The two men ruffled their hairs effortlessly as the woman with them pulled down her hoodie. The unwelcome newcomers caused the entirety of the café to go dead silent with their presence alone.

Customers that had been seated next to the door scrambled towards the back in tight, staggered breaths as some of them tried to get the younger children to safety. The younger adults with one or two for company either never let their eyes stray away from the scene, or they were already on their feet, ready to dash further to the back. Men stood before women, parents before children, and I before the whole café.

There were cries for me to back down, cries for me to help them, and yet, there were also cries bashing me for believing I could handle the situation better than the police could. I let all the words pass through one ear and out the other.

The man in a hoodie at the register earlier managed to slip out of the café amidst the commotion of things. He, however, was the only one fortunate enough to escape.

The trio in front seemed equivalent to psychos almost. The atmosphere shifted into something more like a drunk movie scene. Without talking, without negotiating, without an explanation, I suddenly had three assaulters charging blindly in my direction.

My eyes caught a blade reflecting subtly as it protruded from one man's suit, his fingers patiently waiting to pull it out. I immediately went for him. The other two brushed past me and I heard terrified cries from everyone in the café. I could only hope Kenya could fight.

A blade made its way towards my neck but I slipped under, firmly grabbed the arm holding the knife with one hand while the other twisted the wrist back, and in one swift second, the knife's tip had turned on its user. With the handle facing me and the tip held against the man's neck without warning, I could hear his scruffy breathing when he realized I was a threat.

His lips started curling into a smile, however. I frowned slightly at its sight, only to guess that from behind, the woman that had come with him had the barrel of her gun aimed mere inches away from the back of my skull. The commotion startled the children and loud cries filled the tense air.

I suddenly heard bones breaking from behind, and then it was followed by prolonged silence. That was either Kenya knocking out the second man... or the other way around.

"She has a gun against your head," came Kenya's low, abrupt warning.

So she made it out alive.

"Aiming a gun at an innocent civilian without their knowledge could get you in serious trouble." I provoked, setting my jaw firmly as I applied more force on the twisted wrist I was grabbing, which earned a dangerous growl and rough, distorted breathing from the man before me.

I breathed out carefully just before I spotted someone inching closer to me over the man's shoulders and my eyebrows raised.

Someone had just arrived a bit late to the party.

The woman behind me spotted him however, and in a split second, she growled, 'catch,' and her gun was thrown over my head, to which the man caught with his free arm and then aimed at the shadow he sensed from behind him as his chest opened up to the side.

Immediately, Kenya slid forward and knocked the woman out as soon as the gun was out of her grasp. I heard another body fall limp by my feet not too long after.

The last assailant standing was now aiming his gun at a new target.

"Give me the girl in the dress," he taunted with newfound confidence as he twisted his head back at me, "or I'll shoot him."

My eyes bore into his, and I got my dash of satisfaction as I began smiling at the sight of his eyes wavering. Amused, I peered over the man's shoulders to reveal the boy that had a gun to his head was in fact, Cody, who was back from the bathroom— in a fresh shirt.

Everyone's eyes shot wide open when I broke into a small laugh. "Took you long enough," I smirked at my best friend.

Cody shook his head with a side-smile before his voice filled in the room. "I can't believe you're laughing when there's a gun held next to my head."

The man looked back and forth between the two of us, beyond confused. I could say that was the same for the rest of the café. Kenya meanwhile observed Cody's arrival, my reaction, the knife and the gun, and then started in a calm tone, "Love, you do realize you come off a bit crazy?"

I could see her reflection from the transparent glass on the wall opposite of me where the entrance was, and in contrast to what she had commented, the woman was suppressing a smile. "Wait until I introduce you to him," I pointed my thumb at Cody.

"Get him out alive first," she tilted her head with a chuckle as she took a seat on the nearest table and crossed her legs elegantly, "then we'll talk, Risa."

The assailant's eyes abruptly reflected an intent to hurt me after I had dismissed his threats so casually. "I guess you won't mind if I take the life of this one, then?" The man let out a dry laugh as he angled his head at me.

