ANTECEDENT: CHAPTER 28

WHEN LOVE woke up, the three fed him, then they hurriedly went to the bus stop to catch the bus going to town, where they would ride the train to go to Milan. It was such a hassle commuting, but after a whole of traveling, they finally arrived in Milan.

Hindi problema ni Midnight at Love ang eroplano na sasakyan patungong London. Kailangan lang nilang tumawag sa Orgánosi's Rome headquarters to charter a plane for them, and it was ready in an hour.

Kaya naman ng dumating ang apat sa Milan, bago sumakay ng eroplano si Midnight at Love, nag-withdraw muna ng pera si Midnight na iiwan niya sa kambal pambayad sa nanakaw nilang camper van.

Love and the twins were waiting for Midnight a few distances away from the ATM when they saw Midnight called someone on his phone after stepping away from the ATM.

Midnight was in a call for a long time before putting his phone back into his pocket and walking toward the twins and Love.

"What happened?" Tanong ni Blake. Midnight's face was impassive, but Blake could feel from Midnight's gait that he was upset.

Midnight exhaled. "All my cards are blocked."

Umawang ang labi ni Love. He immediately understood what had happened. As for the twins, they just smiled and teased Midnight.

"Looks like Mister-marami-akong-pera is nowhere to be found."

Midnight looked at Blaze flatly.

"Hayaan mo na." Ani Blake saka tinapik ang balikat ni Midnight. "We're only slightly broke. We can manage."

Tumango si Blaze. "Hmm. Listen to Blakey. He knows best when it comes to our finances."

Midnight nodded but he did not say a word after that. The twins let him be until it was time to go to the boarding area.

Blake handed Midnight a card.

Hindi kaagad 'yon tinanggap ni Midnight. Sa halip ay nagtatanong ang mga mata nitong tumingin kay Blake.

"Take it." Si Blake na ang naglagay ng card sa kamay ni Midnight. "It only has a small amount. Just enough for you to get by until you find money on your own."

Midnight's lips parted but no words came out. He was speechless. Alam naman niyang hindi talaga 'broke' ang magkambal pero nagbabawas pa rin ang dalawa ng gastusin. So, for Blake to gave him some pocket money just because his cards were blocked by his father, he didn't know what to feel.

He suddenly recalled his classmate's words when he was in the university for only two weeks before he was pulled out.

'Who would give me allowance other than my family?'

Midnight's mouth tightened into a straight line before accepting Blake's care. "Thank you."

Blake just smiles, as if it were no big deal, but to Midnight it was something precious that he didn't know how to show his appreciation other than saying thank you.

"I'll add money to it until you're stable." Dagdag ni Blake saka masuyong tinulak si Midnight patungong boarding area. "Go. Be careful. Don't forget to call us to let us know if you're still alive, okay?"

Tumango si Midnight saka nilapitan ang airport staff na sumalubong sa kanila kanina at nagbigay ng bagong passport niya dahil nasama sa camper van na ninakaw ang bag niya kung saan naroon ang travel documents niya.

Midnight was not concerned about it because his travel documents, a.k.a., his few passports with different names provided to him by Dominick, were put in a nano vault—a standard safety case given to each member of the Orgánosi for their travel documents. Once forcefully opened, it'll self-destruct.

Passing through the boarding area, he and Love were guided to their plane. While waiting for takeoff, Midnight called Dominick.

Hindi pa nakakapagsalita si Midnight ng sagutin ni Dominick ang tawag niya pero kaagad itong nagsalita.

"Look who's calling! My ungrateful fictional son! Why fictional? Because he seemed to have disappeared like he's just my hallucination!"

Dominick was being dramatic again and Midnight just sigh and let him be dramatic until the old man had enough. Thankfully, it was just for a full minute. Midnight endured it.

"So, why you called?" Dominick suddenly asked in a serious voice after being dramatic, as if he did not just act like a drama queen a second ago.

"I lost the passports you gave me."

For a short time, Dominick was silent, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard, before he finally spoke, his voice laced with disbelief. "Come again?"

"I lost all my passports." Midnight repeated.

Dominick have fallen silent once again before asking, "say that again?"

Midnight closed his eyes, trying to be patient with the old man. "I lost all my passports. Can you send me new ones?"

A slow, deep breath escaped Dominick's lips; a sound like "Hah..." followed by a long silence. "I think my ears are not working properly. What did you say again?"

Midnight pressed his lips together and did not repeat himself this time. "Now, you're just annoying."

With a sharp click of his tongue, Dominick expressed his disapproval. "You've changed, Night. You're not like this before. You used to be so silent before that I sometimes think you don't have a mouth."

"I was with you when I was recovering. I probably became like this because you're noisy." Midnight retaliated.

Dominick let out a scoff. "And now you know how to talk back, you ungrateful fictional son!" He clicked his tongue again. "Whatever. Anyway, how did you lose your passports?"

Now it was Midnight's time to be silent.

"Night?"

Midnight cleared his throat. Hesitating for a brief moment, "Well, about that..." he braced himself for what was coming after this—a dramatic reaction from Dominick. "Love and I were traveling with friends and our camper van was stolen while we're having dinner. My bag is in there."

As expected, there was once again a dramatic silent on the other line.

Patiently, Midnight awaited Dominick's response. He knew it was coming, yet what he received was not an expected response, but an annoying and condescending laugh that made him feel annoyed.

Dominick was laughing hysterically as he recounted the story to Klaus and Happy, who seemed to be beside him.

Midnight exhaled, and Dominick laughed even more.

"A continental boss in training...stolen camper van...idiots...I can't believe it." Dominick was laughing in between his words and Midnight, just stayed silent.

