Chapter 638


    It was a stormy night filled with the ringing of thunderstorms. Ten-year-old Sylvia was still living in the old district with her


    grandparents at the time. That night, she wanted to eat snacks from a certain street vendor and snuck out of the house without


    her grandparents knowing. That was when she encountered the fateful scene of a boy surrounded by a group of people at the


    entrance of an alley. The poor boy was beaten up. 1 It was a rainy day and it was very dark. Not a soul passed by the alley.


    She wanted to call someone for help but there was no one around and she did not have a phone either. She knew that she could


    not just watch as the poor boy continued to get brutalized. She grabbed a pocket journal from her pocket and put it to her ear to


    pretend that it was a phone. Then, she stood at the mouth of the alley and began calling for the police and informing the police of


    her current location. She put on a tremendous act to make it seem like she was truly calling the police. With how dark it was, the


    hooligans did not know that it was not a phone that she had in hand. So, they vanished in a puff of smoke.


    That was when she ran to the boy. He twitched impulsively before she even touched him. He was in a terrible state. Sylvia could


    not help him up either. She ended up telling him to wait in the same spot while she went to get someone to call an ambnce.


    That was when the boy grabbed onto her wrist and pleaded meekly, “Don’t... don’t go.” They could not make out each other’s


    appearance in the dark, but Sylvia could clearly remember seeing the way he was trembling. She held an umbre and stayed


    by his side for a very long time. Many years had passed since that fateful incident, and Sylvia’s memory of what they talked


    about then was very hazy by this point. All she could recall was how the boy refused to disclose what his name was or where he


    lived.


    He only told her that it was his stepmother who put him in this state.


    Upon this mention, Sylvia thought of her stepmother as well and told him how she had lost her mother when she was very


    young, and how his father had abandoned her. She figured that they had a sort ofpanionship in misery.


    He seemed to open up upon hearing that and he asked her, “Does your stepmother pick on you too?”


    She told him, “i lived with my grandparents since | was a child, so there’s no way for her to get to me.”


    “My grandmother is very good to me too.” He shared.


    So, they had a very long conversation. Suddenly, he asked, “What’s your name?”


    Sylvia answered, “You tell me your name first, and I''ll tell you mine.”


    This was not the first time she asked for his name that night.


    He fell into a very guarded silence. She noticed that he was ufortable and quickly switched to another topic. He no longer


    spoke and only listened to what she said.


    She stayed with him all night and even let him borrow her coat. He sheltered underneath the umbre with her coat around his


    shoulders.


    It was only nearly dawn when her grandparents began calling for her name frantically nearby when she rose.


    He grabbed her again.


    She told him that she had to go.


    He tucked a sapphire ring into her hands and said to her, “This is for you.” 1


    Her first response was to refuse as she could not take it, He insisted that she take it and pressed it into her hands. He was very


    insistent. She took it and ran out of the alley to find her grandparents.


    Her grandparents were very agitated and quickly took her home when they saw her.


    It took a lot of effort for her to exin what happened and by the time they returned to the alley she mentioned, there was


    nobody there. Even now, she could recall how the day had brightened and how the sun had shone on specks of dried blood on


    the wall.


    After that, she was taken home by her grandparents. Soon after, Tara came to y with her and that was when she fell in love


    with the sapphire ring Sylvia thought the world of Tara at the time, for she was her best friend. Seeing that Tara liked it so much,


    she decided to give it to her.


    She recounted the story of the mysterious boy she met on that rainy night to Tara as well.


    After that, she never met the boy again, and as time passed, she forgot the details of that night. Still, she would asionally


    think of the boy and wonder if he managed to get away from his wretched stepmother.


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