Even in the midst of his strong act, I could tell that he realized, to his disadvantage, that he couldn't predict me. And the worst thing about a fight, any fight, was the fact that one's opponent turned out to be unpredictable.

"You'd give the police some company in their car if you did." I shrugged.

"You—"

Something changed in my eyes in a split second, and that alone shut him up as he was caught off guard. No one else saw the expression, it was just between the two of us. The tension that arose solely from my eyes locking with his was so thick that the knife I still had twisted against his neck couldn't dare cut.

I leaned in closer, causing the blade to press sharply into his skin. As I got near to his ear, I spoke my next words with a firm tone.

_
// "Hey, I'm all for tomboy Risa," Cody nudged me and made a smile appear on my face, "But let's say a man held a gun to your head—"

"Cody, this is getting a bit gruesome for lunch," I cut in with a weird look. He shushed me so that he could continue his thought.

"—held a gun to your head and asked, 'wear this dress or I'll take Cody's life,' what would you do?"
_

"In exchange for the girl in the dress, would you like to see my man wear it instead?"

That quick moment of pure confusion and disbelief was all I needed. In an instant, Cody promptly stepped out of the gun's line of aim and violently knocked the gun out of the man's grip. As he let out a frustrated cry and attempted to lunge forward and tackle himself onto Cody, I swiftly jammed my right leg up, kneading the man in his midsection. While he was gasping for air, I located and made a move on his pressure point with one firm hand motion to the neck, and after that he was down for good.

I heard my breathing even out as I straightened up. Cody had gotten the gun and placed it into the back pocket of his jeans, staring up at me with his breath also stabling out.

"See? He didn't hold the gun to my head," I started, tossing the assault knife from one hand to the other as I eyed Cody with a grin, "I fucking told you so."

Cody rolled his eyes as he nodded over my shoulders at Kenya in acknowledgement, who was watching the scene. "You're unbelievable," he huffed, walking towards me as he surveyed my head, body, arms, and legs in concern. "All intact?"

"Quite so." I laughed.

"That's my girl."

I turned around and saw Kenya leaning on one arm more than the other as she kept her dark, curious eyes on Cody and I. "You two are something," she remarked with a smirk, "You handled that better than I thought."

"Oh, but you could have handled it," I teased as I gestured my hand towards the two other attackers she managed to knock out, surprisingly, all by herself and in astonishing speed.

She smirked back. "I try not to fight in a dress when I can avoid it." The woman quieted down and observed Cody once again before she gazed back at me with arched brows. "You sure know how to pick 'em, huh."

Rolling my eyes, I turned away from our group and finally took a look at the other customers in the café. "You're safe." I announced as I nodded towards the workers and the customers all huddled in the back, "We'll handle the police. You can go on with your lives now."

"You killed them..." came a frightened mother of two.

"We knocked them out," Cody came to my defense, "It was either them or it could've been your children, which way would you like it?"

That shut her up.

Some onlookers with common sense came over to me and shook my hand in gratitude. The café workers found the courage to start business again as the music turned back on and they went back to their jobs hesitantly, somehow always finding their eyes traveling back to me.

"When are the police coming?" I asked out loud towards the ones at the register.

It was Boo that answered me with a frown. "I called them about fifteen minutes ago."

"Then they should just be coming up the street," I commented under my breath as my ears picked up the sirens from outside.

Kenya and Cody both unconsciously reached for something in their coat pockets out of my line of vision, but without knowing, I happened to have made my move faster. I began searching the surrounding inside the café briskly before my eyes landed on the group of children that had been behind the assailants during the fight earlier.

They seemed to be foreign kids. Maybe coming over to this country for a tournament and some sort of festival? The majority of them had kendo masks hanging on their chair or placed in the travel bag with them. One of them had on a Kitsune mask, giving him the face of a mystic red and white fox.

I stride over and, realizing the language they spoke right after catching a glimpse of some travel documents spread out on the table, I bowed slightly at the teacher in charge of the class. "May I ask for a small favor?" I leaned in as I smiled politely at the class of kids around 11 to 12 years old.

"ああ, of course. You were so brave earlier, thank you." The teacher beamed up at me and I returned her smile.

