Group Chat Name:
Where'd the first fuck go
Time:
2 : 2 5 am

— Venus entered the chatroom —

TheReflectiveSurfaceofMySoul: Halt. Read the title, dear.

LO1: Oh look who decided to orbit back over here after a day.

M&M: Fun fact, a day on Venus lasts longer than a year, love.

Pooh: :D

Venus: Why do I feel like I'm being shoved beneath an atmospheric pressure combination of shade and pettiness?

Beta: That you are.

Venus: Beta. Where've you been man?

Beta: Oh you know, here and there. Couldn't log on because of a minor thing.

Venus: And to what extent is your 'minor thing?' Care to elaborate?

M&M: He lost track of time and fell asleep. Been so involved in our assignments that the exhaustion finally got to him.

LO1: Or so we have gathered. The team's giving him the benefit of a doubt since he did show up and you know, mentioned about the assignment.

Venus: Is that so? Have we disclosed everything to team leader yet?

Pooh: :D

Venus: I'm assuming that's where we're heading now then, discussions on the assignment, that is.

TheReflectiveSurfaceofMySoul: Precisely. Mind forwarding the documents again, V? By the time Beta got on, the files had been lost.

LO1: Speaking of disappearing, why did you leave again, Venus?

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My weary eyes grazed across my laptop before it wandered aimlessly to my window. The night was pitch-black, save a few fainted stars that managed to pull you out of your illusions. I couldn't see the neighborhood nor hear much life going on in the adjacent houses below.

The room itself buzzed of unsettling silence. The folder laid un-bothered by touching hands and lurking eyes, waiting to be started on. I subconsciously found myself eyeing my bedroom door with furrowed brows and steady breaths as I leaned my head against my balled-up knuckles that were propped up on my legs.

Taking off my round night glasses, I set it carefully on the table next to me. What excuse... would be good? Better yet, why am I hiding the fact that I have a strange man in my apartment? The reassuring thing was that he'd be leaving soon, and then it'd be like nothing happened.

"But he said we would see each other again..." I talked to myself with a defeated tone. Why'd he say that? Was he planning to stalk me? I shook my head violently and sighed, smashing my head into my pillow with a loud thud as the cold surface of my pillow cloth engulfed either sides of my cheeks.

Apparently, our team was a mess today and didn't get much accomplished. The procedures on how to tackle our new assignment hadn't been discussed yet, and while Beta prompted us to start, it was a long day for me. I was just about to knock out.

So M&M decided to officially discuss the details tomorrow. Everyone agreed except for our leader, who kept persisting that we get things done. We promised it'd be done in a week, he reminded.

Being close to Beta on business-terms, I tried to console him that I needed rest. Tonight, everyone should just review the files and think carefully on what to discuss tomorrow. There was quite a lot to take in too, I didn't even have time to look through the folder.

I decided I would sneak the folder into school the next day and in my spare time, peruse its content to not let my team down again. Our team leader seemed the most disappointed that we couldn't get much done today.

Beta was always ready for work and encouraged all of us, that all of us knew, but if something came up within the team, he'd work with us to rearrange the plans. The him today seemed... rushed.

For some odd reason, I went back into the chatroom alone after our meeting ceased for the night. I took caution the moment I caught sight of the chat's time.

13:00 pm.

Now, people might think: '13:00 pm? Military time?' Actually, it wasn't. '13:00 pm' was an imaginary time for our group chat only. It symbolized T6-GEO@'s little hacking world. Why? Because in reality non-military time went up to only 12. 13 pm didn't exist, and the 'pm' was because we do the dirty business at night.

So bottom-line, whenever we log on, that's the time programmed to be displayed. But if you remember back to when I entered the chatroom and Beta was on...

Wasn't the time in real time with the rest of the world...? All of us were in that chatroom yet it read, '2:25 am'

That's the time that normal people would use.

Normal people... who weren't us.

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