The Black Swan Behind

209 Call in the Midnight

“Black Swan. Right. How about that?” Emma said it louder until her friends turned to look at her.

“Black Swan?” They repeated in unison.

Emma nodded, “Why did I call myself Black? That was because I thought black described me the most. I always move in the shadows. It’s a figure whose true form is unknown to anyone. Black represents darkness. If I don’t want to steal attention, I have to blend in with my surroundings. Therefore, I chose Black name to match the shadow in the dark underworld of Handway City.”

“We are ballet dancers who look graceful as swans. But, behind that, we are swans who move in the shadows to destroy injustice. We are strong women. We can do anything and destroy anyone. Even if we have to move in the dark, we will not lose our grace. Therefore, the name Black Swan in my opinion is the one that best describes who we are.” Emma continued.

“That’s an interesting explanation, Emma. You seem to be excellent at orator.” Kathy said while clapping her hands.

“I love the Black Swan name. It sounds cool and elegant. I’ve seen The Black Swan dance at various ballet theatres. And they were breathtaking. A swan that is full of power but still elegant.” Poppy added.

“I’ll make masks for the two of you after this.” Rachel said to Kathy and Poppy.

“Mask?” Kathy repeated.

Rachel nodded, “Since helmets make it difficult to move, we decided to wear masks.”

.....

“You two can come over to my house later. I’ll show you things.” Emma added. “And Kathy.. you can learn self-defence with me or Rachel, if you want. So can you, Poppy.” She looked at the two girls.

“Roger!” Kathy saluted.

“I’d love to,” Poppy smiled as she nodded.

***

After the Black Swan was formed, Emma’s sense of loneliness subsided until she seemed to not feel it anymore. She still couldn’t believe that she was now the leader of a group of four girls.

“It feels like a dream,” Emma muttered as she looked out her bedroom window at the shining moon.

Spring had come and Emma felt the flowers in her heart begin to bloom. It felt like she’d been through a lot these past few weeks.

Suddenly, Emma’s cell phone rang. She didn’t think it was Jonas because this wasn’t the day Jonas was supposed to call her. Slowly, Emma began to feel a strange thumping in her chest as she grabbed the phone from the nightstand. Ah.. she was right. It was Levi Wargos.

After clearing her throat, Emma picked up the phone and put it to her ear, “Hello?”

“Were you sleeping?” Levi asked directly, in a slightly hoarse voice that sounded deep.

“Not yet,” Emma answered. “Why did you call me?”

“Am I bothering you?” He asked.

Emma shook her head, “Not really,”

“I just wanted to call you.”

“O-okay. But if you want to ask me out, I can’t do that because maybe I’d get sleep in a few more minutes. It’s already midnight.” Emma said, glancing at the clock on her nightstand.

“Sounds like a trauma. Is it possible that you won’t go out with me anymore after what happened last time?” He chuckled.

Emma raised her voice, “Well.. It was indeed an unpleasant incident. However, I understand that it was all an accident. So, it didn’t seem like it had any significant effect on me.” She shrugged

“Oh.. Sood then. How are you? I didn’t have time to contact you right away because I have a lot of important work.”

“I accept your apology, Levi,” Emma said. She was familiar with how difficult this man was to say the words ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’. It seemed his tongue had a phobia of those two words. “I’m fine. You can hear it in my voice.”

“That’s clearly audible,” Levi chuckled.

“What about you? Your voice sounds even worse than when you nearly died that time.” Emma asked.

Out of nowhere, Levi sighed heavily, “There are some problems in my work. Maybe I will be so busy for weeks.. or months,”

“I wish you’ll get through it all, Levi. I believe you are a competent person. Then what about your health? Honestly, when I said you were close to death, it did look like that.” Emma said.

“Looks like you’re just exaggerating. I was fine and just needed a little rest.” He replied.

Emma let out a long sigh, “What a relief. I was madly panicked because you kept losing your mind,”

“Actually, I don’t really remember what happened. It all felt like a flash of shadow and light. Maybe it was because of the fever I had.” Levi said. Then he was silent for a few seconds and then continued, “But.. I didn’t say or do anything weird, did I?”

