[ ★ ]—— It had been only a couple days, but the stress had been easily clinging onto her. Eli spent most of her time alone or randomly chatting with people who were willing to listen, unsure of whether she should befriend those she still puts effort to see as figments of her dream; a defense mechanism that somehow makes her comfortable. She can’t see Hive City as a ‘real world’ just yet.
Today, she is alone by choice. Coming to terms with her situation is easier when there’s no noise around that would raise uncomfortable feelings, and remind her of how she’s powerless and cannot escape. Eli finds comfort sitting under a tree in the green sector, the only one peaceful enough to let her rest for a few hours. The one place in District Alpha she’d been assigned to can’t even be called a home or even a roof as she feels nowhere near safe in there.
The most effective way to unload from stress, at least to Eli, is singing. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and begins voicing out the notes of a song she and her friends in Muse have composed back when she was in Otonozaki. By now she remembers every line and every word of all their songs, so finding herself singing them to calm down is not at all difficult.
She doesn’t care about how this could attract attention from random passerbys. It’d make her feel all the better if they appreciated her performance at least.
“ Tanoshikute, tanoshikute mainichi kisekidatta... Itsunomani akikaze ga fui teta no...”