"In that case..." I murmured as I glanced over the ten or so group of students. My eyes landed on one kid in the far corner. The one with the fox mask. The eyes behind that mask turned to me after he sensed my stare and I waited for him to speak. When he didn't, I put on a faint smile and bent down. "May I borrow your mask?"

The boy looked at me for some time. I could sense Kenya and Cody were confused on what I was planning to do. To my surprise, after a long silence, the boy brought his hands up and took off the mask slowly. His face was handsome and matured. The boy appeared to be a little disconnected from his class, and his eyes were tired. He handed over the Kitsune mask just before he looked straight into my eyes.

I frowned. There was something about this boy that made me curious. His eyes were cold, his demeanor was silent, and it seemed like he was holding in a lot of things whereas his friends were outgoing and expressive. Yet, and I could tell from his face structure, that if the boy were to smile... he would've brought the whole world down on their knees. Right now, I couldn't tell what he was thinking as I fixed the mask securely over my face.

I walked back towards the center of the shop. Cody and Kenya eyed me each with a frown. "I'm stepping out for a bit." I reassured them.

"What that on?" Cody emphasized.

I smiled even though he couldn't see it through the mask. "This way the authorities will notice me." Observing the uncertain faces before me, I quickly ended the conversation with, "I'm going to talk to the police. Don't come out, neither of you are dressed for the weather outside. I'll report everything in your place, Kenya."

I left quickly before I heard any oppositions.

▂▂▂▂▂

The cold engulfed me the moment the doors to the café closed from behind. I held my breath because I felt like I was going to suffocate if I breathed in the dense air. Darkness loomed over this area menacingly. The sky turned the darkest hue the further you look into the distance.

The noise kept you sane. The passing cars, honking horns, the wind blowing, and trees rustling, all of those guided people in the cities at night. And of course, the dim lamps spaced out down the road provided a second moon at this time.

The police cars pulled up just outside the shop next to the café. A whole crew bailed out of the cars and attempted to charge inside the shop. I halted them just before they came into view of the transparent glass a few blocks away.

"The immediate danger is taken care of. All of you rushing in will only rouse panic again," I explained. It was to my advantage that the wind and mask helped to muffle my actual voice and distort my pitch a bit higher than it actually was.

"Ma'am, are you the perpetrator?" the closest officer asked in a rush.

"No, they're inside." I answered calmly.

"Please step aside, we're going in."

"You will not." I narrowed my eyes as one of my arms extended in their path. "Only two officers need to go in."

"Ma'am, we will have to cuff you if you keep interfering," said the nearest officer as he snapped his head back and shouted, "Let's go."

The officer barely took more than a step past me before his body froze. Caught by his eyes alone, he slowly retreated his steps as he refocused his attention on what I had just pulled out.

His eyes were wide with a dark expression. "You're—"

"Chief, Beta's here."

My eyes quickly glanced at the shadow belonging to one man from afar, which I made out to be Pierce's as he held out something in the air, just like the officer standing next to me had just seen me done. Silently, I retreated my arm back into my coat, along with the object that identified who I was.

As Pierce came closer, the seal in his hand came into clearer view. Some officers' breath hitched while others bowed their heads. Pierce had a hoodie covering his eyes, and the darkness hid his obvious facial features. To my astonishment, as soon as the man spoke up, I could tell he had his voice changer hidden somewhere in his shirt. He must have had it on him at all times in case of an emergency. That was Beta for you.

He spotted the officer standing next to me, who was clarified earlier by one of the deputies as 'Chief,' and he confirmed his status with the emblem one final time.

"Commander," the officer acknowledged as he lowered his head for a small nod.

"Do what the girl wants." A different, lower voice filled in the role of Pierce's normal voice, "I'm part of this case." Once he made sure that all officers had seen the official badge that the government made exclusively for each member of the team, he placed it away.

I decided to waste no time with my given authority. "Two officers," I spoke up, causing heads to snap back to me, "Do I have them?"

"You do." came a female deputy as she and her partner took up the role.

I proceeded to explain the events of what happened and that they could expect three bodies when they entered. I also mentioned that a man by the name of Cody would hand over the weapons used by the assailants at the scene of the assault.

