||
The entire audience was silent, staring at Leon with widened eyes.
I too looked at him with stupefied eyes.
Just...
"Ungrateful. Un—"
"Leon, stop it."
Aoife said all of a sudden.
"Hm?"
"I know you've been exploited by Julien, but the task was to say one word. You're way over the word limit."
"....Oh."
Leon bit his lips, looking all sad.
What the fuck?
"I get it. I'm sorry."
"It's nothing. We all get you."
Kiera waved her hand dismissively. She seed to understand him.
"It doesn't look like you have a single person supporting you. How do you feel, Julien?"
Suddenly directed a question, I was a bit taken aback, but I quickly recomposed myself before answering.
"Honestly? I'm not surprised. They've never quite liked from the start."
"No, wait..."
Feeling a little bad, Aoife waved her hand. The others followed right after.
"We were joking."
"Yeah."
"Right... We were, right?"
What's with the hesitation?
"Is that so...?"
I looked at Theresa who flicked her head away from .
"Her reaction seems to say otherwise."
"Yeah, but her situation is a bit different. She hates everyone, so you aren't being left out on
that one."
"That's true."
I nodded after contemplating Aoife's words. She wasn't wrong. Currently, Theresa hated all of us. Not that I was worried. She was probably going to get over her phase within the next couple of days or so.
Or at least, I hoped it would be the case.
"You guys seem to have quite the chemistry."
Dyrk said after alternating his gaze between and the girls. He seed to be studying us with keen interest.
"How long have you known each other? For you to have such chemistry with them, you must've worked with them for quite a long ti."
"About that..."
How should I answer this? I didn't know what he was talking about. Chemistry? What chemistry? They were all bashing .
I was about to answer the question when Aoife beat to it.
"A year technically, but considering how he tends to disappear whenever he wants, we've probably known him for about a month."
The entire studio fell silent at her words, with the gazes of the people around us becoming even more apparent. Not that I could bla them. I too would've been surprised if I were in their position.
"Known him for about a month?"
"Yeah."
Aoife nodded, crossing her arms and sinking deep into the sofa.
"There was a ti when he disappeared for an entire half a year. Ah, that was right before the Summit too."
"Why is that?"
"Well, I don't know. He never tells us why he disappears and we don't really ask."
As Aoife continued speaking, I felt the gazes of those around change. From surprise, to
what felt like pity. Yes, pity. When I turned to see where those stares ca from, I was surprised to see that they ca from the other cadets.
It suddenly clicked then.
'Do they think I have so sort of chronic illness?'
"No, I'm not sick. I just... have things to do."
"Wow."
Dyrk directed his gaze toward .
"I hope you get better."
"Wait, I'm not-
"Eish. I understand. You might not want to talk about this. I'll switch the topic for you."
With an exasperated look, Dyrk switched the topic.
"You may not realize it now, but I'm sure you'll get an earful from our viewers when this episode cos out. For now, let's switch to the last and final segnt."
The lights around us dimd, and a recording device was wheeled in.
"Our daily lives!"
The recording device ca alive.
"For the last segnt, we will now display short clips of the groups here and their daily lives. We asked each group a few days ago to send whatever they had, and this is the accumulation of the clips that we have been sent."
Hold on. I blinked, struggling to understand his words. This was the second ti this had been ntioned to , and it was also the second ti that I struggled to understand what
was happening.
Clips? What clips?
Why was I totally clueless about this?
"Who should we start with first? Hmm. How about the first years? This looks entertaining."
A video started playing on the television all of a sudden. On it were the mbers of the first years. They were a male group composed of four young n. They were all handso, and in the clip, they showed several funny clips of what they did in their daily lives, and a little bit of banter here and there.
I wasn't going to lie and say it was boring. It was fun. Very fun.
Unlike before, I actually felt that this segnt was extrely interesting. Yet, for so
reason, I couldn't enjoy it.
My mind kept wondering about the clips, and what our clips were going to be about.
Leon had most likely taken it upon himself to do the clips considering how the others didn't look like the type to be interested in doing these things. It made sense, but the thought scared
.
Just what exactly was he going to show?
Ti seed to pass both fast and slow as clips after clips were shown. The backstage atmosphere had markedly shifted from its earlier gloomy and tense state to a more pleasant
one.
And then it ca.
Our clip.
"The second clip is up next! Let's see what we have. I'm rather curious."
He wasn't the only one that seed keen on watching the video. The people in the audience,
and even so of the other teams seed to look forward to the clip.
I was too, but at the sa ti, I felt very apprehensive.
Click.
The video started.
"Check. Check. Is the video working? Check?"
The first one to appear in the video was Evelyn who extended her hands to touch the cara.
But she was promptly slapped away by another hand as Leon's voice echoed through the
speakers.
As expected, Leon was the one in charge of this.
"Evelyn, don't touch the recording. It's working. I'm recording."
"Oh... Is that so...?" Licking her lips, Evelyn took a step back and twirled her hair. Then, casting a quick glance at
the cara, she shyly waved.
"Hey..."
"What?"
"What are you doing?"
"I'm... I'm kind of shy. I didn't expect there to be so many people watching."
"There's only watching."
Evelyn rolled her eyes.
"Play along, will you?"
"I don't have ti to play along. We only have a couple of minutes to shoot this video."
The cara shifted away from Evelyn.
"Hey! Wait! Let's re-do it!"
"No! Get away from !"
"Vice Director!"
