39 My Friend smiles

School had restarted for the week, Monke had his craving for Collins' root stew satisfied. It was nowhere near enough though, he was haunted by the thought that there was more collins' root left but Joao wanted to use it to treat his face. He felt even worse when he realised that there was nothing he can do about it

"So how is this our fault?" Taiga asked while slurping on some instant noodles. He looked straight into Monke's eyes who was sitting on a couch opposite him. Monty was also there with them and he was tinkering with his computer trying his best to cancel them out.

"You are not at fault, I just want to know if you can cook it for me."

"If I could cook I wouldn't be eating instant noodles now would I?"

"Maybe you have weird tastes, I don't know."

"Bold of you to assume he has a sense of taste," Monty giggled.

"I heard that! By the way, how is the investigation going?"

"It's only been two days since the incident, how do expect me to gather the information that quickly. Plus I just found out that the Oasis assailants are alive, so now I have to consider their presence as I try to map out our enemies' next move."

"I always knew that you were good for nothing short stuff," Joao said as he walked into the SRC office followed by the vice president and Po.

"You are not welcome here, string bean," Monty snarled back.

"It smells like a failure in here," Po said with a light chuckle as he grabbed the noodles from Taiga's hands.

"Kid, you need a little bit more respect than that to live in this world," Taiga said as he got up to stare down Po before walking away.

The air in the room got heavy and Monke broke the ice by smacking Po on the back while calling him an idiot. Embarrassed Po put the noodles down and fought back. This time around Monke got the upper hand and Po in a leg lock, how they ended up like that was anybody's guess.

"What's everybody looking at," Monke asked.

"You almost smiled," Joao said as he sat down where Taiga previously was.

"What's he doing here?" Monty asked as turned furiously to face Joao. Even in his school uniform and near his companions, Monty still hid his face. He was wearing a mask and a gigantic hoodie that reached just above his knees. His trousers were also just as baggy and covered his feet completely.

"None of your business," said Joao who had just redone his hair, removing all the previous dye and leaving its natural dirty black hue. His uniform even though the standard somehow looked even more formal in contrast to all the others.

Both Monke and Po had also had their hair redone, removing the dyes and cutting it down just a bit. Today a chancellor from the mid walls had come to visit and so the students were expected to look their best.

"It is my business, remember that you are under suspicion for leading a dark agenda under our noses." Monty still did not raise his voice when trying to kick Joao out.

"Well, I am not asking you to trust him or anything but the Joao I know would never do such a thing." Monke interrupted.

"Only you know and believe that, but to the rest of the boys who don't know and have most likely never seen Joa it seems pretty logical. Regardless of whether Joao can be trusted or not, if our informant says he is a suspect he should be treated as such. After he has been cleared of all allegations we will then apologize to him." Taiga said as he returned to the room.

"And this could be bad because you just took up your position, at all cost, we need to make sure that the boys, more especially the grown-ups, know that they can trust you." Said the vice president who finally took a seat next to Joao.

"Why can't I just talk to them?"

"And tell them what? The only people who know about this are supposed to be the guys in this room. Including Kaine and Kira who are pretending to be security guards outside." Taiga said.

"How are we going to uproot the smugglers if we keep it a secret then?" Monke protested as he let go of Po and slouched back on the couch.

"Po and a few of his guys will take on the duty of looking for the smugglers, while I try and see what Kgosi and Tumi are up to. I also suspect that they might be the true cause of this." Monty answered softly as he now became reluctant to on because everyone was quiet and listening to him.

"So I'm also being suspected for working with those two?" Joao stood up and walked around the couch to leave but Taiga stayed firm on the door.

"Who gave you the permission to leave?"

"Do I need it?"

Taiga couldn't answer, truthfully speaking he did not want to make Joao feel bad but he had to do his job even at the expense of an innocent person. The more Joao looked at him dead in the eyes the guiltier he felt, it was almost as if he could see the loneliness pouring out. If it was up to him, Taiga would never speak at all during these conversations.

"Since we're friends and I believe in you. Why don't you bring Phenyo and the other guy to join my scouts until you're freed of all suspicion." Po said as he laid his hands on Joao's shoulders.

Joao wanted to resist but wasn't strong enough to shake the slender man off, he looked up and was met with Po's unyielding smile.

"We can't do that. Joao is very smart and cunning, what if he uses this as a chance to escape or even worse, leads you into a trap?" Monty spoke up just above his normal whisper.

"Please do not speak ill about my friend, screw the drugs, this is personal." Po opened his eyes and his smile dropped by a little angle but was still there.

Monke ignored and Monty was scared back into his corner. Taiga was relieved that no one challenged Po.