43 "The Girl Who Loves Popcorn"

In a dim room, a woman sat in front of opened monitors, eating popcorn while looking at footages. At the same time, she's letting the automatic program transcribe the spy voice recorders using the laptop beside her. When she noticed that she ate the last piece of popcorn, "Geez! I need to get more," she said and stood up from the cozy gaming chair.

She went to the kitchen and peeked inside the cabinet. "Oh no, I gotta buy some," she took her small sling bag from the table and the room's card key.

Newton Grand Tower is located in a very convenient area. Around the condominium were restaurants and convenience stores, and Eulim General Hospital was just a block away.

"Hey, Lovely!"

Lovely turned her head to see who called her. She was surprised to see Sanno who just came down from the e-bus.

Sanno walked towards her, "Where are you going?"

"To the convenience store. I ate all your popcorn, so I need to replace it!" Lovely replied, laughing. "Wanna come with me?"

"Yeah sure. I need to buy some coffee, too. It's another all-nighter for me," Sanno said as he stretched his arms.

They arrived at the convenience store, and Sanno took a shopping basket from the rack. He immediately went over to the shelves and placed in five packs of 3-in-1 instant black coffee containing twenty sachets inside. Lovely had already taken 10 packs of butter popcorn and placed it on the basket.

"Take another 10 of those," Sanno told her.

"But I'm saving my severance pay!" she said, pouting. She planned to send the money over to her mother in Maxine City.

"I'll pay for everything. Go and get some more, not only popcorn. Anything you want," he told her.

"Yay! Thanks!" the delighted Lovely hummed as she searched for more food.

Sanno had always thought that Lovely was an airhead who's addicted to fairytales. Her mother is a prolific writer and her father is a famous pharmaceutical scientist abroad, so he's betting on her acquired genes - her chance to either be creative, a critical thinker, or both of those characteristics. He wasn't expecting her to join forces with him, or even think about going against D.M. Cadre. Lovely wanted to save her mutant Galia, and to do that, Sanno had to take down D.M. Cadre and find out its secret. Both of them had their own goals, and they need each other to achieve them.

The next day, Sanya went to her office earlier than usual. She needed to complete her documents before the research conference in the Sovereign States of Krizeldt. It is a very cold country located in North Asia, and different kinds of laboratories are there, including the affiliated laboratory where Dr. Jaia Mullock worked at.

"I need to buy a good fur coat later…" she murmured to herself as she wrote down a list. "I need to go out of the city… Maybe I'll ask Sanno to go with me." She knew that there wasn't a mall in Eulim City, so she searched the internet where she could buy fur coats.

Later that afternoon, Sanya was waiting for Sanno in the lobby. She looked at her favorite wristwatch, the one that Sanno gave her, "He's a bit later than usual."

"Hi, Ms. Mayheart!" a colleague and an Assistant Scientist named Trisha called to her, walking in her direction.

"Oh, hello Ms. Macadamia," she politely replied, "How are you? Got any requests from the Core Scientists lately?"

"I got four, but it's understandable since I do not have a solo experiment like you," Trisha explained, "Oh, it's unusual to see you this early. Are you waiting for someone?"

"Yes, I'm waiting for someone."

Trisha then went closer to Sanya and lowered her voice, "Is it your boyfriend? The green-haired, handsome guy who's always wearing long-sleeved tops?"

Sanya's cheeks became beet red, "He's not my boyfriend! We're just uhm… He's just some sort of a special friend."

Seeing how Sanya blushed, Trisha got worried. She sighed before telling her, "If he's not your girlfriend, then good. Because I saw him in my condo last night. He was with a woman, and they entered the same room…"

"He said that he lived with his mom, so maybe it's her," Sanya just laughed at her concerned colleague.

"No, I think she's the same age. She looked very young," she tried to explain, even though Sanya looked disinterested.

"Impossible. Maybe his mom just looked young," Sanya said as she shook her head. No. Impossible. Sanno wouldn't cheat on her. These were the words that kept entering her head. Maybe her colleague just wanted to put her spirit down. Maybe she's just another Dr. Brown who wanted to ruin her life.

But Trisha Macadamia wasn't that type of person. She knew that Sanya already had a lot of stress, especially that incident with Dr. Brown. She's her batchmate, who also came in a year ago just like her. "Oh, but I think-" she was about to say something when she noticed that Sanya was looking away. She thought that it was so obvious that she liked him, and she entered a state of denial. Her mind denied the possibility of Sanno turning his back on her or being dishonest with her. She stopped herself from convincing a person who's blindly in love.

"Aha… Maybe it was his mother," Trisha said, considering Sanya's feelings. "Bye, Ms. Mayheart. It was nice seeing you." She smiled, waved her hand, and exited the main building.

"Phew, she gave up…" Sanya thought. She disliked any person who butts in into another person's business, and she thought that Trisha was one of them.

Sanya was ignorant about the unpleasant situation she was in. All she saw was Sanno and his good points. For her, he's the most handsome, most gentle, and most kind guy she ever met.

Sanno went out of the elevator and saw Sanya in the lobby waving at her. He waved at her too, and while walking to her, he thought that he really had her under his thumb. He took off his wireless earphones, for he was done listening to the two assistant scientists' conversation.