I rose to my feet and attracted a few curious glances at our table. The woman waiting at the register raised her eyebrows as she peered at the three of us in a long-standing battle of intense staring before she accepted a tray of hot chocolate and walked towards the back, giving room for another man to stand at the register, and ultimately, watch us under his hood.

"I'm not with him," I threw it out there to Cody, who was darting daggers into Pierce's soul from behind me, "And stop looking at him like that. You don't know the man, show some respect."

"I smell a hypocrite," Pierce whispered from behind as he cupped his mouth with one hand and leaned closer to the arc of my back.

"You're not helping, you rotten fossil." I smiled through gritted teeth as my head angled to the side.

Cody, observing our odd interaction, paused for a moment before he commented, "You stood me up for some other guy when you specifically said you were going to stay home."

"Did I now?" I abruptly retaliated as I met his eyes, "I said I needed to study, I never said anything about doing it at home."

"Study," he cocked his eyebrows at the man over my shoulder, "with this suspiciously good-looking man?"

"Thanks," Pierce popped a smile as he went back to drinking his coffee.

Cody, a bit wrapped up in his heated argument with me, didn't think twice as he shot back, "No problem."

I snapped out of my frustration as I awkwardly looked at the man before me. "Um, Cody, you just—"

"Why couldn't you just tell me you had a date?" Cody continued ranting blindly as he folded his arms, "I thought best friends told each other everything? What did you have to hide? Who the fuck is he?"

"Hi, I'm Pierce," the man sitting down waved.

I almost choked on air when my best friend wriggled his fingers back in greeting obliviously before glaring back at me.

It took him a full three seconds to realize that he had, in a sense, to put it most elegantly and straightforwardly, with the utmost manners and civility, at that precise moment, the moment we all coexisted, he... I forgot my sentence.

Oh, right.

He was flirting with Pierce. Pierce. Why in the world was their subconscious relationship more harmonious than mine?

"Wait," Cody blinked, slowly taking a good look at Pierce, "I'M MAD AT HIM." He pointed his finger and his face contorted into anger before I lamely swatted his hands away to prevent a fight from breaking out.

"Look here," I jutted in, well aware that our group was slowly shifting from a private conversation to something more serious like being reported for public disturbance, "Lower your voice, please."

Cody wrapped his coat tighter around his neck as he switched his smoothie from one hand to the other. Checking the dashboard above the counter for the drinks from the café, his eyes narrowed after some time before he looked back at me.

"You know what?" he spoke up again slowly, "I came here since you said to get something warm, but now? Now I'm going to walk back out the door. See you at scho—"

"Cody." I stated firmly, stopping him dead in his tracks.

When the man had calmed to an acceptable degree and his gaze was fixated on me again, my eyes softened and I tried again in a gentler tone. "If you're willing to share me that smoothie of yours," I pointed carefully at the drink we were supposed to have today had Pierce not entered the picture, "then let's sit and I'll explain. And before all else, I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear and hurt your feelings. There really isn't anything going on."

Cody gave a subtle side glance at some people who were shamelessly listening in before he sighed and looked back at me with arched brows, and eventually, a greatly delayed side smirk. "I hate it when you apologize before I can get mad," he rolled his eyes.

"Well I hate seeing you mad," I returned his cheeky smile, "I wouldn't be this confident if I didn't have a reason to be out in this god forsaken weather. Now sit."

"You can have the seat next to me," Pierce insisted with a cocky smile.

"In your fucking dreams," Cody chided, "I can't believe you took advantage of a stranger when they're in an argument."

"Hey, I terminate fights before people die," the man with the chestnut hair shrugged.

I scoffed lightly as Cody scooted into my side while maintaining both eyes on Pierce. "You sure you don't execute them instead?" I mumbled.

"I swear every time you open your mouth my life span shortens by three years."

I gaped at him sarcastically. "All the more reason I should talk forever. Heck, Cody," I smacked the man on the chest unlady-like as Cody winced and made a smacking motion at me, "Let's do some math and figure out how much longer he has to live if I talked non-stop from 6am to—"

Both men sighed aggressively and leaned back in their seats, waiting for me to finish. Amusingly offended, I rolled my eyes as Pierce settled in and watched the two of us silently.

