"Contract Termination"

The next day, Lia, Gem, and Lovely went to the cafeteria to eat their breakfast. It was a full meal - a bowl of fried rice topped with stir-fried beef, a bowl of seaweed soup, and a plate of spinach in sweet and sour sauce.

"Hey!" Sanno called the three and sat beside Lovely. He placed his cup of coffee on the table and a slice of chicken sandwich. "I didn't ask for permission, so here I am, sitting with you all."

The three girls laughed. It was rare for Sanno to show up in the morning since he said that he always eats early with his mother.

"It's a miracle, you didn't log in very early," Gem said, then sipped her seaweed soup. "We don't see you often these days. Even at dinner. You show up only once a week."

"You know why, right?" Sanno chuckled. "I thought I had already told you."

"Oh! I remember," Gem said. She ate a spoon full of rice and then drank water. "I forgot that you became a lover boy."

"Are you now Miss Sanya's boyfriend?" Lovely said as she imagined Sanno and Sanya dancing in a royal ball. "You'll look really great together!"

Sanyo smiled at them, pretending to be ecstatic about his closeness to Sanya, but deep inside, he was hoping to be successful in his plans to take down D.M. Cadre. Sanya's naivety would be his key to achieve his plans. For him, his life goal is to help his father achieve his ambition, and love is the least priority.

Lovely's phone vibrated, and it was a call from Faye. "Hello?" she answered.

As Lovely and Faye were talking on the phone, the others noticed the change in her demeanor. The previously happy Lovely had tears forming in her eyes. It was a bit of a long talk, and as minutes passed, she didn't want to hear another word from Faye.

Their call lasted for fifteen minutes. Her three colleagues were wondering what made her disappointed.

"What happened?" Gem asked, worriedly. It was her first time seeing Lovely tear up.

"Yesterday, my mutant went out with Ms. Faye for a series of tests that would be done by the Core Scientists, but she never returned. Ms. Faye said that my shark mutant wanted to live in the ocean, so they had set her free a while ago," Lovely furrowed her eyebrows. "There's something that's bothering me, though…" she looked down on her lap, holding her finger that was wrapped in a band-aid.

"You should be happy, right?" Gem said. "After all, she's free now, and it was her wish to live in the ocean."

"I don't think so, uhm…" Lovely tried hard to hold back her tears, but she did not succeed. She trembled as she cried quietly, and Sanno, who was beside her, kept on patting her head to comfort her.

"Hush, don't cry," Sanno said softly.

"I… want to be alone…" Lovely told them. "I think I'll go back to my room for a while, and maybe pack my things…"

Lia and Gem didn't know what to say. They had been together since they started their career in the research facility, and they wanted to do something for their roommate.

Lovely gave them a weak smile, promised to tell them once she calmed down, and told them that she won't leave until they return. Lia and Gem decided to go to their work and get off early for Lovely.

Gem was thinking that perhaps, the freedom of Lovely's mutant was some sort of reward because based on Lovely's stories, she was a very cooperative one. She couldn't understand why her colleague was not happy for her. "Maybe she'll miss her a lot…" she thought.

On the other hand, Lia was very worried about Lovely's mutant. Was she alright? Did something bad happen while the experiment was ongoing? She couldn't help thinking about it. Ever since she knew about Aesop's rotten meat experiment, she thought that it wasn't impossible to have other mutants be placed on other weird and horrible experiments.

"Sanno? Why are you still here?" Lovely asked him. "I'm going back to the room, soon. Go, work-"

"Lovely," Sanno said, looking serious. "Can we talk… in private?"

Sanno joining breakfast with them was a part of his plan. From his spy audio recorder attached to the elevator's interior, he heard employees talk about the shark mutant's transfer.

"Hey, did you know? The shark mutant is going to be taken to one of our affiliate laboratories abroad." one of them said.

"Really?" the other replied, "I want to see what the other research facility is like. They said that it's better than ours. I want to work there."

It wasn't the first time that Sanno heard about the other laboratory abroad. One thing he knew about it was, the mutants that had been cooperative with D.M. Cadre and had given lots of data from experiment results were taken there.

"My mutant will have to stay in the experimentation room the whole day today, so I didn't have to log in. I even cleaned the room yesterday." Sanno explained.

"Then, why are you here?" Lovely asked, wiping her tears.

"Let's go to my place, first."

The two of them rode the e-train out of the facility and took the e-bus to Newton Grand Towers. Sanno welcomed Lovely to his mother's unit.

"What a cozy place," Lovely said while looking around.

"Sit, please," Sanno said. He quickly went to the couch, and his guest did the same.

They sat in front of each other, and Sanno started the conversation, "It's about your mutant. Do you know where they took her?"

Lovely shook her head. "I'm so worried about her. I had doubts that she really wished to live in the ocean."

"Why?"

As Lovely recalled her conversation with Galia, she shed tears, "She said that… she wanted to perform in front of many people… so why will she wish to be free in the ocean…" she said as her tears fell on her lap. "Miss Faye also couldn't look at me in the eye these past few days, which was weird. She's hiding something..."

Sanno took two tissues from the tissue box at the coffee table and gave them to Lovely.

"Thanks, Sanno… I don't know if you understand me, but…" she wiped her tears. "I think Ms. Faye was lying."

"Don't worry, Lovely. I think they're a whole bunch of liars… especially those Core Scientists." Sanno replied. "Do you want to save your mutant?"

"Yes, but I don't know how. I am a nobody-"

"You're not a "nobody"," Sanno said. "I looked into... your father."