♛

"M-MAX...PLEASE HELP ME," Felix says, his voice trembling. Max's entire body freezes as he listens in to his friend's soft cries, almost like he was making sure that no one would be able to hear him. But just before Max could even say anything, Felix suddenly ended the call.

     "Shit." Max quickly dials Felix's number again, but the number was already out of reach, almost making Max throw his phone away in frustration.

     Max runs back to his room, and without even thinking about it, he immediately changes his clothes and grabs his car keys. Soon after, he opens his door and got ready to leave, but then Étienne welcomes him outside, holding his folded clothes. "Master Leigh, where are you going?" he asks in confusion while looking at Max from head to toe.

     "I need to go somewhere. Just tell Marcus that I'll be back before dinner," Max replies, patting his butler's shoulder before running off to the parking lot where his car could be found.

     Max hops on and starts the engine before driving out of their mansion, as soon as he got out, he puts his phone to the side and calls Ervin and Ari. He turns on the speaker, and after a couple of rings, the two answer the call.

     "Hey, Max, good morning," Ari greets with a happy tone.

     "What's up Max? Why'd you suddenly call?" Ervin then asks, panting heavily since he was out on the jog just before Max called him.

     Max clenches the steering wheel and glances at his phone before saying, "I talked to Felix. I called him, asking if he was alright, but then this marquis suddenly started crying and told me he needed help."

     "What?!" the two shouted in unison.

     "Are you for real? He actually cried?" Ari asks instead, missing the point that Felix could possibly be in danger.

     "Really Aristotle, our friend could be in serious shit and you're more concerned about him crying?" Ervin fires back, and the two started arguing again like how they always are.

     Max takes a deep breath and massages his temple before glancing at his phone again. "Guys! Are you for real right now? Felix is in trouble, I just know it. I should have known something was wrong. I wasn't there for him so I—"

     "Hey, stop right there Mr. Sinclaire. This isn't your fault. If there was someone to be blamed, it would have been us. We were literally with him the whole time but we didn't do anything," Ari quickly says, claiming the guilt so Max couldn't feel bad.

     "I agree with Ari, but we shouldn't be taking the blame either. We should think of something to help instead," Ervin then adds, and Max nods his head to agree to it.

     "Alright, I already have a plan. We're going to be meeting with someone, so I'll need you guys to be ready. We'll meet up at the location I'm going to send you," Max explains, and the two agreed.

     As soon as Max ended the call, he stops the car at a red light and takes his phone to send a message to a particularly skilled white uniform. Just seconds after he sent the message, a reply quickly appears on Max's screen, showing an address.

     Max reads the address carefully, and as soon as the stop light turns green, he turns to the next street and steps on the accelerator pedal, driving even faster.

     "Felix, wherever you are, please be safe. We'll come to you soon."

...

Max arrives at the location faster than he expected. He also sent the address to Ari and Ervin, so the two would probably arrive soon. Max parks beside the pavement and steps out of his car, looking at the building in front of him.

     This was Keigo's apartment, and with his help, Max would know what to do.

     "Max!" a voice calls out.

     Keigo steps out of the building and walks toward Max with a smile. Keigo was surprised and glad that Max messaged him first, and he was also excited to talk about what happened at the banquet yesterday, but when he saw the serious expression on Max's face, his expression instantly falls too. "What happened?" He asks as he stops in front of Max.

     Max doesn't say anything, but to his surprise, the heir bows to him and says, "Please, I need your help."

     Keigo's eyes widened from shock. He quickly looked around at the people who walked past them and were giving Keigo weird looks, so Keigo panicked and immediately asked Max to stand properly. "P-Please stop," Keigo begs, grabbing Max's shoulder so he would stop bowing to him. "You need my help? Then don't bow like that. We're friends, aren't we? That's what you said."

     Max smiles at Keigo and nods at him, making Keigo smile as well.

     "Alright, then let's head inside. You can tell me everything after," Keigo says as he leads Max to his apartment which was on the 9th floor.

     Unlike Gavriil's apartment that Max and Keigo went to before, Keigo's apartment was definitely smaller. And when they got inside, Max was surprised to see the ton of books that were scattered everywhere, almost making it look more like a library than an apartment.

     "I apologize if it's a bit messy. You messaged me so suddenly that I wasn't able to tidy up," Keigo explains, picking up a pile of books from the sofa and putting it back inside his room.

     "No, it's fine. I should be the one who should apologize."

