"Raagh! Joyling!" Someone tapped from the window.
"Huh?" Pearl looked behind.
The creature standing on her window with shards of glass puncturing its skin is a more deadly beast than a human. They are not a good kind, nor are they ever made to smile. Despite corrupting and full of wrath, they are not a flaw in the flesh and blood. Rather, it was how they were made in the factory.
For one instance, the Frowling before Pearl is not a lost one. It was hungry, and a hungry Frowling is a worse Frowling than a docile one. It sees the flesh worth savouring, and it won't stop until it licks clean till Pearl is down to the bone.
"Wants meat! Wants meat! Fresh Joyling meat!!" The creature jumps towards Pearl, only to be dodged with her swirl to the side.
"H-help! Aah! Not here!" She panicked.
Some humans often confused a Frowling as a corrupted version of Joyling, as if somehow a Joyling could turn into one. But that was how Joyling ended up bruised and battered in the Institute. They failed to realize that a Frowling is an inherent creation with its own frown, meant to be Joyling's eternal adversary in the past. They are a monster in design.
You can tell the difference in Frowling by the leaking blueish-black and white blood on their skin—a colour similar to old TV static. Unlike Joyling, whose blood is all rainbow and beautiful to see, Frowling makes themselves gloomy and mysterious with the colour of depression known as Frowus.
The Frowling sliced Pearl's arm. Ripping her glove and cutting through her skin.
"Aagh! Ouch! Oww....ugh!" She holds her Joyus-stained blood.
"Joyling die! Joyling feast! I feed on Joyling!"
"EEK! HELP!!" She yelled loudly.
It is a long fight for Pearl against the Frowling, with the saddened, clay face trying to pin her onto the ground with its blobby-like palms. Her grips fend well with the enemies, for that fame was not a facade to the Joylings. But it won't take long for the humans to handle the job with a better experience.
The humans are prepared for the invasion of Frowling more than a Joyling could. Just as it seems the Frowling had the high ground on Pearl, it didn't take long for a shock collar to subdue the clay monster to the ground. Its hunger is defeated, and its prey is gone with a bruise.
"There you are, you little—" The man stares at the wounded Pearl.
"I mean, you bad Frowling! Don't you ever think of feeding on any of us!"
"Aargh! Eergh! Get off of me! I can't...I can't leave that Joyling—"
The rest is a shock.
As the monster weakened and slumbered in a cage, the room became safer for her to lay low. But the wound on her arm was enough to leave the humans concerned for the Institute's safety. The Frowling did have a few of her drops in its claw before it fell asleep and way into a bigger cage.
Pearl sat on her bed—her left arm was wounded and leaking with Joyus while she looked for the bandage to recover. The humans worked quickly to prevent more loss, but the damage was done, and Pearl was hardly fond of their talks. Yet she was a strong girl who could've outgrown such pain.
"Pearl!" Carolina yelled. She finds her in her room with a scientist.
"Alright, gotta go, kid. Your caretaker's here. Have fun!" The man left.
"Ms. Carolina!" She yelled in relief.
The humans left her dorm immediately, and Pearl felt more comfortable with her human caretaker. Mrs Carolina rushes with a frightful face, possibly leaving her second or third coffee at the table when she hears the news from the girls' dorm.
But to her relief, Pearl was still in one piece. Her suitcase is halfway packed, and her bedroom would've been clean and tidy if not for the Frowling's intervention.
"My...that wasn't supposed to happen on your journey, isn't it?" She jokes.
"That's the third time we have to replace that glass. Do the Frowlings never learns to rest?" Carolina helped Pearl with her belongings.
"Ms Carolina, I think I'm not ready to leave this place yet," She mumbled sadly.
The smile on Carolina's face wept in confusion. Pearl's words seemingly becoming dismissive on the verge of her departure. Carolina thought to herself that Pearl might have been troubled again.
"W-what do you mean? Don't you want to meet your family?"
"No, it's just. Had so many things in my head, and so many words I can't say."
