The after-mission party

Tanou walked up and down the hall, and most of them had arrived, all had showered and put on comfortable clothes for dinner, but the people in charge of the work incognito; Kimi, Mila, and Marie did not appear. Ralph had been out looking for him a few minutes ago and Candace was anchored firmly in the doorway looking worriedly at the watch on her wrist.

Ryan and Malik had insisted on going out and looking for them, but Ralph made the order clear to remain in the residence no matter what, they just have to wait, filled with impatience.

"They're fine, surely the house was filled with security as soon as we left and they had to hide better before returning" Ohm commented in an attempt to calm things down.

"That's the worrying thing, if it was filled with the security they could get caught," Evie said. "Also remember that it was not just assault or intimidation, we committed a kidnapping, the situation got out of control."

The sound of the crack of a branch caught everyone's attention, Candace rushed to see what it was about, the teenagers peeked out behind her, as close to the door as they could, but without breaking the order to stay inside and sighed in relief upon seeing the three missing walk out of the forest discouraged.

Tanou's knotted heart unfolded with ease when he saw Kimi approach, when the black-haired man recognized him, he accelerated his pace until he made it into a race until he reached Tanou, when he did so he inspected him to verify that his body was still intact.

"How was it? Were you scared? Was it difficult?"

Tanou shook his head.

"It wasn't, I'm only worried about the girl they kidnapped"

"Was there a kidnapping? That was not part of the plan," Kim said.

"That's what we all say!" Ryan exclaimed, still upset that the mission had strayed so far from the original plan.

"Good! Another successful mission because we all arrived healthily, go wash up, see you in the dining room in half an hour" announced Ginger.

Already settled at the table, Tanou discovered the tradition that Cloudhouse had to celebrate after each mission, which was to "drink to death" and at that moment he was able to discover other facets of his roommates, for example, the love relationships between them.

He shouldn't have been surprised to see Ohm and Luk kiss, in hindsight it made some sense, but still, his mouth fell open in surprise.

He also that the dance skills of some were deplorable or the bad drunken habits of others, such as crying or trying to fight with anyone around them.

Kimi prevented Tan from getting drunk as much as he could, for which he drank several drinks for him and when the eighth bottle was emptied the black-haired man could not resist standing, with effort Tanou carried him on his back and carried him to the room, threw him the bed and took off his shoes intending to let him rest.

Despite the busy day, Tanou was wide awake and thanks to Kim he had remained sober, he did not want to go back to the party, but he could not sleep either, so he climbed the small stairs that led to the terrace, sitting on the edge with his feet dangling. in the void was Nivi, her back turned to him.

"Do you know that if you fall, no one will notice?" He said, sitting carefully next to the girl, his feet dangling six stories from the ground.

"Do you know that nobody would really care?", The girl replied before exhaling a puff of smoke.

"Touch"

"Do you want to?", She offered, spreading the smoking cigarette.

"No, I don't smoke" she denied, but then an impulse made him retract "To hell, give me some.

"That's what I say, 'To hell' life is short and lungs are overrated" That comment made them both laugh.

She so inhaled a mouthful of smoke that it stung her throat and made him cough, Nivi scoffed openly laughing out loud. When the laughter died down, the boys remained drinking in silence, watching as the night sky cleared to make way for morning.

"Nivi," Tan said after what seemed like an eternity of silence.

"Ah?"

"Why? I mean why are you here?"

"Some would say that for power, honor, or because they want to live the dream of being a true gangster."

"And what would you say?

"In normal conditions, I would choose the first option," she released a great breath of air before continuing to speak "but being honest and stupid in equal measure I would tell you that I am here out of pride.

"This makes you proud." The boy affirmed.

"No. I mean how proud my parents are that I came. After all, I want to see them smile, because I want a pat on the back and tell me I did well."

"Ah."

"Do not look at me that way, we all may have similar reasons, approval, it is the correct word, almost all of us who are here have been denied that they have been cold and demanding parents, they have taught us that if we are not the best of us are not worth it and they have given us their affection dropwise, all preparing us for our arrival at this residence. "

"Aren't you being paranoid believing that our upbringing was part of a conspiracy?"

"You can ask Mila and Marie, they are adopted, they lived through the hostility of the world before finding a family to adopt them. Do you think they were loving parents? They are millionaires who trained their daughters in different disciplines, treating them like dogs, based on rewards and punishments, leaving the biggest prize for the biggest challenge, demanding more and more of them, making them believe that they would only be worthy of parental love if they were able to risk their lives for it, it happened to me, it happened to everyone. "

"Maybe you're right, although it wasn't like that for me."

"I know, you must have your own reasons for being here, and I don't think they have anything to do with ours."

"I am here because you forced me."

"You think so? There is always another alternative."

" Which?"

" Jump."

They looked down, just below their feet was planted a bush of white carnations.

"Has someone already done it?

"Yes, but there are many ways, if we really wanted to leave we would."

The girl briefly lifted the sleeve of her sweatshirt, just enough for Tanou to see the cut scar on the inside of her wrist.

"Give me a cigarette," Tan asked.