♞

"BOMBS. THEY SPECIALIZE IN making bombs. It's what made them rich and powerful," Cj finally reveals, and the room instantly falls silent.

     Max thought everything stopped for a second, but then as the information finally sank in, his stomach suddenly churned, and he immediately stood up and covered his mouth, almost like he was ready to vomit.

     Cj drops his cigarette and stands from his seat, looking at Max with shock and worry. "Whoa...are you alright? Did I say something wrong?"

    Max couldn't answer as he tries to calm himself down. He doesn't know why, but then his chest starts beating fast, and different emotions rushed right through him like it was a tsunami.

     "It's our little secret, Leigh. Friendships weren't always made to last," he suddenly remembers, finally making him vomit on the floor. The female voice was almost taunting him, and he couldn't help but hold onto the desk for support because he thought he was going to faint then and there.

     Still confused and dumbfounded by his reaction, Cj was about to approach Max to check on him, but as he got closer, Max pushes him away.

     Max wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and looks at Cj apologetically. "I-I'm sorry, I have to go."

     "W-what? Wait...Max..."

     Before Cj could even stop him, Max runs out of the office and slams the door, leaving Cj speechless.

     Cj didn't know what to do as he looks around the room like a lost kid. He then leans on his desk and covers his mouth, still looking dazed by how quickly it all escalated.

     As he brushes his hair back with his fingers, Cj looks up at the ceiling and says, "Something's just not adding up..." he says as he touches the brooch that's on his collar.  

     "President Cullen...what the hell did you do to those three?

...

The bell rings, and the white uniforms rush to their rooms so they wouldn't be caught by their teachers or any of the members of the Elites.

     One boy, on the other hand, was walking down the hallway like he wasn't running late at all. Students around him were in a hurry, so it was expected that someone was eventually going to bump into him since he was walking so slowly in the middle of the hallway.

    "Hey! Move away you fucking slowpoke!" Shouted the white uniform. But when he turned to look at the person who he bumped into, he almost stumbled back because of the menacing look he has on his face.

    The student he bumped into was actually a third-year gaffer. He honestly thought that he was going to get scolded or punched, but then the gaffer changed his menacing look into a charming smile in just a quick second.

     "Sorry, I'm a bit tired so I don't really have the energy to run," the gaffer says, and the student - who's a fourth-year dweller - immediately shakes his head in terror even though he was a year higher than him.

     "N-No...It's my fault. I was the one who wasn't looking," the dweller says, and before he could even wait for a response, he bows and runs away from the gaffer before things could get any worse.

    The charming smile on the student's face instantly changes and turns back into an irritated expression.

     "How dare he touch me," the gaffer says, pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket and using it to dust off the shoulder where the dweller bumped into earlier. Afterward, he made his way to the Hall of Caelus where the second-year classes could be found. Despite him being a third-year himself, he went to that building since the music room was placed there.

    When he arrived at the music room, which looked more like a recording studio, he was welcomed by three white uniforms as soon as he opened the door. One of them was tuning his bass guitar, the other one has his earphones on and was listening to music, while the third one was playing with his drum sticks.

     "Wow, look who finally decided to join our practice," the bassist says as he stares at the student who just made his entrance. "Our manager has been looking for you, Axel. You know how he is when we piss him off," he says, and the gaffer named Axel sighs and throws his bag at the sofa.

     "Our manager can jump off a cliff for all I care. He's making us his cash cow and he thinks we're not aware of it," the gaffer, whose name was actually Axel, brutally says to them, making the drummer and the bassist laugh.

    Axel Jean Dumont, the third-year gaffer, and the vocalist of J.S High's famous band, the Monarchs.

    If you don't remember, they made their first appearance during the school's first house assembly where they had a short performance to help bring the growing tension at the stadium down.

    The Monarchs is a famous band, even outside J.S High, and each member is popular on their own accord. But one member who shines brighter than the rest is none other than Axel. Axel is known to be a charming frontman who the other students tend to fawn upon. Other than his handsome face, his amazing voice, and his overflowing charisma, the vocalist cares little about his fans and would rather just write music in his bedroom all day.

     "One more gig and I'm going to quit this band," Axel complains. "Do you know what I had to go through after our gig last night? Everyone was so sweaty and smelly, and they were hugging me and taking pictures. I had to wash at least three times!"

