To Live Again, For the First Time!

The next morning, Emilin woke up with a headache.

After washing up and taking some medicine to prevent a fever from cropping up, she made her way to the living room of the apartment, which she wasn't all too familiar with just yet.

She was scrolling through her phone when someone knocked on the door.

Without even having to look at the peeping hole, she opened the door to welcome Xander, who came in with fresh bread from the cat cafe across the street, which worked as half a bakery, Emilin's preferred caramel macchiato, and another bag filled with papers.

As per usual, they spent a few hours reviewing and revising a few details here and there with Xander asking questions about the sector he was working on.

"I'm going to start getting slightly busier now, so I probably won't be available 24/7 anymore," Emilin sipped on her coffee, which now that she thought about it, she shouldn't be drinking.

It wasn't the healthiest thing to drink coffee at her young age, but nor was ingesting as much sugar as she did per day, so Emilin made do.

There were a number of supplements and medications she could concoct to deal with this much.

To be fair, she preferred milk tea, or bubble tea, whatever you would like to call it, not that it was any better for her health, but it wasn't widely available here in Opaque city.

She played around with the pen she was using to write on her journal while Xander was working when out of nowhere, she said, "Maybe I should recommend sister Margo go into the bubble tea industry."

Well, it wasn't out of nowhere for Emilin who was thinking about it, but for Xander who was currently looking at the basic studies about cancer cells, which weren't all that basic at all, he needed to make sure he heard correctly.

"What if she doesn't want to go into that industry?" Xander threw out the question.

"Well, if she isn't interested, maybe I should open up a chain store myself so that I can drink milk tea wherever I go."

Looking at Emilin sipping her caramel macchiato, he finally realized what this was about. 

After all, Emilin was a free spirit, she did whatever she liked, whenever she liked, with barely any regard.

It wasn't about her care for the industry nor Margo, clearly, it wasn't about the money either.

She just wanted to drink some milk tea at that moment, yet somehow, that rounded up to making an international chain store.

[This was totally how she ended up with all the troubles she has today :P]

Xander watched as Emilin wrote something down on her notebook just to cross it off right after, writing something else underneath.

"What are you writing?" Xander didn't usually ask about this notebook that Emilin carried around, it seemed rather private since she carried it everywhere, writing on it whenever she had the chance, but since she was writing on it right now as she spoke to him, he couldn't restrain his curiosity.

"Brainstorming a good name for the shop," Emilin said nonchalantly.

'Sorry, what?'

"Aren't you planning a little too ahead?"

"Not at all, to succeed in something, you always have to be a step ahead."

Xander showed his pearly white teeth through his weary smile.

'Isn't she a little too eccentric?'

'I don't think that this is what is meant by a step ahead... will thinking about the name now really help?'

"Don't you think that you should be asking Margo whether she wants to do it or not first?"

Without even realizing it, Lady Margo had gone to Margo, simply because that was what Emilin called her

Emilin thought about it for a bit before shaking her head.

"There is no need for that anymore, she will be quite busy for this next while, there is no need to involve her in such matters when she already has a lot on her plate."

Emilin was surprisingly considerate.

Actually, she just didn't even know whether Margo would have the international reach. She wanted milk tea to be available everywhere, wherever she went, it was even better if she didn't have to pay for it.

"Are you sure you want to decide in such haste?" Xander appealed to her rationality, but that didn't work very well in the face of a bull.

"This is just a thought, nothing has been determined yet." 

'WTF do you even mean, you are already deciding on the name of the shop, what do you mean nothing has been determined yet? I bet if I turn around, next thing I know, you'll already be trying to figure the names of the children for these shops.'

She was clearly quite determined, where was this indecisiveness she was talking about? 

'Why don't I see it?'

"So what are the names you thought of?" 

Xander probed.

Meanwhile, what he was really thinking about, was how to best persuade Emilin not to venture into such a business! Or into any business for that matter!

Emilin here was already telling him that she would be quite busy for a while with something else, yet on the other hand, she was still planning on opening an international chain store… which hand would be the one helping him?

There would be none left!

He couldn't let that happen, he couldn't let this young lady, who he was willing to take in as his master, have her attention divided even further!

'If you are so good at medicine, can you please not deviate to something else entirely!' He wanted to scream.

Since Emilin was saying that she was planning to do it and that she could do it, Xander didn't question that part at all.

After getting to know Emilin, Xander knew well that she wasn't one to bullshit.

(If he knew the number of businesses Emilin was handling in name, Xander would surely faint in frustration.)

The truth of the matter was that Xander knew that Master M was quite the special existence, however, Emilin was no less interesting.

Though Master M was well known for his feats in the medical field, even a shadow of his real identity couldn't be found.

Who knew if, in real life, he was a businessman or a collar worker? Though that second one was highly unlikely.

Anyways, Xander was sure that medicine was not what he did for a living, and he was now even more sure with Emilin's subtle hints.

She was clearly saying that she could do the business herself… at a moment's notice too.

Then did that mean that Master M could do so as well? Or even better? Or maybe he had already done so somewhere in this world.

First with her being M's disciple, and second, her age, and now this, not to mention he had yet to figure out what she was doing in Opaque city.

Though Xander had met Emilin in person, he felt like this young woman, Master M's disciple, was no less mysterious than the 'man' himself.

And what was even more peculiar than anything else was the fact that she never really did anything all day.

She seemed to have so much free time in her hands it was mind-boggling.

She would pet cats, play on her phone all day, sleep like there was no tomorrow, even having the time to meditate for hours on end…

Never in a rush to do anything in particular.

Xander imagined all geniuses such as himself rushing to study all the time to not fall back, behind the others.

Though he was young, it was as if he were always in a race against time, and Xander had assumed that others were the same.

But clearly, that was not the case.

In fact, Xander had never once seen her pick up a book or study medicine other than when she was answering his questions, not once.

It was hard to imagine that someone who lives like that actually had PTSD, yet at the same time, it wasn't all that strange either when considering her personality.

After all, there were only a handful of reasons why someone as young as her would have to mature as quickly as she had, not to mention none of them were particularly good in nature.

Just as Emilin was about to respond, she got a message from her phone.

After she finished reading the message, she closed her notebook, standing up with it under her arms.

"I have to get going, let's talk when you finish this file and I finish my business. " She suddenly stood up and said.

"I won't be coming back for lunch; I'll message you about dinner later."

"Okay, then have a safe trip," Xander dove into the files, pushing the other thoughts in his mind to the back of his head, getting back to work as Emilin left.

Still, he didn't forget to note down in his mind that he had to find out the best way to persuade Emilin out of working on another business, or else, he might really never get through these files.

They weren't something he could read without professional help after all.