Kairos raised an eyebrow, not out of any sort of annoyance, but rather interest.
“There was only one that was willing to talk with you?”
Tori pressed her lips together.
“Hehe… I guess I was a little weird when I was younger, so most people didn’t really like to talk with me.”
Chase’s eyebrow twitched. It seemed that he wanted to say that she was still weird now, but decided to keep quiet instead.
Tori pressed her lips together.
“Mm… it happened a really long time ago, so the memories are all fuzzy. But I remember it was a kid a bit younger than me. He was kinda… barbaric, always wanting to solve his problems through violence.”
She giggled.
“I opened him up to other methods.”
Chase raised an eyebrow in interest.
“You taught him how to deceive?”
Tori tilted her head to the side.
“Eh? No, I taught him the art of running away!”
Chase’s eyebrow twitched.
“…I see.”
The brief interest he had almost instantly disappeared.
Tori scratched the side of her head, trying her best to recall what she could.
“I remember he was always encouraging me to meet with his other friends, but I was too afraid to actually ever meet them because I felt like they wouldn’t like me.”
She laughed awkwardly.
“The thought of getting new friends was so exciting, but the thought of losing my only friend because I was unlikeable was far scarier.”
Kairos rubbed his chin, feeling like the story was tugging on him somehow, though he didn’t exactly understand how.
“So you never met with that guy’s friends?”
Tori averted her gaze.
“Well… I kept giving excuses whenever he brought it up.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Huh. If he had other friends and you refused to join the group, then I can’t imagine he spent all that much time with you. After all, a person only has so much time.”
Tori smiled bitterly.
“Hehe, well he would always make the time to meet me whenever I snuck out. Though, I guess it wasn’t much time in the first place.”
Nicole rested her head in her hands and stared curiously.
“Eh? How much time did you have?”
Tori hummed softly.
“I think… in a week, I would usually be able to sneak out two times for a few hours each.”
Nicole gasped.
“Eh? Your parents were that strict with you?”
Tori laughed awkwardly.
“Um, I got caught up in something when I went outside on my own before. Ever since then, my father would only let me go out if I was with him, but he was so busy that there was almost never an opportunity to do so.”
Sydney furrowed her brows.
“…That is simply bad parenting. Part of being a responsible parent is teaching the child what they need to know in the outside world and let them explore. How are they supposed to grow up otherwise?”
Kairos coughed.
“I think you gave Nicole a little bit too much freedom though.”
Nicole puffed up her cheeks and jabbed at his side.
“Hey! It’s because of that we met, ok!”
Chase took a deep breath.
“It is indeed unfair to put a child in a prison.”
Tori looked a little exasperated.
“E-Eh? Well, my father did make a lot of mistakes, but he always had good intentions.”
Chase clicked his tongue.
“Good intentions aren’t enough. If the result is only bad, then they are simply worthless.”
Tori couldn’t help but frown slightly.
“…I guess. But I never really hated him.”
She laughed.
“In the end, he was always trying his best to make sure we had enough money to put food on the table?”
Nicole scratched her cheek.
“Ah, your family didn’t have that much money?”
Tori sighed and stretched her arms out onto the table.
“My mother… left my father. Apparently, we were originally quite wealthy, but she found a way to take most of it and even leave my father with a lot of debt.”
A silence fell.
Kairos sucked in a cold breath.
“That is a cold woman…”
Tori shook her head.
“I don’t really care about all that. My father said that he had already long forgotten about it. He said that instead of hating, we should do the best with what we have now.”
Chase closed his eyes.
“…He should’ve fought against the woman to get back some of the assets. If wrongdoings go unpunished, it will simply happen again.”
Tori didn’t get at all mad after hearing that. In fact, she even chuckled.
“That’s what I thought for a while too. But then… my father told me that he still loved her, so he didn’t want to try to get his assets back, even though it wouldn’t be hard to.”
Her voice became quite soft.
“I guess… it opened my eyes quite a bit.”
After a few moments of silence, Kairos spoke.
“…So that’s why you run.”
Tori laughed.
“I guess. I always tried to convince my one friend that running was the best, but I never seemed to be able to get through to him.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“That sounds like quite the boring thing to talk about.”
Tori crossed her arms.
“That’s not the only thing we talked about!”
Nicole put a finger on her chin.
“Then what did you talk about with him?”
Tori pressed her lips together.
“Mm… now that I think about it, I guess it was mostly him that talked. Hehe, I was kinda shy at the time.”
She brought her head to the side as a small smile formed on her face.
“There was never really anything specific that he talked about. Most of the time it was random things, but to me, it was really exciting. My most memorable moment was when he was talking about the flavors of gum he liked, and I was absolutely confused.”
Sydney looked at her questioningly.
“Confused?”
Tori took a deep breath.
“I never even knew the existence of gum before he told me because my father was really strict with what I was allowed to eat and things like that.”
She raised a finger.