Right before I let them go, Pierce walked up to me and the officer standing beside me. He looked at the man and said, "Chief, I need you to hold them ready for interrogation by tomorrow. I'm coming in to join the process."

"It's an honor for you to be in our country at this time," the police officer nodded firmly, "will do, Commander." He turned briskly away as he caught up with his two officers and entered the target building.

Pierce and I stood in silence for a moment before I could sense his eyes on me. Before long, he spoke up with a sigh. "What are you doing, Risa?" His lower-pitched voice from the voice changer sent warm chills down my spine.

"Nothing, just standing." I answered truthfully.

"I meant with that mask. If it wasn't for your coat I wouldn't have known who you were."

"Ah," I removed the Kitsune mask and as soon as I saw his eyes, I grinned. "A kid lend it to me."

"What even did you do in that café?" the man mumbled, running a hand through his distraught hair.

"More than you." I rolled my eyes.

"I beg to differ," the man scoffed, pulling off his hoodie. I glanced at his body and soon realized that his coat was gone.

"Did you... switch clothes?"

Pierce raised his eyebrows and glanced down at his hoodie. "Yeah," he answered as he looked back up at me, "I needed to talk to the police as Beta and you know they can't see my face. There was a man that saw me fighting and he joined. He's dealing with the police right now as we speak in that alley. He was wearing a hoodie so I asked to switch clothes temporarily."

"Have you considered permanently?" I smirked as I tilted my head at his arched brows, "Makes you look more humble and fight-suitable, if you get my drift."

The man stayed quiet as he watched me. Feeling uncomfortable, I said with a confused smiled, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Pierce kept his gaze on me for a moment before it drifted to the café. "How'd things go?" his tone changed.

I shrugged as I recalled the scenes regarding the gun, the knife, and Cody being threatened. "Cody came back from changing and he stepped in right away. Kenya can fight too. Those two handled everything pretty well."

"And you?"

"I watched."

His face darkened as if I had just ruined his mood. "You didn't fight?"

"I don't know how to."

The man looked oddly disappointed.

I held back a smirk as I observed his expression. "What about you?" I wanted to ask, but before Pierce could answer, I sensed a dark figure coming towards us from the corner of my eye.

I couldn't make out the face of the new stranger, but judging from his hoodie that Pierce was currently wearing, he was the same man that managed to slip out of the café during the commotion. My eyes widened as he nodded at me with a smile.

"I thought you ran away earlier," I directed towards the stranger in awe, "Thank you for helping Pierce out."

The man chuckled before cautiously glancing at Pierce in concern. Before I could ask what was wrong, the police officers seemed to be coming back outside. The stranger then excused himself as he walked briskly back to the café while I put my mask back on my face.

The authorities dragged the unconscious bodies into their cars and most of them started heading back to the station. The Chief walked towards Beta and shook his hand. Pierce nodded before getting ready to head back inside.

The officer, however, averted his eyes towards me with a frown as he mouthed, "Venus...?" He pointed to his badge to indicate that he had seen my official seal clearly just before Pierce appeared. His gaze flickered between Pierce and I. "You two met?" He asked in disbelief.

As Pierce continued walking away obliviously, I faced the Chief silently with a single, extended finger to my lips. An amused smile made its way to my face that he couldn't see behind the mask.

His eyes widened.

Nodding goodbye, I turned on my heels as I gracefully caught up with Pierce to go back inside the café.

▂▂▂▂▂

The four note melody played above the door as Pierce and I made our way back inside. Kenya, Cody, and the hoodie guy were gathered at the table where Pierce and I had been earlier today. Cody sat on the same side he was on before. Kenya and Hoodie Guy occupied the table right next to our tall, cushioned seat, their bodies turned to Cody as their faces remained serious.

Pierce and I reached the table and everyone glanced up. Pierce entered into the seat on his side and I took a seat next to him. I began looking at the four faces around me. "To my knowledge, all of you helped out tonight?"

Kenya nodded as she glanced at Hoodie Guy. "He told us he came back from a fight in the alley with some other guy. I assumed it was you," she cocked her head at Pierce, who nodded.

