Days after days, months after months, and it’s almost a year now they are working together as Sapphire Tiger. They have done a lot of missions together as five, three, or even just a pair as a result of the reasons why they have a deeper relationship with each other. Even though it’s still running around as a ‘co-workers’ thing, the three of them can finally understand it develops into something more than that. There is comfort between the five of them or even with one and another. Elio, who is the one that only can feel comfortable around Sapphire, now can slowly feel the same with others but it’s still different when it’s just him and Sapphire. The bonds that they shared right now is something that Elio never expected to have in the first place. The view, atmosphere in the room, their activities together in the building or on missions never feel or look this lively and fun like this before. It’s already night where the five of them have just finished their mission and are entering their shared room. “Wah!” Sapphire lets out a sigh of relief and satisfaction as she flops her body on the couch, a new one that they just got by “free”, “That was awesome!” she shouts loudly with her hands in the air. “Be honest, how long have you guys been training?” Aquamarine adds in as he puts his coat on the jacket rack. The compliment and question are pointing at the three of them who just showed an outstanding show on their mission. It makes them look at each other for a few seconds as Elio just laughs it off and shakes his head lightly while heading toward his room. “Well.. I suppose it’s not about training, right?” Spec answers first and looks at Howl, waiting for her to add. She smiles at him first and looks back at the other two. “Genius is genius and that is what has been looking at our backs.” Howl says as they both know that today’s mission was successful because of Elio. “But you guys didn’t even say anything, he already responded! Isn’t that cool?!” Sapphire gets back in to give another compliment. “Well.. I guess he is always well prepared.” Howl answers and walks to the kitchen area, tonight is her schedule to make dinner. “Too well prepared if I could add.” Spec says beside her and takes three of soju from the fridge. “Agree. He knows exactly what is going to happen in our mission! Like a seer!” Aquamarine replies and sits on another couch from Sapphire. When Sapphire remembers what date is today, she jolts and jumps a bit from her seat only to look at Howl who is preparing to make dinner. “Oh! Today’s dinner is Korean food!” She says excitedly and finally sits properly. Howl the one who hears that only smiles at her and gets an idea ever since they have been doing these plenty of times already. “Any request?” She asks while wearing her apron on. “Hmm..” Sapphire puts her hand under her chin as she is thinking for a while. And before she can answer that, someone already passes her first. “Something spicy!” Aquamarine answers childishly “What’s it called again.. Something with go… go… gochuchi?” as he is trying to remember the name of the ingredient. “It’s gochujang.” Spec says and sits down beside him while putting down the drinks. “Right! That one! Make something with it!” Aquamarine says excitedly like a child. “Do you want to eat it with rice or..?” Howl asks again, making sure what she needs to cook for dinner. Seeing these things, it only makes Sapphire giggles of how cute he is and can’t get mad or angry because she just got cut off. She shakes her head lightly and takes out her phone from her pocket. Turn it on and only to find a notification that only pops out once in blue moon. Her smile fades a little bit but she quickly changes it into her natural face as she is standing up from her seat and goes straight to her room. Right when she leaves, Elio arrives in the room and it’s clearly visible that his eyes are roaming around the room looking for a certain someone. That only lasts long for a few seconds because the other team members are discussing so lively about their dinner. Toilet probably? He thinks and goes to sit at the opposite side of the couch where Spec is sitting right now. The three of them keep chit chatting with each other and as always Aquamarine loves to get to know more about Korean things. One of the reasons why he has watched a lot of K-shows as well ever since he met them. Meanwhile Elio is not really interested in those topics so he just plays with his phone. But it’s enough, it’s normal and lively enough for Elio to make him comfortable around them. Even though he already has these kinds of lives with him now, he still keeps in contact with Lucas though. Sometimes Lucas is the one who is calling him and Elio will do the same thing because they are literally brothers. Last time they talked, Lucas told him that he is finally engaged with the person that they have been talking about. And from that talk, actually Elio is thinking something that he never thought before.. Probably because it’s almost his time as well.. Marriage.. Partner.. Those things.. At the same time, Elio can get rid of those thoughts because he is so satisfied with his works and his achievements right now, especially the life that he is living right now. The dinner is ready quicker, thanks to Spec who is volunteering himself to help Howl prepare it, but Sapphire is nowhere to be found. They are now already on their own spot at the dining table and continue chatting while waiting for her. Where is she? “Want to call her?” Someone’s voice breaks Elio’s thought, it’s Aquamarine who is sitting next to him. Well.. it’s already normal for them ever since they are getting closer. “Sure.” Elio replies and stands up from his seat. Gets up from his seat and goes straight to the team leader’s room. Knocks on the door twice then he takes a few steps back to wait for any response. Elio