“I’m still not forgiving you, nerd!” Spinel shouts from his room which is the last sound that Elio hears before he shuts his room’s door. Right after he locks the door then turns his body around and slams it to the door. “Hahh… “ Elio lets out a loud sigh and slowly his body slides down as he sits there. He looks exhausted and breathes heavily. “This is not good.” He says to himself while putting one of his palms on his head. From the first mission, Elio learned two things that he needed to immediately improve for the next around 26 hours. First, he realizes that some of the codes are still out of his range which makes him only gain a few access and takes a bit longer than usual to break it. Second, never relied on the information given from his leader. This one could be just an optional improvement which is learning how to fight back in a physical way. After sitting there for a few minutes, Elio finally managed to calm himself down. He lets out a sigh once again as he stands up from his seat. Just about entering his working place, suddenly his phone fibrates in his pocket. Takes out his phone and his eyes widen a bit from the contact’s name that is appearing on his screen now. It’s Lucas. Again, two things come up in his mind right now. Does Lucas suddenly know about his new job? But that sounds impossible since Elio didn’t tell anyone he knows about this. Or just an ordinary call? Like he usually did back then when they were still in university. Option number 2 is the most possible thing that could happen. With that, Elio sweeps away the first idea and picks up the phone. “Hello?” Elio greets him right after he puts the phone to his right ear. “Hey, bro. How are ya?” Lucas asks. At this hour, he must still be in his office room, doing all of his boring tasks from his boss again. “Well pretty much as usual.” Elio answers and walks toward his sofa in the main room. “Oh? You were not drinking last night?” Lucas suddenly says which catches Elio a bit off guard. Lucas really knows him well even though it is just a voice call yet he already knows that Elio didn’t go for a drink last night. The whole last night he spent was reading the book that was given to him. He solved the codes from the book as much as he could to prepare himself for his first mission which is still not enough for him. “Yeah, gotta prepare for something.” Elio replies without hesitation. He doesn’t want to lie to Lucas but at the same time he still needs to hide it from him about his current work. “Wow.. What’s got into you, bro? Such a long time that you are finally doing something seriously again hahahah.” Lucas says jokingly. Well, that’s true. All the jobs that Elio has entered before, he never put this much effort into it. Probably because his life is in this company’s hands. Elio only responds with his laughter, hoping that Lucas won’t notice his awkwardness. “Yea. Don’t need to try hard to do the Tech Lead tasks, right?” Elio scoffs, remembering those tasks that were given to him by Jana. “Yea, you’re still the smartest person I know. But I’m also proud of you, bro. You make a slight change even though I still doubt you won’t drink right after I hang up this phone.” Once again Lucas mocks him jokingly. This kind of interaction is very normal between them as they mock each other. “Wanna bet if I’m going to drink again tonight?” Elio offers Lucas a deal confidently since he knows that he won’t be drinking for 2 days. “Nah. I know you too well, bro. You make a bet on something that you already know what is going to happen next. Won’t fall for that again.” Lucas replies immediately. “You know me too well.” Elio replies and laughs a bit. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you something.” Lucas changes the topic “I will just get it to the point, okay? Are you interested in working back in my company again? The managers keep begging me to take you back in.” Lucas' quick explanation. Hearing what Lucas just said to him, Elio gets mixed feelings about it. He wants to go back and has a normal job as usual. Even though the job must be boring for him, Elio still prefers to have a normal job rather than the one he is doing right now. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to get back there because the salary is too low for him. Without noticing it, Elio stays silent for almost a minute, which makes Lucas check his phone if he got disconnected with Elio. “Bro? You there?” Lucas asks him worriedly. Thankfully, Lucas’s voice reaches Elio and makes him snap out from his deep thoughts. “Oh yeah. I’m still here. It's just that.. I’m too stunned to speak, hahaha.” Elio says, trying to avoid it with a joke. “Yeah, I know, right? They must have lost their mind back then when they kicked you.” Lucas feels relief of Elio’s response and replies to his joke jokingly. Moment of silence fills in between them once again and Elio tries to look for another reason that could reject Lucas’s offer and make him feel reassured. “So? What do you think?” Lucas asks him to break the silence as well. Elio finds the effective way to reject him as he is just about to reply to Lucas, suddenly Lucas is the one who speaks up first. “You probably don't, right?” Hearing what Lucas just said that caught Elio by surprise. “Looking back in that room where the managers were attacking you, I totally understand if you don’t want to get back here.” Lucas continues. Again, Lucas’s actions make him speechless and freezing in his position. The way Lucas treats Elio is always different from the others. Always understanding every single thing about Elio without him even saying one word. Elio smiles at himself and lets out a chuckle. “Yeah, you got it on point.” Elio replies between a few seconds after Lucas told his consideration. “Alright then. I will tell those retards about it tomorrow.”Lucas replies warmly and with a nickname to the other managers which makes Elio laughs once again. “Take care of yourself, bro. Just tell me if you