Chapter 601: The Girl(Woman )He Should Have Remembered II

Chapter 600: The Girl (Woman) He Should Have Remembered I

She stretched her hand out to him.

Younger Orion looked at it for a moment before taking it.

Her grip was light, but steady as she helped him to his feet.

"Thank you," he said, brushing dirt from his clothes.

Sophia nodded, her fingers slipping from his as she stepped back slightly.

There was a faint color on her cheeks.

Orion noticed.

But something else caught his attention more.

His gaze lifted to her hair.

It wasn’t fully black.

Not like adult Orion was used to now.

There were streaks—faint, uneven strands of white that didn’t blend, like they were fighting to exist.

"...Why is your hair two colors?" he asked.

Sophia stilled.

Then she tilted her head slightly.

"That’s a secret," she said.

Orion frowned immediately.

"I don’t like secrets."

Sophia blinked at him and instead of replying, she asked,

"What are you doing here?"

His expression didn’t change.

"That’s a secret."

There was a pause.

Then Sophia shrugged lightly, as though that answered everything.

Orion stared at her.

"...That’s it?"

She nodded.

"That’s it."

He exhaled slowly.

"This isn’t how this works."

"It is for me," she said simply.

Her gaze didn’t leave his.

Then, after a moment, she spoke again.

"If you tell me why you’re here, I’ll tell you why my hair looks like this."

Orion narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I don’t trust you."

Sophia shrugged again.

"That’s fine," she said calmly.

Orion hesitated.

Then he said, "I’m only telling you because you’re cute."

Sophia froze in shock.

Adult Orion was shocked by how smooth his younger self was.

Her cheeks turned a deeper shade of red, and she looked away for a brief second before looking back at him.

"...Oh."

Orion didn’t react to her reaction.

"My pack is sick," he said. "There’s a plague going around, killing people."

"I came with my friends," he continued. "We’re gathering plants to use as herbs. Different ones. We’re trying to figure out what works."

Sophia watched him quietly.

Her expression didn’t change much—but something in her eyes softened.

"I know about the plague," she said softly.

Orion frowned slightly.

"You do?"

She didn’t respond. Instead, she said, "I’ll help you."

He blinked in shock.

"...Help me?"

She nodded.

"I know which one will work," she said. "But I’ll only tell you if you be my friend for the day."

Orion stared at her for a moment.

"That wasn’t what we agreed on, though."

Sophia’s lips curved faintly. "Do you want to know what plant will work?" she asked him.

Orion gave her a bland look, then tilted his head. "You said you’d tell me about your hair if I told you what I was doing here."

She nodded. "But I’ll only tell you if you spend time with me," she said.

"This doesn’t sound like a good deal," Orion told her.

"It’s a very good deal," she said. "You get to save your pack and get to know why my hair is two colors too."

He hesitated for a while, then he exhaled.

"...Fine."

Sophia smiled.

"My mother is trying to make my hair look like hers," she said. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Orion’s brows furrowed.

"What?"

"She doesn’t like this color," Sophia continued, reaching up to touch a strand of her hair. "So she changes it."

"...Which one is yours?" he asked.

"The white," she said without hesitation.

Orion looked at her properly then.

At the strands that stood out.

At the way they didn’t quite blend.

"...It’s pretty," he said.

Sophia blinked in shock, then her gaze dropped to her hands.

"It’s not as pretty as hers, though," she murmured.

Orion frowned.

"Did your mother tell you that?"

Sophia looked up at him again.

"What do you mean?"

"It sounds to me like you like your hair color, but you are also speaking about your mother’s hair being black like you are supposed to like it being black," he told her.

He pointed at his own hair.

"My father says this is ugly," he added, "but I know it’s fine."

Sophia stared at him.

"Everyone is different," Orion continued. "We don’t have to look like other people. That’s the beauty in being us. Each person is unique."

There was a brief silence.

Then Sophia asked him with a small smile, "Did your mother tell you that?"

Orion shrugged.

"Maybe," he said. "My mother is always right, so..."

Sophia laughed.

The sound was light—but she quickly brought a hand to her mouth, like she was trying to stop it from escaping.

Orion watched her, a smile on his face.

Her laugh was nice. It wasn’t as annoying as Raina’s laugh.

But then his gaze shifted to her clothes and how they hung loosely on her small frame, slipping slightly from her shoulders.

"Do you not eat well?" he asked her. "You are all skin and bones, and my mother says that’s not healthy."

Sophia stilled.

For a second, something flickered across her eyes. Then it was gone.

"I only have a mother."

"What happened to your father?" he asked her.

She shook her head quietly.

Orion sighed. "Well... one of my best friends only has a father. My mum said his mother died giving birth to him, so maybe that’s the same situation with you. But anyways, my friend turned out good. He’s just a bit grumpy, and he watches over the rest of us, but he’s not that bad. I mean, his father can be annoying sometimes, but he’s okay, I guess."

Sophia smiled at him.

"You have many friends?" she asked softly.

Orion nodded.

"Don’t you?"

She shook her head.

"My mother says it’s not advisable for me to have too many friends, especially given who she is. And also, when I get friends, I tend to be disobedient. My mother doesn’t like it."

"No parent likes when we are disobedient. Though my father is more disobedient than me, my mum says I’m a good boy most times," Orion told her. "But anyways, friends don’t make us disobedient..."

He paused, then tilted his head.

"Okay... my friends make me disobedient sometimes, especially my best friends," he told her.

"How many best friends do you have?" she asked.