Mei was about to take another request when her mother told her to deliver some of the vegetables to a few of the neighbors who wanted to buy them. The little vegetable farm in the back of their house was starting to make some money for them. Especially because they asked for prices that were cheaper than the market. Mei didn’t complain, since she liked earning money and this was like a side job for her now, delivering vegetables to neighbors. Most of the time she got half of the earnings, sometimes all of it, and that was usually when her mother was feeling nice or didn’t feel like cooking so that Mei could eat outside.

Stepping out of the house Mei noticed how hot it was outside. Shit, she would need an umbrella or something. Plus she didn’t feel like taking her bike today since she was going to be working with someone else and it would be awkward if she was on her bike and that person was walking. She could always let them sit on the backseat, but what if that person was super heavy or something? Mei had thought this through already and her decision was that she would walk, with an umbrella. She took the bag of vegetables she was supposed to deliver and left the house, walking straight to the houses that were buying from them. She didn’t waste time making conversation and made it clear that she was in a hurry so that her customers didn’t try to talk to her too.

The vegetable delivering took no time since she was basically running around, not really caring if she was going to look like a homeless rat sweating and her hair in a mess after all of this. She headed straight to the meeting point which was a small cafe in town. She didn’t really drink much coffee, so she ordered a blueberry smoothie and sat a table for two. She wondered when her client would be here, or what they looked like. It was probably a guy since the name was ‘Dex’, but she wasn’t very familiar with english names so she didn’t make assumptions. She only hoped that person wasn’t troublesome or annoying. She didn’t like to have those kind of work partners. In the past she had worked with a lot of different people and the only time she had an annoying work partner was that time she had to do a delivery job to another town and it was the worst ever. She literally hoped something bad happened to that girl when their job was finished, and that was really mean of her but that’s what happened. She did feel bad for thinking that later. A while later, Dex Miller arrived. She knew because he was constantly looking for someone as he entered, checking a piece of paper. She waved at him, inviting him to sit at her table. Hopefully she wasn’t inviting the wrong guy to her table.

The person she assumed was Dex Miller turned out to be Dex Miller indeed. The moment he took a seat opposite to hers he introduced himself, uncertainty clear in his tone but Mei smiled. “Ah yes, Dex Miller. I was worried it wouldn’t be you. My name is Suyin Mei,” she said, taking sips from her blueberry smoothie as she watched him shift around in his seat until he was comfortable. He then began to talk, and from the second he started, Mei thought he wouldn’t stop but she didn’t mind. After all he was the one who was paying her. Maybe she should be nice to him. He talked about a ball, a big blue one, that he felt sad and angered when he was around it. Mei frowned a little. A blue ball that made him feel things when he got near? That was a strange story, but she had to believe it. He then said that it was the culprit of his newest case, to which Mei allowed a short laugh. “I see,” she said, slightly amused by his behavior and the way he talked. “Let’s go see this blue ball together then?” she suggested.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s what you’re here for. We’ll go when it’s nightfall. Which is in about an hour, so you can come straight to the river then.”

Mei nodded, taking a look at the clock on the wall. “Sure, I’ll meet you there,” she told him with a smile and stood up to leave. She was probably going to be roaming around Orchidia because she didn’t feel like going home and do nothing for an hour, and then leave again. So she grabbed her drink and said goodbye to Dex and left the cafe.

An hour later, she arrived at the river. This time Dex was there first, and he was already looking at something. “Hey Dex, I’m here!” she announced, quickening her pace so she was beside him. He pointed at something, which Mei had already noticed. The blue ball. It was not just a ball. It was glowing and beautiful. She had never seen something like that before. “That’s actually really pretty,” she said, approaching the ball. Dex did the same and they were both touching it in a matter of seconds. Something about the ball invited them to touch it, like a charm. The moment she touched it, she started to get a very strong vision. A girl who looked somewhat like her was talking to her parents, someone she had never seen before, but looked very much like her. She was talking and laughing with her parents in their kitchen around the dining table. It confused her, but the vision only lasted a while until they were both repelled from the ball. Mei was thrown backwards against a tree while Dex was thrown into a bush. When she got up and went to check on Dex, he was passed out. Mei groaned. Her back hurt from the collision with the tree. Looks like she would have to take him to the hospital. Thank god he wasn’t too heavy.

On the way she bumped into Dacol who was a pretty important figure in Orchidia who offered to help her. She didn’t refuse since she was injured as well. Once they got to the hospital, the nurses treated her small wounds while they waited for Dex to regain consciousness and once she did, she got her pay. She left as Dex told Dacol about what happened. She was pretty confused about the vision.