7-3 The Hole

Date: September 10

Place: Lounge (Kyoto Headquarters)

[Noel]

After eating our light breakfast, Cedrick insisted on coming with me to the lounge even though I told him that I could get around the entire building on my own. And it's all thanks to Rei who made me do some crazy stunt when I wrongly answered her favorite color.

As we were walking together, he couldn't even be bothered to have a short conversation while we were on our way there because when I tried to make use of every opportunity to open up a conversation, he just ignored it and kept walking straight to our destination.

But once we arrived in front of the lounge, Cedrick was about to open the door when he suddenly stopped midway.

"What's wrong? Aren't we going inside?" I was quite confused as to why he is hesitating to open it. He spared me a look for a split second and then took a deep breath before finally unlocking the door.

"Cedrick, what are youー" a surprised Patrick greeted us when he sees Cedrick walking inside the lounge. "And Noel," he looked my way as if he didn't expect us to be in here at this time of the day.

"Sorry, Noel needs a spare change of clothes," Cedrick answered and starts walking to the cabinets as he tried to find some clean clothes for me to change in.

"Oh, what happened?" Patrick asked, slowly getting away from Rei's desk and approaching me. He grabbed me by my shoulder and looks at me from head to toe. "You seem to be alright," he nodded to himself.

"Some girl that was from the island like us, bumped into me when she happens to be holding some kind of soup," I explained after he inspected me.

[Cedrick]

"Just put your dirty uniform at the table," I say after I saw him already stripping his clothes off one by one.

"Ok," he replied, continuing what he was doing.

"What's going on?" Patrick took the chance to whisper when I came close to him. I'm sure that he's just as surprised as I am.

"Rei made up a story about how you and your other friends are being a proxy while we're away," I explained in a hurry but also whispered for Noel not to overhear. "I'm just glad that at least one of you is here," I added. "But, why are you still here anyway? Where's the others?" I am curious as to why they are still in the vicinity when we told them to get way ahead of us so they'll have more time to do the task.

"I just forgot a few things here, and I think the others are already in the ground, waiting for me," he answered, also whispering back.

"You think?" I sighed. "Well, as long as you complete the task given, I don't think there's going to be a problem," I answered back, also whispering. And he gave me a nod as his answer.

Noel finished undressing and looked at me for the clothes that he needs which I gave him. He smiled at me and thanked me before he started to get changed into his new clothes.

"I'll take this to the laundry room later," Patrick says, putting the dirty clothes in a plastic basket that was in a corner that was actually for recycled papers. "How long will you guys be out anyway?" Patrick asks casually.

"Probably around lunchtime," I say with such little thought. Patrick looked my way and was probably giving me a signal with his smiley face. It sure was the face that says; 'That's not enough time'. I smiled back and shrugged as my reply.

Noel was having a hard time putting on the top clothes, he was wiggling around when I suddenly noticed something on him.

[Noel]

I'm trying so hard to make this plain white shirt fit right after I put the pants on. And I was kind of worried when Cedrick suddenly called out for me.

"Can you turn around?" I'm not sure of what his objectives are, but I just followed his instruction after I gave a slight nod.

The tightness of the white shirt was making me hold both my arms up in the air as it also covers my face. So right now, I can't see properly, I can only discern the movement of their silhouettes through the fabric. I slowly turned my back on them and I was kind of worried when Patrick lets out a whistle, then Cedrick suddenly felt my skin with his fingertips.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked in a panic. I already hear Cedrick rummaging through the cabinets again after he was finished feeling my skin as Patrick's voice became louder when he was nearing me.

"That's some harsh burn," he comments, quite hesitant if I may say. "Was the soup that hot?" he asked, touching the place where the soup supposedly burnt my skin.

"Now that you've mentioned it, it does kind of sting," I say in response, feeling a little bit uncomfortable about what's happening right now.

The door suddenly slams open as I hear footsteps coming from a person who just entered.

[Vincent]

We were already short on time as it is and Patrick had left something important on the lounge so he went back to get it. But he's taking his sweet time so I told Shawn to wait for me until I get Patrick.

"Patrick, what's taking you so long?" I said. But I was stunned to see Cedrick and Noel in the room too.