"Dad, it's not funny." Midnight overheard Happy reprimanding her father in the background. "Midnight must have been traumatized!"

Yes, Happy! Tell that annoying father of yours! Tell him! Midnight was screaming in his head. But I'm not traumatized, of course. "Thanks, Happy."

"You're welcome." Happy responded, still from the background.

At the same time, when the word "traumatized" was uttered, the old man erupted into a maniacal laughter, prompting Midnight to end the call.

Seeing his boss inhaling deeply and exhaling loudly, Love knew his boss was controlling his temper from exploding.

Although his boss always maintains an impassive expression and a thick, pretentious mask in public, Midnight, in contrast, is actually someone who gets angry easily. His boss was just so good at making it look like he wasn't.

And it seemed whoever it was just now, Midnight sounded completely exasperated with the person on the phone.

"Your father?" Love asked his boss. It was just a guess based on Midnight's reaction.

Midnight grimaced. "No. Just an annoying old man."

"Dominick?"

"Yeah."

Love nodded. He understood. Dominick could be really annoying sometimes—no, most of the time.

Midnight phone rang. It was Dominick calling.

"What?" Midnight asked in an impatient voice.

Dominick chuckled. He really like the Midnight now who could express his emotion. "So sensitive." He clicked his tongue. "I'll ask Ruthgar to make you a few passports so you can fly under the radar of your amazing father. Now, where's my thank you, hmm?"

Midnight tsked at Dominick instead. "I hate the word amazing." Then ended the phone call.

Dominick nearly suffered a hypertension because of Midnight. On the other hand, Midnight felt better than he was able to piss the old man.

Midnight then calls the flight attendant to ask, "still not taking off, yet?"

The flight attendant relayed the information given by the pilot. "There's a bit of an air traffic, Sir. We're sixth on the line up."

"Thanks." Midnight responded before looking down at his phone.

Coincidentally, his eyes settled on the ALONE app. It had been so long since he opened the app, but it remained installed on his phone. Since GodFavoredMe sent their last message, Midnight's already waning interest in the app completely disappeared.

Why had he not uninstalled it yet? He did not know.

Midnight's thumb hovered over the ALONE app. A short while later, he finally tapped it open and went to the messages.

There was only GodFavoredMe in there with their brief conversations and his short replies. How he wished he could tell this person that he was okay now, that he could now communicate and hold conversations. He wanted to tell this person that he now had friends and was traveling for work.

However, the person who patiently talked with him, answered his odd questions, taught him to converse and hold conversations in his own way, and helped him try to honestly express his emotions, had said goodbye while he was recovering in the laboratory.

He couldn't even say a proper goodbye to this person who was patient and kind enough to worry about him.

Midnight sighed and read his last message to GodFavoredMe a few months ago.

'I don't know when you'll be able to read this, but I'm doing fine now. If you need anything, anything at all, just contact me.'

Underneath that message was his phone number.

Maybe GodFavoredMe would read it someday, or maybe GodFavoredMe had left the ALONE app for good. Judging by their farewell message, that's what GodFavoredMe intended to convey.

Midnight exited the ALONE app and turned to Love. "Do you know about the ALONE app for Orgánosi members?"

Love frowned when he heard that weird ass app recommended by Dominick. "That app with weird people in it?"

Midnight, for some reason, felt like the comment was aimed at him. "It's not that weird..." he recalled the weirdest shit he had read in that app and paused. "Well...there were some good people in there."

Love nodded. "Did Dominick recommend that app to you? Because he did the same thing to me. I was in ALONE app for about a week before I left because I realized, everyone in there was either depressed or suicidal." Love sighed. "I mean, with the line of work the Orgánosi members are in, who wouldn't be?"

Depressed and suicidal. These words struck Midnight because he recalled GodFavoredMe first ever post in that app. It's about harming themselves. But they got better in the end...right?

"After I got better at hacking, I was exposed to a lot of stuff and damn...the world is very scary." Love shook his head in disbelief. "The amount of horrible things on the internet made me not want to leave my house. But then I realized, those scums will victimize many people if not stopped and if I can help save some people using my hacking skills, why not? So I entered Orgánosi against Dominick's wishes."

That surprised Midnight. "The old man didn't want you in the Orgánosi?"

Love gave Midnight a knowing look. "Have you seen my nonexistent stamina, lack of fighting skills, and narcolepsy?"

Midnight pulled an 'I understand' look. "I guess anyone would worry."

Love shrugged. "But I have a goal. Before I became your tracker, I was part of the Orgánosi's CID."

"The Central Intelligence Division?"

"Hmm."

"Wait—was that the high-paying job you were talking about?"

"Yep." Love grinned before he lost his smile. "I was in the Child P*rn*graphy Department. Our focus is hunting those scums who lives off on consuming and selling those kinds of videos. But you know what's more horrible that those videos? It's the fact that after we bring down a predator, another one will pop out. It's endless, and those videos scarred the fuck out of me. When I left the team, I was reluctant, but Dominick told me I could do more if I became your tracker, so here I am."

Before Midnight could respond, the pilot announced that they're ready for take off.

Midnight and Love immediately strapped in and waited for the plane to be in the cruising altitude before continuing their conversation.

More than two hours later, their plane landed in London. They immediately went to the Orgánosi's headquarters underneath Racini's Hotel and informed Parisi that he had arrived.

"Good to hear," Parisi shot his target in the head and handed his gun to his Ultor. "Your amazing team has already been assembled for you. Good luck."

Midnight just grimaced and ended the call.

And just as Parisi said. His 'amazing' team had indeed been assembled and when he finally met them the next day, it made him feel like his last 'amazing' teammate were experts.

CECELIB | C.C.