"Some of Joylings here are my friends. I just can't leave without telling them..."
"It's been six years since I remember my first time created in that studio. It was weird, but somehow I get along with them throughout all those years."
"But now? To think I'm about to leave the world that was once mine? Would the world outside really had a friend like them?"
Just as Carolina thought it would be another therapy session with Pearl, her face was relieved when she heard such a request from her. Of course, she wouldn't have Pearl fading from the Institute like a ghost in the eyes of the Joylings.
Pearl seems nervous about leaving the Institute, especially in the dress she still wears. The vicious Frowling left a scratch on her glove, too. So now she has to walk off embarrassingly with a mark of a bogey down the stairs to the lobby.
"Ms Carolina..." She shows the wound. The bandage lasted too short.
"It's terrible. But don't worry, the infirmary could heal you..."
Her hands wrapped around her shoulders as she passed through the corridor. Her eyes keep looking on the other side, but all she sees is a judging gaze. There are too many Joylings around the hallway, and Pearl couldn't risk having that wound open.
It seemed they knew what had happened in the dorm—their eyes fixed on Pearl, wondering if she had hurt herself. Pearl stayed silent, averting their gaze as if she had already given her words to the Joylings. Yet her right hand remained clenched over the bruise, tightening just enough to raise their suspicion.
"Pearl! Pearl! Are you alright?" A Joyling rushes to her.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine..." She replies.
"Are you sure? You look..."
"I'm fine, Doorwell. The Frowling couldn't even get to me right...not even a wound on me..."
"Yeah." Carolina looks away.
The Joyling thought to herself—can someone so pristine like her be hurt by a mere Frowling? Pearl was a tough Joyling, yet doubting her strength seems to be a question that happens around the hall. Her pride—it's not as strong as her resilience.
"Well, if you say so—I have something for you!"
The kind Joyling offers Pearl a wreath hat in honour of her bravery—a vibrant circle of yellow, white, and pink flowers wrapped in a spider web and a few leaves. But she cannot wear the wreath while a crown rests on her head, a crown that carries far more meaning than the wreath ever could.
"Thank you. But I would like to keep my crown standing one last time." She replies.
"O-one last time? W-what do you mean?"
That's how Doorwell became the first Joyling in this Institute to learn about Pearl's departure. The sweet, kind Doorwell never thought this would be the day for a Joyling like her to offer that wreath one last time. But Pearl stands there, enlightening her fellow Joyling that it must be done.
"I...I can't believe it. You were really going to leave? All of us?" Doorwell grasps her arms nervously.
"I'm afraid I have learned enough to ascend into the world now. I have everything here done, and I'll be the first one to walk into the sun and taste the light of the moon as I was once promised on the stage..." She replies.
Doorwell weeps, afraid of such words from her mouth. She couldn't do much but cry as she knew how inevitable it was. But Pearl reassures her that there is nothing to weep upon. The world is not cruel, and the Joylings are never separated from each other.
"But fear not. I will not be the one leaving you in the dark. And I've done this for all of you..." Pearl continues.
"I planned to share this to all the Joylings immediately, but I fear the time wasn't enough..."
"T-then let me share it with others! I'll let everyone know!" Doorwell pleads.
"Is it possible for me to buy some time with my friends? I promise it won't be long." Pearl stares into Carolina's eyes, begging for her too.
"Alright, but you and I need to go to the infirmary to check for that wound—I mean, to sanitize yourself from the Frowling's exposure." Carolina replies.
With the words shared, Doorwell immediately steps out of Pearl's way to share the news with others. She vanishes as swiftly as a wind in her sight, leaving in a hurry as she had to let others be informed of Pearl's leave. But her wreath still lingers in Pearl's head—a parting gift, a memory she would carry from this place.
But a few things sit unrest in Pearl's head, knowing that a few Joylings would take her words the same as Doorwell did—hurtful but understanding. Who knows how long it would take for someone else to step off this place like her so they could feel the pressure of embracing the sun?
