Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 23 "Suspicious and Genuine"

Confused tigers are all confused but they don’t have the courage to fight back with the lion’s servants who are pushing them away to get inside the elevator. Once they get inside the elevator, Howl is the one who breaks their awkward and completely uncomfortable atmosphere. “Sapphire!” She calls her out irritatedly and stomps her foot “Why don’t you do something?!” She knows that it’s not the right way to just blame her right away without asking her reasons or anything. But at the same time, she already reaches her limits where she really wants to help yet don’t have the guts to go in. It only makes her irritated toward herself. Sapphire lets out a sigh and turns around to face the angry tiger. “Let’s get inside first.” She replies and turns her back again toward her. The time they get inside, there is no more running away for Sapphire, she is already on the edge of needing to tell the others about it. “So? What is it?” Howl starts again, looking like she wants to interrogate her leader who might hide a few secrets behind them all, only three of them probably. Before answering her, Sapphire glances over Aquamarine, only a second which is enough for her, and looks at the other two who are waiting for her proper answer. “For your question, sorry I can’t answer that because-” Sapphire doesn’t finish her sentence because someone just cuts her. “Because you’re afraid just like us? What kind of leader would you be if it keeps happening?!” Howl says and raises her voice angrily in her second sentence. Hearing her voice tone, of course it catches the other male tigers’ attention quickly and becomes cautious of what things could happen next. Spec wants to stop her but he thinks that this might be not the right time. Besides, he also thinks that she is not crossing the line, not yet. Meanwhile Aquamarine gets irritated at how Howl behaves and the way she talks back to Sapphire as she is someone who he looks for as his own little sister, his family. That is why he changes his face and eyes the way he glares at Howl, it looks like a predator ready to cut his enemy bit by bit. Sapphire takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly as she starts to speak up again. “Because the only information I got is that message. Nothing else.” She says calmly and unexpectedly that it comes out smoothly which makes the other two taken aback. Even though it shows only slightly of it, Sapphire notices it and takes her chance right away so she won’t get any interrogation again. Howl opens her mouth a bit, wanting to ask another question, this time Sapphire doesn’t let her dominate this conversation. “And right before the servants closed the door, I made eye contact with him.” she continues and the other two who are infront of her back to cautious again. “He only nods his head. It means that he won’t do anything to him and everything will be alright.” Spec raises one of his eyebrows and looks at her confusedly while Howl opens her mouth in disbelievement. “Are you saying that-” Howl starts to speak up again but it’s Sapphire’s turn to cut her off. “Not at all.” She speaks up and it makes Howl go silent immediately “Not even the slightest I would feel okay about it.” she continues and her voice starts to break down as she squeezes her arm. Hearing her voice cracked, Howl takes aback again and realizes that she shouldn’t give her this much pressure. Now she starts feeling guilty of trying to interrogate her. The other two who are watching them, start to worry about Sapphire as well, especially Aquamarine who quickly goes in front of Sapphire and grabs her shoulders. “Sapphire? Are you okay?” He asks her worriedly. “I’m scared…” she replies and looks down to her toes, avoiding eye contact with others as she hugs herself. Seeing this, it makes the other two standing there and just watching them quietly. The anger starts to go out from them and it swaps with worriedness about them, Sapphire and the one who is still staying with the lions. Going back to the fifth floor where they just had their meeting. Tick.. tock.. Tick.. tock.. Only the sound from the clock is remaining in the room as Elio is standing right in front of them. Citrina with her crossed arms looking at Elio with her sharp eyes, more like glaring at this point. Zircon’s footsteps can be heard as he walks slowly back to his seat and puts his hands inside his pant’s pockets. Lastly, Heliodor sits there, arms on the table, and looks at Elio, as always, with his smug face. “Alright, how have you been, Tanzanite?” Heliodor cuts the clock’s sound. Starting it with useless chit chat? This is very unlikely for him. Elio talks with himself as looking at him weirdly and expressionless. “Fine.” He answers coldly. “Glad to hear that.” Heliodor smiles toward him while the other two still glare at him. Another moment of silence fills in the room until Heliodor starts to speak up again. “Please take a seat.” he says as looking at Elio from up and down, noticing him, he is still standing up. Elio doesn’t say anything and just does whatever this person is asking him for. When he sits down, again, the room becomes quiet until someone suddenly stands up from her seat. “I will leave first. I have something to do.” She says and grabs her suitcase as she quickly walks out from the room with the door behind them, not behind Elio. “Don’t stay awake too late!” Heliodor warns her with his friendly voice. Before she leaves, another one stands up from his seat too. “Thank you for tonight.” Same like Citrina, he also walks out from the room. “Thank you for coming too.” he replies and smiles at him. Two of them already left the room and there are only two of them now. “How nostalgic it is, right?” he starts off again as he leans down on his chair, changing his position to a comfortable one. “It’s just like when we first met.” Obviously their first meeting is really one of the biggest things that happened in Elio’s life, the time where he got instant regret