Chapter 26: Idol group

Asher tries to approach the player, but it turns out she's already logged out from the game.

"Hey, Ash!" Chronos rushed up from behind Asher. "Hey, what are you doing?" His voice sounded wheezy.

"I'm just curious about that female player, what exactly is going on with her?" Asher stroked his chin.

Chronos shakes his head hearing Asher's words. "Ash, something like that often happens in the game world, especially in online games."

Asher just simply nods at those words, because he knows Chronos is a lot more experienced in these matters and he's already used to it all. However, Asher believes it is a cruel thing to bully people for unreasonable reasons.

"Well, usually it happens because he feels so much power and experience that he/she can bully the weakest or newbie in the team." Chronos rolled his eyeballs. "Well, it's just like in the real world, isn't it?"

"Yeah, you right Chronos." Asher nodded hearing the words.

A few minutes later, the two of them decide to leave the game and take a rest.

***

The sound of the television playing loudly enough from the living room awakens Ethan from his dreamscape.

"Argh! Who turns on the television so loud?" Ethan grumbled as he covered his ears with a pillow, but the voice was still clearly audible in his ears. "Ah, damn it!"

He immediately gets up from his bed and walks to the living room and notices one long-haired woman sitting on a dark brown sofa in the living room.

"Aunt Luna?" Asher rubbed his eyes over and over again to confirm that it was her. "Auntie, is that you?"

"Ethan, oh are you awake?" Aunt Luna slowly turned to Ethan and showed the same face as his mother. "Hey, it's a weekend today, no work for me remember?" She took a cup of coffee on the table and started to drink. "Do you want some?"

"Nope, thanks." Ethan patted his head quickly. "Gosh, yeah I forget about that."

Not long after the anchor speaks about the "Sleeping Beauty disease" which she says is most probably created by a certain group and the identity or purpose of this group is unclear.

"I just can't think about the group that will spread this disease." Aunt Luna shook her head quickly while dripping her coffee. "Hey, Eth, you should listen to the news more instead of playing games all the time."

"Yes, Aunty." Bradley nodded faster. "Aunt Luna, is there any news from Mom?"

Aunt Luna is silent for a moment and she starts to tell Ethan that she's been trying to find information about Lara's whereabouts, yet there hasn't been any more news about her twins.

"Ethan, just be patient, I'm sure Lara will tell you sooner or later."

Ethan is tired of hearing Aunt Luna's continuous promises to him about his mom's whereabouts, and suddenly which drives him mad.

"Mom doesn't care about me at all!" Ethan wrinkled his brow and raises the intonation of his voice. "She's just like my father who left me when I was a kid!"

"Ethan ...." Aunt Luna stands up from her sofa and walked over to Ethan. "Hey, your mom can't have forgotten you."

Aunt Luna seeing Ethan's eyes glazing over immediately hugs Ethan and attempts to calm him down. She knows that even though Ethan has the same quiet manner as Lara's husband, deep in his heart, he has the same gentle nature as her twin sister.

"I... I just don't want to lose someone close to me, Aunt Luna." Ethan's tears slowly streamed down his face. "I don't want it to happen anymore."

"Ethan, calm down." Aunt Luna pats Ethan's shoulder. "You don't have to be a whiny person, remember you are Lara's son, so don't give it a second thought, she will never leave you alone."

"Yes, Auntie." Ethan wiped the tears remaining on his cheeks. "Thanks for everything."

"Well, since you don't have any online classes, how about you come with me to do some groceries, Ethan." Aunt Luna picked up her bag on the round table near her and walks back to the sofa. "I'll wait for you here, clean up quickly."

"Okay."

Ethan smiles and starts to prepare himself then they get out. While in the car, Ethan constantly looks out the window and sees a few people carrying groceries with masks on their mouths.

"It feels like a dead city like in a horror movie." Ethan took a breath and laid his head against the side of the chair

Not long after, their car stops at a shopping center which turns out to be a crowd, making it difficult for them to find a parking space. But after searching for a few minutes, Aunt Luna manages to find a parking space for her yellow car.

"Eth, we need to buy the basic groceries and get out of here as soon as possible." Aunt Luna opened her car door and took out her bag. "Come on, we must move faster."

" All right, Auntie."

The two of them finally enter the shopping center and look around seeing quite a lot of people inside.

"Oh my." Aunt Luna dilated both her eyeballs seeing the long queue starting to form like a snake.

Aunt Luna quickly runs and grabs a shopping cart while Ethan starts searching and putting in each ingredient, so it doesn't take long until all the ingredients have been collected.

"Alright, now we have to wait in line." Aunt Luna ran quickly. "Ethan, hurry up."

Ethan quickly pushes the shopping cart to the cashier and they start to join the queue.

"Eth, I'm going to the restroom first." Aunt Luna hands Ethan her yellow wallet and runs faster to the restroom.

While waiting in a very long queue, Ethan's attention is suddenly fixed on a magazine that reads. "The emergence of a new idol group for teenagers: Siren School".

"Hmm, interesting."

The curiosity in him began to stir until his hand immediately picks up the magazine with the cover of three beautiful women in school uniforms playing musical instruments.

"I just find out about this group." Ethan flipped through the magazine in his hand until he doesn't realize that the queue in front of him has decreased.

"Ethan, what are you doing?" A familiar female voice sounded behind him which made him immediately turn his body around. "Aunt Luna, since when?"

"Come on, hurry up, the queue behind us is still long."

Ethan follows the line in front of him and puts back the magazine into the shelf. Aunt Luna becomes curious about her nephew's behavior, so she decides to ask Ethan herself.

"Hmm, you must be interested in those women, right?" Aunt Luna raised her eyebrows in a teasing tone. "That's natural, they're all very pretty."

Ethan scratches his head repeatedly, "Aunt Luna, you're embarrassing me." Ethan's face slowly turns red. "I'm just curious, what kind of songs are popular now?"

Aunt Luna just laughs at her nephew's funny behavior. "Ethan...Ethan .... you are such naive."