"Oh don't be silly," Keigo says, gesturing at the now empty sofa so Max could take a seat.

     Max thanks him and sits down. Keigo then takes a glass of water and hands it over to Max before asking, "So, what happened?"

     "It's about Felix," Max explains before taking a sip of the water that Keigo gave him. "I called him an hour ago because I wanted to ask if he was okay, but when I talked to him, he suddenly told me that he needed my help, and then the call ended soon after. I couldn't call him anymore after that."

     When Keigo heard what Max has to say, he sat beside Max on the sofa and took a deep breath. "I might know what it could be about," Keigo honestly tells him, and Max looks back at him and says, "It's about the case with your father, isn't it?"

     Keigo was surprised that Max already knew about it, but he didn't try to question him as he nodded his head instead. "That's right. On the day you were talking to Siren, Felix and I waited for you outside. I didn't really have any bad intentions, I just genuinely wanted him to know about his grandfather's involvement with my father's crime."

     "So it's true then? That his family was supposed to get a sum if you successfully stole the money from that big company?" Max asks, and Keigo takes another deep breath before nodding his head to confirm it.

     Max doesn't say anything and massages his temple instead. He was hoping that Étienne just got it all wrong, but hearing it from Keigo, Max could only stay quiet.

     "I don't know how he took that information, but your friend must have done something about it. He must have tried to confirm it himself, but he ended up getting in trouble because of it. Of course, that's just an assumption," Keigo explains.

     "Our friend," Max then corrects.

     Keigo was surprised, but he smile and nods his head. "Our friend," Keigo repeated.

     Max was about to say something so they could plan start making plans, but then someone suddenly knock on the door, interrupting the two.

     "Oh yeah, I called our other friends too. They want to help," Max explains, and Keigo walks towards the door and opens it, revealing two of the most powerful gaffers in their year, Ari and Ervin.

     As soon as Keigo saw them, he couldn't help but gulp. It feels like he was facing two loan sharks who were ready to collect his debt. The two of them were definitely intimidating. "C-Come in?" Keigo asks instead of saying, making Ervin chuckle.

     "You letting us in or what?" Ari then asks, making Ervin hit his head because of the way he asked his question.

    Ari glared at Ervin, but then Keigo moves away from the doorframe so the two could finally head inside. "Sorry, please come in."

     Ari and Ervin finally got inside the apartment, Ervin excusing himself for the intrusion, while Ari started looking around like he already owned the place.

     "Guys!" Max calls out, standing from his seat to greet his friends. When Ari saw his friend, he quickly runs to him and gives him a hug, while Ervin just smiles, glad to see Max too.

     "I didn't know I'd have three gaffers in my apartment. I think I'm going to faint," Keigo suddenly says while he stared at Max and the others, almost fanboying over them.

     Ervin then turns to look at him and furrowed his brows in confusion. "Is he blushing?" Ervin asks, and Max pushes Ari away and answers, "Just let him be. Keigo has a fascination over people he finds cool."

     While Keigo tried to calm himself down, Ari and Max sat back on the sofa. "So, what's the plan? What are we doing at Kawanishi's apartment?" Ari asks.

     Max pulls out his phone and shows it to his friends. "We're not really sure where Felix could be, but he answered my call earlier. With this, we can track his number and look for his location. After that, we can try and rescue him, assuming he's in a situation where he needs to be rescued," Max explains to them.

     "And how on earth are we going to do that?" Ari then asks.

     Max smiles and looks back at Keigo who was now holding two glasses of water for his new guests. "Well everyone, I present to you the world's greatest hacker, Kawanishi Keigo," Max introduces.

     Ari and Ervin looked back at Keigo who shyly handed them their drinks. "Well, I'm not really the world's greatest hacker. Maybe just in the city," Keigo humbly explains, making Ervin chuckle again while Ari just rolled his eyes.

     "Anyway, if that's your plan then shall we begin?" Keigo asks, and Max hands him his phone. Keigo then leads the three of them to his bedroom where his computer could be found. Ari and the others were expecting to see a room filled with screens and wires, just like the ones in movies, but when they got to his room, they were surprised to see a bed and an old computer instead.

     "Wait, this is it? That's anti-climatic," Ari comments.

     "Hey, let's not be stereotypical here. And besides, I don't know why hackers in movies always get the best computers when older computers are way harder to track," Keigo explains before taking a seat in front of his computer while the three stood around him.