Leon's refusal and the obvious tussling that was happening behind the cara caused so
of the people around to laugh.
The heavy pants of both Evelyn and Leon echoed through the speakers as they continued to
tussle against one another.
"L,Leon! Let !"
"I said no!"
The cara ended up resting on a nearby counter which was directed toward the far end of the common, near the corridor leading up to the dorm room as Evelyn and Leon started fighting in the background. And if one looked closely, they'd spot a small figure hiding behind the very
wall the cara was pointed to.
'Just what is she doing?'
"Hey!? What's with all the noise? Can you keep it down?"
Clank-!
Kiera rushed down the stairs with a frown. Twirling her pinkie in her ear, she scowled and
glared in the direction of Evelyn and Leon while briefly glancing at the recording device.
"It's three in the afternoon, and I'm trying to sleep so keep it d-"
"Boo!"
"Mot******! S***! F*** !"
The video bleeped continuously as Kiera jumped up in the air, and shouted.
"Where did this gremlin-looking midget co from?!"
Wait, hold on...?
Laughter rippled through the room as all eyes turned toward Kiera, who sank into the sofa in
an attempt to hide her face. On the other hand, a small smile graced Theresa's lips as she
arrogantly looked around and nudged her head whenever soone t her gaze.
'You saw that didn't you? That was ,' was what she was trying to imply with her gaze. This
was all caught by the recording devices around.
The clip continued.
"Kiera, you know better than to swear in front of a child?"
Aoife was the next one to co out of her room as she started to berate Kiera who was
clenching her heart.
"What? I almost died from a heart attack. Have so damn sympathy for your classmates."
"Oh please. As if you're going to die from sothing as little as that. You've been up against
scarier opponents."
"Like what?"
"Like Julien whenever he tells a joke."
"Ah."
With a look of sudden realization, Kiera casually nodded her head and returned to her usual
nonchalant look.
"If you put it that way, then you're right."
Hold on a second...
"That's that."
Having dealt with the situation, Aoife seed to be pleased with herself and turned to head
back into her room, when all of a sudden she jumped up in the air.
"Mot******! S***! F*** !"
The video once again bleeped as Aoife started throwing curses.
"When did you get here?!"
Her anger was directed toward Delilah who had appeared behind her out of nowhere, a
chocolate bar in her hand. Nonchalantly eating one, she tilted her head.
"I've always been here. Why?"
"No, you scared ."
"Oh."
With a nod, Delilah returned her attention back to the chocolate.
I stared at the scene with wide eyes.
What in the hell is she doing there? Turning my head, my eyes t with Delilah's. Strangely,
her face was a little red.
"Hold on a second. Wait a second. Hold up. Pause."
Massaging her forehead, Kiera looked at Aoife.
"...Are you just going to ignore what just happened? Let's set aside the fact that you
completely copied every word that I said, but should I remind you of the words you literally
said to a couple of seconds ago?"
"No, that's-"
Kiera started to directly quote Aoife's words.
"Kiera, you know better than to swear in front of a child?"
"Oh please. As if you're going to die from sothing as little as that. You've been up against
scarier opponents."
It was now Aoife's turn to sink into the sofa as her gaze wandered away from the projection.
The laughter continued to spread in the studio.
"Keum."
Aoife turned her head away from Kiera.
"You've got no proof of any of that happening."
"No, I actually do."
Kiera's eyes briefly shifted toward the recording device that rested on the counter.
"Uh?"
Aoife blinked, and it was then that she suddenly noticed the cara that was pointed at them.
Her face instantly flushed red and she dashed toward it.
"Hell no!"
Two arms desperately clung to Aoife's leg as she made a dash for the cara.
"Kiera! Let go! I'm telling you as the group's leader! You better let go or this won't well end
for you!"
"Do your best!"
And so. Another fight broke out.
"Let go you bit**!"
"Over my dead body!"
In the span of a couple of minutes, two fights had broken out and one could still hear the
muffled sound of Evelyn and Leon fighting at the back.
"L,leon?!"
"No ans no!"
"Akh!"
To make matters worse, Delilah and Theresa watched the spectacle with interest from the
back as Delilah slowly ate her candy. From ti to ti the other cadets would co down to
watch what was happening before fleeing the scene.
It was a ss.
A terrible ss.
Click.
The clip ended shortly after that.
A brief silence hung in the studio as everyone's attention was on the girls who had practically
sunk into the deepest pits of the sofa with the exception of Theresa. Then, a lot of people broke into smiles and light laughter as the girls sank even deeper into the sofa. Staring at the scene, I didn't have it in to laugh. I was at a loss for words. I really didn't
know what to say.
Damn it! I was gone for just a few days and this was the end result?
What sort of situation was this?
'No, never mind. I should be glad I was gone. If not I would've been implicated."
I sighed in relief when my thoughts paused there.
Trring-!
Then, I felt my communication device vibrate in my pocket, and I excused myself for a
mont.
-So, is everything done? How's the situation?
It was Leon.
Eh? Leon? Wasn't he...?
"How are you talking to ?"
-I recorded the ssage beforehand.
"Huh? Why would you?"
-I thought you might not like clip.
The clip was fine. It didn't implicate anyway.
Not sure he would think I would not like it.
-I an the second clip.
"Eh?"
Second one?
My mouth suddenly paused.
There was another one?
And then I turned around to see my face displayed on the screen of the recording device.
Before I knew it, a curse escaped my lips.
"Oh... fuck."
Reviews
All reviews (0)