need anything.” Lucas says before both of them bid goodbye and hang up their phones. Elio lets out another sigh of relief. It’s not because he is scared that Lucas found out about his situation now but he is relieved that he found someone like Lucas. So far, he only found Lucas as the only person that is sincere to him and Elio can’t feel thankful enough for meeting Lucas as his friend. I need to work harder, huh? I don’t want to make him worried or disappointed at me again. Elio says for himself as it also encourages him to stand up and start studying about the book. Just as the prediction of the previous bet, Elio stays all night just reading, trying, and solving the codes that he finds in his book. **Tomorrow morning** Sunlight comes through between his room’s curtains and directly hits Elio’s closed eyes. It makes him twitch his right eyebrow and slowly opens his eyes. “Ugh.. did I accidentally fall asleep again?” Elio talks with himself tiredly while rubbing his right eye. The first thing that comes to his mind when he wakes up this morning is what time it is right now. He lazily reaches his phone and looks at the time that shows on it. 8.37AM Usually, on this weekday he is already on his way to the office with a headache. But now, he doesn’t have that kind of strict time of working that needs to wake up earlier on the weekday. He doesn’t have anything for today because his work is starting tomorrow. Suddenly when he just stands up from his seat, his stomach rumbles. Now he just remembers last night he forgot to eat dinner. With that, he walks toward his mini kitchen and is not surprised that all of his cabinets and refrigerator are empty. Yep, Elio never remembers to fill in his kitchen anyway. Elio gets back into his room to change his clothes then walks toward his apartment’s door. He unlocks the door and tries to open it but it can’t be opened. Huh? Strange. Why can't the door be opened? Elio confusedly asks himself. Yesterday when he had work to do, he opened his own apartment’s door. With that, Elio tries to open the door forcefully until suddenly a sound of alarm pops out. He quickly looks around confusedly, searching where the sound comes from. The alarm only lasts for a few seconds and shuts down after it. The silence fills in his apartment as he just stands there with trembling eyes looking around his room. Suddenly the phone in his apartment rings and he quickly picks up the phone. “What can I help you with?” An unknown woman's voice yet it is almost the same as that nerdy girl who escorted him to the interview room. But Elio puts those thoughts aside and focuses on the problem that he is facing right now. “Sorry, miss. I think there is something wrong with my apartment’s door.” Elio answers politely as he also doesn’t forget to hide his trembling. “That’s not what I’m asking for.” She replies and based on her voice tone, she is kinda annoyed by Elio's question. From her response, Elio becomes more confused about how to answer her question. Thankfully, he gets the idea by hearing the words ‘another person’ “So umm..” Elio just about to speak up again but he hears the person he is calling right now let out a groan of frustration. “Ughh.. come on! What do you want?!” She says angrily. “Alright, alright!” Elio quickly responds and takes a deep breath before answering her “I just want to have breakfast this morning but I can’t find anything in my kitchen. That is why I decided to eat outside of my apartment yet the door can’t be opened.” Elio explains quickly, almost rapping. After explaining it to her, another groan of frustration can be heard again. “Ugh.. what makes it so hard to say it in the beginning?” Once again she replies frustratedly “Stay there and your food will arrive in five minutes.” She says and hangs up the phone right after it. Elio slowly takes away his phone from his ear and puts it back. “Why is everything I do always wrong?” He complains while scratching the back of his hand before slamming his body to the couch. While he is waiting for his food, suddenly he just realizes something. That person didn’t answer anything about his apartment door. Does that mean I can’t go outside if there is no work or special occasion? With that in mind, he gets up from his seat and walks toward his door again. He takes a deep breath and tries to open his door once again. Somehow the door can be opened easily this time which makes Elio surprised as he slowly opens the door a bit wider. Slowly takes a step outside of his room and looks around if he finds something. The hallway is so quiet that it doesn’t have any sound even from other rooms. Suddenly when he wants to take another step, his foot hits something on the floor. It's a food tray that has instant noodles, sausages, and fruit drink. Did she tell me that in five minutes? It’s not even three minutes yet. He looks around him once again before picks up the food tray and gets back inside his room. Right after the door closes, Elio can hear the locking sound from his door. That makes him blinks his eyes a few times then tries to open the door once again. Yep, it’s locked, he's trapped inside again. In no working days, he will be locked up here and wait for upcoming activity. Another sigh comes out from Elio as he walks to his couch to eat his breakfast. When he puts down his tray on the table, it looks like there is something below the tray. Elio notices it and picks up the tray once again so he can see what that is. There is an black envelope and he slowly takes it away from the tray. First thing he does is check the envelope if there is something written in there. Nothing written there so he proceeds to open the envelope slowly. Take a peek at what inside the envelope makes Elio’s eyes open widely. The envelope is filled with a lot of cash and a piece of paper too. But the first thing Elio takes is the cash, obviously because that is why he took this job in the first place. “Woah! This is amazing!” He says excitedly