     "So, what now?" Ervin then asks.

     Keigo connects Max's phone to his computer and started encoding something. When he clicked enter on his keyboard, a loading bar appeared on his screen. "Now, we wait," Keigo answers. "It might take a while to track his location. Hopefully, he didn't turn his phone off."

"Thanks, Keigo," Max says, and Keigo smiles, glad he could help in any way. Ari and Ervin then sat on the edge of Keigo's bed for the time being, while Max sat on the extra chair beside Keigo, the four of them waiting for the loading bar to be finished.

     "I can't believe the first thing we're doing together is this," Ari then says, making Max, Ervin, and even Keigo laugh.

     "Well, our bonding has always been crazy. We never really just hang out as normal friends do," Ervin then adds, and the three couldn't help but nod in agreement.

     Max smiles and looks at his friends, but after a while, he suddenly realized something, making the smile on his face turn into a frown. Other than the fact that he knows how capable they are in J.S High, Max doesn't really know a lot about them outside their school, especially Felix. Felix has always been secretive. For heaven's sake, they didn't know he was a marquis for the longest time.

     "I've always had this mindset that I don't have to check on you guys because I know how you can all handle yourselves well, even Felix. Felix, despite his innocent persona, has always been the smartest out of all of us. He knew what to do and what not to do. I always thought that he was going to be okay, but I guess I was wrong," Max says, remembering how Felix's voice shook when he asked for his help for the first time.

     Ari, Ervin, and Keigo became quiet as they carefully listened to what Max had to say, especially when this was something that Max has been contemplating about even in the past.

     "Well, to be fair, none of us knows anything about Felix or his family. I guess none of it really mattered to any of us, and it's not because we didn't care, it's just that it was never important to us, to begin with. We never really judged each other based on our family background anyway," Ari explains, and Ervin and even Keigo couldn't help but agree.

     "I guess you're right, but you guys have supported me in all aspects of my life, and that includes the issues in my family as well. Maybe it's about time we try and support Felix this time," Max sincerely suggests.

    The four of them became quiet again, but then Keigo's computer suddenly made a beeping sound, and the sound instantly made Max and the others stand from where they were seated to look at the screen.

    "Feels like we're doing another task," Keigo comments before clicking something. The image on the screen changes, and then a map appears. On a map is a beeping circle that's placed on a specific.

     "Is that it? Is that where Felix is?" Ari asks, leaning closer to see the screen better.   

     "Most probably, assuming he didn't leave his phone and went somewhere else," Keigo answered, zooming in to get a closer look. When they saw the address, Max tilts his head to the side and asks, "Do you know what this place is?"

     "Let me check."

     Keigo clicks on the address and searched it up. It took a while, but after a few searches, a picture of a huge mansion appears on their screen, almost leaving Keigo and the others speechless.

     "Holy shit, what on earth is that? Is that their house?" Ari asks in shock.

     "It seems like it," Keigo answers, amazed by what they were seeing. Even Max was surprised because the building was three times bigger than their own mansion.

     "So he's in his house," Max says. "Something definitely happened to his family. I think our assumption was right."

     "What assumption?" Ervin asks, and Max and Keigo look back at each other before looking back at their two other friends. Keigo then nods his head towards Max, giving him the go signal.

     "A few years ago, Keigo's father made a plan to steal money from a company. His father got caught, and so now he's in jail. Unfortunately, in this same criminal case, Felix's grandfather was involved in it as well. Knowing Felix, he probably tried to check if it was true, and then his family must have found out what he was trying to do," Max explains, leaving Ervin and Ari surprised since this is the first time they've heard of all this.

     "Wait, I remembered what you said before about how you first saw Felix at some kind of event and he was being guarded by a ton of guards. If that was really the case, then it's confirmed that his family is shady as fuck," Ari explains.

     "Yeah, that was at a gala. Felix was with his parents and sister, and then there were at least five guards surrounding him specifically," Max explains, and this shocked Keigo and Ervin this time.

     "Five guards? For real? Why on earth are they protecting him so much? What kind of kid is he?" Ervin asks, and none of them could really answer him. Even Max, who has been harmed in the past for being a famous heir, doesn't have guards protecting him when he goes places. The most his family has done for his security is leave a GPS on his phone.

     "So what now? Do we just...go there?" Keigo then asks.

