Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 33 "Before The Meeting"

Days after days become weeks and months, three months after the accident and the legendary auction, the third diamond notification shows up on Sofia’s phone and it always pops out at the same time in the morning. The last two missions with the lions also went just like usual as what Sofia had mentioned to them on the first meeting together which means Heliodor and Citrina were the main roles, the one who interacts with the people inside, while the others working behind the desk. Sofia notices it right away so she gives the three of them a signal and shows her phone’s screen to let them see what she means. “Alright, everyone. We have been waiting and preparing ourselves for this but please always remember don’t let any of our guards down. Surprise always comes without a warning after all.” Sofia warns them as they are cleaning up the dining table together. Few months have passed since their last deep conversation with all of them, the trust between them is getting stronger as well as their friendship. Even though Spec and Elio haven’t shared any of their personal life, they still trust them and won’t force them to do so. After cleaning up the dining table and washing the dishes, there is some plenty of time left before the meeting, Elio uses this short time to check and try his new bot that he just made in those few months. His new bot has a new feature that it's easy to access on any devices and doesn’t need much requirements to run for it which means it can also become a disadvantage to make it easy to get hijacked. But in this mission, applying into this plan, this is the bot he needs for since he won’t stay in the back. The closer he gets with the system, the faster his bot works to break all of the codes, another advantage on his new one. Yep, Elio has been practicing working with them, the tigers, to get inside and not just staying behind their back. They sometimes got into trouble where the place was suspicious about them which caused them to fight back the guards or run away as fast as possible from there. Shooting and short combat practice have been done as well for improving Elio’s defending skill. While in the middle of testing and trying his new bot, someone is knocking Elio’s door which makes him slightly groan from the disturbance. “Coming!” Elio shouts to answer the knocking as he is walking toward the door to open it only to find his leader in front of it. Even though it’s already more than a year with her now, the bond is getting closer as well, and a lot of moments passed together among these two yet Elio still can’t get used to how his heart stops beating and the automatic breath holds for a second once he sees her face, especially the smiley one. “Hey. Are you busy?” Sofia greets and peeks behind his back from the small space beside him. “I- uhh…” the never ending stuttering from Elio but it stops right away once he takes a deep breath “Well, yeah a little bit.” Sofia replies with a smile on her face, this one never fails to give him a light heart attack, and gives him a gentle squeeze on his arm. “Don’t overworked yourself. Remember that you need to focus on today’s meeting so we won’t miss any spot.” Sofia reminds him with her soothing voice which it’s one of Elio’s weaknesses since he can’t refuse her once she uses that. Well, all of her actions and words always get through Elio’s soft spots anyway as the weight on Elio’s shoulders lifts, not that stiff anymore. “I won’t.” Elio replies and steps aside from the door “Wanna come in?” giving a way for her. Yeah, this is normal for them ever since that day after the accident. They had more private talk together, just the two of them in the cafe, their room, other places, sometimes just spending time together in silence or Sofia telling him her stories and Elio never bothered or bored to listen to every single one of it. In addition, the only person that knows about who Lucas is in Elio’s life is Sofia as he also told her about what the lions did to him in that auction which became another reason to take them down. Ever since that accident as well, Elio barely keeps in touch with Lucas because he is too focused on making a new bot and training himself in combat and others. “Sure, if you don’t mind.” Sofia replies with a smile and puts her hands behind her back. Elio opens the door wider and lets her get inside then Sofia gladly accepts the invitation. Once she gets in, Elio gets back to his desk and continues testing his new bot as Sofia follows right behind him. “What are you up to?” She asks while observing the large 3 screens on Elio’s desk which she barely can understand any of it. “Testing this newly born cub.” Elio replies and puts all of the codes with high level securities to solve. Sofia replies with a humming and steps back a little as she is just standing behind Elio’s back, waiting patiently and watching him carefully behind his back. After testing all of the codes on Elio’s list which it actually spends one and a half hour on, Elio almost forgets about someone who is waiting behind him silently. “Sorry to make you wait.” Elio says once he turns his chair around to meet his leader who is sitting on his sofa beside his bed reading a book in her hand. Although it happens plenty of times, Elio still apologizes for making her wait or if it sounds like he is ignoring her for a while. While waiting for Elio, Sofia usually just reads one of the book collections, works on something in her laptop, or anything that doesn’t interrupt the silence or disrupt his focus. Once she hears Elio’s voice, she knows right away that the test has been completed and looks up to greet him with a smile on his face, well, another skip a beat. She shakes her head lightly and closes the book then stands up from the sofa. “How is it?” She asks while approaching his desk once again. “Well… it solved all of the codes correctly and became faster from the previous test. What do you think?” Elio replies and shows the result performance on the middle screen. Sofia slightly bends down to get a closer