[Hospital]
Now, she sat in the infirmary, tending her wound with saline and cold water from Carolina's reach. The stingy wisp following the cold air on the scar made it difficult not to scratch it. Her palm clenches tight as she endures each second of the saline's work until the pain shrinks.
"Thanks, Ms Carolina. I think I can go from here..." Pearl holds steady on the bed.
"Oh, dear. You don't have to—oh, right...I understand what you mean..." Carolina reaches for a cotton wiper to clean the saline off.
"I feel...even better..."
"You're okay, Pearl? You look...disturbed..." Carolina sat beside her.
"No, it's okay. I just think about—this..."
These wounds are nothing compared to what she had in the studio long ago. They don't give Joyling a scratch on the arm and let them go crying back then. A wound like this only lasts a second, but Pearl still remembers when she had her guts instead.
"May I ask why you wear that skirt? I thought you were—afraid of it." Carolina pours a cup of water. Pearl takes it with kindness.
"I insist myself to wear this skirt one last time just so that I know the old ballerina." She looks at her glove.
"I want to wear it just to know that it will end here when I leave."
There were times when Joylings, without human companionship, turned fierce and cruel—stripped of purpose and identity, reduced to mere shells for a performance. That memory lingers in Pearl's palm, surfacing each time she turns it over—aching only when she clenches her fist.
"The pain, the sweat, and the darkness it has been soaked since it was made for me. Maybe it was too much sweat..." Her fingers twitched.
"Can't believe it's over. Now this skirt is nothing but a garment in me." She smiled before she went serious again.
But times changed—and Pearl was a statue when it happened. Sometimes, it was a twirl, a swing, or a slow fall of a closing curtain for a shadow that never appeased. Those fingers kept twitching for the light above the stage, and those feet floated for every performance she had done. Yet the face never changed until she left the stage.
"But I want this skirt to never mean anything more to me anymore. I want nobody to know what it means."
"Even my family. It must be buried for good."
"A-are you sure? But what if it goes horrible? They need to know, Pearl."
"No, they didn't!" She pauses from the anger. Her voice switched from refute to fear.
"I mean—why would they need to know? It's not like they need to. It's better if they don't have to know..."
"Please, Ms Carolina. Just once I wish from you..."
Her grip lays on Carolina's palm, begging her to keep the past between. The Joyling leans on her shoulder as she pleads for Carolina's kindness, her fingers twitching in a rhythmic wave as her eyes dilated in a teary gaze. The caretaker could not deny that look.
"Alright. But be careful with what you've wished from this day." Carolina sighs.
"Yeah! Thank you, Ms. Carolina!" She hugs her tightly.
With a look so reassuring, Carolina took her promise granted to Pearl. The smile on her face diminished all doubt as she felt nothing more but a family to catch. Even Carolina couldn't resist such a smile after her reluctance.
"You remind me of my son. Promising even the deepest of his heart for others..." She looked off with a smile.
But just as it seemed that Pearl was about to feel glamour for longer, the air swung by with an uneasy feeling. Yet another thing in her task that hasn't yet been put. But she couldn't tell what it was—not with a twitchy finger and flopping foot.
"So, I've had a call with your parents just before."
"How do you know it was my family? I didn't even know my old name before Pristine Pearl."
"Well, you remember when we had a blood sample test? That's how we trace your family's lineage and find your real family out there." Carolina shows the sample vial.
"I thought you were just love to poke us. It kinda hurts."
"Better than to be poked with anything sharper like your close friend, isn't it?" Carolina teases.
"Hehe, right...maybe I should start with—wait..." She pauses.
Her doubt was justified. Something had slipped her mind while she was busy worrying about someone else. Just when everything seemed settled, Pearl realized there was still something—no, someone—she had forgotten to face.
"Starglaze!!" She yelled. Everything went silent as Pearl seemingly remembered that name too late.
"Oh, him..." Carolina rolls her eyes out.
"Just when I thought this place was too peaceful."
"Maybe it was way too peaceful without him."