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∽ m i r a c l e ' s  p e r s p e c t i v e ∽

It is a new day. It is a gloomy day. And at the same time, it is a boring day. Why do I have to be caged in this four-cornered classroom and got stuck with this instructor with her boring lessons about Economics?

I sigh. I miss my secret life. I miss the rush. I miss the adrenaline.

Two more subjects, then it will be our lunch break. Gosh, I can't wait to go out of here.

Sighing again, I avert my eyes to Elli. She is attentively listening, but I can see that she is not on the right mood now. Well, maybe because she's still mad about the fact that Sean is pestering my life. He's just being friendly, and I don't get why she's pissed about that.

Then I dart my eyes to my left, where Chance is. Seems like he senses my gazes and he meets mine.

His eyes are questioning, asking me what. I only shake my head saying nothing.

Then we both return our look to the teacher. I wish I could escape.

Few minutes have passed and someone knocks on the door. Our current instructor opens it and a beautiful lady comes inside.

"Oh, Ma'am Steinfeld! What a surprise!" my Economics teacher utters. The Supervisor of this school is here, who wouldn't be surprised? "Do you need something?"

The Supervisor smiled and I got a little shock in my system when she eyed me. "I wouldn't be here if I don't." she answers, "I only want to summon Miss Natsumi Montero to assist me in my work, would that be a bother to you?"

I only knit my brows. What does she want from me? Assist her to what?

The Supervisor gestures me to stand up and follow her. I, being an obedient person of the universe, cedely follow her command. She tells me to bring my things, I take my bag and get out of the room.

She starts walking and I am walking behind her. The only I notice to this lady is that she doesn't make any noises as she walks her five-inches round toe pumps.

I immediately get her intentions. "Okay, Miss Supervisor, what's the catch?" I smirk with a huff while clasping my both hands to my chest.

I hear her chuckle as she gives me a brief look, "Finally meeting you in flesh, Your Highness. I'll tell you in my office."

Shrugging, I agree with her. Seems like she's a harmless person in her corporate clothes as the Supervisor of this school. I know, because I trust my instincts.

Once we got in her office, two persons greet me.

"Nice to see you again, Little Summer." says the man on the side.

I know him. "Same to you, Kuya Ivan." I smile to my cousin. Then look to the girl next to him. I think, she is in my age.

"She's Little Lion," I frown to my cousin Ivan. He likes giving nickname to those people he trusts. Like mine, he calls me 'Little Summer' because of my 'Natsumi' name, which means 'beautiful summer' in English translation. And this Little Lion he pertains must be a friend or something to him.

I only grin sideways and sit beside them on the couches. Miss Supervisor is sitting on my right. Kuya Ivan has these gadgets for hacking, transmitting, and other more on the table.

What does this mean? Something must be happening right now.

"First of all," Kuya Ivan prompts, "We are here for a mission. The woman beside you, Little Summer, is Valentine Steinfeld, she's my partner in every missions, an undercover agent, and working as the Supervisor of this University."

Oh, I see. Recently, Kuya Ivan finished his work in Gaza as an intelligence agent for counterterrorism. And it was all about bombing and mass murders. He successfully captured the terrorists and disarmed the high-class kinds of bombs with his partner. I never knew not until now that his partner is a woman. Kuya Ivan is currently a CIA Agent, but they don't know that he's only using the CIA to cover all the works of the White Nation.

"Yeah," Miss Valentine says shortly after Kuya Ivan. "And based in our intel office, there's an exchange student who have secretly entered this school, that came from Lebanon and has connections to the extremists." Then she hands me a folder that reveals the identity of the student terrorist. And it surprises me he is just an eighteen years old college student. "He plans to kill a hundred or more students in just one assault."

"He plans to murder them not using huge explosion that causes great destruction." Kuya Ivan adds, "He is using VX nerve gas—a chemical weapon—which can lead to death once it is inhaled."

I only nodded redundantly, "So what's the point of telling me this?"

My cousin smiles enigmatically, "I'm giving you this mission, along Little Lion here."

"I'm no bomb expert," I snort.

"I know, but like what I have said, you have Little Lion here." says my persistent cousin. "She's Valentine's young accomplice and we decided to give this mission to you two. What you only have to do is to catch the perpetrator, find the bomb, Little Lion will disarm it, and surrender the bomb to us for further examination."

Sounds exciting, but, "What if Kuya Mike found about this? I'm in my normal-person mode, yanno."

He laughs, "He won't know it, unless you tell him."

"Okay, I'm in." I agree to them. I miss adrenaline, and here is my moment to do something to make me feel the blood-pumping spirit.

We change clothes, gear up, and before we start the mission, Kuya Ivan gives us the important things to remember. "This is not a drill. Don't draw any suspicious attention. Don't blow your cover up, and always remember that this mission is covert."

Kuya Ivan is the analyst of this mission. He tells us where is the location of the bomber.

The terrorist is planning to execute his evil scheme where many students are gathered up. We analyze that he'll take it to the Student's Groove, where most of the college students stay during their free time. In that place, because it will be less suspicious.

