“Cora, I found him; he’s in this restaurant,” shattered the peace and tranquility of my dinner. The two sisters' unexpected intrusion was the last thing I needed right now.

Seeing Yara in the window got me thinking.

“Man, I hope these two girls don’t come in here making a scene,” I thought.

I pretended like nothing had happened and continued eating my food when, all of a sudden, I started hearing a knocking noise.

Knock, knock, knock.

I didn’t want to look in the direction of the noise as I could tell it was coming from the window area. I knew nothing good would await me if I looked, and what did I do?

I looked.

There were two faces on the window, grinning from ear to ear. Yes, it was Cora and Yara.

They made hand gestures, such as hello and others I didn’t understand. Suddenly, Yara made a gesture that they were coming in. I wanted to say no, but they were gone before I could react.

“Hi, Khyrum. Fancy meeting you here,” said Yara loudly as they approached me.

“Hi, Khy,” said Cora, looking embarrassed.

I could have ignored them to see if they would leave, as I didn’t feel like making small talk, but I didn’t want to be rude either.

“Hey girls, nice to see you,” I said disinterestedly.

Cora kept fidgeting her hands while Yara, being Yara, took the liberty of sitting down at the table.

She then proceeded to start eating my dumplings.

“Man, these dumplings are good,” she winked.

“I’m glad you're enjoying them; I got them just for you,” I said sarcastically.

I guess she didn’t catch my sarcasm, or she was just too thick-skinned as she started devouring the dumplings one after another.

As Yara and I stared down over my dumplings, Cora seemed to calm down finally, and she also sat down.

“Khyrum, I just want to explain why you saw me with Nox; it was nothing like you imagined,” she said nervously.

I looked at her with a confused gaze, " I'm not sure what you're referring to, Cora.”

“You’re free to do whatever you want, Cora; you don’t have to explain anything to me,” I continued.

Cora winced when she heard what I said. I don’t know if it was because she felt I misunderstood the situation or because she felt hurt by what I said.

Either way, I really didn't care.

She put her hand on top of mine and squeezed. I instantly wanted to pull my hand out, but she kept a solid grip, I was surprised. She looked so feeble, but she was making it hard for me to jerk my hand loose.

“Khy, just listen," she said.

"Yes, I was eating with Nox, but it was only because I didn’t want to owe him anything for the favor he did for me a few weeks ago.”

I didn't react. So she kept talking.

“He asked if I would go to the shopping center with him just to help him pick out a present for his sister, as it will be her birthday this weekend. While we were here, he invited me to some ice cream dessert. That is where you saw us. I’m sorry if you thought we had a date, but we were not,” she said, adamantly, shaking her head.

I couldn’t care less, but I was curious as to why she thought it mattered to me.

“Cora, it's alright; you are allowed to go out with whoever you want,” I said calmly.

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“Also, who told you I saw you at the ice cream shop,’ I questioned.

Caro stopped holding my hand only to start fidgeting again with hers; she then glanced at Yara as if saying, “Help me out.”

On the other hand, Yara was on the verge of stuffing her fourth dumpling when she heard what I said. She stopped and looked up at Cora and then me.

“Khyrum, why do you always have to be this way? My sister is trying to open her heart to you and hear you are acting like a big jerk,” she said as she winked at Cora.

“Big Jerk me?” I started to say when suddenly a big fist landed on the table.

BOOM!

There was a loud noise before the table shattered into pieces. I had enough time to jump out of the way as all the plates fell on the floor; some of the food splattered all over Cora and Yara.

“You asshole, “said Yara upset at the guy standing next to her.

Of course, it was Nox.

“So, this is where you went,” he said while looking at Cora, visibly angry.

“You said you wanted to talk to your sister and disappeared. I waited for you for 15 min, but you never came back,” he said, enraged.

He then turned and looked at me.

“I should have known it was you, it's always you, fuck!” he roared.

I looked at the three of them and felt this misunderstanding could have been averted if they had just not shown up.

“I’m not even going to bother with any of you today,” I said as I started walking to the front counter to pay for my food.

I could hear all three of them arguing in the background. Being teenagers, they were not very quiet.