"Pierce Easton," he announced, holding out his hand, "Risa Kennedy's tutor."

Kenya smirked as she shook his hand elegantly. "Kenya Augustee. I met Risa at the side of the road involved in some other mess."

"Cody Ryder," came my best friend, "I knew her since the beginning of University."

As I began to talk, their heads turned my way. "Larísa," My lips curled into a grin before I continued, "I just go by Risa... but I see most of you know me already." The others laughed.

We all turned our heads to the man who was wearing Pierce's coat. I narrowed my eyes as I finally got a good look at the stranger. "Oh, I know you." I exclaimed all of a sudden, pointing a finger at him.

The man eyed me weirdly. "Uh, this is the first time I've seen you, mask girl."

I ignored his commentary. "You're Osias Blake, right?"

The other stared at me confused, looking back and forth between the man and me. Said-Osias placed his finger to his lips as he looked around the café.

"I'm not following," Kenya shook her head.

I peered back at the others with a scornful look. "How do you guys not know him? He was the most tweeted person this year."

"Celeb?" Cody's eyes widened as he shot his eyes to Osias.

"Shh." came the man before us as he angled his face away from people who began to stare.

Now everyone was curious. And so was I.

The hoodie man spoke up, "Alright, fine." He gave me a sigh as he looked back at us. "I'm an actor. I do my own stunts. I saw that man over there," he jerked his head towards Pierce, who gave him arched brows in return, "heading to fight twelve people on his own. Thought he must be crazy. Considering how he interacted with said-Risa over there, I thought he was doomed, so I followed him. Turns out he could handle it pretty well by himself. I only helped knock out like, 11 people."

Pierce rolled his eyes as he leaned closer to the table to face the daring man. "You fought two, if I remembered correctly. And what do you mean after you saw me and Risa fight?

The man shrugged and suppressed a smile.

"You're a well-known actor?" Kenya continued with the main point of our introductions, "Then why'd you come to a small café like this without bodyguards? I thought people in show-biz loved to flaunter their possessions."

The rest of us raised our eyebrows at Kenya as the woman took a daring poke at the man. Osias, however, seemed unfazed as he shot the woman an amused smile. "Not everyone is like that, babe. I do have guards by my car, but why would I need them just for a cup of coffee? One of my guards insisted I take a stop here to try the coffee, said it was a well-known café and that it'd help me after a long day of photo shoots, but little did I know I'd be throwing fists instead of signatures."

"You wore the hoodie to hide your face, right?" I cut in, "And here I thought it was because you wanted to eavesdrop in Pierce's and my conversation."

"You two are exhausting, no offense," the man scoffed as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, "I never knew one could be so tired of listening to background noise until today."

"Noise pollution exists," Pierce deadpanned, keeping a disinterested expression as he leaned his head on his fist, "and you're not far off from it either at this point."

"For someone with such a smart mouth you sure do have a lot of teeth." Osias smiled as he shifted his attention away from Pierce and onto Kenya.

"I heard the assailants were after you, ma'am? Why is that?"

Kenya had all eyes on her now as her expression darkened. "I'm part of a dance team. We were practicing for our showcase tomorrow and I was sent to buy drinks for the girls and the staff. At first I thought it was because of the dress."

"It is a nice dress, but that shouldn't be a reason," Cody spoke up, "It's for our school's show tomorrow night, right?"

Kenya turned to him. "Right. Moving on, all I did was try to walk to the café. The rest, you all saw. I swerved in and asked Risa for help."

"You two know each other?" Pierce asked.

I turned to him with a nod. "I was driving to school and she was on the curb of the road. Long story short, I picked her and this other guy up from a small fight. They both turned out to be from my school."

Cody's brows raised. "Was it that new boy you walked in with that day? Casey?"

"Yeah." I sighed jokingly as I thought the next part inaudibly to myself, I must have a thing for helping people being chased. First Pierce, then Kenya. Who next, T6?

I take that back... fake Beta exists.

Somehow, this strange atmosphere felt right. Today was the strangest day in my life. Imagine if I had stayed home today, life would have been more peaceful. I leaned back and observed the crew before me. A waiter suddenly came to our table briefly and passed out six drinks.

