18 Something Feels Different

Drap drap drap

The footsteps of a person running to avoid the pursuit of three men running towards him. A blonde woman was seen running from the men chasing her into a deserted alley.

The alley was poorly lit, which made it look very dark and made it difficult for her to see while she was there.

Unfortunately, the path she took ended in a dead end. A tall wall blocked her path, she had to get past the wall if she wanted to escape from them.

"H-how is this?! The wall is too high and there's nothing to use as a handhold to climb over," the woman said frantically while talking to someone through her earpiece.

Someone in the background responded to the woman's words and told her to fight the three people who were chasing her earlier.

"There's no other choice, just take out the three of them. Can you do it?"

"Can't you come to help me? Those three don't seem to be ordinary men," the woman replied.

"I can't just leave my base. You have to be able to fight them, you're an agent! You've been trained for that, Agent J61!"

The woman called Agent J61 was hesitant to do so. But finally she fought the three people, at first she had a hard time facing the three of them together.

However, she finally managed to defeat them even though she received some bruises. With what energy she had left, she moved away from that place to approach the place where her partner was currently.

A black car was parked on the side of the road waiting for her arrival, without further she immediately got inside and sat down while feeling the pain in her body.

"Hufftttt... It hurts like hell. My body was crushed by them and I got hit by them," she explained the situation to her partner.

A man who had been sitting in the driver's seat waiting while watching their area could only shake his head slowly.

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't been careless when going into their place, Marin. Now they'll tighten their guard because your infiltration failed," the man said with some annoyance that their plan failed.

"Sorry... But you should have helped me to escape from them. We're a team, aren't we? We're supposed to work together to--"

"I've laid out all the plans, tracked the area we're going to, gotten all their data and monitored the area around you so you can get in easily. Your job is the execution part of it all," the man explained again.

The woman sighed, her head hurting from the blow. She was a bit annoyed that her male partner was not paying attention to her at all when she only needed help to fight the three men.

"I'm sorry, William. I promise I won't do it again. We can come back later anyway, right?"

William closed his laptop and turned to Marin, his new partner after Amanda left. He couldn't help but think that he would be paired with an agent who had only been deployed a few times for missions, and the mission she got was even a level 1 mission which was nothing compared to the missions William was used to, level 5 missions.

"Back? You couldn't even fight the three men earlier. How about fighting more than three after they've tightened the guard?" asked William in a tone that was so quiet, but felt so piercing.

Marin lowered her head, she thought working with William would be fun because she heard that William was a friendly and humble man. But it turned out that he was very strict when on duty.

The man was very friendly to everyone, but he would become very serious when he was on duty. Amanda already knew the time when William would be very nice, when William could not be bothered and when William would be very disturbed.

At that moment William could only sigh. He didn't expect to be paired up with an amateur agent who couldn't even fight three people and even made a faux pas on duty.

'Amanda is much better than her. Why do I have to pair up with this woman? Why did you have to leave me so suddenly, Amanda...' William thought.

Brak!

Willian hit the steering wheel of his car, startling Marin. He spun the car away from there and headed back to their headquarters.

Upon arriving at the headquarters, the two went back to their room. Marin immediately lay down on the sofa feeling the pain, hoping William would help her treat her wounds.

However, William, angry that their mission failed that night, ignores Marin and is busy with his monitor. He ignored Marin completely, leaving Marin to treat her wounds on her own.

'It must be difficult to continue working with him. Is this also the reason why her old partner was transferred?' Marin thought.

"William, are you still angry? I already said I was sorry, are you still not going to forgive me?" she asked.

Still, William didn't respond to his partner's call.

Marin kept calling his name, until one call made William respond. Even though it wasn't the response he expected.

"Willy!!!" she called.

William's hand typing instantly stopped when Marin called him that. His chair slowly turned and he found Marin staring at him intently.

"Don't.Ever... You call my name. Like that. Do you understand?" he asked suppressing every word that came out of his mouth.

Seeing that, Marin immediately fell silent and she nodded in understanding. She didn't expect William to be that angry for being called by the name Willy.

"W-well... I understand, I'm sorry."

For William, Willy was his little name and only the closest people could call him that. Like his family and Amanda.

The man turned his chair back and was busy with his monitor. He was already frustrated that until now, he had not been able to find out Amanda's whereabouts and why she had not said anything to him.

Now he had to deal with a new partner who he found annoying and careless. She was a far from the professionalism that William and Amanda were used to.

It felt so different when Amanda wasn't around. All his work fell apart, he didn't feel as free as he used to and some things were hard to describe.

At first, William thought nothing big would change. But seeing Marin and Amanda's vastly different performance made him feel like he was failing at his job.

"Well then... I'll go out first. I'm hungry, I'll be right back after I buy some food," Marin said and left the room.

"Hufftttt... There's something wrong. If it wasn't for the boss asking me to pair up with her, I would have refused," William complained.

The man's brown eyes momentarily drifted to the watch he always wore. The black watch Amanda had given him for his birthday last year. He wondered where she was now.

At the same time, Amanda was gazing at the vast ocean from the shore. Small waves touched her feet and the wind blew her long hair.

Remembering all the sweet memories she and William had spent together. It's been three months since she left him, it's still hard to forget him after years of missions and fun together.

A smile appeared on her face, even so the smile seemed to hold such deep pain. She shouldn't feel that way because this was the decision she had made.

Sometimes she thought, is William okay without her?

Had he forgotten about her after meeting his new partner?

Her eyes closed and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I hope you will be happy without me. I'm sure you will."