After paying, I walked out the front door and made my way down the hallway again. I had only taken a few steps when suddenly, a small feminine hand reached out and grabbed my own.

“Khyrum, where are you going,” said Cora softly.

I looked at her as if trying to figure out what she was up to when, again, Nox cut in front of us.

“I’m freaking tired of this shit, Khyrum. I like her, she doesn’t like me, she likes you, you pretend not to like her, but you are always around her,” he said.

I gave him a skeptical look.

“What are you playing at,” he said as he raised an eyebrow.

“I want to prove once and for all that I’m better than you, so let's have a sparring match at school on Monday. What do you say?” asked Nox.

“Whoever wins has to back away from Cora and give the other guy room to try and win her, at least six months,” he continued.

“I’m not interested,” I said coldly.

“Please take this as me giving up and you winning the bet. Good luck to you,” I said as I moved around him and continued to walk.

All three of them just stood there, rooted to the ground. They couldn’t believe what I had just said.

Cora’s face turned into one of pain, and a few tears started trickling down her cheek.

Her sister Yara looked at me with rage as she clenched her fist, and Nox smiled like he had just won the lottery.

“I’m not giving up, Khyrum,” screamed Cora in a mixture of sobs and a little hysteria.

People looked at her as if she was crazy, and then the waterworks came as she started sobbing harder.

I just continued to walk away.

Back at Cleaburn Park, four heavily muscled transport vehicles had just arrived.

“Everyone stay alert,” said Selin as they exited the vehicles.

As they walked to the park, they saw a small command center had been erected just inside the entrance.

Commander Shelong was waiting outside, sitting in a chair and smoking a pipe as he watched them come up.

“Did I not say to bring Prime with you,” he said commandingly.

Nikolas and everyone else could feel the pressure from the commander, but they still had to maintain their calm.

“Commander, it’s not that we didn’t want to bring him, but more like he doesn’t want to be found,” said Nikolas as he explained the situation to the commander.

After hearing Nikolas out, Shelong nodded. He then looked up and signaled with one finger for Selin to walk up.

Selin felt suffocated and nauseous as she walked up to Commander Shelong.

“Yes, my lord, you called,” she said, extremely nervous.

“So, Nikolas says you can’t contact Prime, that he only contacts you from an unknown number,” the Commander said coldly.

“Yes,” said Seline, now shaking like a leaf on a tree.

“You seem nervous for some reason. Could your father be lying to us?” the commander said with a slight grin.

“No, sir, it’s just that I had too much coffee today. I’m just jittery right now,” said Selin without raising his head.

“Hmm, could that be right,” said the commander, holding his chin with his right hand.

After a few seconds of staring at her, the commander stood up.

“You know what? You would make a great wife for one of my sons; I’ll talk to your father later about this,” he said out of the blue with a smirk.

Selin was stunned.

“Alright, I’ll trust you for now,” he then continued as he got up and opened the door.

“Let's go inside. What we will discuss next is a top-secret matter for the alliance,” he said as he walked into the command center.

Nikolas looked surprised for a second after hearing the commander before quickly following him inside.

“Selin and Oliver, follow me inside; the rest of the team will stay out here and wait for our return,” he said as he disappeared inside the building.

Nikolas and his group were surprised that they had been able to erect this facility in such a short time. They followed the commander into a conference room at the end of a long hallway.

As everyone walked into the conference room, three other people, sitting on the right side of a long table, were waiting for them inside.

“Everyone, please be seated,” said Commander Shelong as he took the seat at the head of the table.

Nikolas, Selina, and Oliver quickly took their seats, also.

“Let me make a quick introduction; the gentlemen on my right are Commanders Storm Krotos from Avis Grex, Commander Merus Dythaxio from Nouvis, and Commander Walter Remis from Gravitaz,” he said.

“On the left, we have the hierarchy of Zone 16 here in Riyadh: Nikolas Zafer, Oliver Sven, and Selin Lily,” he said.

Everyone just nodded at each other.

“Ok, now that the introductions have been made, let's get down to business,” said Commander Shelong coldly.