"For today," he whispered with a charming smile towards me as he retreated his tray after handing us each a cup of coffee. Surprised, I smiled thankfully back up at him and nodded as he walked away and went back to work.

But when I looked back at the table, I frowned. 1. 2... 3. 4, 5... 6. Six cups. Why did he pass out six cups when there was only five of us here...?

All of a sudden, I felt a hand tap my shoulders. I turned to my left and my eyes widened slightly at the sight of the Asian boy I met earlier, standing in front of me. He looked at all of us silently, slowly bit his lips, and then humbly held out his hands towards me.

Confused at first, I finally realized he wanted his mask back. I quickly took off the mask that I forgot I was wearing and handed it to him with both hands. "Sorry," I smiled sheepishly. Turning to look at the extra coffee, I took the cup and turned back to the boy, holding it out to him with a smile. "You can have this. You probably stood there for a while and I didn't see you."

He accepted the drink politely. Cody passed the boy a napkin to wrap the cup in since it was hot, and since he himself understood how dangerous hot drinks were especially after today.

I held back a laugh as I turned back to the boy. I became quiet when I stared into his eyes. He was studying all of us, which made me unconsciously look at everyone again. They were practically all strangers, Pierce even, but the fact that we were all sitting here was a little odd.

Too odd... and I think that boy caught onto something that I didn't dare to. What startled everyone was when his teacher from the other side of the room called out his name.

"Yamato! Come here, boy. それらを邪魔しないでください。"

Yamato, the 12 year old boy before us, sighed as he bowed at us and began walking back with his mask and cup of coffee.

"He could have stayed though," Osias muttered, breaking us out of our trance.

Kenya shook her head as she said, "He wasn't even bothering us."

Cody, Pierce, and I stared at the two with wide eyes. "You understood her?" I raised my eyebrows.

Kenya and Osias were currently in an eye war with each other after hearing the other speak up, but they eventually turned our way after hearing my question. "Strangely, yeah," Kenya responded, "It was part of my job before I moved here."

"I learned it for some movie years ago, I think," the other man said, "Or something. I don't remember."

I glance at Pierce and he seemed to be thinking something, but his expression was unreadable, as always.

"So, you can fight?" Osias spoke up again as he directed his question at Kenya.

Kenya rolled her eyes. "Not particularly. I just watched Risa and tested it out. I guess I could fight, if that's what you even call it."

"She's a fast learner, then," Cody chuckled.

"I have to if I'm a dancer." Kenya smiled proudly.

"Well, you're probably better than her," Pierce finally snapped out of his thoughts as he placed himself back into the conversation. I gave him a glare as he scrunched up his face to match mine. "That girl apparently could only dislocate a twig from a tree."

"What do you mean?" Kenya started with a frown, "she actually fou—"

My eyes flickered to her as I firmly shot her a disapproving stare. Kenya retreated as she frowned at me, confused.

At this moment, the music had turned off. Immediately, there was a bad feeling in the pits of my stomach. Osias got a call that he immediately picked up. Kenya was sent a text and she glanced away to check it. Cody had glanced to the other side of the room to check the time on the wall.

Cody turned back to us, confused, "I think the time is broken... it's been at 12:59 for the last ten minutes."

"The phone's time says..." Kenya cut herself off as she held her phone closer to her eyes, suddenly confused. "Something's messed up. It says..."

"13:00 pm" I came in suspiciously as I checked my own phone. The others snapped their heads my way. We all looked at each other with a slight frown before Osias came back from his phone call.

"Yeah, I gotta go kiddos," he announced, getting up from his seat, "My manager called. I had to be back like an hour ago. It was fun tonight. See y'all later."

"Thanks for the warning." Pierce smirked as he and the actor exchanged their clothes quickly. Both of them had shirts underneath so that saved us girls a heart attack from them changing right in the middle of the café. Osias scoffed lightly at Pierce's remark as he shook his head with an entertained smile.

"I have to go back to practice," Kenya sighed as she glanced up from her phone, "The girls are mad. Too late for drinks now."

Cody silently scratched his head as he eyed the calendar in his phone. "I have a track team evaluation tomorrow. I need to sleep. Risa, do you need me to drop you off?"

