New girl

My eyes widen as I look at her in surprise. She either plays with me or she means it, and knows more than I think.

"What do you mean?"

Now she grins at me and holds out her hand for me to grab.

"Come with me bud' and I'll tell you on our way what I've heard. I'm sure you don't want to betray a friend, do you?"

Does she mean her or Shin?

"If you won't hold your promise you'll have to pay for it."

I don't grab her hand, but stand up by myself. As she realizes that I'm coming with her she goes outside and holds the door open for me. The district is completely dark. They always turn off the lights at night.

"Can you tell me now what you meant just now?"

I ask as I walk only a few steps behind her. If she has a weapon or something similar I can run away at any time.

"Are you afraid? You seem to be, but don't worry I don't harm Coras. Even though you work for the professor… You're still a Cora, right? I always hold my promises."

She smiles in a weirdly cheeky way. I don't know what to think of her, but as long as she won't harm me I'm fine with her.

"Your name is Mei, right? What's your power ranking?"

She suddenly stops walking and looks at me with her stinging dark red eyes. She still smiles, which makes the whole thing just creepier.

"What will you do if I tell you? What if I tell you that I'm a number 0? Would you report that?"

"I wouldn't believe you."

I say dry and she looks at me surprised. She smiles again and pats my head, as if I am a child. Even though she doesn't look much older than me. We are probably around the same age.

"I won't tell you my number, or ranking, or whatever people call it these days. You're weird, man."

She laughs and continues to walk. I try my best to keep up with her because she is surprisingly fast.

"Then what's your ability?"

"I won't tell you~"

She laughs but I don't find this funny at all. I've seen coras who don't like to tell their ability to others, but she makes a really big deal out of it.

"Can you tell me now what you meant with Shin is in danger?"

She looks at me with a surprised face and answers with a wide smile.

"Haha they gave him a name? The last time I saw him his name was different. So, his name is Shin?"

What does she mean? Does she know him? So she was also outside of the lab? Who the hell is this girl?

"No, his name is Shinda. He told me I can call him Shin because it sounds better. Do you know him from the outside?"

She nods.

"Well I wouldn't say that we were friends, but… It's- difficult to describe our relationship back then. You probably wouldn't understand."

"So you two were lovers?"

She looks at me for a second as if she couldn't believe what she just heard and breaks out in laughter after a good second.

"No way hahaha!! Not with this punk, never!"

I stand there confused, watching her laugh and not knowing what to say. Did I say something wrong?

"Uhm… what?"

I'm still confused.

"Isn't he handsome or something? When I saw him I thought that every girl must want him. Why are you laughing?"

She tries to stop laughing but it doesn't seem to work.

"It's not like that he isn't handsome. He is probably one of the most handsome dudes I've met so far, but he isn't my type at all! You're rather my type pfahaha!"

Now I'm even more confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Chill I'm just kidding. You're so boring I can't even joke around with you. You might die lonely bro. I'm not really interested in something like boys right now anyway. I have a girlfriend, maybe I can introduce you to her if she has time."

"Wait you have a girlfriend? Like girls and girls? Is that allowed? I didn't even know that's possible."

She looks at me confused and now she sounds more annoyed than happy. She also stopped smiling.

"Why shouldn't it be allowed? Love is love, so if you want to, you could also have a boyfriend. I don't see a reason why the professors wouldn't allow Love between Coras. Or are you homophobic?"

I look at her confused as I hear all that.

"What is Homophobic?"

"Like if you are against love that isn't between a man and a women. Or in generell when you're against Lgbtq+."

"What is Lgb… what?"

I'm really trying to understand what she is talking about. I mean it does sound interesting but it seems like she is annoyed by my questions because now she sighs and starts to walk faster. I've never heard that two people from the same gender can fall in love but to me it sounds pretty cool. They could understand each other better because they went through the same phases.

Suddenly Mei stops infront of a big building, that I've never seen before.

"We arrived."

I also Stop Next to her.

"Where exactly?"

She looks at me and answers.

"The second lab."