     "You're just being overdramatic again, don't you agree, Jaehyuk?" the bassist asks, and Jaehyuk - the lead guitarist who was busy listening to music, removes his headset and nods his head to agree to it.

     Axel gets annoyed by the response of his bandmates and slumps himself beside their guitarist on the sofa.

    "My father is one of the most famous producers in the country, and my mother is one of the best singers in the world, performing in the biggest stadiums and arenas, and what do I get? An underground basement and some hippies who act like listening to a band is a personality," Axel continues to complain, making the bassist laugh harder.

    "If you want to be popular so much then why not just ask for your parents' help?" The drummer asks.

     "I haven't fallen that far to actually use the famous parent privilege card."

     "Well work hard then and suck it up. If we fail, we fail. Besides, the only reason why I learned to play bass is because you wanted to start a band when we were still freshmen students. It's not like I'm going to be depressed if we actually disband. My family has their own company after all," the bassist explains.

     "I can agree to that," the drummer then adds before pointing his drum stick at Jaehyuk. "But not Jaehyuk though. His father is a guitar legend. He was born to be in a band."

     "Believe me, I'd rather chop my hands off than be a guitar player like my father," Jaehyuk blurts out, making the rest of them, even Axel, laugh.

     Axel finally loosens up and stands back up from the sofa. "Alright, we already started this then I guess we could at least make it work."

    "That's more like it!" The bassist says, and Jaehyuk finally stands from the sofa as well and takes his electric guitar so he could stand in his position.

     Axel takes a sip of water first and stands in front of the microphone. "Heaven, we're going to be performing at the Great Hall again, right?"

    Heaven - who is the guitarist, nods his head and answers, "Yeah, it's next Monday. Since we didn't have classes last Monday, the Elites decided to move the Monthly Reranking Announcement."

    "Damn, it's another reranking. I always get nervous during that than when we perform. Do you think our ranks dropped? I don't want to be a dweller," the drummer says, genuinely worried.

     "There's no way in hell we're dropping ranks after all the merit points we acquired from this band and the other points we receive from our boss," Axel reassures them with a confident grin.

     "What I'm more worried about is the Elites. The top five haven't changed for almost two years now, but a lot of new students are getting more points than average. If I was them I'd be worried," Axel then adds, and the rest couldn't agree more.

    "Anyway, let's start..."

    Axel leans toward the music sheet stand and looks through all the songs that he wrote himself.

    "Let's perform...White Castle and..." Axel flips through the pages and continues, "Seven Weeks of Paradise, it's an upbeat song, and the students could feel less anxious after our performance."

     Jaehyuk and the others couldn't help but look at their frontman with a smile. Despite being a clean freak with a rotten attitude, he does genuinely love music and knows how to express it to the crowd.

     "Let's practice White Castle first since I want to change some things to it. We're going to be releasing our fourth digital album on Wednesday and I want to rerecord that song again," Axel says, and everyone nods their head to agree to it.

     Everyone went to their positions and got ready to practice. But as soon as they were about to start playing, the phone inside Axel's bag suddenly sets a familiar alarm. Axel's eyes widen from shock, but as soon as the alarm stops, all of them drop their instruments and head out with no hesitation.

     The four walk out of the music room, and one by one, the members of the Monarchs pulled out black leather masks. They immediately wear the mask, making sure no one spotted them, and then pulls out the Cigarette brooch in their pockets, revealing the most fearsome underlings of the Counts, the Ashes.

    The Monarchs, now the Ashes, hurriedly head to the West Tower where the Cigarettes base is located.

     It didn't take long for them to arrive at the Smoking room soon after where the Count, Orson Bloom, was waiting for them.

     "Count," Axel immediately greets with a bow, and the rest of them followed.

    "Where are the others?" Axel then asks.

     Orson - who was drinking a can of beer, stands from the sofa and tells them, "They're at class, so I'll be leaving too. The boss is waiting for you guys at the red room."

     Axel nods his head, and the four wait for Orson to take his exit first before finally walking inside the room with the red door.

     The room was quiet, and unlike the time when Max first visited, there wasn't a bleeding white uniform inside. It was only Cj, who was sitting on the sofa while reading a book.

     "Boss," everyone greets in unison before touching their chest and bowing their heads.

