Rafael, who thought Fredric was someone who always grinned and smiled too much, was really shocked to see the boy crying. He'd never imagine it.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Rafael asked, his tone attempting lightness but falling flat. "Did anyone tell you something? That must not be the case; you are quite famous. Did that Lyric beat you in the medical room?" The attempt to alleviate the mood failed, the words hanging lamely in the air between them.
Fredric shook his head, wiping his tear-streaked face with the rough fabric of his sleeve. A painful crack resonated in his voice when he spoke. "It's not that… I just—" He stopped, biting his lip with a force that drew a thin, gleaming line of red. A deep, private sorrow was wrestling its way to the surface. "It's just… I wanted to tell you about my sister."
"Huh? What about your sister?" Rafael's confusion was plain, his mind scrambling for a connection.
"Rafael, you must feel that I'm always clinging to you; you're the weakest, so why would I even talk to you, right?" Fredric paused, taking a shaky breath to steady the tremor in his soul. "The reason is my sister. You remind me a lot of her."
Rafael blinked, taken aback. He wasn't sure where this was heading, a flicker of defensiveness rising in his chest. "Hey! Hold on," he said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I'm no long-lost sister of yours. I'm a guy—though, uh... I don't really have proof ready if you need it."
A wet, half-laugh escaped Fredric, a brief, bright sound amidst the gloom. "You idiot." He felt a small, unexpected warmth at Rafael's clumsy attempt to distract him.
Rafael grinned faintly, a wave of relief washing over him. "Hey, at least it worked. Got you to stop crying, didn't it?"
Fredric shook his head, the ghost of a real smile touching his lips. "You're impossible. So, you can also make jokes, huh?"
"Yes, I can. But tell me what happened?" Rafael's curiosity was now genuine, the earlier defensiveness replaced by a growing concern.
"Ah... that, I will take some time to explain, but I want to tell you. So I will tell you in short." Fredric felt a heavy resolve settle over him. This was a story he carried like a stone, and for the first time, he felt the need to set it down, to share its weight.
"So, my sister's name was Felicia. She cared about me very much. I still remember the days we used to play hide-and-seek."
As he started talking, the tears began to flow again, but this time Fredric made no move to stop them. He was tired of fighting them.
"She always found me," he repeated, his voice thick with a love that had outlasted death. "No matter where I hid. It was like she had a... a sense for me. She was also an Evolved just like us. But more like you, do you know why?"
Rafael shook his head, completely drawn into the story, his own heart beginning to ache with a dreading sympathy.
"Because she was weak," Fredric said, the words heavy and simple with a painful truth. "On the official scales, her powers were Grey-ranked. Just like you. Everyone looked down on her. They called her a dud. A failed Evolved."
He looked at Rafael, his eyes begging for an understanding that he had never asked from anyone else. "But she wasn't. She was just... different. Her power wasn't for fighting. It was for finding things."
Rafael listened quietly. The tremor in Fredric's voice carried something raw—something too real to interrupt. He could feel the depth of this old, festering wound.
"Finding things?" Rafael finally asked, frowning slightly.
Fredric nodded, a flicker of pride for her cutting through his grief. "Yeah. People, objects, energy traces... anything. She could sense what others couldn't. It was not a powerful ability, but a valuable one." He paused, his fingers curling into a tight fist on his knee as the memory turned dark. "Then one day… she wasn't fine."
Rafael's eyes narrowed slightly, a cold knot forming in his stomach. "What happened?"
Fredric exhaled shakily, his voice barely above a whisper, the horror of that day vivid in his mind. "A group of Evolved from the Nova Council... they used her. Forced her to track something for them, an artifact they wanted from the ruins. She even helped them out."
He swallowed hard, his shoulders trembling with the effort of containing his rage and sorrow. "When I found her… she was dead, lying on the road. Her eyes were open, and she was tightly clutching a note in her hand."
"What? Note?"
"Yes, a note. But a small one. It was written - Find Truth. Nova Council"
The words hit Rafael like a slow punch to the gut. The name 'Nova Council' carried a weight that was both immense and ominous, transforming a personal tragedy into something far more sinister.
Fredric wiped his face, but the tears were a relentless tide now. "The academy covered it up. Said it was a 'training accident.' My parents didn't even fight it. They were too scared. That's when I decided… I'd find out the truth and never let anyone like her be treated like that again."
He looked at Rafael then, eyes burning red from crying, his gaze intense and pleading. "And when I saw you—weak, quiet, everyone mocking you. I couldn't ignore it. You looked just like her. Not your face… but your eyes. That same look of someone trying to stay alive in a world that doesn't care."
Rafael didn't move for a long moment. The silence between them grew heavier, filled with the hum of the infirmary lights and the echo of Fredric's devastating story. He felt the profound loneliness and protective fury that had shaped the boy before him.
"…She was lucky to have you," he said finally, his voice low and sincere.
Fredric gave a shaky smile, the words offering a small, crucial measure of comfort. "No. I was lucky to have her."
"Okay," Fredric said, his voice all rough with spent emotion. "So. Yeah. That happened. You probably think I'm a total loser now." He braced himself for the pity or dismissal he expected.
Rafael just looked at him. The guy who was always grinning like an idiot was sitting there all deflated. It was weird to see. Rafael didn't think he was a loser. He thought he was just… tired. A deep, soul-level exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix.
"Nah," Rafael said. He didn't really know what else to say, but he meant it.
"The smiling thing," Fredric started, looking at the floor as if confessing a shameful secret. "It was for her, at first. My sister. She liked it. Said it was… I dunno, sunny or whatever. After she was gone, I just… kept doing it. It's easier. If you're always smiling, nobody bugs you. Nobody asks what's wrong." He felt the fragile logic of his own defense, how thin the mask truly was.
"Because if they don't ask, you don't have to tell them," Rafael finished for him. The understanding settled in him, a sad and simple truth. It made sense. A stupid, heartbreaking kind of sense.
Fredric looked up, and a little bit of the real, unforced smile came back, touched with gratitude. "Yeah. Exactly. You're not as dumb as you look, man."
"Thanks."
"So," Rafael said, breaking the quiet that had settled comfortably between them. "This second chance thing. With me."
Fredric winced a little, a pang of guilt striking him. "I know. It's not fair. Putting my dead sister's baggage on you. It's kinda messed up."
"It is," Rafael said, plain and simple. He saw Fredric kinda shrink, bracing for rejection. "But," he added, his tone firming, "I'm not being your friend because I need a guard dog. I'm doing it 'cause you finally shut up and told me the truth." He paused, letting his own conviction solidify. "And 'cause I get what it's like when people just see a number next to your name and nothing else."
Fredric's face did this thing, like a light bulb switching on behind his eyes, hope flooding the spaces that had been filled with grief and isolation for so long. "So… friends? For real this time?"
"Friends," Rafael said. The word felt okay. Right. "But if you call me 'Felicia' even once, I'll punch you. Guy or not."
Later, as Rafael followed Fredric back to the Academy, he saw Fredric's smile get tight for a second as they passed a group of sneering students. But then it just… relaxed into something more natural. Fredric didn't say anything. Just glanced back at Rafael and rolled his eyes like, Can you believe this guy?
And right then, Rafael felt it—that quiet, solid feeling in his chest, a bond forged in shared understanding and vulnerability.
You protect me from the past you can't forget, Rafael thought, his eyes on his friend's back, a new sense of purpose crystallizing within him. And I'll protect the smile you're learning to mean, even if I have to become that strong.