"Cody," I looked at him with my hand gesturing at Pierce, "Meet Pierce. Pierce," the hand swung, "Meet Cody. He's my best friend and goes to my University. I met him the first year there."

Cody's face lit up in superiority and snuggled smugly into his seat, arms crossed over his broad chest. "And Cody," I turned to him, only after smiling at the man's reaction to my introduction of himself, "Pierce is my—"

—I can't say anything about him...

Team leader. T6's Commander. Beta. My partner. Someone who I believe I knew longer than you at some point.

As I thought, none of them were suitable.

Awkward silence filled our area as Cody observed me confused due to my odd cut-off. Suddenly, the man sitting in front of us spoke up.

"I'm her tutor. We were going over her curriculum syllabus to review for her exam."

Pierce's voice snapped me out of my troubled thoughts as I gazed at him in slight awe for covering for me. To add to his credibility, Pierce held up the sheets of paper we were looking at, being careful to angle the content away from Cody's eyes, before he put it all back in the folder and tucked the folder away under his coat.

"Tutor?" Cody repeated suspiciously, "Now something's definitely not adding up." He turned his body to face the both of us as his brows arched. "Risa's one of the highest academically recorded student in our country. Country." The man felt the need to emphasize the last word to prove his point, "So why in the world would she have a tutor?"

Damn it Cody, now's not the time to glorify me.

I quickly shot Pierce a warning glance as my eyes narrowed for only him to see. Now what, my eyes seemed to speak for themselves. Pierce kept a straight face as he came up with something while I sat there scratching my original explanation since the man cut in with his own story.

"You really think this thick-skulled pegion could last through even high school without help?" Pierce suddenly challenged, looking straight in Cody's eyes, "Who do you think helped her get this far?"

Cody cocked his head to the side with a smirk. "Definitely not you."

"мужчины в эти дни," Pierce retorted with a beam through his tense jaw.

Cody coughed. "Was that even English—"

"I just said that 1+1 = 2," Pierce lied, "You've probably never heard of me because this is my first time in the country."

"I gotchu," I hummed in the background, whipping out my trusty phone.

❝ Men these days.❞ it translated.

"You heard Siri!" I barked, nodding my head.

Pierce peered at me with narrowed eyes and a parted mouth, dumb-founded that I had resorted to my tactic twice in one day. "Are you going to keep summoning Siri every time I speak Russian?" the man lost his character as he raised his voice at me. Cody choked on his smoothie as this was the first time he witnessed a disheveled Pierce.

"Well then stop doing it!" I raised my eyebrows at him, "It's like what if I kept talking like, 私は猫が欲しい!" [I want a cat!]

Pierce scoffed. "ケージが必要です。" [You need a cage.]

"それについて考えることさえしないでください。" [Don't even think about it.] Cody chugged his smoothie.

The three of us froze.

Slowly, Cody placed his smoothie down, I cautiously sat up straighter, and Pierce's expression darkened. We sat there in extended silence as we processed what just happened.

"You both know Japanese..?" I started puzzled.

Pierce frowned. "That was the second language I learned."

"And what about you?" I turned on Cody, "You never told me you could speak it..."

Cody responded cautiously, "I just never had a reason to use it, but yeah... I know it."

Our group sat in tense silence. Everyone was confused. Something began tugging at my memory, but it didn't seem like anything was going to surface after a minute.

"Weird coincidence or not," I started again with a confused laugh, "That was... unusual." Before any of us could comment further, the waitress from before maneuvered back to our table at the sight of a new addition to our squad.

"Welcome to our café!" she beamed at Cody, a beam which slowly transitioned into a sly bite of her lips as her eyes traveled down Cody's side view. Cody glanced at me and Pierce before he nodded at the girl in acknowledgement and waited. The girl decided to introduce herself. "I'm Boo."

I choked. "You're what now?"

