Shameless

After Jon established that he needed help for his plans to be completed, he started to think about the actions he could take.

'For now, I need somewhere I could train without being observed. I wonder if the school has any gym equipment I can use after school.'

As he remembered the large gymnasium on the school grounds, he thought to himself.

'Even so, I'd need a teacher's permission to use it, and I can assume they won't just let me use it privately for my own reasons; after all, there's a reason gyms exist.'

He could always go to a gym to train his physique, but he would start drawing too much attention to himself after a while.

'My best bet is to get the chairman or the principal to grant me that privilege.'

As he thought of this, a plan started to form in Jon's mind. He couldn't stop smiling at what he had just thought up.

'I guess I have no choice but to help that crazy girl out.'

Jon thought back to the meeting he had with Victoria yesterday. He remembered the smile she had on her face while he threatened her for trying to blackmail him.

'Crazy bitch.'

He thought to himself, with a slight frown evident on his face.

'I'll make use of you just as you try to make use of me. That I'll make sure of.'

***

Natasha could be seen at work in her office, sitting in front of a computer. She couldn't really focus on work.

She couldn't stop herself from thinking about her grandfather. She had always known that he wasn't an ordinary old man, but she never really questioned it.

After all, everybody had their own secrets, and she felt that he would have told them when he was ready. The thought of him dying had never crossed her mind, not even once.

That's just the type of impression he left on her and her brother ever since she was young. He had always had a solution for every one of their problems.

'Come to think of it, he did leave us some cash.'

She thought to herself as she remembered the paper and card she had received from Marcus.

She opened her bag that she kept on her desk and took out a piece of paper. The paper had the banking information for the card that her grandfather had left for her and her brother.

Natasha took the paper and turned on the computer in front of her. She logged in to the banking website and started to put in the details that were on the paper.

When she saw the amount that was on the account, to say that she was surprised was an understatement. 

"WHAT THE FU-!!!"

***

Jon was at home, in his living room, sitting on his sofa. He had just eaten his dinner and was just watching television out of boredom.

In fact, he wasn't really watching television; he was just using it as background noise as he surfed the internet with his phone and listened to music with his headphones on.

After testing his abilities in the morning and going through the files and videos on the flash drive in the afternoon, he decided to spend the rest of his day relaxing, trying to calm his mind.

After all, things were happening a bit too fast for him, and he actually needed to relax. His evening was going well until he noticed that the program that was showing on television was interrupted for breaking news.

[Breaking news! The chairman of Starlight Enterprises has just revealed that they have figured out and solved the issue of quantum computing. The chairman also stated that they are in the process of starting the production of the first set of computers!]

Jon watched as the news reporter dropped what could be considered world-breaking news in a somewhat hurried manner.

[Chairman Xing of Starlight Enterprises just revealed this information just a few minutes ago in his press conference. He said, and I quote, "I hope this breakthrough in technology will help humanity grow closer and help us expand our understanding of modern science so that we can make the world a better place." But what do you, the viewers, think about this shocking revelation?]

'What the hell just happened?'

Jon was shocked beyond belief due to what he just watched. He didn't know what was going on, but he had a feeling it wasn't anything good.

"To help humanity grow closer and to make the world a better place, huh? What a load of crap."

Jon didn't know what was going on, but he did know one thing, and that was that they weren't revealing this information for the betterment of the world.

'They had the ambrosia serum for decades without revealing it to the world. Something isn't adding up here.'

Jon thought as he held his fingers to his chin. He was in deep thought until he heard the front door being opened.

"I'm home!"

Natasha shouted as she entered the house. She closed the door behind her, kicked off her shoes, and dropped her bag to the ground. 

She slowly walked and swayed as she made her way over to the sofa where Jon was sitting and dropped her body down on the sofa next to him.

"Are you drunk?"

Jon stared at her with a deadpan expression. 

Natasha rarely drank alcohol due to the fact that her tolerance for alcohol was way higher than that of the average person. It took way too much for her to get drunk, so she usually avoids drinking.

"What are you talking about, baby brother? I have no idea what you mean."

"...."

Jon stared at her silently as she looked at him with a mischievous smile on her face. He then let out a deep sigh and replied to her.

