"Do you know what those flowers are ?" she asked, her voice dropping into a register of quiet reverence.
"...Lotus." I answered. I kept my voice low, matching her tone.
"Correct! One Point for The Great Theo Volk!" She said, cheering in an excited voice "Apparently, the previous head master really liked Lotus flowers. So, he purposefully muddied the pond to cultivate Lotus."
I will never get used to her humor.
"Is that so ?" I looked at the dark water. It seemed a strange hobby—to invite filth just to host a flower.
"Yes," she said, her gaze fixed on the blossoms at the pool. "Aren't they just beautiful ? Standing there, as if the mud doesn't even touch them?"
"They are," I admitted, my eyes drifting from the pond to the girl beside it "they have ....the same color as your hair."
"Hehe.. True," A small, genuine giggle escaped her. She looked up at me, her peach-pink eyes shimmering. "i didn't know you could give a compliment like that."
"I am simply stating the facts."
"I know," she said, standing up and closing the distance between us. "and that's why It's Something I love and it means even more to me. Facts from you are worth more than poetry from anyone else."
"I see... It's good, then."
"Do you know what lotus stands for ?" She asked as she turned to look at the flowers in the pond.
"I do not." I answered with a lie.
I do know. But, I still want to know it through her voice.
"Hmm... So, you don't huh..." She said with a knowing smile. "They represent virtue and purity. But, there's more to it than just that."
"And that is ?"
She took a step ahead "when they are young, they stay below the water surface, They stay trapped. And because of the dirt they also don't even get much sunlight Like the other Normal flowers. And yet, beating all those odds, she rises up above the darkness and blooms beautifully, Staying untouched by everything she has been through, everything she has left behind."
She turned towards me and said, "they represent the act of not giving up and rising above all odds."
"That's ...admirable" I said, genuinely impressed.
So, It really is like her. A girl who beat the Disadvantages of her frail body and the mocking of other students to reach where she is right now. I looked at the Flowers. This time, a close attentive look.
They really are the same.
"Isn't it ? And Do you know another name that Lotuses are known as ?"
"I do not" i answered truthfully this time.
"It's Rem."
"Rem..." I repeated the syllable. It felt soft on the tongue. "That's a beautiful name. Sounds like a girl's name."
"Isn't it ?" She responded with an excited voice "actually, if I am to ever have a daughter, I want to give her this name. But..."
"But what ?" I asked, sensing the sudden shade of concern in her voice.
"There is a superstition..." she whispered "..that a child's name can decide her future, her fate. I do want her to have the name of Lotus but.... Not their life. I don't want her to have to live in the mud just to bloom."
Sigh... She sure has a habit of being worried about the strangest trivial things. I don't know whether to laugh or be worried.
"Nothing will happen. It's just a superstition. A name is supposed to a gift, not a curse." I said trying to assure her.
"Hehe... You're talking as if you'll make sure of it yourself personally, that it does not happen." she laughed, though there was a hint of a challenge in it.
"If that can assure you, then Yes. I will. I will make sure of it by myself. I can promise you that." I said what I felt exactly at that time.
Natasha went suddenly, jarringly silent. She turned her face away, but I could see her ears turning a deep, vibrant crimson against her pink hair.
Her ears look a bit red... Is her illness coming back ? Or is she angry ?
Did I say something wrong ?
"Hey, Theo" she shook her head and called my name as she looked at the moon, not bothered by her few seconds of silence.
"Hmm ?"
"The Moon is beautiful, isn't it ?" She asked.
She asked me if the moon was beautiful. It was just a normal question like inquiring about the weather. But I, I was too busy looking at Something else at that very moment. My attention occupied by something else entirely. It was on Her beautiful curves.
The curves on her cheeks, Her smile. And also her vibrant eyes.
I looked at the reflection of the moon in her eyes, in her gaze and answered what my heart felt, not what my brain thought, "...yes, it has always been beautiful."
After a short silence she suddenly turned towards me, and me ?
At that very moment, Avoiding eye contact with her, I turned to look towards the moon. The moon of the night skies.
"Say," she said, "do you even know the meaning of what i just said ?"
"If you mean, the meaning that comes from novels or literature, then no. I do not." I answered truthfully.
"Huu... I see. This is why I told you read some novels! Useless! Hopeless! Dummy! Idiot! Dense!"
"What's the meaning ?" Ignoring her common insults, that i am too used to by now, I asked her about the poetic meaning with genuine curiosity.
But still, what's with that barrage of verbal attacks? Should i know the meaning? Is it really that important?
"Huu... Nothing," she said with an exhausted frustrated Sign, "find it yourself!" She hissed.
She turned back towards the garden exit with an annoyed expression, "let's go back to the dorms! It's way past the curfew! I don't want to be caught with a partner who is a stone-faced dense log!"
Saying that she left, leaving me behind.
I stood by the muddy pond for a moment longer, staring at the Lotus flowers, giving them one final look and then, i followed her.
It was much much Later that I came to know what those words truly meant.
What she actually wanted to say to me, that night.
And what my unintended answer actually meant. How I had told her the truth, without even being aware of it, myself.
***
Eventually, time went on, Days passed by and then came our graduation day.
On the Day of our graduation, While everyone students and teachers were in the hall or in the garden biding farewell to their friends, students and teaches, she and i were on the roof, all alone Just the two of us.
"So ? This is it huh... Three years gone. just like that 'Fwoosh!'"
Naty leaned against the iron railing of the Academy roof, her graduation robes billowing in the wind like the wings of a pink bird. She made a dramatic sweeping gesture with her hands, her eyes fixed on the horizon where the sun was beginning to dip behind the capital's spires.