"I came in my own car." I answered as Pierce and I glanced at each other.

"In that case, I'm going to leave first." Cody began standing up, and so did the rest of our crew. The shop also started filling out, some workers began shutting parts of the shop off like the display lights, and others had already changed into their daily clothes to go home.

The children that were sitting on the other side of the room began throwing away their cups as their teacher took role-call. I watched them briefly before Cody's figure came into my view. I was pulled into a light hug as he kissed the top of my head. "Don't stay up late doing whatever the hell you always do. Save studying for another day. Today was exhausting as it is."

I shook my head with a grin as I pulled away and nodded.

"Kenya," Pierce called out.

The woman looked back as the man handed her his coat. When she raised her eyebrows with a hint of a smile, he said, "You don't have to return it."

"Quite a gift for our first time meeting," she commented.

Pierce smirked. "Are you sure it's our first?"

"Yeah," she gazed into his eyes curiously before reality brought her back. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Y'all do look... familiar," came Osias' voice as he turned back to look at us one last time, "We really... haven't met before?"

"No," I frowned, "I don't remember."

"I might have seen him in an ad before," Cody contemplated before the actor smacked the boy on his arm.

All of a sudden, it felt like the life was sucked out of me. Everyone started leaving. Separating. Kenya waved and already made her way to the door, to which Osias held it open before he exited himself. Cody waved briefly to Pierce before he left as well. The workers turned off more lights as more than half already left. The teacher and her students were the only other customers besides Pierce and I standing by our table.

She finally called out her last student as I was about to turn to Pierce and ask a question.

"Yamato, Asao."

"He's here, 先生!" a friend of the masked boy spoke up for him.

"Alright, let's hurry out so we don't miss our bus back." The teacher ushered her students while grabbing their bags as the kids began filing out.

I froze. Pierce had walked a bit farther away to the door as he stared outside, so he wasn't near for me to confirm what I just heard.

That name.... that can't be...

It was him. It had to be him.

"Asao," I shouted, panic rising in me. The others didn't hear it, but just as I thought, the young boy did and he jerked his head to me in surprise.

"Fuck, he noticed," I muttered to myself as the boy frowned and walked towards me. In the midst of the confusion, he grabbed a pen and came right next to me. My breath hitched when the child gave me a hug. A shot of pain filled my chest for some reason and I unconsciously hugged him back.

"Who are you?" I whispered down at him as I pulled him away with narrowed eyes, "You have his name."

"Asao! Come on!" came a girl from his class.

The boy uncapped the pen, ignoring the calls for his name, as he made random strokes on my hand. I frowned as I looked at what he was doing. I didn't understand it.

A half circle, a line, and a colon?

His teacher's raised voice calling for his name one last time was the final thing that made him leave. The boy glanced back at me one final time. Soon, the class ran out the café because they were behind on time.

Silence filled the café as the last worker waited for us to leave. I began walking numbly towards the door as Pierce turned around to look at me and began following suit. When we were out, we both walked in silence back to my car.

As soon as we got inside, however, both of our expressions darkened. I had just checked the pen marks at a new angle.

My eyes widened. "Pierce."

The man glanced at me as he started the car. "What?"

"Look at my hand."

"Why—" He cut himself off and narrowed his eyes as he brought my hand closer to him. He then dropped it and looked straight into my eyes. "Who wrote this?"

I retreated my hand in confusion as I gave him a suspicious look. "Who else?"

"You're telling me Pooh was in that café?" Pierce let out a small laugh. Suddenly, his face turned serious. "He might have been."

"Why'd your expression just drop?" I asked cautiously. 

He looked back at me while his hands traveled to his midsection all of a sudden, his face scrunching up quickly before it dissolved. "Earlier, I saw K2 in that actor's car."

Our government official...?

"But how—" I started, only to cut myself short at the sight of something staining through the man's shirt as my eyes traveled to where his hands were.

"Pierce, why is there blood on you?"

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TheReflectiveSurfaceofMySoul: Aesthetics for the team will be posted before the next update!

L01: Ew, I knew I saw him in an ad or something before.