and adrenaline of saving people’s lives. No response, just an intense staring from Elio toward him. “What do you think about your teammates?” he asks again, not waiting for Elio to respond. Probably because he already knew that Elio won’t speak up if it’s something that he doesn’t have to. “More or less the same.” he replies. His answer receives hums from Heliodor as he nods his head slowly as well. “The mission? Rewards? From one to ten, how is it?” he asks again. “Both ten.” “I see. High risk, high return, right?” Elio nods his head. Heliodor stops throwing questions at him as he rumbles something inside his suit’s pocket. “Here.” He gives him a piece of paper, again, this is just like a repetition of their first meeting. Mostly meeting him won’t be that scary but what he already planned is the thing that needs to pay extra attention. Elio takes the paper and reads it right away. Correct, just like what he thought, codes. Again he doesn’t know what these codes are for but the difference is that he already learned about it which will be easy for him to solve. “From one to ten, how hard are those codes?” Heliodor asks him, which makes Elio look at him confusedly. He didn’t ask me to solve this? Asking himself and still on aware of anything that could happen for every upcoming second.         “Three.” he answers. Receives other hums from Heliodor as he reaches his pocket again. Another folded paper comes out and he gives it to Elio right away as Elio also takes it from him. He opens it and there are three papers inside of it. To be true, the codes become more complicated from the previous one but for Elio, who has been learning, studying, and mastering every code, it’s still a piece of cake. “Five.” This time not only hums, Heliodor smiles at him with a very satisfied face on his face. “Good. Those codes are the hints for our mission. You can have them as references.” he says with a smile, a very friendly one, and puts back his arms on the table. But anything that comes as ‘friendly’ from him only creeps him out as Elio looks at him weirdly with a raised eyebrow. “Alright then.” Heliodor stands up from his seat and packs up his belongings to put it inside his suitcase “Have a good night, partner.” he says and leaves the room, leaving Elio who is lost in his thoughts. The moment that only lasts for a few seconds, only makes him confused of what this person is trying to do with him. Not until five seconds after Heliodor left the room, one of the servants gets inside and tells Elio that he is going to accompany him to get back to Tiger’s room. With that, once again, just like how it always ends up, everything that those people did only gave him a lot of puzzling questions inside his mind which he needs to figure it out alone. Once he arrives on the third floor where their room is, Elio doesn’t get inside right away. At the moment, he is so full with the thoughts inside of his mind which makes him refuse to get inside because he knows that his leader might be waiting for his return. Checking on the time, 11.17PM, it’s still too early for them to close this date. With that, Elio decides to go to the place where they had a dinner party before, the fine dining on the third floor, just to throw some of his weights away. Even though it’s already been more than a year since he never goes for a drink again, the alcohol suddenly pops out inside of him to get rid of reality. Entering the room, he doesn’t hesitate to take a seat on one of the bar’s stools and the mixologist approaches him. “Good evening, Tanzanite from Sapphire Tiger.” He greets him “What can I get for you?” Not surprising at all from the way he greeted Elio because he had been here plenty of times already. Of course, such an introvert person and staying in his room feels like a paradise for him, never wanting to bother himself to go out just to fill his meals. Besides, the company’s fine dining place is a lot better than any other places here and he obviously can make an effort even though he eats here 3 times everyday. “Give me your best shot with whiskey and make it two shots.” Elio answers then the mixologist nods his head as he prepares and mixes his order in front of him. While waiting for his order to come out, Elio takes out his phone and plays his new favorite video game. Usually his video game is enough to distract him while waiting but this time, weirdly, the waiting becomes so unbearable that he feels like almost losing his mind. The thoughts of their mission, the lions, and lastly that mostly occupies his mind nonetheless is his leader. Not only because he feels toward the person, well he still tries to figure out or get rid of it, all of the incidents from yesterday makes him think if this person hides something behind everyone’s back. At the same time when he tries to figure out what are the possible reasons behind it, he can't ignore the aches inside his chest. He wants to believe her without any specific reason that can’t be explained with anyone’s brain yet his mind keeps telling him something off from her. After all this time and is it finally she shows us her true fangs? Behind all of her cute paws there are claws that can cut anything easily? These kinds of questions that keep rolling inside his mind and add it with the other thoughts are so close to making him burnt out. That is why the way he chose to run away from it is drinking alcohol with a high amount of it. “Enjoy your drink, Tanzanite.” the mixologist says and gives the drink right on time before Elio let out a loud frustration sigh. Thankfully, the mixologist just killed two birds with one stone without him actually knowing it. First, the wait for Elio finally comes to an end which he feels like eternity. Second, he comes at the very exact right time before Elio goes crazy because of his own brain. Elio looks up at him while holding his breath. “Thank you.” He manages to simply reply and sounds totally calm with it. The mixologist only bows as a reply which means he doesn’t notice how frustrated Elio is at the