look on it and carefully reads all of it from top to bottom without anything passing by. “It’s magnificent if I may say.” Sofia answers and smirks as her eyes are still on the screen, looking at the perfect score that the bot received from Elio’s test. This side of Sofia sometimes comes out and it still gives the same effect toward Elio even after billions of time already. Actually everything about her, anything that comes from her always gives him butterflies anyway. “But,” She takes her eyes away from the screen to find the creator of it. “Is it good enough to compete with it?” Her question is never about doubting or demanding to make everything better, stronger, or perfect. Based on the way she asks, the voice she uses, the words, expression, all of it is genuine curiosity and worries. Another progress for Elio, he starts to learn about smiling to others as well as giving reactions that can reassure them. Even though the smile is only just a tiny curve on the corner of his lips, Sofia is the first one, again, that notices how much Elio is trying. “Not wanting to be overconfident again but I have the answer for it.” Elio says and puts that tiny smile on “I’m ready for it.” He continues firmly and fulls with confidence in his voice and eyes. Sofia, who is always watching his progress from the beginning up until this moment, can’t feel any prouder or this small improvement. “You know I always show you my back, right?” Sofia says while patting his head and stroking his hair slowly. Still not used to it but Elio always lets her do so as he just stays there and looks at anything other than hers. In fact, this is somehow relaxing and comforting for him in such a way that he never expected or thought before. He still can’t figure out what he is feeling for? Yes, of course, because Elio always brushes that away and focuses back on his works. Is it ever bothering him? Obviously, it is. He knows, he notices about it, yet starts to think and tries to figure those things out, only giving him nothing other than headache and his heart races like it's about to jump out which Elio doesn’t need any of those things. Thankfully, he still can put all of his focus on building a new deadly bot, practicing and training with others. Meanwhile on the other side, where the other two members are right now, they become like ‘buddies’ who always stick together with one another. After more than a year, almost a year and a half, they have spent a lot of time together. Facing and getting through all of those tests and missions where both of them have got the glimpse of where death is right in front of their eyes. But here they are, still alive with a lot of improvement and experiences on their combat and survival skills with addition of their personal training. It’s after breakfast, around 9 in the morning, they are doing one of their routines together, just the two of them, practicing and exercising. “Agh!” Spec grunts in pain and holds his upper arm where it got hit by Chae “That thing packs a punch!” Hearing that compliment, Chae can’t hold her smirk and feels proud of how her body is at the top condition today. “That is personal for our previous score in the shooting area.” Chae says, slightly mocking him.         “Well, let’s see what you got.” Spec chuckles and gets ready to continue the practice by fighting Chae as his opponent. Without any warn, Chae strikes forward first with her fist, targeting his face, and Spec quickly blocks it with his arm Chae throws another punch with her other arm once then starts attacking with her foot but all of it gets blocked by Spec. Non stop of using her attacking movements until Spec grabs one of her arms and locks it with his. “You still need to learn.” Spec says before he uses one of his legs to hook hers so Chae falls onto the training mat with her back landed first. “Ugh!” Chae grunts in pain once she falls on the floor as Spec slowly walks away from her to get his drink. “Explain?” she asks with an irritated voice. “To be honest your combat skill is already great and it is suitable for you because you seem comfortable with it.” Spec answers first before he drinks his energy water. That’s the compliment. “However..?” Chae says sarcastically and rolls her eyes, still laying on the mat and taking this as a short break for evaluation session. “You’re too predictable.” Spec answers it without hesitation right after he is done drinking and gathering his energy back a bit “and.. stubborn.” Hearing that feedback, Chae feels something off as she furrows her eyebrows, thinking that she has never done such a thing before or maybe not noticing it. “Since when?” She says and sits up to look at Spec who is slowly approaching her. “Predictable probably because you still need more experience and practice while stubborn is that you sometimes force yourself to at least hit me back once I got you.” Spec answers and gives a brief explanation with it. The word choices are easy to understand which makes Chae just realize how basic her movements are. Seeing her expression changes, Spec notices that Chae is probably thinking about how she can fix and improve herself right now. While for Spec, before he can give another input, there is something that he needs to know about in order to help her figure things out other than her technique. “But actually I was curious,” Spec speaks up and it definitely breaks Chae’s thought in a second “Can I ask you something?” Even though Spec also knows that they are already close, there is still a line between them that he is afraid to step through. A line that is drawn by himself which causes him not wanting to expose his real identity and restrain himself to know more about her. Chae doesn’t think that much or a necessary thing to reject it so she nods her head for giving permission. Just a reminder that even though they have been working together for quite a long time already, Chae still has the same affection toward Spec, just like how Sofia to Elio. But the differences are Spec knows of what exactly he felt for and already accepts those things happen between him and Chae. Back to where