"So you are drunk."

"Forget about all of that; you won't believe what I've found out. Hehehe"

She leaned towards him and then embraced him in a tight hug while letting out a mischievous laugh.

"Oy! Don't try changing the subject, and let go of me, dammit! You reek of alcohol!"

"Hehehe, look who's gotten big and gotten all shy. I remember when you used to-"

Natasha's words were suddenly cut short due to her using both other hands to cover her mouth. She then got up off the sofa and ran towards the bathroom as quickly as possible.

Jon looked at her as she ran with the expression of a judgmental parent who had just witnessed their child do something embarrassing.

Sigh.

"I knew this would happen. I don't even know why you bother drinking in the first place.

He muttered to himself as he shook his head. Jon then got up, did a slight stretch, and then grabbed the remote and turned off the television.

"There's food in the fridge whenever you're done!"

Jon shouted to his sister, then headed towards his room.

***

The next day.

Jon got up early in the morning and did a morning run before taking a shower and getting ready for school.

He had a lot of things he needed to do at school, and he needed to speak with Victoria. So he ate a small breakfast and left for school.

He arrived at his school forty-five minutes later after taking a bus. He wasn't as early as his previous day due to his early morning run, but he still arrived before class began.

When he entered the class, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him for a few seconds.

"What?"

Jon said this as he felt the eyes of his classmates on his body. To them, even if they had only met him once before, he felt different. It was as if his presence was a lot stronger than before.

Hearing his question, they all turned their attention away from him, as if they weren't looking at him in the first place.

Seeing this, Jon shook his head and made his way to his seat. Taking his seat, he noticed that his neighbor wasn't here yet.

'Is he running late, perhaps?'

He thought to himself and then proceeded to turn his attention to the front of the class once more, and as if by coincidence, the door opened and Victoria walked in with Emilia following behind her.

They seem to be in mid-conversation until Victoria notices Jon sitting behind his desk and starts to walk toward him, leaving Emilia behind.

Seeing her approach him, Jon sighed and then put on an apathetic look on his face in preparation to confront her.

When she arrived before him, she made eye contact with him before raising an eyebrow with a puzzling look on her face.

'Was his eye always that color? No, I'm sure they were darker than that, but now they look goldish.'

She thought to herself as she looked at Jon's amber-colored eyes. There was an awkward silence in the classroom as the rest of the students stopped what they were doing to stare at them.

"What is it?"

"Uh, Ahem"

She gave a slight cough as Jon's voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she remembered why she approached him.

"I heard that you just lost a family member, and I came to give you my condolences. I've experienced that feeling before, and I want you to know that if I could do anything to help, please don't be afraid to ask me."

"...."

Jon was silent at her words due to him not expecting the first thing she said to him: a heartfelt condolence. 

She spoke with an empathic look on her face, and her voice had a tinge of melancholy in it.

'I can't tell if she's serious or not.'

He thought to himself, as he couldn't tell if Victoria was pretending or not. Remembering how she tried blackmailing him, he knew he couldn't let his guard down around her.

"Thank you. If so, then I'll reach out to you."

"Please, do."

Since he needed to use her, Jon decided that he had to get closer to her, so he accepted her gesture of good will.

"About the previous business that we discussed, I decided to accept your proposal. If you don't mind, can we speak about this in private later?"

"Huh, what? Uh, sure, no problem."

Victoria was quite surprised by his sudden change of topic. She was feeling a bit bad about blackmailing him after asking her father why he didn't attend school the previous day and finding out why. She was even going to change her mind, but to think he accepted it and even wanted to speak to her more about it?

'But still, I need his help. If I want to take down Leonard, I can't let go of this opportunity!'

She thought to herself as she stared at Jon's impassive face. Suddenly, the door opened once more, and Hao walked in.

He had bruises and small bandages all over his face. The class fell silent once more as he entered.

He ignored the gazes of everyone as he walked towards his seat. When he took his place in his seat, he felt a heavy gaze on him and turned his head to his right.

Hao saw Victoria standing, looking at him with an apologetic look on her face. And on the seat to his right, he saw Jon looking at him with a puzzling look.

"What happened to your face? Did you get beat up again?"