moment. When the mixologist walks away, Elio finally can let out that heavy held sigh. Glancing at his drink, the color is really enticing that he wants to straight it up. He takes the glass and spins it slowly as it looks like he is watching the drink start making a small tornado. Done playing it for almost half a minute, just about he wants to take a sip of it his phone suddenly vibrates in his pocket. Someone is calling him and he growls because of it. Reaching his phone and checking who is the contact’s name that appears on his phone. His eyes open a bit wider since the one who called him someone that he never contacted for quite a long time, it’s Lucas. Without him realizing it, his ton of thoughts disappear in an instant as he picks the phone right away. “Hello?” He says, the sound completely sounds full of hesitation. “Hey bro! How long has it been?!” Lucas replies from the other side and as always with his excitement whenever he calls Elio. Hearing that, Elio only chuckles and lays his body on the table, using his arms as support. “How have you been bro?” Elio replies calmly. “Grande, my dude!” he answers excitedly with a loud voice, thankfully Elio doesn’t put his phone stick closely with his ear. “How about you? Enjoying your new life there?” it’s his turn to ask back about Elio’s condition, just like usual. Honestly, when Elio got these kinds of questions, he was confused about how to answer them Of course, he is happy, he feels more lively, he got money to buy or get anything he wanted, and to top it all, he has a new family that is really close and cares about him. But on the other hand, something still off, something still strange, some kind of things he still doesn’t know about which makes his brain can’t load all of it. His first target is to get rich and at this point of course he is a very wealthy person. But his freedom? He gets none of it. Even though he can hang out or go anywhere he likes with his new family, he can’t get away from this work, this business, from Sapphire Tiger itself. He might try silently behind everyone’s back but again, what if he fails? These people, the lions, are always one step ahead from him. Never and ever he gets a chance to find a way out or get into a winning position against them. “Bro? You there?” Lucas speaks up and that brings Elio back to reality again. “Oh, sorry. Yeah, just like usual. Everything is completely fine.” Elio answers, trying to be as normal as he used to be. “Glad to hear that. Did I interrupt you or something?” Lucas replies and walks in from his terrace’s house to his living room. From Elio’s side, he can hear the sliding door open and shut. “Hahah.. Chill bro.” Elio laughs nervously, somehow he fails to hide it, shoot. “Where are you, though? Don’t tell me you are still working this late.” He asks again with a worried voice and sits on his couch. To answer that question, Elio has two options, answer it honestly or lie to Lucas. “Of course not.” He takes the second option, obviously doesn’t want his brother to know about him, almost back drinking again “I’m watching something in my room.” “Haa…” Lucas let out a sigh of relief “Thank goodness you are paying more attention to yourself now. Usually at this hour, you were wandering alone or drinking in our favorite bar, remember that?” Am I? Doesn’t sound right.. The first things that come across his mind when Lucas tells him that. Doubts about it because he takes a glance at the glass that is starting to water in front of him and ice becomes smaller than before. How long has that been again? More than a year and a half. The response he gets is only by Elio chuckling and rolling his eyes. “But put that aside,” Lucas continues and clears his throat before asking him the question he has been wanting to ask a long time ago “How is your partner?” At first Elio only expects that Lucas will ask about his work because he never tells him about it. But it turns out that it’s something that once crossed his mind and he tried to get rid of it with everything he can. As he is getting this question from someone else, not only his brain, it makes him frozen up and everything goes blank for him. Totally looks like an idiot with his mouth open a bit and his eyes staring into a voice. “Ohoho!” Suddenly Lucas starts to speak up again and for the third time he snapped Elio out of it “I knew it! Why you never tell me about it?!” Getting this reaction, Elio blinks his eyes a few times and finally gets why Lucas is acting like this. He thought Elio already got a partner just like him and Elio hides it from him. “What? No!” Elio replies with an unusual voice tone. “Hmm… really?” Lucas asks teasingly. Elio grunts and sighs loudly intentionally so the person who is on the other side can hear it clearly. “Seriously, I don’t have anyone.” He answers firmly with a serious voice. Now it’s Lucas’s turn that sighs loudly and follows by a sound of his facepalm. “Alright be honest with me, bro. Are you for real?” He asks again and this time he is not teasing at all, he is serious as well. “For real. For god sake.” Once again Elio answers firmly. “Come on… You must have someone who might attract you, right?” At this point Lucas is really wanting and curious to know about it. But the second question comes out differently from before. The first one, he can answer it easily because the point of the question is whether he is in a relationship or not. Meanwhile the second one is about his heart, does he feel something special with someone? The words ‘attract you’ are the ones that catch his attention right away as he holds his breath right after he hears that. There is only one reason for it. It’s all because someone’s face, out of nowhere, comes across his mind right away. His heart starts drumming, his mind becomes a bit fuzzy, the sweats come out from any possible places, and the butterflies play around inside his stomach. Elio clenches his jaws tightly as well as his hands, almost like he could crack his own phone. From all of the questions, why must he ask me that..