The weather was back to normal— clear skies, sunny and warmer than before. This seemed like a good time for Lucio to finally touch some grass and leave the school building for once and sit outside on the wooden benches under a shade. What appeared to be a regular excursion outside to bask in the sun turned into a whole workspace set up as he laid out his laptop and his phone along with a tool kit he had stolen from his grandpa. Aiden watched dubiously from a distance— exactly one bench in front of Lucio’s— dumbfounded by how engrossed he is with this mystery job that he wasn't aware of.

“Hm… Let’s see, according to Lyney, this should do the trick.” A few days ago, Lyney gave him a thin metal bracelet with a button, but it didn’t work. And so, Lucio was tasked with fixing the alien piece of tech which he mistook for an accessory. The AI claimed that it is a long-distance communication device extremely crucial for time travelling and location identification, but it was damaged and the display had shattered.

“Phew! Now, Lyney, please respond.” He crossed his fingers and clenched his teeth for the response. He pressed the button hoping for the display to pop up.

After a delay of five seconds, a rectangular projection appears and the pixelated face he had only seen when inside the time machine revealed itself. Lyney yawned and responded, “I’m Lyney, a pleasure to see you again, Lucio.”

Lucio gets up and runs around in circles lifting his knees so high it reached his shoulders. “It works! IT WORKS!!”

As he was busy getting giddy from his success, his friend stared at him in disbelief.

“Jeez, is he okay?” Aiden pondered as he glanced at his unruly friend. “I only decided to meddle because of Mellisa’s persistent begging that eventually turned into threats. She can really make sure she gets what she wants, but damn, my conscience is not allowing me to stalk Lucio that easily… But by the looks of it, he really is up to something extremely suspicious.”

He managed to convince himself to conclude this charade.

“What worked?” He lifted his eyebrows.

Lucio flinched and turned around to locate the source of the jump-scare. “Wha-What?! Who..?”

“I’m over here, buddy.”

“Gasp! Aiden…? How long have you been sitting there??” Lucio began to panic as he tried to shut down the hologram.

“Sadly, for too long…” He bowed his head in sorrow.

“Okay, spill. What have you been up to this past week?”

“N-Nothing I swear!”

“Really? You’ve been skipping classes; not walking home together; coming late almost everyday; and finally, the worst of all, you’ve been talking to yourself! Are you actually okay?”

Aiden approached him and demanded answers.

Lucio backed away and weakly tried to defend himself. “I swear, it’s nothing! I’m so normal..! You’re just confused.”

“Don’t tell me… you’re doing… drugs..?” He gave a mortified expression indicating devastated worry and concern.

“WHAT?! NO!” Lucio fired back and quickly sat back down all exhausted. He slowly muttered, “I’m just making another project…”

“Oh? For the robotics team?”

“Huh? Y-Yeah..?”

“I thought you said you won’t be joining them. You were pretty adamant about it as well. But it is a shame you won’t be going this year, I wanted to see another beatboxing vegetable.”

“Haha! That beatboxing tomato was my greatest invention yet! Good times…”

“Oh! And the gold detector too! The fact that we actually found gold in the river was awesome..!”

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Whilst the two of them were getting swept away by the wave of nostalgia, two other kids who were hiding near the bushes directly opposite to the table seemed to be getting quite restless.

Mel snapping twigs in her palms from frustration mumbled to herself, “AIDEN!! You had one job! Why are you sidetracking?!”

Suiren, who was crouching right next to her was also losing patience, “This is hopeless, maybe we should just kidnap him.”

“Put your psychopathic mind on hold. To properly gain trust we must approach in a friendly manner…”

“Then we already failed step one a long time ago.”

Mel rolled her eyes and said, “Tsk- Let me finish! Since we failed to properly present ourselves as innocent, we should resort to messier options…”

She looked up with determination and a confident yet nervous smile.

“You mean..?” Suiren’s eyes widened.

“Yes…”

“Heh! I’ve been waiting for that moment.” Suiren rose with confidence.

Shortly after the nostalgic session, the two boys head back to class and take a seat in their respective places at the very back next to the door.

Lucio felt like he was walking on thin ice and preferred to stay quiet. But that moment kept replaying in his mind.

“Suiren… that’s her, again! I keep seeing her these days…” He sees her get up and leave from the bushes.

He reached his hand forward but immediately pulled it back down with his other arm as he watched her leave a little irritated.

“I wanted to say hi… but it’s not like we are close… yet.”

“But I can’t help but be curious about her. I’m not sure if I can trust her fully but there might be a chance. I won’t regret it… I need to see more.”

As he bent his head over riddled with questions, he felt a little tap on his right shoulder— it was one of his classmates.

“Man, I didn’t know you had it in you, Lucio!” He giggled cheekily.

Lucio turned around and asked, “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about that,” he pointed to the glass window to the right close to the front of the classroom. “You’ve got yourself some secret admirers~!”

Lucio in disbelief says as he leans to the left to see who it was, “Me? Secret admirers? You’ve definitely got me mixed up with someone else–”

“Gasp! Suiren?!” He screamed out loud. “Why is she here? Wait… don’t tell me…”

“What? What is it?! Was I right?” His classmate started to jog in the same spot hoping he was right.

“Haha..! You were right, this must definitely have something to do with me…” Lucio turned around rapidly and hid behind his seat and proceeded to mentally breakdown.

“Don’t tell me she’s actually here to snitch on me to Mr Benedict! I thought she was kidding when she threatened me yesterday that she would write a slip and make him sign it if I was late again. I was late again!!” He clasped his head in horror.

“Man… why is he on the floor now? I can’t see him anymore.” Suiren grumbled.

“We should just go in.” Mel suggested a little distracted by a certain someone entering the same classroom.

Suiren entered the classroom from the front and approached the nearest person.

“Excuse me.” She said with a terrifying grin, according to Lucio’s classmate that is. They felt instantly small in front of her even though Suiren was actually slightly shorter than them.

He readily pointed to the seat covering a shaky body behind it. “He’s all yours! See ya!” He quickly bolted off.

Suiren bent down and came face to face with Lucio.

“Hey, buddy. Can I talk to you for a bit?”

He shuddered and readily complied.

Lucio left the classroom with his hands tied and sweating profusely all the way. Suiren noticed him acting strange but really this is the most normal he’s ever been.

“Are you okay?” Suiren asked casually.

“Oh yeah..? Why?”

“You look constipated.” She said with a straight face.

“Yes, I am constipated.” He also said with a straight face. He is not constipated.

“Oh? Then I’ll keep it short,” she took a deep breath, “Take me to the hatch!”

“What? Why?”

“You said it yourself, something interesting is going on in there, and I want to see it.”

“Crap… Listen, I don’t think you understand what is happening entirely…”

“I know, that’s why I want to know more. Tell me what’s in there, that’s all I ask.”

“No! It’s a secret and I’m taking it to the grave!”

“Don’t make me use force.”

“You can chop my arm off and I still won’t squeak!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. At least, not physically.”

She turned behind him and signalled with her eyes to look behind. As Lucio turned, he noticed Mel holding Aiden hostage with a metal water bottle.

“You don’t comply, she’s gonna drop the metal bottle on the floor and make sure you bleed your ears.” Suiren said unfazed as she plugged her own ears.

Lucio looked back at Suiren with widened eyes and mouth slightly ajar. He goes, “Oh?”