Spec just got permission, a thunder zap his backbone and his heart which makes it racing like a madman. Still not used to it, just like Elio, but both of them can manage to hold and keep themselves together. Spec crosses his legs and slowly brings his body down to sit in front of her. “What’s on your mind while you’re in the middle of a combat?” He asks once he lands on the mat. Getting that question, Chae looks at him weirdly with a raised eyebrow, totally confused and not expecting that he is going to ask her that. “Uhh…” Before she can continue giving her answer, Spec stops her by suddenly grabbing her right arm, gently though not rough. Spec looks at her arm like he is observing every detail of it with his eyes scanning from her finger up until her upper arm which makes her confused even more. “What are you doing?” Chae asks confusedly, this is the only thing that can come out from her mouth rather than answering his previous question. Hearing what she just said, it suddenly makes Spec stop what he is doing and let out a loud sigh as he is releasing her arm from his. “Nothing.” He replies and tries to get up but Chae is quick enough to catch his hand back before it's out of her range. “What is it?” She asks with her puppy eyes which Spec is already aware of that coming as he is not looking back toward her. “It’s just a little bit of something.” He answers and turns his head only to look at her hand, not wanting to get drowned in those eyes. “You said I’m stubborn, right?” She asks again and at this moment Spec late to remind himself again that this person is really good at playing with words. How many holes have I dug for myself? Spec mocks himself and lets out another sigh, defeated sigh, as he follows Chae’s instruction to sit back in front of her. “First thing first, I’m very sorry if it’s too personal to be asked.” Spec says after taking a deep breath for the third time which almost makes Chae slap his face. “Apology accepted.” Chae immediately replies and nods her head cutely with a tiny pout. Stay focus, brother! Is what Spec’s brain shouts inside his brain as he is almost losing himself to pass out from the cuteness of the person in front of him, in addition in this close distance where he can’t get used to. “Uhh..” a sign that his brain is not totally recovered yet “At first I was just…” gulps, swallowing hard that is almost audible for Chae, and thankfully it helps him to release the tense “I was just checking your condition after practices.” The last part comes out smoothly as he is getting himself all back together in one place. Chae hums in response, waiting patiently for what would be the next part after it. “You gained a lot of strength in your arms which is so different from the first time we met.” Spec continues and just based on this, Chae probably gets the idea of where this is going as her eyes widen a little bit in realization. “Your biceps and triceps hardened, your veins popped out a lot, simply said your muscles are built up.” Spec says and finally gets the courage to look directly into her eyes “Respectfully and without forcing you at all, is it alright if I may know?” he asks hesitantly. “Right. You are the first one who notices it though so I guess it would be fair enough to let you know about it.” Chae replies and scratches the back of her neck nervously. Obviously it is still nerve wracking for both of them but still there is almost a step forward from each day they have spent together. “I got into a school that the government paid for me which obviously it’s a normal school and university. Just an ordinary student that got achievements from academics and extracurriculars.” Chae explains and smiles at him innocently. “None of those are related with any of what we are doing if I may guess?” Spec says and raises one of his eyebrows. Yes, his guess is correct as Chae nods her head for affirmation and no longer can hold eye contact with him. “Funny isn’t it?” She replies and chuckles nervously “Someone like me can get chosen to be a leader of criminals out of nowhere without a warning at all.” Based on how her voice and the gestures, she is completely uncomfortable with the memories back then when she first got to this place. “You survived though.” Spec says, trying to comfort her once he notices it “You technically can learn and train yourself in that short of time.” he continues with compliments and chuckles. When Chae thinks about it, not all of the memories that are getting recalled are bad since it’s already in the past and she can see how much improvement has been made from it. Not only that, Spec’s compliment actually triggers something inside of her as she is the one that wants to take the step. “You know what's even funnier?” she asks innocently with a smile on her face. “What?” Spec also replies innocently without knowing the meaning behind that smile on hers. Get the bait, Chae can’t hide her smirk as she briefly takes this one step forward. “Telling so many things about my personal life to someone stranger that I don’t even know his name.” She replies teasingly with a raised eyebrow which makes Spec just realize that he got baited. Spec’s eyes widened a bit from the unexpected statement from someone that he never thought was going to ask about his personal life, except Sofia since she is that typical extrovert person. Not only that, Spec is still not ready to open up all of his identity and stories to them, especially the person who is sitting in front of him right now, since mostly about them are really embarrassing for him. The silence fills in but it doesn’t make an awkward atmosphere. Chae doesn’t get any of it as she is enjoying the silence while Spec is dying inside. “Well? I’m waiting.” She continues, breaking the silence that is slowly killing Spec from the inside. Finally after a few seconds, Spec comes back to reality and lets out a sigh of defeat. “Saku-” the word that manages to come out from his mouth and his mouth pauses in an instant which makes Chae enjoys it even more         “Hm?” She replies, giving him a sign to go on in a teasing way.         “Saku Jaakola.”