The Passive Duo

After Mino Naomi got away from Prospector's scheme. She continued her runs around Agua City without a single ounce of care. Once in a while I would observe. Watch her from a distance while having a smoke.

Seeing her progress roughly the same. I didn't do much. I even got myself a disposable rugged laptop. Because of my tech-savvy skills. Jisoo stopped pestering me about what we were going to eat for the next month. We spent a lot of money furnishing her safehouse. She didn't have much to add, but she sure likes her eastern-style furnishing.

"You are good at this. Too good."

Jisoo was sitting cross-legged next to me. Sipping on her can of green tea.

"I would praise you if you weren't stalking a girl."

"I am not. I'm looking at her progress."

She grabbed the control stick with her fingers and moved the camera to her face instead.

"You sure like staring at her buttocks."

"Yours is better."

She knocked on my head.

"Too bad, mister. You aren't getting it."

"Look. I am a good loyal person. And besides," I pointed at the notepad on the side of the laptop. "I'm doing research. It's the drone losing its altitude."

"Nik. I trust you. But you try to stare too much at a pretty lady. We'd have problems. I mean I understand, but really? In front of me?"

"Because I trust you?"

She poked my cheek.

"It's more like you are hurting me."

"I am not?"

She took another sip of her green tea. She leaned on my shoulder and glared at the laptop.

"She's good at what she does. Is she really a newbie?"

"Obviously not. Would a newbie do that?"

She used my back as a headrest.

We weren't exactly like a recluse here either. She walks around her safehouse. She was wearing her tank top and shorts. Other than that we remain in our safehouse while I scour the net for anything that will earn us money.

Mino Naomi was harmless at the moment. So I decided that unless my monitoring warns me. I'd stop for now. I got off my laptop. And wore something casual. Jisoo's watching her show. So I thought of going out. Went down the stairs instead of the elevator. Walked out and took my car out. Jisoo dialed me. Told me that she'd need something to eat. Drove the supermarket, bought our supplies for the day when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Yo, classmate?"

I looked at the person. He is average in weight and height. He wears a formal dress shirt and tie. He points at himself.

"You still recognize me, Nik?"

"Rene?"

"Oh shit bro, what are you doing here in Agua."

The man smiled while shaking my hand. His eyes were excited. He didn't notice that there was ink around his cuffs.

"Been here and then. Mostly staying for a while."

"Damn, you changed a lot, friendo."

He grinned at me. His expression made me wonder if we were close. "You could say that. Didn't think that you'd recognize me either. So you're working here?"

His hands went on his groceries. "I'm working on the water filtration plant here. Got me a wife a year ago. Have a little kid as well. You?"

"Got a partner. Not her."

"Oh, it's good that you moved on, mate. Wow, you really changed. I just can't believe how shredded you are. So what do you do?"

"Freelancing work. My partner and I are doing it."

"Is she going to be the one?" He smiled. His eyes anticipated my answer. I thought of Jisoo. We get along well. We know when to respect personal space. If anything, everything is going so well that it personally scares me.

"She might be."

I said to Rene. He grins. He walked with me until we got out of the supermarket. His hands on his waist. He breathes in and out.

"Time flies so fast. I was actually worried for you brother. Thought you disappeared since I can't contact you. Turns out you lost your damn phone."

I exchanged contacts with him. He added me into his chat group. Was kinda surprised that my name popped up. He took a picture of us and sent an image to the chat group. There were about sixteen classmates in the chat.

"???"

"Who is that?"

"Seeing that they didn't know me."

"It's Orlov."

"Bullshit?"

"You're lying."

Dissatisfied by their reaction. He streamed a video of us. I waved my hand at them and then smiled as the best as I could.

"Goodness, what the hell happened to you?"

"You got ripped, bruh."

"OMG. So do you still have onenitis with Kat? This pretty lady can fix you!?"

"No thanks," I said, reading that.

"Sorry ladies, our friend has moved on and has a partner."

It was quite a commotion. Rene switched his stream off. We talked about things for a minute before he decided to leave. I watched him drive away and then went back to my car.

Shit, I shouldn't have shown my location. I thought to myself as I hastily deleted the image and video archive of the stream in the group chat. We were still hiding so I don't know who might be able to catch me.

I drove back to Jisoo's safehouse. Placed the groceries on the table and went back to monitoring Mino Naomi. She was readying to take one of the jobs that would put her into the shit list of many folks. This was the start of her legend.

The Specters were always the arrogant bunches. If there are bastards delusional enough to think that their word is law and that people should follow their ideal… then it's these people. The Specters are bad news no matter what. And it is because they are so hatefully deluded that they would stop at nothing to achieve their grand plan.

It's precisely this reason that Mino and Gaius will be chased to Pacifica City.

And the other is that I want to see these fuckers.