Finally, the girl acknowledged my presence. "I said I'm Boo," she raised her brows.

Amused, I nudged Cody in the back while he faced away from me, leaned in, and whispered, "I'm going to leave my closet open tonight so that Sulley and Mike could collect their girl. But then again," I peeked a disinterested look at the waitress, "This one lives up to her name so my door would be shredded."

Pierce suppressed a smirk as Cody thinned his lips into a polite smile, unaware of the bad blood between me and the waitress as he wasn't there for the incident earlier. He jammed his elbows into my arms instead and I back away with a dramatic sigh.

While Cody made his order, Pierce and I locked eyes as we quickly wrapped up our private conversation for today.

"We'll stop here for now," Pierce spoke lowly, "Your friend can't know."

I nodded as I matched his volume. "But when is next time?"

"Maybe not in person," Pierce stated firmly, "But through screens, possibly." When I stared at him with a tilt of my head, he continued with, "Let's exchange numbers."

Hesitant, I drew in a sharp breath as I glanced at the phone in my hand. "But your number changes every time you go out," I reminded him, "Otherwise your personal info would be easily accessed."

"I'll program it to update in real time on your phone," he replied casually, "But only on your phone. As long as you don't mess with my contact name after I finish, it should be there."

I gave him a concerned look. "You're putting a hell lot of trust in me."

He stayed silent as I handed over my phone for him to begin transferring his information. "I have to," the man stated lowly under his breath, "You know too much, to the point where I suspect you're keeping something very important from me. Nonetheless, I have to stick around to find out... you're not one to easily pry information out of."

"I'm touched." I smirked as I could tell he was being genuine.

"I don't know if meeting you was ill-fated or the right path, but what I do know is I can't let you out of my sight after this." His eyes stared deeply into mine as I listened to his every word with a straight face.

"Only time can tell if I'm on your side or not," I smiled, "For now, it's best if we reach a truce. But I still want you to keep your guard up."

"Likewise," he agreed, "Trust is earned, not forced."

And that's exactly what Fake Beta did that exposed his true identity through his mask, he forced trust onto us. He carelessly enforced his authority. He put on a mask so unlike the real Beta with his teammates that it was only a matter of time before one of the six members found out.

What other horrid things has he yet to realize that he could do with the authority he took that didn't belong to him? Much more. I knew in my heart everything the team worked for would immediately start crumbling down if we don't find him and put an end to this.

Then there was another sudden recent issue with the difficulty of recalling my memory from last year. Pierce too. We have to start looking into that. And also possibly look into that strange name from my dream. Asao. Sounds like a Japanese name...

The girl had left right after Pierce and I had quieted down, but to my surprise, already came back with Cody's orders while I had lost myself in my thoughts.

She stumbled a bit, unstable with her large tray and one single drink atop. By the time she reached our table, I was genuinely considering whether or not the girl had developed Parkinson's or some other disorder since Cody's appearance, because the shaking was undoubtedly unusual.

In a single moment, the girl slipped her hands and the tray flew right next to Cody who was sitting at the outer seat. The coffee stung him on the neck and arm just before I could react and I pulled his weight back towards me so that the rest of his body was spared.

The man grimaced silently and cupped his neck as Pierce rose out of his seat and swiftly caught the tray before it could hit the ground and startle the other customers. The coffee cup laid on its side as the drink continued spilling to fill the shape of the tray.

"Cody," I exclaimed under my breath, examining the skin around the side of his neck reddening and possibly blistering up. Out of a moment of frustration, I glared back at the girl, who had her eyes wide, and sneered, "Would you be more careful? You could have given him a second degree burn. What, do you need us to help carry your empty tray back too or are you good now?"

My eyebrows twitched as I observed her expression changing while acting as the victim. Putting up a facade, huh? We'll see how long that lasts.

"I am... so sorry! I-I'm so clumsy. I didn't mean, ohmygod, you're heating up," the girl panicked as she grabbed the napkin out of my hands and dabbed it at Cody's burn area. I raised my eyebrows slowly and turned to Pierce as if to make sure he saw what just happened as well.