The Little Lion and I quickly found him. We are disguised as college students.

Okay, time to move. I walk towards where he is sitting. He is alone, which is a perfect time for me.

When I reach him, I say, "Excuse me," and he looks at me. I smile sweetly, "Hi, you're Mister Amin, right?"

Mister Amin, the surname of the perpetrator, have quizzical expressions. He is bit nervy and have dark glares playing around his eyes.

"Uhm, I'm Yanna Rodriguez," I state my undercover name still with a sweet smile. "I actually know a lot about you," without words, I sit beside him, snugging closer to make him know that I'm flirting. "A top Electrical Engineering student in your section, and because of your intelligence, IU recruited you to study here, and those are enough to make me like you." I intentionally bite my lips innocently.

His face flusters as he hears my sudden confession. Well, if isn't with my mission I won't do this. Flirting is one of the tricks to make your prey fall for the trap.

"Nice acting, Little Summer," I hear Kuya Ivan smirks on my hidden micro-speaker on my ear. "Keep it up."

Tch. There will be a payment to this, I swear!

"So, I, uh, like you, Mister Amin." I tell him, "What will you say?"

"I still don't know who you are." He politely, yet harshly, says.

"I'm also an Electrical Engineering student from the other section, you see." I feign a nervous laugh. "But I don't draw too much attention, because I like silence."

He sighs, "You want something, don't you? Tell me."

I never let my (fake) sheepish smile falters as I tuck some loosened hair to my ear. "You're right, I'm not only here to tell you that I have a huge crush on you, but also, I want you to teach me," I paused, secretly preparing my knife to my free hand and point it to his stomach, "where did you hide the bomb."

He stilled and his face gets paled. I chuckle demonically, "Answer me before I shred your guts up into pieces."

He is not answering, but I can see that he's sweating so hard.

"Natsumi, listen." Kuya Ivan calls me by name. It must be important. "Most of the terrorists are suicidal. Make him sleep before he drinks the poison hidden inside his mouth!"

I got alarmed to his warning, and before this perpetrator moved, I pushed the vitals in his suprascapular nerves and he instantly falls asleep.

Little Lion comes running towards me as I hide my knife. Together, we search for his things, rummaging his bag.

The only thing that pisses me of is finding out that his bag is empty!

Little Lion starts searching for his pocket. Then she got something. It is a remote control with a tiny red light blinking continuously.

"This is the detonator." she mutters.

"Shit." I curse loudly. "Fuck, I didn't notice that he had already pressed it on."

Little Lion still has the easy and calm look. "Don't worry, it's just the timer. We still have time to find and disarm it."

"What if there will be only a very short time? And the gas might start leaking before we could find it."

She sighs, "Just think, Natsumi." and tells me.

My heart starts to pound in fear. I can't lose this mission and let the innocent people die because of my stupidity. Where did he put it? This place is a huge place and we can't just search every facilities one by one!

Yes, we are a Mafia, and saving people is not really our job, but we can protect them if we want to. We are not the extremists, we only do bad things.

Unbeknownst to me, I look to my wrist watch. "It's almost time for lunch break." and muttered under my breath.

Little Lion gazes at me as if she realizes something. "That's it. Students will all gather in the University Food Center for lunch break, meaning the bomber place it there, because the many students are there, the many students may be killed."

Damn, how could I not realize sooner?!

We both make our way to the food center or the cafeteria. Good thing, there aren't much people around. Kuya Ivan told us that Miss Valentine Steinfeld will take care of the perpetrator.

"Now where we gonna start?" I ask the Little Lion.

"Most of the bombers like putting exploding weapons in a place where there's a cool and dry place, because these bombs they make are designed to stand whatever kinds of temperature." she explains to me. "So I'll say in the kitchen."

After hearing her words, we enter the kitchen. And it's because there are people around (the cooks), we both make them lose their consciousness.

We search for the bomb and find it hidden in a wall-mounted oven. We sigh in relief when we still have seventeen minutes before it will explode.

Little Lion picks all her tools on how to disarm a bomb. We are both crouching down on our knees. She is very serious to her work and I'm only watching her. I can hear my heartbeat tapping against my ears. We two are sweating so hard.

She opens the cover of the bomb, and see different kinds of wires and cells. I recognize a certain type of bomb, a C4. Gosh, what does this high type of bomb is doing here? And on top of a C4 bomb, there are four spray cans. It must be the VX nerve agent gas.

Little Lion starts working. Cutting some wires and such. And I'm clueless here. She is very careful, but the time is still winding down. She is holding two types of wires and she's not moving. She is sweating the same as I am.

"Is everything fine?" I ask her, trying to make my voice calm and relaxed.

"It's not stopping. And I can't let my hands off of these wires, it may fasten the time to tick off." she says exasperatingly. "C-Can you open the small cartilage on the middle part?"

"This?" I ask, pointing the cartilage she's pertaining.