and smiles widely with hands full of cash. He sits back to the couch and quickly counts how much money he got from the envelope. “Nine.. and fifty.” He counts as he finally meets the end of it “Fifty thousand dollar from the first day of work?! I’m going to be rich!” Elio says excitedly again as he laughs satisfiedly. Another sigh of satisfaction comes out from him and finally takes a glance at that piece of paper. He takes the paper from the envelope and reads it. Outstanding, Chalcedony! Keep up the good work! The thoughts of being trapped in this apartment, those rude people followed by how they treated Elio, suddenly swept away because of just this small appreciation. The way they appreciate and acknowledge Elio’s work is a lot different than the other companies that Elio ever joined before. It’s been a while that another person rather than Lucas gives him such a proper appreciation like this which makes Elio a bit happy. “Alright. Let’s break more codes inside that book.” He says as he stands up from the couch and gets in his room. **Next morning** It’s already 9 AM, the time where he gets a message on his phone and Elio is already awake. He checks the message immediately as he is still eating his breakfast. Onyx 5PM at the same place. A smirk appears on Elio’s face as for today he is already fully ready for his second job. The time for the meeting finally arrives as Elio is already waiting for this moment from this morning. Without knowing or noticing it, it looks like Elio comes earlier than the others. As he takes the first step inside the room and looks around, he finds someone is already there. It’s Obsidian, he is leaning his body to one of the pillars. Obsidian only takes a glance at him and looks away from him, continuing using his phone. Same goes for Elio, he walks to the other pillars and sits there, opening his laptop there. Only a couple of minutes pass by, the other members get in from 3 different doors as Onyx also comes from one of them. Elio looks up only to find all different faces. Those are not the same person from his first work before, totally different person. “Gather up everyone!” Onyx shouts as she enters the room and walks to the center of the room. Just in that couple of seconds, Onyx and Elio make eye contact together and it clearly can be seen that they have totally different expressions. Elio has that confused look on it while Onyx.. it’s a bit hard to describe it. But that face of her, she also shows it when she looks at Obsidian on the other pillar. At the same time, Elio also takes a chance to look at Obsidian yet he still has that flat face of him. No expression at all like this is something that regularly happens. “Thank you for coming. I’m your leader, Onyx.” The same introduction she did back then in that first work for Elio. The way she introduces and enters the room is all the same as before. A lot of questions pop out in Elio’s mind but then one thing he probably gets it right. That last job from before was not the first time for both Onyx and Obsidian. Big possibility that both of them already worked together at least twice. Onyx starts the explanation about the plan and the targeted bank is also a small one but different place. Because of that, Elio puts away all of his thoughts and gets himself together to give all of his attention to the plan’s presentation. The people's personalities are almost the same as before. It feels like watching the same presentation but the audience is different from another day because the way Onyx explained and the situation are both the same. Also Elio feels less pressured than before because none of them are getting close to him. “Alright then, here is the team. Ackpal, Pearl, Spinel, and I will get inside the building to take our target out. Got it?” Onyx continues which makes Elio look up at her surprisedly. “Uhuu.. how fortunate for us to be in the same group, cutie. Did you purposely put our name together?” Pearl says flirtatiously. Just like before, there always will be one person who keeps doing this to Onyx and this time his name is Pearl, not Spinel. “I count that as complaining then I will move you.” Onyx replies codly and Elio just realizes that she seems to get used to these things. “Aw.. don’t be mad. I would love to accompany you anywhere, my fearless leader.” He replies with a mocking voice. Onyx just rolls her eyes and ignores him. “Next, Obsidian and Schorl need to stand by here for emergency backup.” Onyx says while looking at both of them, same position for Obsidian before. Schorl responds with a nod however Obsidian raises his right hand. “Can I be in the team who gets inside?” Obsidian requests. “Yo!” Spinel interrupts him before Onyx can even answer his request. “The team is already fixed, la!” he says angrily while approaching Obsidian. “Seems like there is someone who wants to be the center of attention, heh.” Blizzard says sarcastically. “Aiyo~ Who do you want to impress in here, huh? We are not gay though?” Spinel says right in front of Obsidian as he is trying to put one of his arms to circled Obsidian’s neck. But he fights back and quickly puts him on the floor which makes everyone let out a quick gasp. Obsidian stands back and looks at Onyx again. “My apologies, Obsidian. I have to decline your request.” Onyx answers and makes the others laugh at Obsidian. “See?” Spinel says while getting up from the floor “I told you, that she, soon will be mine, wanted to be in the same group with me. Please don’t third wheeling us.” Spinel says mockingly and gives a pat to Obsidian’s shoulder. Even though that is such a big humiliation to Obsidian, his face still doesn’t change, just flat without expression at all. But from Obsidian’s action towards Onyx, another question pops out inside Elio’s mind. There must be something both of them know that he doesn’t. The meeting ended and the time for tomorrow's work is the same as before.
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