The man stared back with an unreadable expression, but I could tell his mood had dropped when that empty-ass tray did as well.

"No it's fine," Cody managed out, gritting his teeth at her force on his wound, "Just, um, carry the tray back... please."

Pierce was still holding onto the tray and this was the waitress' cue to accept it. When she didn't and kept staring at Cody, the man dropped the tray onto the table carelessly, splashing some overfilled coffee onto her outfit.

Blind, and definitely deaf, the girl suddenly proposed to Cody, "We have some spare clothes in the back. It's our male workers' extra t-shirts. If you'd like to come to the back, I can provide you with a room to change since your sleeve is soaked?"

That mother of satan, I thought to myself as I watched her try to seduce both men with me today with a hysterical side smile. "He's not going anywhere." My low voice startled the girl, who had tried so hard to disregard my presence earlier.

"Did I ask you, m'am?" Undisciplined attitude dripped out of her mouth coldly.

I failed at suppressing a small smile forming on my lips. "Did I stutter?" I cocked my head at her, "I'm going to make you regret living if you touch him."

Her mouth morphed into amusement. "You act like I should be afraid of you?"

I sensed Pierce looking at me and I tilted slightly to look at him while I let some steam out. He had a slight frown on his face as his eyes told me to just give in so she'd go away. Yeah. Like hell I would.

"It's a suggestion but certainly not an order," I continued casually, "Since you're not a dog or something? Then again, dogs sit on a pedestal in my book, and you..." I trailed off as I smirked at her faltering expression.

"You bitch—"

"Enough," Cody finally intervened, giving the waitress a firm look, "Please show me the way to the bathroom and lend me a new shirt. And," he warned as her eyes dared to travel back to mine, "if you fire any more insults at that girl, I'll make sure the last one fired is you at the end of the day."

Smiling, I patted the man on the back as he got up and the girl cowered next to his large form. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do," I smirked as I looked up at him.

"Shut up and drink the smoothie," he chuckled, walking away with the waitress.

Soon, it was just me and Pierce again. I watched him finish working on my phone before he tossed it back to me.

Suddenly, my ears picked up quick footsteps from afar, possibly from outside. The music muffled most of it, but I could still sense there was something heading to the café. Narrowing my eyes as I strained my ears to hear better, I motioned at Pierce and asked, "Hey, can you hear what I hear?"

The man observed me quietly before glancing towards the entrance of the café. "Footsteps," he answered after a moment of silence.

"And not just the usual strolling down the street either," I commented as I leaned my head on my propped up hands that were resting on the table, "1.4 m/s, that's the usual pace. From the footsteps, it's around a 3 m/s run."

"Not quite, those footsteps belong to more than one person," Pierce cut in, "You can hear some of the rhythm don't add up to its proximity to us. It's a heavy jog... someone's being chased."

"But they're not full-fledge running away, why is that?"

"Maybe it's still a hidden chase. The chasers are oblivious to their target realizing that they're being chased while the target tries to implement more distance between them and the pursuers with each step."

I frowned. It was the city side. The large amount of people surely will hinder a chase, but it also provided less assurance to the victim because no one would turn a second eye to help. They needed to turn into some place to be safe.

"The café," my eyes went wide as Pierce caught on, "Someone's going to burst in here any second."

"What are you planning to do?" the man frowned as he sat up straighter, "you're not thinking of... stepping in, are you?"

I gave him a look. "Of course I am. You don't see anyone else doing it?"

Pierce sighed. "Risa, what can you do?"

"So you're telling me to just watch a chase happen and not intervene?" I satirized.

"That's precisely what I'm telling you," Pierce gave me a stern look, "You don't know what's going on and who's involved, so how are you so sure stepping in will make anything better?"

"All I hear from you is doubt, whine, lecture, and fear," I rolled my eyes, "You won't know anything for certain until it happens. Like I said, I won't bring you down. Stop stooping so low that you're blinded to where I actually stand compared to you."

