Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 34 "Out of The Box"

        “You can call me Saku or anything that you’re comfortable with because Korean people have some circumstances for calling people’s names, right? I’m mixed between Korean and Finnish.” Saku introduces himself while rubbing the back nervously of his neck.         “Not much different from you, I was also just a student with a complicated family. Probably the only difference is that I have trained myself and joined self-defense activities back then.” He continues without making eye contact at all with the person in front of him. No response at all from Chae, the silence totally feels awkward for Saku, which makes him glances at her only to find that she is spacing out. Her eyes are completely showing that she is just staring into a void without anything on it, hence Saku needs to wake her up from it. “Chaemin?” He calls out her name and waves his hand in front of her face, fortunately she regains all of her consciousness right away. “Oh, sorry. I was spacing out.” Chae replies and chuckles after blinking a few times. Although she was spacing out just a moment ago, she actually listens to everything that just came out from him which is the reason why she is suddenly getting into her deep thoughts. “Are you alright? You’re not overworked from our practice, right? Do you have any problems that you want to share?” Saku asks tons of questions without pausing with his worried voice and expression on it. Chae, who gets thrown those questions, giggles at how Saku shows his care toward her even though she has experienced it many times already. “No, I’m completely fine. Please continue.” She replies and pushes her thoughts from the previous spacing out to the side, right now is probably not the correct time to think about it she thinks. “Uhh…” The anxiety crawls back to Saku as his palms start to get cold sweat in it “My stories actually are not that interesting…” He continues and looks away from her once again. Usually, Chae is never a pushy person for asking about other people’s personal life but this time she really wants to know. The urge is really huge inside of her which makes her not want to lose this opportunity even though she also knows that they are going to work and prepare together for this third mission. “Just… a tiny little bit of it…?” Chae says and gives a hand sign that she is really hoping to get to know about him, in addition, obviously with her puppy eyes. Saku knows somewhere deep down his brain that this moment is going to come and now is the time that effort paid off as he finally gets the courage to refuse her. Not actually refusing her bluntly or straightforwardly rejecting her request, it’s actually in a more cowardly way… He quickly looks toward the nearest clock in the room and fortunately luck is on his side right now which he can use this timing as an excuse. “Well… look at the time!” He says almost cracking and stuttering his voice, still bad at pretending or acting to hide the evidence, especially to this person in front of her. Chae looks at the clock right away since he points it out then Saku takes this chance to stand up and close this conversation before it gets too deep where he is never ready to share it with. “Let’s end today’s practice.” He says and turns around to walk toward the men changing room “Thank you for the hard work!” not forgetting to give appreciation to each other though. It leaves Chae sitting on their previous position and watching his back slowly getting away from him as her previous thoughts get in one by one. Saku Jaakkola… Have I heard that name before? Where have I heard that? Why does it sound familiar? She thinks and asks herself ever since she knew about his name. Brushing it off once again, Chae finally gets up from the seat and goes into the women changing area. Just the usual, she thinks it’s not the right time to think or figure those things out as for now she needs to put all of her focus into tonight’s meeting with the lions. In the meeting with the lions and tigers, it runs the same just like their first and second missions without Adam where the lions are back to be the main role for interacting with the people inside the event. Except, they are not taking a place around Italy anymore and it’s different from any other mission they have been through. This mission sent shivers to all of the tigers because from the beginning up until the end of the meeting, it is something that they never expect and not be a part of. “Any question?” Heliodor asks and turns around to face everyone who is attending the meeting, as always with a smile on his face as if it’s nothing or similar to the previous missions. There are so many questions that can be asked but Sofia thinks she is not in the right place to do so because her question or anything she would do might have crossed the line. “Sapphire?” Heliodor calls him, obviously it gives goosebumps just from it, but thankfully Sapphire manages to look directly into his eyes without showing any of her emotion “You’re awfully quiet today.” “Ahh…” Sapphire replies with a smile on her face, pretending like she is okay with the condition, but her mind goes blank. Thankfully, an unexpected person comes quickly to get her back, yes someone who always got her back. “Sorry, sir. May I ask something?” Elio raises his hand and asks for permission right away which draws their attention in an instant. For a moment, Heliodor squints his eyes but comes back to his natural expression in a second, it seems like this is also something that is unexpected to happen for him, small victory for Elio? “Of course, please don’t call me sir. Keep away the formality.” He answers and puts his hand inside his pockets. “May I know what's the reason why we are doing this? We are totally on a different track from all of the things we have done here.” Elio asks bluntly, even the others not expecting him to ask such a personal question to the lion, the leader of this company. Not only the tigers though, the other lions, who seem not paying attention to any of them previously, suddenly turn their head up to look at Elio.         “Yeah right.” While the one who gets the question chuckles and walks slowly approaching the meeting table with his eyes on his feet.         “Well…” Once Heliodor reaches the table, he sits with half of his body on it and looks up at Elio “You’re the genius one here. What do you think? Surprise me.” Challenge? Elio thinks and based on his expression, the one that has become Elio’s target to crush it, he seems like wanting something entertaining. Before Elio can give his answer, just opens his mouth slightly, Heliodor stops him and gives an instruction of what he wanted to hear. “Not a straight answer. Give me your analysis first.” Heliodor says and finally gives Elio a signal with his hand to proceed. It only takes less than 10 seconds for Elio to evaluate the whole plan and arrange what he needs to say that could probably satisfy Heliodor from his absurd small challenge. “Even though we are still stealing and targeting a ‘thing’, it is far different from what we used to.” Elio answers and Heliodor nods his head while the others are not responding at all, meaning that Elio needs to continue. “That thing is the problem.” “Why?” Heliodor asks innocently once he finishes. “All this time from the beginning up until this moment we are only stealing valuable or luxuries items. While this…” Same here, Elio gives his answer right away as if he already knew that Heliodor would ask him this question. This is his game after all and Elio already learned about the pace and patterns of it. Heliodor doesn’t say anything, instead he just raises his chin while the other two lions are glaring at Elio full with thirst of wanting to shut him. “It's a destructive item and the only purpose of stealing it is anything other than destroying things.” Elio turns his head toward the screen, where it is still showing their target location, and points with his right index finger. “A place if I may specify it.” Yes, just looking at the target item and the location of their mission is obviously something odd and off track from what they have done from the beginning. It's nuclear weapons. These people already prepared how they are going to access and get inside of the restricted area of that country. Once again, Elio is asking deep inside in his mind what and how they can get such privileged access into something that seems impossible to do. Not to mention that, there have been a lot of activities against the law, stealing a lot of things, probably scamming, deceiving, and many more yet none of these people, government, or police are suspicious of them. In addition from Sofia’s story as well in that night where she mentioned her age when she got into this company which means it already ran for almost a nearly half of decade. “Hmm… keep it simple and Tanzanite’s style, I see.” Heliodor replies and brings his body to stand up from the table then walks back toward the screen. “Correct.” He continues and turns around to face all of them “Anyone wanna guess why I planned this?” asking like it’s something completely normal for them while the tigers don’t have any slight idea about what and why they wanted this. Asking for a clue is never an option here because it’s Heliodor after all, he loves to see people’s struggling, panicking, and looking like a fool for him. Looking toward the lions’ direction, in order to find or search for a clue, is the worst option because Citrina a hundred percent will be disgusted and start stabbing every single one of them with her words. Discussing? Right in front of the lions? The same thing would happen if any one of them ever lands an eye on the lions as well. “Safety? In case something bad or out of plan happened?” Sofia answers first, trying to give and save the others before Heliodor calls their names one by one. “Ding!” Heliodor says and crosses her arms, giving them a cross sign meaning it’s a wrong answer “Try harder.” “Dominance?” Saku takes the second guess. “Hmm…” Heliodor hums and puts his arm under his chin as if he is thinking or considering Saku’s question. “Close… but it’s not either… Any reason why you answered that?” “Just like what Tanzanite mentioned before. It’s destructive so you can easily threaten anyone with such a huge explosive weapon, right?” Saku answers right away since he is already expecting Heliodor to ask a detail to some of them. “Hoo… Interesting. I like the way you are thinking since it’s the same opinion from one of us.” Heliodor replies and looks at Citrina's direction who is immediately rolling her eyes in annoyance which eventually makes all of them follow it. “What are you guys looking at?” Citrina says annoyedly with that fierce look on her face “Gross.” Of course, the humiliation is always there every time she speaks with anyone and focuses back on her laptop. “Hahaha” Heliodor is the only person that laughs at her, after all he can laugh in any kind of situation. “Can you not be too rude with them once, Citrina?” He says teasingly, even having the courage to tease such a person… “Never.” Citrina replies without looking at him and still completely annoyed, still count as unexpected though because she usually will just glare or roll her eyes again. Heliodor chuckles once again before turning his head to look at the tigers’ side again. “Well… previously she had that idea in her mind but then after a long talk together, we actually set up the same goal right now.” He continues and surprisingly says words that can be a clue for Elio. “So… yeah… the other two wanna guess now? Tanzanite? Or maybe ho-” “Revenge?” Before Heliodor finishes to call out their names, Chae gives her answer right away with an expression that is hard to describe. Her face looks darkened and she changes her usual voice as well, even someone dense like Elio probably going to notice it, seems like something just came across inside her mind as if it’s recalling her of things. “Correct!” Heliodor claims happily with his excited face and points his finger toward her direction like she just won a gold medal in today's quiz. Once again, he is the only person that looks so lively and cheers happily while the others are dead silent. “At this point, we already got the mission’s purpose and reason behind it, so what’s left?” Heliodor asks while his eyes are still looking at Chae, meaning he is waiting for her to answer it. “Direction on which place it is going to take.” Chae answers and