“When I told him that, he was really shocked, and offered to bring me lots of things. But at the time I felt like a pack of gum must’ve cost a lot, so I didn’t want to burden him. Yet, at the same time, I also wanted to at least try it, so I asked for one.”
Tori smiled.
“He brought me a lime-flavored one that was supposed to have a long-lasting flavor.”
She sighed.
“But… it ran out of flavor pretty quickly.”
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
“It isn’t uncommon for brands to lie.”
Nicole’s expression seemed to get a little softer when she heard the word gum.
“How long did it last?”
Tori closed her eyes.
“I remembered that I chewed it pretty quickly… but I couldn’t really feel any flavor after about five hours.”
Nicole was slightly taken aback.
“Eh? It lasted five hours?”
Chase tapped his chin with a finger.
“Huh. It’s probably because the gum lost the flavor, but she tricked herself into still tasting it.”
Tori pressed her lips together.
“I… stayed up at night to chew it, thinking that the flavor might return if I just kept trying.”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“That’s… kind of sad.”
Tori took a deep breath.
“Haha, even though it was my first time with gum, I already figured that the flavor wouldn’t come back, but… there was a part of me that still decided to hope.”
Chase sighed.
“…It’s better to let go. The pain is less that way.”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Maybe, but that is basically giving up on happiness, you know?”
Chase scowled.
“Sometimes giving up is just the natural answer when there’s none to have.”
Nicole furrowed her eyebrows.
“Um… are we still talking about gum?”
Tori shook her head.
“Anyway, my father eventually found out that I was sneaking out, so he took even stricter measures to keep me in the house. It… didn’t feel good. I wanted to at least tell my friend that I wouldn’t be able to see him anymore. I hope he doesn’t think I abandoned him.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“It doesn’t really matter now that you haven’t seen him since then, now does it?”
Tori pouted.
“But… I still don’t want him to think of me badly.”
Chase rolled his eyes.
“You might be overthinking it. Chances are, the person had already long forgotten all about it.”
Tori looked down at the ground.
“Hmm… I’m not sure if I like that more.”
Chase sighed.
“That’s because you’re selfish. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Tori puffed up her cheeks.
“You’re selfish too!”
Chase nodded.
“Yes. Yes, I am, and I intend to keep it that way.”
Kairos sighed.
“You seem to have a weird obsession with kids though.”
The corner of Chase’s lip twitched.
“…I am just concerned about children because they are the most vulnerable.”
Kairos smirked.
“Seems like you aren’t that selfish depending on the person’s age.”
Chase clicked his tongue.
“It’s just unfair to judge a child when they haven’t realistically done anything.”
He then slowly looked to the side and saw Tori looking back at him with starry eyes.
“You’re so inspirational! You aren’t too different from my friend. Maybe it was actually you?”
Chase sighed.
“Did you not say he was younger? If anything, I’m older than you.”
Tori pressed her lips together.
“Mm… then how old are you?”
Chase shrugged his shoulders.
“Twenty-three.”
Tori pouted.
“Mm… I’m twenty-one. Maybe you were really short when you were younger?”
Chase blinked several times.
“I wasn’t. Plus, do you really think I was the kind of person to talk with random obscure people like that?”
Tori smiled cheekily.
“I mean, you’re doing that right now, no?”
Chase’s eyebrow twitched. It seemed like he couldn’t think of a response to that. He decided to divert the subject.
“Well, the point is, I’m not that person.”
That didn’t stop Tori from smiling though.
“I guess, but no matter what, that doesn’t change that you’re my friend!”
She proceeded to grab onto his arm, like they were actually life-long friends. As for Chase, he just sighed in defeat, trying to pretend he had no relation to her.
Tori was giggling to herself and swaying his arm back and forth, acting nothing like her age.
“Friend~”
Chase seemed clearly displeased, but also didn’t have the heart to wrestle his arm out of her grip. He then looked at the others, thinking of a way to divert Tori’s attention.
“…Do any of you have any of your own stories about friends when you were younger?”
It was a casual question, but both Kairos and Nicole looked quite discomforted by that question.
Sydney smiled casually.
“Ah, I surely have some-”
“There are a few I’m willing to share.”
Kairos interrupted her. He thought that Sydney might have a breakdown if she started recalling her own memories.
Though, after he said that, Nicole looked at him a little strangely.
“Um, I-I could share some instead. I mean, we spent most of our childhood days together, right?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“I guess so.”
Nicole scratched her cheek.
“W-Well… I remember when I was really young, I decided to walk outside because I just wanted to take a walk. Then, I met Kairos.”
Tori let go of Chase and looked at her curiously.
“Ooh! What was he like? I imagine he was pretty serious.”
Nicole giggled.
“Actually, he was the most energetic out of all of us. He was always bringing us to new places that he found.”
Chase raised an eyebrow.
“Huh. I can’t imagine that at all.”
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
“People change a lot from when they were children.”
Tori narrowed her eyes slightly and put a finger on her chin.
“But what do you mean by all of us? Was it not just you two?”
Nicole froze on the spot.
“U-Um… w-well…”