     Cj - who wasn't even looking at them - doesn't acknowledge the greeting and says instead, "I'm sorry to have disturbed you guys. I know you're busy with all your activities."

     Heaven immediately takes a step forward and says, "N-No boss, you didn't disturb us at all."

     Cj chuckles at the almost diligent response and finally puts the book down. "That's good then," he says. "Because I have something important that I want you to do."

    Axel nods his head and gets ready to listen to their new assignment, but then Cj looks at their drummer and says, "Roman, I asked you to bring Maximilian Sinclaire here before, right? How was he?"

     Roman, and the rest of the Ashes, were surprised by the sudden question, but Roman takes a step forward and instantly answers, "Sinclaire was a curious man, and he looked like someone who would think things through before doing something rash."

     Cj nods in agreement and touches his chin. "I see. How about the others, what do you think of him?"

     "There are times when he lets his cruel nature show, and that can be a disadvantage," Jaehyuk then adds, referring to the time when Cigarettes became his homeboy and Max asked the other counts to beat Cj up in front of the students at the Great Hall.

     Cj nods his head again to agree to it. "Right, I noticed that too."

     "I apologize boss, but why are you suddenly asking us this question? Do you want us to take your revenge on him?" Axel interrupts, confused about why their boss suddenly wants to talk about Max.

     The room falls silent, and Cj finally looks up and tells them, "I'm asking about what you think of him because I want to know if you'll be able to handle what I'm about to ask of you."

     Axel furrows his brows, and Cj stands from his seat and approaches his loyal underlings.

     "Sinclaire is only a dweller, but he's backed up with both the Barons and the Dukes. I can't do anything to him because we have an agreement with each other that I don't want to break, but you on the other hand can make it happen," Cj tells them.

     "What is it that you want us to do, boss?" Heaven asks.

     Cj walks closer to Axel and touches his shoulder, grinning widely as he did so since he knows how much Axel doesn't want to be touched, and he wouldn't even be able to push him away.

     "I want you to get acquainted with him and find out about his relationship with the vice president," Cj finally tells them.

     "Vice president Gavriil?" Roman asks in confusion.

     Cj finally lets go of Axel's shoulder, making Axel sigh in relief. He then walks to where his famous baseball bat is and takes it. "We had a meeting yesterday, a meeting with the other leaders of the four Houses. The brotherhood association wants us to investigate a cryptic message they received from an anonymous sender. They believe it's connected to the bombing incident at the Greenhouse."

     "And why is this connected with Sinclaire and the vice president?" Axel asks, still confused with what their boss wants them to do.

     Cj stares at his bat and suddenly remembers Max's reaction when he mentioned Gavriil's family. It almost looked like Max was terrified of something.

     Everything just didn't make sense to him. Cj knows some things, but he doesn't know a lot. The only thing he knows is that their old president was acquainted with Gavriil and Viktor, and at the same time, Cullen somehow knew or he was acquainted with Max too. He honestly doesn't know much else.

     But what confused him, even more, was how Max reacted when he mentioned Alexeev's family business. Because for what Cj could guess, the only major bombing incident that they might all be connected with was the Stepanov massacre in which Viktor's entire clan died. 

     Now what doesn't add up was the fact Gavriil was still friends with Viktor even after that. Max, Cullen, and Gavriil himself were there at the funeral to comfort Viktor who was the sole survivor of their clan. Cj saw it in his own eyes. He even saw Max's butler there.

     "Gavriil wouldn't have been connected with the bombing of Viktor's family. It couldn't be. His relationship with Viktor stayed the same even after that incident. Why would Viktor want to still stay with the man who killed his family, even until now?" Cj says out loud.

     "And why was Max so scared too? Did something else happen to them? Are they somehow all connected with each other?" He asks next, a question that only confused him even more.

     "B-Boss?" Axel suddenly calls out, and Cj blinks and finally looks back at the Ashes who were all looking at him with confusion.

     Cj clears his throat and puts his bat down before going back to what they were talking about. "You really don't need to know the details. I myself am still confused by them. I don't know how you'll pull through, but I need to know their past relationship. It might just be connected to every little shit that's been happening to us. Can you do it?" Cj asks them.

     The four look at each other and nod their heads before looking back at the Cigarette's notorious leader.

     "Alright boss, consider it done."

- END -