patiently waits, only for her, for a minute before giving other knocks on the door. “Dinner is ready, cap.” Elio says while knocking on the door. Takes a few steps back and waits for another minute there but still no response coming from the other side. Is she sleeping or something? He asks himself confusedly and turns around then goes back to the dining table. The other three who are waiting for them look at him and are confused because he comes back alone. “Well?” Aquamarine asks him while Elio is taking his seat. Elio raises both of his shoulders as giving a sign that he doesn’t know anything. “Maybe she is tired?” Spec takes a guess about their leader’s condition. “We did go on a mission today, a bit difficult one.” Howl replies from beside him and Spec nods from her reply. All of them stay silent for a moment until Aquamarine decides to speak up and tries to make the others not too worried about their leader. “I guess tonight is my shift to take care of a bunch of cubs.” Aquamarine says jokingly and throws his hands in the air as a defeat. His joke receives a scoff from Spec and Howl who are looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Really?” He starts off and crosses his arms. “You’re not even one yet.” Aquamarine replies teasingly. “Not even one but we save your ass a lot of times.” Howl roasts him up and Spec gives her a high five. That’s my girl! He shouts inside himself, feeling so proud of it. Meanwhile Elio, as always, only watches them quietly but sometimes he can’t fight his smile back from enjoying it. However this time Sapphire is not with them and it weirdly makes his smile only grow a bit stiffer. Getting that, Aquamarine only rolls his head and it’s his turn to scoff. “But you are still amazed by how your sunbaenim acts during missions.” Aquamarine uses his counter against Howl’s words. Sunbaenim means senior in Korean language. Aquamarine loves to be called that ever since he gets interested in it. “Almost all the time.” he adds in a more teasing way and it only pisses them off because it can’t be rejected. Both of them end up just rolling their eyes and chuckling and Aquamarine gains his victory. Even after their small little fight, Sapphire still hasn’t shown up yet and based on his experiences, he might know what is going to happen. With that he decides to lead the team members to eat first. “Alright. Sapphire may have accidentally fallen asleep because of today's mission. Let’s all eat and take a rest.” he says and thankfully the other three agree with his idea. Even so, Elio thinks something is off because this is the first time that Sapphire is like this, she never misses any group gatherings. All of them enjoy their dinner together just as usual. The other two who didn’t cook are the one who washes the dishes while the other two can leave earlier to go back into their own rooms. “Is that all?” Aquamarine says while putting the last glass in the cupboard and Elio responds with a hum. “Great!” He replies while stretching his arms out and lets out a yawn “Have a nice rest, little cub.” continues and walks to his room. “Can I ask something, Aquamarine?” Elio speaks up right before he makes a turn to his room. “Sure.” He answers immediately and stops his steps as well. At the moment, Elio realizes and suspects that Aquamarine actually knows what is happening with Sapphire but he just stays silent. That is the reason why he stopped him and asked about things that he doesn’t yet know about. Meanwhile Aquamarine already knows what he is going to ask, he already prepared his answer and waits patiently for the cub to throw the question at him. They both silence in their own position and Elio is frozen up and can’t say anything even though he really wants to ask about it. He lets out a sigh and shakes his head lightly. “Nothing. Good night.” He says and walks toward his own room, leaving Aquamarine behind who looks at him surprised and weird. “Good night to you too.” He manages to reply before entering his own room. And with that all of the members put an end for today, except one person.. Might be two people because he can’t stop his own brain from not thinking about it. He already washed himself, done with all of his night routine, yet falling asleep is not an option inside his mind. Forcing it by putting the blanket all over him, close his eyes tightly, but his ears keep hearing the ticking sound that comes from the clock and the wind blows from the air conditioner. Slowly opens his eyes just to check on what time it is and wanting to know how long it has been passed. 01:32AM “Agh! Come on!” He says irritatedly and takes off the blanket from him. More than an hour just rolling and rolling around on his bed and his brain doesn’t give him any sign to stop working. Had enough of it, he sits up, reaches his phone, and decides to just play video games on his phone until his eyes surrender to stay awake. One round, two rounds, three rounds, it’s not his eyes who give up but his stomach, it growls looking for something to get munched on. He rolls his eyes from the sound and feels defeated by his own body. “Great.” He says frustratedly, gets up from the bed, grabs one of the instant noodle cups, and walks out from his room just to obey his stomach demanding. Surprisingly, right on the time his brain wants it to be, the lights from the living room are turned on. It’s a sign that there is someone in there and what his brain tells him might be correct. He slowly walks in the room and checks who is in there. Jackpot. It's someone who he has been looking for, the one that keeps his mind busy, and that person nonetheless is their leader. Tries to make it not obvious of looking for her, he walks in there casually and follows by yawning. Thankfully, his yawn draws her attention in an instant but she looks a bit too surprised by it? Probably