“Is this seat already taken?”

  Looking up from her bowl of soup with a raised eyebrow, Tara’s expression quickly morphed into brief surprise before a wide smile manifested on her face.

  “If it isn’t our dear schorship boy. What are you doing here, Leon?”

  Her question got her a little shrug in return.

  “I was meeting someone here regarding my internship. Apparently, higher executives in top companies care enough about their image to hold meetings in top-css restaurants like this.” Leon stated off-handedly as he took another look around. “So, are you still waiting on someone?”

  Tara shook her head at his repeated question, gesturing to the opposite chair.

  “Go ahead, it’s just me.” With that, she resumed eating her soup while observing Leon as he sat down with his own pte.

  Although he didn’t feel uncomfortable with Tara, now that he actually came over, he was a bit perplexed about what to say. Something like this wasn’t included in his limited social experience.

  Tara, on the other hand, wasn’t anything like him and could read his obvious confusion off his face.

  “I was here with someone. He had to leave, though.”

  “Were you on a date?” Leon asked maybe a bit too quickly based on the keen look she gave him.

  “Kind of, not really.”

  “Oh.” He nodded. “I’m a little confused here.”

  Chuckling, Tara ran her fingers through her long auburn hair before crossing both her arms before her chest.

  “It’s someone I’ve known for years now. We used to go to the same schools and our families do business together. I don’t really know if feelings are involved.”

  “So, you’re in love?” Leon asked. Tara gave him a warning look in return.

  “I’m interested. He’s a great guy and above all—very handsome.”

  “Why don’t you take the initiative then?”

  “Why are you so interested in my romantic life?” Tara shot back, leaving Leon in awkward silence. Saying he was just incredibly nosy wouldn't paint a very nice picture of him.

  Seeing him keeping his mouth shut, Tara shook her head and dropped her spoon, pushing the soup away.

  “He thinks our families want to push us together and he doesn’t like to be micromanaged like that. I personally don’t see why I should ask him to do otherwise if he’s not a hundred percent comfortable.”

  “Aha.” Leon nodded, suddenly putting a lot more attention on his food. In this conversation that quickly turned personal, the medium-cooked steak appeared a lot more attractive than before.

  That’s when Tara decided to throw a curveball at him.

  “Enough about me. You said you had an internship meeting but now you’re sitting here with me eating from your full-pte. What’s that about?”

  Leon swallowed his st bite, his eyebrows crunching together in thought. “I got a request to work on something, and then he left.”

  “Not even staying for the entire meal, eh?” Tara stated as Leon nodded once in confirmation.

  “That would be too much to ask for a lowly intern, such as myself.”

  “Lowly intern, is it?” The auburn-haired girl mumbled under her breath but loud enough for Leon to hear. She was silent for a moment, seemingly contempting something when her eyes suddenly lit up with an idea.

  “Say Leon, where are you from?”

  “Hmm.” He was slightly taken aback by her question, trying to make a connection with what they were talking about before.

  “Where are you from? You suddenly appeared half a year ago with a schorship from Alpha Dynamics, the only one they’ve ever given, while your prodigal intellect has long made the rounds over the campus. Where have you been hiding all this time?”

  “...hiding.” Leon wasn’t sure if that was the right word to use. “I’ve been living in the outer territories for around two years under the foster system, hopping from family to family. Before that, I was living in the wastends with my parents until they died.”

  "Oh, really?" Tara answered, her eyes looking at him like she didn’t quite believe his story.

  “You look like you have questions.”

  “Maybe I do. You know, when Nicole heard about you and decided to give you her business card in an attempt to recruit you, she called up your file to find out more about you.”

  “Errmm, that sounds like an invasion of privacy to me.” Leon stopped her, a big frown on his face.

  “Sure, but high society doesn’t care about that. Money is always right, after all.”

  “A very fwed perspective.”

  “A very cruel truth.” Tara shot back, emphasizing each word. She was right, they both knew it. Still, Leon wasn’t feeling great about it.

  “Either way, she saw the file, got skeptical, and ran it through her family-controlled AxonLabs Corporation legal team who contacted some authorities, more specifically the United Human Territories Immigration Services who handle wastend immigrants such as yourself.”

  Hearing this, Leon suddenly thought of a possibility that hadn't crossed his mind before.

  “Nobody’s heard of you. There are no records of you ever entering or leaving the United Human Territories, something the Enforcers make sure is strictly recorded with any kind of interference being prohibited, even by the most influential mega-corporations.”

  A loophole he didn’t know how to patch up. His records gave him an official cover-story but there’s no physical evidence at all. After all, the only ones who actually know about his situation are some very important people in the Human Territories. Leon himself didn’t even know their names.

  “That file is falsified, either partially or completely. Which leaves us with the question, where are you from, Leon.” Tara finished her thoughts, leaving the rest for him to answer.

  She wasn’t urging him. She wasn’t trying to exert any kind of pressure.

  No. As Leon looked her in the eyes, he could see that she was genuinely curious and interested in his answer, if he wanted to give her an answer at all.

  That simplicity in her gaze, coupled with the fact that he wasn’t really under any non-disclosure agreement regarding his situation, compelled him to tell her the truth. Even if it’s only partially.

  “Well,...” He started, trying to find the right words. “It’s complicated.”

  “That’s alright.” Tara nodded, indicating for him to take his time.

  “The short expnation is that I was born much earlier in time than now. Decades earlier.”

  He knew his father’s name made it into the history books which is why he kept it slightly vague while adjusting some facts to spare himself further questions about things he himself had no clear idea about.

  “When I was fourteen, I went with my parents on a skiing vacation where I had an accident. I was fine but during the checkup scan, they discovered that I had te-stage terminal brain cancer, the type that had no medical solution at the time. After that, my parents had some serious fights afterward, probably because of my situation, and divorced. My mother left while I stayed with my father who helped me through chemotherapy for two miserable years until they decided they couldn’t help me anymore.”

  Leon remembered that time. It was when he thought this would be it.

  “That’s when my dad found an alternative option with a separate private company. It was a clinical trial to put me into cryogenic sleep for me to wait until medicine advanced enough to take care of the brain cancer. When I woke up two years ago, the cancer was fixed but I slept longer than I thought I would while everything around me was different.”

  Leon could see as he talked how Tara’s expression turned more into concern than surprise. It was weird considering the crazy nature of his story but also strangely heartwarming.

  “Without knowing what to do with me, I was released into the foster system and the rest is as you know.”

  After he finished his story, he looked over at Tara who gave him a pointed look.

  “Wow, so you’re a living fossil then.”

  “I guess.” Leon shrugged.

  “I was wondering why you always look so mispced everywhere.”

  “Come on, it’s not that bad.” He wanted to counter but Tara raised her arms and formed a symbolic X.

  “No, no, I’m totally right. Like a deer in headlights with no common sense.”

  “This is ridiculous.” Leon shook his head in resignation as Tara continued making fun of him. “You’re done with your soup so I’ll say we go home.”

  “Are you trying to get out of this situation, schorship boy? Wait, maybe fossil boy is a better term?”

  “Unbelievable, come on.” Leon let out a helpless sigh, walking around the table to help Tara get up. He was certainly annoyed but still polite enough to walk her back home. Especially with her wearing a dress like that. Although public security was commendable in the central district, he thought one could never be safe enough.

  “Oh, what a gentleman.” Tara excimed, standing up from her chair and hooking an arm through his as they walked out of The Providence.

  “Fossil or not, maybe you’ll fit into high society after all.”

  ……….

  “A secret without a weak link doesn’t exist.”

  ~~Dr. Benjamin Harper’s Memoirs~~