Emma was silent. Her heart, which had been fine for a while, began to beat wildly as she recalled what happened that time. But now Emma realized a new fact. Levi had no recollection of that moment. He indeed just hallucinated during a fever. Didn’t that mean that Emma didn’t have to take all of Levi’s words seriously? Why should she think about the words spoken by a delirious person? Didn’t that mean she was the stupid one?

“Hey!” Levi startled Emma from her thought. “I did something weird, didn’t I?” he asked suspiciously.

“You did,” Emma answered. “You kept mumbling incoherently and crying like a baby. That was ridiculous.”

“What? I really did that?” Levi asked quickly. Even the tone of his voice rose.

Instantly, Emma burst out laughing. She even had to make Levi wait for her laughter to stop so she could speak again, “Got you! How was it? Were you surprised? Your panicked voice heard funny! Haha!”

“I feel like I want to smack you down,” Levi muttered in a cold voice. But that only made Emma laugh even more.

“Hey.. You can give it a try. I’ll break your arm after that.” Emma said.

“Yes, dear. Just speak while you can. It’s your luck cuz I won’t make you regret your words.” Levi said sarcastically. Then he let out a small sigh to adjust the mood Emma had just ruined up, “It’s rare to hear you sound cheerful like this. It seems the wheel of life has been turned now.”

“Ah.. You have a point. I’d better not laugh too much.” Emma immediately controlled her unstable breath from laughing, “It happens that I feel a lot of surprisingly good things that made me smile a lot today.” she explained in a happy tone.

“Glad to finally hear you say that. What’s the good thing?” Levi asked.

“Wow.. wow.. Wait a minute. It’s unusual that you would immediately ask something like that. Why do I feel something strange here?” Emma gave a joking tone.

“That sounds strange because you never tell me anything nice. Don’t you think that we’ve only been telling each other problems all along?” Levi replied.

“Well..” Emma rubbed her chin, “I’m afraid that you’re right,”

“I appreciate your admiration. So, what is the good thing?” He asked again.

Emma smiled as she adjusted her seat on the bed with a pillow she placed on her lap, “I made a group with my friends and I’m the leader. At first, I thought something like that would not happen because I never wanted to be a leader in any case. But in the end, my best friends made me realize that everything would be fine. Because of that, I also found a piece of myself.” She explained with a flowery heart.

“I see. So your true self is a tart that’s lost its pieces? You pointed out a good parable. Then what kind of group did you mean?” Levi asked directly.

“Hey! I’ve never used cake as a parable, by the way. It was you, bastard!” Then Emma thought for a moment before answering Levi’s last question. “It’s a group in my ballet class. We’re going to make a group for an arts event on campus.” She lied.

“Oh.. Why didn’t you want to be a leader before?” Levi asked.

“I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to give the best for the people who depended on me. The burden of being a leader is massive. It’s because you have to be responsible for everyone. Even being responsible for myself is often difficult.” Emma shrugged. “Incidentally, I wanted everyone around me to be happy. I didn’t want anyone to feel wronged because I was the leader.” She continued while imagining herself being jailed in her father’s majestic house.

“Many people fight each other because they want to be a leader. But they don’t know that even the incumbent leader feels like stepping down but the circumstances force him to stay. Being a leader is not an easy job. But sometimes, to make sure everything goes smoothly well, you have to be willing to do it.” Levi said.

“You’re right, Levi. Since you said that, maybe I’d continue to worry if it weren’t me who take care of the group.” Emma muttered, more to herself.

Levi smiled, “That’s the nature of a leader: always worried about the group, feeling like you’re the only one who can make sure everything will be okay. You have them, Emma.”

“Ah.. I learned a lot of things today,” Emma leaned back, “Then what about you? Is your work problem that complicated?

“That’s a bit troublesome.” Levi replied, “I was faced with a problem that made us lose money. At that time, I had to choose whether to take any action or leave it all and consider it a business process.”

“If you are losing, of course you have to stop the loss, right?” Emma replied. She learned that in her business management class. And there was not a single lesson that said that we should be silent if our business was losing money. As much as possible, we must find a way not to lose again. A business’s main goal was to seek profit, not loss.