because she is thinking no one is still awake at this hour. And she looks a bit down.. her expression.. "Hey.." Sapphire greets him and this is his chance to look directly at her. Thankfully, she is the one who greets Elio because he doesn't have any idea how to act any more than this. Well, he is not an expert in this part of the job.. "Oh. Hey Cap." He replies and continues approaching the kitchen area. "Problem getting sleep?" She asks him worriedly, as always so pure and genuine toward the others. Elio doesn't say anything in response instead he just raises his instant noodle and puts his other hand on his stomach. Seeing his action, it successfully makes the other person chuckle and a smile can be seen on her face. "Do you usually get hungry around these hours?" She asks curiously and takes another bite of her food. Before answering that, Elio thinks for a moment because he can't say it right away, what is the reason he keeps awake tonight, right? But at the same time, he doesn't want to lie as well. "Hmm.." he hums while preparing the boiling water "Somehow it just happened today." He continues and takes out a slice of cheese and egg. After he says that, he realizes it might not be the best answer because it can mean two things.. Unfortunately, at this point because something just happened and it gives Sapphire a lot of thoughts, she starts to feel bad for it. "I'm sorry for not joining the dinner with you guys. It made you guys uncomfortable..." she says in an apologetic voice and her face downs looking at her food. Elio is taken aback by her response and immediately turns around to look at her. Shoot.. he says inside of him and wants to beat his own self right now but that won't do anything. "Why would you think like that? None of it is your fault." He says with a concerned voice and returns to finish preparing his snack. Elio has a point, it's true that she did it on purpose or anything. She is just at the rate where she can't get or process anything and at the end of it she is just overthinking about it. Before giving him a reply, she takes a deep breath and slowly takes it out to control her emotion and to calm herself down. "Yeah. Sorry for overreacting to it." She replies but it's still in an apologetic voice. Even though she knows she shouldn't say that, she can't stop apologizing and not fully control herself. With that she lets out another sigh and shakes her head slowly while looking down and closed eyes. Instead of hearing other words from Elio, she only hears footsteps coming closer to her from the kitchen area where he has been cooking his snack. Fortunately, Elio already finished making his snack at the right time. He pulls the chair at the opposite side from hers while putting his plate on the table and sits there. For the entire time, Elio just looks at her in a sympathetic way but he thinks that he just needs to give her some time to think or calm herself down. That is why he decides to not force or ask her to explain what happened. But of course the atmosphere will be awkward in the room, that is why before taking a bite of his own meal, he starts to speak up again in order to comfort her. “I’ll wash the dishes later. You can take a rest after eating.” He says and finally takes a bite from the food. Another surprise attack from Elio that caught her off guard and an act of service which it’s rare to happen, especially from this person. Her head automatically looks up, only to find Elio who is slurping his noodles. Well they have been working together for almost a year now but still anything that comes from Elio is different, the other members also say the same thing. He is a type of person where actions speak louder than words, that is what Sapphire has learned about him. It makes her smile slowly crawl up from her face and she manages to take another bite of her late-meal again. Both of them eat quietly, only the sound of them munching their food and Elio’s slurping his noodles. Somehow and weirdly it’s not awkward, it’s comfortable for both of them because it has been plenty of time that they spend their time like this, especially those cafe dates. Just as thought, Sapphire finishes eating first and there are only two bites left on his cup. But it’s a little bit out of direction because Elio thought she would leave after eating because of his words previously, she didn’t. She is still sitting there, arms on the table, one used to be a pillar holding her chin, and staring at him. Of course it won’t go unnoticed by Elio, that’s why he slowly looks up only to find her gaze toward him with a smile that is as warm as sunrise in the morning. “What?” Elio manages to say after tons of time trying to get used to it. In fact, her smiles and actions still make his butterflies raging inside but somehow he manages to stay calm in that condition, another impressive improvement, right? His simple reaction and a word coming out from him can make her break eye contact and chuckle which only grows her smile wider. Final blast, Elio is on his limit to control the butterflies.. So right now he will just freeze up like a statue. She gets up from her seat while slightly shakes her head and walks past him, not to forget giving him a gentle pad on his shoulder. “Thank you.” She says and goes inside her room, leaving a frozen Elio there with a fork on his hand that stopped right in front of his mouth. After a few seconds, almost half of a minute, he finally can take a deep breath and let it out loud from his mouth, just coming back to reality. “Darn it.” He mutters silently and irritatedly then takes his last two bites to finish it off. There are two things that make him irritated. One is how unaware he feels toward his leader’s actions and words and second is how hard it is to ignore the fluttery feelings he has been holding on these months.
Comments
Post a Comment