     "That's really the only thing we can do for now. And besides, we're just going to visit and check if he's alright. It's not like we're going to do anything," Max says, and the three looked at each other and nodded their heads to agree to the plan.

     "Alright then, let's go," Ervin declares, and the four friends immediately got ready and went out of Keigo's apartment, riding in Max's car to head to the location to save their dear friend.

     The location was farther than they thought, and it was even difficult to find in the GPS, which would make sense since it's a house of a rich businessman. Thankfully Keigo connected his phone to his computer, so he has a more detailed copy of where the location can be found.

     "I told you, it's possible that we're going to host the Elite School Convention this year because Max won Mr. Brains and Brawn," Ari explains while they were inside the car.

     Ervin, who was sitting at the back with Keigo, looks at Ari who was sitting at the front and tells him, "I'm pretty sure it's going to be hosted again at another school. Those preppy schools would rather burn their campus to the ground before stepping their foot on J.S High."

    "Actually, president Ian and the others are trying to make J.S High the host school for that convention," Max interrupts, his eyes still concentrated on the road.

     "Ha! I told you," Ari excitedly says, making Ervin roll his eyes in annoyance.

     "Why are you so excited about the convention? Isn't it like a week-long event where the schools are just showing off? It's filled with presentations, music, and all type of programs. It's really not my style," Keigo comments. Even though he's known for being a class clown and a guy who you can easily hang out with, Keigo's still an introvert at heart and would rather read books and stare at his computer all day.

     "Well then Kawanishi, things are about to change. Now that you're a part of us, we're going to shit on that convention as if our lives depend on it. After all, we're all about showing off here. We pretend that we hate it, but we actually love the attention," Ari reveals, making Max laugh. Even Ervin who keeps things quiet couldn't help but smile and nod his head to agree to it.

     "I'm lowkey starting to regret joining your group," Keigo says, making his new friends laugh even more.

     "Well, you can regret that later because we're here," Max says as a large gate appears in front of them. All his friends looked out of their window, gawking over the marvelous structure.

     "What on earth is this? This looks like J.S High," Ari comments.

     As Max stops right in front of the large gate, four guards appear and start scanning his vehicle. One of them then goes to Max's window and knocks on it, making Max pull the window down to greet him.

     "Good morning. We're here to see Felix Campbell," Max says, and the guard removes his glasses and stares at Max. Ari and the others thought that the guard would recognize him, but to their surprise, he says, "Your I.D sir."

     Ari was about to complain, but Max stops him and pulls out his wallet to comply. He then takes an identification card and hands it over to him. "Here you go."

     The guard scans the card, and soon after, the other guards went to him and the four of them started talking amongst each other. The guard who was holding onto his card then starts talking to someone from his earpiece, after about three minutes, he walks back to Max and gives him his card back.

     Max and his friends thought that they were going to let him in, but to their surprise, the guard looks at him and says instead, "Mr. Sinclaire, it seems that you and the men you are with are not allowed to enter. The young master is also asking you to leave, so you may turn your car and head back."

     "I'm sorry? Why not? You can tell Felix that we're—"

    "Maximilian Leigh Sinclaire, Aristotle Faulkner, Ervin Walker, and Kawanishi Keigo, the four of you are banned from entering the premise, as well as speaking to the young master. If you do not want us to use force, we suggest you leave now," the guard then threatens.

     "What the fuck man?!" Ari retaliates, but Max stops him again because he noticed that the other guards are already reaching for their guns. It would be a bigger problem if they point it at them.

     "Alright, we're leaving," Max says with a sigh before turning his car back. While he was driving off, Ari and the rest looked back at him and showed them their disapproval of what went down.

     "What was that? What do you mean by banned? Are they fucking crazy?" Ari angrily asks.

     "They acted like we were going to kidnap him," Ervin then adds, making Max sigh because he's as frustrated as they were.

     "It doesn't make sense, why would Felix ask us to leave after asking me for help?" Max confusingly says. "It's obvious that something's not right. There has to be a reason why they don't want us to see him."

     "And what are you planning to do then? You saw those guards out there. They looked fucking ripped. Even if we try to fight back, we'll definitely get shot by them," Ari then says, and Max takes a deep breath and thinks of a plan.

     But as Max was thinking of a way that might get them to see Felix, Max suddenly remembered what Ervin said just a couple of seconds ago. With a mischievous grin on his face, he looks back at his friends and told them, "If they're going to be like that then it's settled. We're going to kidnap him."

- END -