He gave me a hard, long look before he looked away. Letting out a light sigh, the man cleared his throat and started again, looking straight into my eyes. "Then here's what I really wanted to propose. Cover for me. I need a distraction while I slip out and deal with the mass before they step foot in the café."

"So you're asking for my cooperation?" I tested.

"If that's how the events unfold," the man remarked slyly, "Depending on individual distance, some might already be tagging close to the target. If they make it in the shop while I'm out, can I trust you to handle it?"

I nodded my head in satisfaction as I suppressed a smirk. "Are you sure you can handle a mob?"

And that's when I saw a hint of a smug smile tugging at his lips as well. Smiling, I filled in the words he didn't say. "Of course you're capable," I confirmed, "I'm looking forward to seeing Beta in action."

Pierce intertwined his fingers on the table and leaned in closer to me. "How are your combat skills?" he kept his voice low.

"I dislocated a twig from a tree before."

Quiet, the man suddenly coughed at my response as his eyes turned serious. "Are you kidding me?" he arched his eyebrows.

I laughed. Just as I thought, his serious demeanor was an overload compared to when he was simply just annoyed at me.

"Don't worry about it," I gave him a mysterious grin as I patted his arm, to which he eyed the interaction weirdly before I continued, "Just focus on yourself."

"I have this unsettling feeling and it's either you're too incapable or over-capable, which is it?"

"Cap-a-bowl?" I teased, earning a disappointed look from him.

Just then, the bells to the café entrance rang its four note melody and I froze as I observed Pierce intently for his reaction. From the corner of my eye, I could see people snapping their heads towards the door due to the frantic motion. The evening had transitioned into night without my knowledge and only when the door opened could I sense the chill of the weather outside.

"It's a girl," Pierce whispered to me without removing his eyes from the entrance, "and she's out of breath."

"I knew it." I gritted my teeth, turning my body as I finally allowed myself to take a look. My eyes widened as I locked eyes with someone familiar.

She saw me back.

"Risa." the woman said barely above a whisper.

"Kenya." My voice came out raspy as I saw her state. The woman was in a short, elegant vermillion silk dress, and her hair was in a messy bun. The heels were creating a puddle of dirt from outside. People in the café stared at her with wide eyes, gasped, pointed, and started whispering rapidly. She was the same girl I had picked up on the side of the road not too long ago with another blonde man. Casey.

The woman knew she had little time to explain, so instead she managed out a few words.

"I need a favor. There's people following me."

"Been prepared before you even got here, we can save questions for later," I slipped in, standing up as Pierce followed suit. The two of us gave each other a look of acknowledgement before Pierce directed towards Kenya, "Which direction did you come from?"

The woman hesitated a bit as she glazed over Pierce's unfamiliar face, but seeing that I seemed unfazed by him involving himself, she gave in. "South of the streetlight... sir, are you sure—"

"How many?"

Kenya stared into Pierce's eyes with curiousity. A longer look and she seemed to have finally loosened up at his unusual, authoritative gaze. "I didn't look, possibly 12?"

"Atta girl," he smirked under his breath, "This won't take long."

Before he brushed past me, I grabbed his arms and pulled him close so that I could whisper something. "Before we entered the café, I spotted an alleyway near the Barber shop several blocks from here. There doesn't seem to be a working surveillance camera in that area. If you have to break into a fight, lead them in there."

The man scoffed lightly, shaking his head with a smile as he leaned back to take a look at me. "There you go again doing unnecessary things... wait here."

That was the end of our conversation and Pierce took off out the café just as two men and a woman entered. The passing glance he gave the newcomers was deadly, as if he sensed that they were part of the mob, but he had no choice but to keep moving. A fight could not break out in the café. There were too many things to clear up afterwards.

My expression darkened as I accessed the scene while Kenya calmly peered over her shoulders with a tense glare. Silently cracking my knuckles after I made sure Pierce was gone, a mischievous smile tugged at the corner of my lips when I suddenly made eye contact with one of the assailants.

Time to do what Risa Kennedy did best.

Cause trouble.

▂▂▂▂▂

Minna:  anyone suspicious of the purpose of the café scene being in the story yet?

Venus:  I am.