"Like ten minutes ago." She rolled her eyes. "Seriously, were you going to hide it from me?"

I made a face at her and folded my arms. "So? What are you going to do now that you know?"

"Simple," she said, flashing me a smile. I batted away any spare sparkles that flew in my face with ease. "I do what I always do."

"Don't want to hear it," I said immediately. I turned away and placed my palms on my ears. "Nope! Not hearing it! I don't know a thing!"

"I'm going to plan!" Rosa yelled. She came close to my ear and kept hollering. "Plan! Plan! Plan!"

"Stop! I don't hear you! I don't hear you!"

"Plan! Plan!"

"Uh-uh! Not hearing a thing! Nope, not at all! Don't know what you're saying!"

"Probabilities!"

"Nope!"

"Statistical evidences!"

"Hearing nothing! I can't hear you! I can't--" I caught sight of the doorway and stopped midway. Rosa yelled a long and loud "Plaaaans!" for the last time before she drew a breath and turned to the doorway too.

Because of course Paul would be standing there, looking as nervous as a bunny, clutching his shoulder bag with two hands.

"Um, hi?" I offered.

He shrank back. Like a bunny.

I straightened up and brushed off invisible lint off my apron. I took a deep breath and gave him my brightest smile. "Just having a lot of fun, the two of us. Ya know, childhood friends."

"Sure," he said, edging his way towards the kitchen, giving us wide berth. "Yeah, sure, I totally get it." He gave me an awkward laugh before leaping quickly to the supply room. 

I groaned and lifted my hand up against my forehead. "Look what you've done, Rosa," I complained, but then when I turned, she wasn't there. "Huh?"

I looked around to find that Rosa had wandered back to her table littered with napkins full of scribbles on them, making me twitch in annoyance. Probabilities and the Academy and whatnot, she had claimed that one table as her own and had even snarled at Cook when he barked at her about it. "I must take responsibility as the heroine!" she was heard crying out multiple times a day. "That is my duty!"

I closed my eyes and counted to three. 

Good girl, Filian. You're patient, Filian. You're not going to die early of high blood pressure because of a certain childhood friend, Filian. There there, Filian.

"Oh Rosa," I called in a sickly sweet voice. "Why are you back there again? When we're just five minutes from opening?"

She answered right away. "That's you, Filly. I have the night shift."

"Huh. Then why are you here so early?"

"To plan." She made a face that clearly questioned my intelligence. "Duh."

My right eyebrow twitched. Don't murder anyone today, Filian. Your back won't last the strenuous work, Filian.

"Filian! What are you doing!" Cook barked, and I swept away the irritation on my face.

"Coming, Cook!"

---

"So if I take his route, there's approximately 42% more chance that he won't die... But if the root of his death lies in three of the routes," she muttered, "I have an 89% chance of preventing him. That means..."

I peered at the napkins that she had spread all over the wide table as I munched on my sandwich. My poor feet were throbbing, and so was my back, and since I didn't want my head to start throbbing, too, I let my eyes slide over the strange signs and words she was penning down.

"You do know that these napkins are the restaurant's," I mumbled through my mouthful.

Rosa looked up at me so suddenly that I jolted still. But she didn't say anything, so I blinked a few times and began chewing again. "You gonna pay for all those napkins?"

"That's not the problem here, Filly," she sighed. Her shoulders slumped down, and suddenly she was the picture of dejection. A group at the nearby table looked over as if she was the magnet of their attention, suddenly developing sorrowful expressions of sympathy towards her. 

Even my heart twinged a bit before I caught myself and snapped out of it. "Stop that, Ro."

She frowned. "Stop what?"

"Your--" I waved my hand over the air. "Whatever you do with the air."

Rosa stared at me blankly, her hand still poised in the air with her pen in it.

"Oh, you know," I said impatiently. "Like when you smile and then sparkles just hit everyone and everyone looks at you. Except it happens when you're sad, too, and everyone feels like helping you out. That thing."

Rosa's eyes asked me if I was still sane. Then they changed over to concern, and I knew exactly what she was thinking. Does she need to go to the apothecary..?

I blew at my bangs. "Never mind."

She nodded at me once, curtly, then returned to the napkins. "Now where was I? Right, the green one." She tapped her cheek with her pen a few times before she dove back in. "Including the possibility of the route diverging from the previous option, the bad ending would actually be harder to achieve with him than the good one, huh..."

I brushed off the crumbs on my apron. I still had a few minutes left, so I wanted to savor this moment I got to rest my feet.

Rosa made a sound of disgust. "But he's still there. Ugh, why is he always there?" She crossed something out and flipped the napkin over. "Nothing is safe."

I watched her for a few moments. "Ro-sa," I said, drawing her name out. I blinked a few times at her sleepily. We had used to make each other laugh during our breaks when we were both at the restaurant, which always made me forget the aches of work for at least a few moments. But ever since she'd gotten into the Academy, all she'd done was worry about her plans. Plans! I hated that word these days.

"Is it his destiny to always die?" murmured the girl in question. She shook her head. "Get him out of the way. But how?"

"Stop," I whined, kicking up my feet and wiggling them near her. When she didn't respond, I pushed at her chair with my foot until she shot me a dirty look. "Talk to me. My feet hurt and my back hurts and I'm going back to work in two minutes. I need to be distracted from the pain!"

Her eyes widened and glazed over for a second.

I frowned. "Rosa?"

"That's it!" She slammed her hand down so hard against the wood that I almost fell out of the chair. Customers were looking over at us, and I nervously laughed at them, waving them away with my hands.

"Rosa!" I hissed through my tight smile, but when I turned back to her she was already too busy scribbling down a bunch of things. In fact, she was concentrating so hard that I wouldn't have been surprised if her quill pen dug into the wood of the table and engraved her words into it for the rest of its life. I helplessly watched, bewildered.

Two minutes and six napkins later, she finally slowed down and sighed in content. I raised my head up from the drowsy half-crouch I had ended up in. She circled something with a flourish, set the quill pen down, and looked up to meet my bored eyes.

"Fi, you are a genius."

I raised one eyebrow. "A genius with very tired feet, then."

She laughed, and I was so done with everything that I didn't even bother waving off the sparkles in the air around her.