C13 Chapter 13: Nothing But A Memory

*Six years later*

In a small office hall, corporately dressed workers could be seen either moving about it sitting, or attending to their business.

The hall had a bunch of desks with computers on each of them and each computer was seemingly assigned to one worker in the hall.

"Mr. Divera, I've sent you the invoice..." someone called out to a tall, brown-haired average-looking young man who had thick eyebrows and an arrow-shaped nose. He was the now twenty-three-year-old Al'ravee. At the sides of his head were sprouting beards and as of now, he looked more mature.

'Divera' is his last name so most, if not everyone, besides his parents, knew him as Ravee Divera.

"Oh, thank you, Eilis.." Al'ravee said in his now deeper voice. He turned to his computer to continue his work. He sat on that chair of his for hours, just like the rest of them, with no time to rest for now.

He had to work now so that he could pay for stuff he didn't have to pay for when he was still with his parents. He wanted a house of his own, but for now, he could only settle for a rented apartment. He had to pay for the food that he ate every day. He had to pay for transportation. He had to pay for the power supply. He had to buy his clothes and many other everyday little living expenses

After some time passed, Al'ravee and some other workers slowly let go of their respective keyboards. It was break time for some of the workers and Al'ravee was one of them.

He laid his back against the wheeled chair as he thought to himself, he had only around one hour to relax. He simply went to grab a cup of tea and some biscuits. As he took the beverage, he engaged in conversations with his colleagues.

Break time eventually passed so Al'ravee and the others had to get back to work.

Time passed with everyone doing nothing but typing away on their computers. Night time came and everyone shut down their computers and walked to the reception in another area of the building they were in.

Al'ravee walked out of a very tall building with a one-handed bag by his side and boarded public transport to his home. While in the vehicle, he could not help but reminisce about the past times.

Six years ago, after he got admitted into the university, his communication with Murry grew less because he suddenly got busy with schoolwork. He then had an IT issue with his mobile device which caused him to lose some contacts, including Murry's. Right now, Selou was the only one from back then that he was still communicating with occasionally.

In the university, he made new friends. One of them was his roommate, Batly Alyway. Batly was the first friend that Al'ravee made in the university and also a very unique one. Al'ravee would never forget him because he was the reason that a week's supply of food would be gone in just three days. Batly was the correct definition of a food monger. The guy practically stole Al'ravee's food and justified it when he got caught. One of the things he said those times were - 'What?... do you want me to starve to death." he had a chubby body that was perfectly attuned with his feeding routine.

Another of his close friends during his time in university was a guy named Dallas Redlet. He was the exact personification of a young rich master. According to Dallas himself, his family owned a conglomerate.

Anyone would wonder why such a person was attending a not-so-popular university but as a member of the Redlet family, there were people in high places who wanted him dead. Luckily for him, he had a few good friends and Al'ravee was one of them.

At the end of the day, Dallas never really did a good job at keeping a low-key profile, more like he making an effort to get noticed. The good thing was that his family already anticipated this kind of behavior and sent enough forms of protection. At that time, anyone around Dallas was in a way, indirectly also being protected.

Life at the university was strange at first for him. There was a certain way he felt whenever he did something that would usually warrant a word or two from his parents, but looking around, there was no one to tell him what to do. He got used to it though.

He even got a girlfriend, her name was Ukaria. She was a really nice lady and a funny one at that. Al'ravee really liked her but he knew that both sides would never take that relationship seriously.

Al'ravee was at first attracted to her because of her beauty, he already found being scared to talk to the opposite gender immature so it wasn't a hassle to ask her out. She herself only found Al'ravee to be quite interesting. The relationship became official the third week after Al'ravee met her. Times were nice and dandy at the beginning but they came to understand that their characters and personality didn't quite fit.

Ukaria had an optimistic nature which was a good thing in itself but she was also a bit too careless because of it. There was carelessness that just was inevitable because of stress, excitement, or other distracting things, those were understandable. Ukaria.. she just didn't care, whether someone liked her or hated her, she didn't care if someone could potentially get in trouble because of her actions, she didn't care how Al'ravee felt about some certain unspoken things. The only thing she truly cared about was her social media channel where the comments of her followers determined if she was going to have a bad day or a good day, that day.

It is known that people who like the same type of activities such as; type of music listened to, type of books to read, types of hobbies, or types of sports, tend to be attracted to each other. In that case, Al'ravee and Ukaria barely had any similar likes...or dislikes.

Al'ravee had a habit of trying to look at a situation from other perspectives. He was very calm-minded and usually planned ahead which was a counter to ukaria's happy-go-lucky attitude. Al'ravee liked some sports but he didn't have a particular favorite, instead he preferred playing open-world multiplayer video games or reading comics, Ukaria didn't like sports or any of the things mentioned above and Al'ravee didn't care about that either cause he never expected her to.

What Al'ravee couldn't keep up with was that a lot of her critical decisions were based on the comments of her followers. Most of the time, her social media reputation got in the way of them having a normal couple relationship.

Of course, there were other minute reasons why they separated. In short, they were just not compatible. They eventually ended it three years later.

Krene and Jurdelious kept an eye on him and called once in a while. Al'ravee wouldn't admit it but he felt hurt when he noticed that his parents barely showed signs that they missed him. He missed them, the only time he saw them then was when he went back home for the holidays. The very moment he left for the university was the last time he could consider that house his own.

As for his actual academic work, he was fairly good. He usually only studied when tests or exams were approaching and most times he passed them. Overall, he graduated with a good mark.

His life at the university was great and exciting, but it faded away and became nothing but a memory.

After becoming a graduate and getting their certificates, Dallas willingly sought to assist all his friends, whether they were genuine ones or just leaches. After all, as long as Dallas graduated from University, he would automatically get a high position in one of the companies owned by the Redlet conglomerate. Although his status in the family wasn't high enough to become the heir, it was enough to hand out job opportunities.

That was how Al'ravee got this job. Just like every other colleague of his, he wasn't satisfied with his position. Dallas did what he could do, plus he wasn't even in the same company as Dallas. Al'ravee knew that sometimes, there were situations that caused large companies to let off some workers. Al'ravee wanted a position where he would become an unremovable asset of the company, if possible, own his own. He had to work hard to achieve that anyway so for now, he just had to take things step by step.

...

Al'ravee got off the public transport to stand in front of a seven-storied building, this was where he lived. His one-bedroom apartment was on the fourth floor. Going through the building's elevator, he arrived at his home. One bedroom, living room, a small kitchen, and its own bathroom. It was more than enough for him who was still a bachelor, some people can't even afford this.

After eating dinner, Al'ravee lay on his bed to read o-novels on his mobile device before falling asleep. Nowadays, this was his everyday routine. Wake up, have breakfast, go to work, come back in the evening, have dinner, read until he falls asleep, repeat.

Hopefully, things would change.