grips her hands tightly under the table. Sofia, who is watching her from beside, can completely tell something wrong is happening on her because Chae’s eyes start glassening like her tears are going to drop in any second. “Strike! Wow! I never thought you would be the one who is answering the questions correctly!” Heliodor says happily again but the words he used don’t sound like he is complimenting at all, more like he underestimated or careless about her from the beginning. Hearing that obviously makes Chae somehow even more frustrated because it's reminding her about something but she needs to hold herself for now, not letting any of its shows in front of them. “Since you guys can guess that correctly, I will give you…” He changes the slide to show one of the seven continents of the world which is actually their place right now, Europe. “A hint!” “Please choose one of these countries!” he continues, giving the second and probably the last question for the day before closing the meeting plan. Italy sounds to be the most obvious answer at this point because they have been stealing and taking a lot of things in Italy but Elio thinks the other way. The answer should not be just on the surface of the earth, it must be deep down underneath below where it almost reaches the core of it. Something that is out of the box yet can be connected by one thing that also comes out of nowhere, just like those tests before where Elio can solve it from his surroundings. While the tigers are thinking, not wanting to guess right away because they are facing the lions which can’t let their guard down for a second, Heliodor speaks up once again and shows the second picture beside the Europe map, Asia. “Oh! Almost forgot.” He says and turns around only to wink at Citrina who is giving him the same reaction just like before “We have two targets. One is for me and one is for her.” “Can you please stop opening the cards for them? Oh my god…” Citrina suddenly slams the table beside her laptop and looks at Heliodor’s direction with as sharp as knife eyes. Same pattern, just like before, Heliodor chuckles when he gets such an angry reaction from his partner since she is the vice-leader of this company. But not only him this time, Zircon also does the same thing as Heliodor which makes Citrina even more irritated at this point. “Nice.” Zircon says without looking at their direction and still works on his laptop. That’s it, Citrina’s patient is as thin as tissue as she suddenly draws her gun out behind her back and aims it at Zircon’s head. “Don’t mess with me.” She threatens him and the expression on her face shows how mad she is in this situation. The tigers, who are watching this right in front of their eyes, quickly stand up as well and ready to get undercover if anything unexpected happens, never been a boring day with them. They also don’t know if this is how they are supposed to be or just pretending like they had planned before so the best option for the tigers right now is stay on guard and be ready for whatever is going to happen next. On the other hand, Zircon’s face is not compromising as well as he turns his head to look at her with a smirk on her face and lifts up his chin like he is challenging her to proceed with what she has started a second ago. “Then what’s holding you, pussy?” He chooses to provoke her instead of backing away even though a gun is right in front of his eyes. Biting that bait, Citrina quickly takes off the safety and ready to trigger her gun right away, shooting one of the bullets through Zircon's head. But before she manages to do that, murdering her own teammates in front of the tigers, suddenly someone grabs her hand which makes her shoot missed by going in another direction, safe direction for not hitting anyone in the room. “Easy there roary…” Heliodor says calmly while one of his hands is holding the gun then putting back the safety and the other one is on her shoulder. “We don’t want to shred any blood here, right?” Silence feels in the room, still with the same amount of intensity and no one in the room dares to move other than those three who are suddenly fighting each other. Using this short moment, Sofia takes this as a chance to check on the other members and thankfully none of them get hurt from this situation. After a few seconds, not more than 10, Citrina closes her eyes while letting out a sigh of frustration and lowers down her gun away from Zircon. “It’s your lucky day.” She says and triggers back the safety before putting it back into her back pocket as she proceeds to picking up her belongings. Without any other words, after picking up all of the things, Citrina walks out of the room and leaves all of them speechless. “Oh, well.” Heliodor says, breaking up the silence, and throws his hands in the air. “Heh, woman.” Zircon mocks her one last time with a smirk on his face while shaking his head lightly. “Haa… you guys ruined the mood!” Heliodor scolds him but totally doesn’t sound like it as Zircon also doesn’t take it seriously but still stays in the room and back minding his own business on his laptop. Seeing this reaction from Zircon who acts like a jerk, Heliodor shakes his head and turns his head to look at the tigers from the other side. “Sorry for whatever just happened, guys.” He tells them and goes back to the front where the screen is. An apology from him? Today must be something. Elio thinks and can’t help but smell an early victory for him. “Since I’m not in the mood right now, let’s make it quick.” Heliodor continues, which is another rare moment that happens because he is always the one who is enjoying the play. “The first one is Greece.” The red dot is slowly showing on the screen. The first reveal only gives them a confusion because how and why Greece can be related with their condition. Not to mention that it is one of the closest countries to Italy but they can't find any particular reasons for it.         “and the second one is…” For this one, since it came from Citrina’s personal target, they thought it would be more likely the same. Of course they can’t find what's the relation between or the reason why choosing those countries but the second one totally hits different. “South Korea.” Definitely the cause about where Sofia came from.