And when I looked closely at Noel who was in a weird position, I noticed a part of him bleeding.

I walked toward him to make sure and words just instantly came out of me.

"Woah! Thatーlooks like it hurts," I said, almost shouting. But I saw a glimpse of Patrick who was signing me with his hands, slitting his trough, meaning to stop what I am going answer to Noel who was panicking.

[Noel]

I can tell that Vincent was already looking in my direction when he said that. He was also surprised by what he was seeing, and now I'm getting curious.

"Is it that bad?" I am genuinely bothered by their responses.

"Nah, I suppose it's not that bad," Vincent says stuttering, and then clears his throat.

"Found it!" Cedrick shouts excitedly then runs towards me carrying some kind of box where I can hear the rumbling inside of it as he runs. Patrick guided my body until I was able to sit down on some chair.

"Does it hurt?" Cedrick asks as he wipes my back with some wet fabric. Then, I feel his fingers playing around my skin with some ointment in it.

"No more than a sting," I replied.

I can hear his concerned sighs as he finishes. And when I was about to try and bring my t-shirt to fit when I thought that it was over, they stopped me.

"Wait a minute," Patrick held my arm to prevent me from moving, and I'm still holding my arms up in the air yet again.

I can hear the scissors cutting something. After a few seconds, I think Cedrick put a gauge and taped it on the burn.

"What's that for?" I was finally able to properly put my t-shirt on with some help from Patrick.

"So it doesn't get infected obviously," Vincent said with an eye roll, he then sat and watched Cedrick put the things back to their original places.

"How can you be so numb?" I hear Patrick mumble to himself. "By the way, where's Rei?" he asked and turned to me.

"Oh right, she'sー" I wasn't even finished when Cedrick suddenly ran to where I was sitting, grabbed my hands and we took off.

"She's waiting!" he said in a panic and we left the lounge.

[Patrick]

We were left alone questioning ourselves.

"Why did you not tell him the truth?" Vincent asked as he stood up and marched to the door.

"It's probably not to make him suspicious," I answered.

"It wasn't even close to a burn at all, it was a harsh wound. How'd he get that anyway?" he asks quietly as we held the door open for me.

"I remember him saying that he met some people back from the island who 'accidentally' poured him a hot soup," I replied, already thinking of the only person who could be behind this while I rummaged the basket where I put his uniform.

"Look at that," Vincent took it from me and inspected it. There was a hole, probably because of the 'hot soup' that was poured into it.

"I'll check the cameras later to confirm who it is," he replied with a cold tone and brought it with him as we proceeded to exit the lounge and locked it.

"That reminds me, did you find what you were looking for?" Vincent asked.

"No, it wasn't anywhere in the room," I answered.

"Rei must have it then," Vincent already said what was on my mind. "It's safer with her anyway," he continued and I just gave him a nod as we continued walking.

[Vincent]

A few minutes later, I decided to strike up a conversation to relieve some stress. "Can we do this?" I asked him.

"We just need to observe and flee, don't worry too much," he says chuckling, and I don't even know why.

But to be brutally honest, I am quite scared. One is because of the assignment we have, and the second is the attack they did on Noel. If they can do that to him with so many witnesses around us, it's either their gutsy or they have us surrounded.

So there's no telling what they might do to us, especially when we're out in the unknown territories with no one around. I just hope nothing bad happens.

"There's Shawn," Patrick says, and when I was about to shout for his name to get him to notice us, he signaled for us to be quiet and pointed at the front desk of the main lobby where we found Cedrick and Noel, talking to someone in the counter.

"Why are they still here?" I asked, whispering.

"Beats me, let's just use the other route and hurry to the ground," Shawn recommended which we all agreed to.

~~

We ran as fast as we could and when we finally arrived, I saw Shawn already holding Patrick by the shoulder while being on the lookout for Noel and Cedrick.

"Hurry up," I was shivering as I held Cedrick by his arm when I saw Rei with a grumpy face walking towards us.

"Got it!" Patrick said and we finally teleported out of the headquarters and into our first destination.

[Cedrick]

We were already late for the meet-up at the ground when we happened to run into a child who got lost in the headquarters. So we had no choice but to escort him to the main lobby.

"We are so going to get yelled at," I mumbled and told Noel that we have no time to waste.