She clips a nod. "Open it and find a red wire."

I did what I have been told. Carefully opening the cover, I start finding for a red wire. There are a lot of wires in different colors, "but I can't see a red wire here!"

That damned bomber is a smart one!

Little Lion is already shaking, "Find the blue and violet wires."

Fortunately, there are a blue and violet wires. "What will I do?"

"Get a pair of scissors and cut them."

"What if these are not the right wires?" I inquire silently.

"We won't know unless we try." And she replies. "But I have the intuition that those are the right wires. It's always a gamble, Natsumi . . . But are you prepared to die?"

That made shut up. Am I ready to die? "Hell, of course not." I exclaimed through gritted teeth. "I'm not going to die just because of this scummy little bomb."

She smiles sideways. "What are you going to do? Are you going to run away?"

I sigh, "No. My instinct is telling me to trust your instincts. My instinct never fails my trust, so I'll trust yours."

"Then cut 'em out at the same time."

I take deep breath. I can still hear my chest beating so hard. Although my intuition is telling me the right thing, there's a part of my mind that . . . what if it is the wrong thing? Can I take the risk? Can I carry the weight of those people who will die after this?

Why in the first place that we should do this? The government has the special unit for bomb schemes. Drat this Iverson Angelo Twain as known as Ivan.

With a shaky hands, I put the blue and violet wires and cut them out with scissors.

Our breaths are cut as we are watching what will the bomb react.

We both got our breaths in our lungs when the time stops counting on 3:43 minutes. After the massively intense panic, I subconsciously fall my back on the tiled floor. Damn, that is heart-pounding moment! Adrenaline is gushing throughout my brain!

"Shit, I was actually considering to study everything about bombs, I thought it is cool, but now . . . damn, I don't want it."

Yeah, this is the adrenaline. At the back of my mind, I had fun. I love the thrills. Maybe I will reconsider my thought. I want to learn about these bombs. I will ask Kuya Ivan about this.

Little Lion chuckles, "I only hate the risk when it is already in the actual situation."

Meanwhile, Kuya Ivan commands us to go back to the office of the Supervisor with the VX nerve gas attached on a C4. After bringing it to them, we start to leave. I bought snacks and we went to the rooftop to breathe some fresh air.

"That was cool, y'know, Little Lion." I say to her as we stay on the rooftop.

"Agape," she says, "My name is Agape Lionheart."

"What a nice name." I give her a compliment with an honest smile. The name Little Lion fits her well, because of what she did a while ago. It was bravery.

"Yours too, Miracle." she returns with a half smirk.

"So you also know about me?" I query.

"Yeah, anyone who has the connection with the Mafia does, of course, I know you, too."

"Oh, so you work also for Mafia?"

Agape or Little Lion nods her head. "But as not influential as the White Nation."

"Then why are you working with Valentine Steinfeld?"

"I don't know." she shrugs. "She recruited me and said that she sees a potential in me, but I don't think so."

She doubts herself. I understand her. Doubts are mostly caused by some mistakes that happened in that past. She must had have rejections and failures that lurks at the back of her mind.

"So what's your greatest guilt, Agape?"

She shots me a fast look before looking up to the sky. I witness the hurt in her eyes. She draws a sigh before talking, "Last year, they gave me a task where I had to clear a bomb in a government command center and there were thirty-two hostages, five extremists locked inside that building."

I am listening attentively to her.

"I was young and inexperienced, yet they gave me that mission." she continues and drinks the soda in can. "I was afraid . . . anxious, and uneasy. Those reasons were enough to run away and let alone my mission fail."

"Y-You don't mean . . ." I stutter, realizing what she had done.

"Yes, Miracle," she admits, "I escaped to that building and because of my cowardice, those thirty-two innocent civilians died. And I consider them as my first thirty-two kill. I am seventeen and a murderer."

"Well, the same on me." I say out if loneliness. "At the age of nine, I have already started killing people. I am sixteen now and worse than you."

We both look down. The students are having their own world, not knowing that there was a grave threat a while ago.

"But come to think of it, Agape," I state, averting my eyes back to her. "You have saved people more than you realize."

"That's right," she grins full of melancholy. "But regrets do not disappear," then she stands up, starting to leave this place. "unlike I am . . .  from this conversation."

I laugh wholeheartedly. "Are we going to meet again, Agape?"

"Yeah, in some other time." She smiles before she turns her back and waves her hand to say goodbye.

Too bad, I already like her to be my friend. But I have the feeling that this will be first and last time we'll see again. Too bad, too unfortunate.

And I have decided, I will be cutting class again and go home to have my mini-hibernation mode. After all the brain-rushing state of emergency, I deserve to rest. I will just contact Kuya Ivan for the payment of my work. My talent is not for free! Especially the disgusting acting I did to that terrorist.

Darn, this is a one hell of a day.

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hi, this is the revised version of chapter 9. :)

and this chapter is connected to my new published story called "Awake My Soul", please support. 💕

- h a n d t h e I r e n d -