Chapter 36

Those words tore my heart. No it's not supposed to be like this. I'm not supposed to cry. Don't cry. Don't cry! My body suddenly feels numb as I continue to stare at her suprised face. Her eyes are not saying anything, but only looking at me. Perhaps, trying to remember something. In a few seconds, her eyes widened even more and she put her hands over her mouth.

"No way!!" She shouts under her hands. Her eyes are tearing up as she suddenly pulled me into an embrace. Everyone is stunned at the sudden event, even me. She leans back and pulls me again for a kiss. My heart races as our lips touch. She's kissing me. And that's when I realized what's happening. She's kissing me in front of everyone!! Nervousness suddenly covered me and I pulled away immediately. She's left there confused.

"W-Wait! I think this isn't the time for that." I awkwardly smile to her as I stood up.

"Noah?" She asks. I feel a sense of relief as I hear her say my name. But it didn't flush all of my confusion. She turns her head to her surroundings and back to me. "Where am I? I was just at the airport a while ago. Wait. Is this the infirmary? How did I end up here?!"

She gives me a confused looks. I feel like she's already panicking inside but she's still being reserved. I look at Altair and nodded to him to take care of the situation. I switch places with him and Anette's eyes are still on me. When she took a glance at Altair, she gasped. "Altair!! What are you doing here?!"

"Questions later. I need you to answer my questions first." He imposed. She didn't like his attitude and crossed her arms. She looks and pouted at me. I feel my heart fluttering as she looks at me with that face. I need to contain myself because I might not resist her right here right now.

"What's your name?" Simple question for someone who has their memories. She answers. "Anette"

Followed by her friends' name, birthday, and other personal informations. But one question has very odd answer with the rest. "What date is it today?" He asks her the question and she answers a different one. Instead of mentioning the date today, she says the date I found her at the airport, sleeping. Is this a memory gap? I keep my question to myself and just continue to watch them. Altair asks again to clarify her answer and she says the same answer. Everyone is suprised but doesn't show it. It's concluded to his data that she's oddly having memory gaps.

"Thanks" Altair turns around but Anette called him out again. "You haven't answer my question!" He's hesitant to answer but Vilea mouths 'it's fine'. He turns to her and took a deep breath.

"Agent Stark. Information Department." He says as he continues to walk off to Vilea and they start conversing. Anette was surpirsed but she didn't overreact. Instead, her eyes turned to me and she smiled. Her smile felt like cupid's arrow struck me. It made my heart race.

"Noah! When did you get here?" She asks as she sits up the edge of the bed. Worried about her injury, I quickly go to her. As she stands, she had a misbalance and collapsed on my arms. Our face inches from touching, I could practically feel her nervous breathing and heart beat. She's staring so intensely. I shake my head and help her back on her bed immediately. "What the..?"

I think I hit her wound and she suddenly reacted. Seeing her hurting expression, she looks all over her body and immediately found her gunshot wound. "How did I get this? I'm haven't been in a mission for mo—" she paused. And looks at me slowly. Then she suddenly backed away, suprising me. "What are you doing here?!"

She searches around the room and her eyes landed on Chris, he's still looking at Cherry's sleeping figure. She calls his name but his gaze won't budge, so she decided to look at the direction of his eyes. Her face suddenly became pale as she saw Cherry on the other bed beside her. "C-Cherry!!"

She tries her best to fight the pain of the wound, but thankfully she made it to her. Her whole body is already shaking from the pain so I go to her. I assist her by holding her shoulders for her to become firm but when she knew I was the one who touched her, she suddenly turned to me and took a step back. Everyone's watching now. "W-what are you doing here?? This.. this is... this supposed to be..." She avoids my gaze and looks to Chris instead.

"He's your new partner. The overseas agent." She didn't remember our first meeting in the airport nor the office. She's stunned and fell into her bed. She immediately took the covers and laid down.

"I must be dreaming. I should sleep so I'd wake up immediately." She closes her eyes forcefully. No sign of lying, I find it cute for her to be all flustered like this. I brush my thoughts of Anette in my mind and took the covers. Her eyes opened as if she's seeing a ghost in front of her.

"Agent Cunningham. American Branch Agent, nice to meet you Agent Junniper." I introduce myself with a smile. But she hesitates to take my hand. I know this is hard to take in so she's still in shock. But this isn't a time for introductions. I take my hand back and she's just there staring at me.

"I-I don't understand what's happening.. Please answer my questions.. What date is it today..?" She asks, her eyes pleading for answers. I was about to answer but Altair spoke instead.

"Didn't you just answer your own question a while ago?" He asks. Vilea remains quiet as she forcefully watches her friend, confused. Anette is now stammering. I could tell she's nervous and confused.

"I'm suddenly not sure.. please... tell me..." She begs him and Vilea sighs.

"It's been five days since that day you gave." Vilea briefly say. Anette's expression didn't change, but suddenly forced a laugh.

"Good one V! You almost got me there. It was a nice joke but you know I don't wanna joke right now. It's like saying I went to the future!" She laughs continuously. But as she looks at her, she couldn't find a single sign of playfulness. Anette immediately refrained from laughing. She knew Vilea was serious the whole time. Ashamed, she looks down.

"More like you lost your memories" Dave whispers to himself so only he could hear it. I heard it clearly and so did Anette. The moment she saw Dave, she was glaring at him.

"What are you doing here?" She asks calmly but I could feel her negative energy simmering from her personal space. She's really angry. "You still haven't learned your lesson? Do you want another beating from me?"

"Woah. I'm not here to fight you, Anette—" As he speaks, she interrupts him as he mentioned her real name. Her expression disgusted as she heard her name spoke by him.

"Junniper" she says, her voice lower than usual.

"Look I'm just doing what I can to help with the situation right now." He explains. But she's still not convinced. She chuckles wryly.

"Looks like you drugged everyone here to be your pathetic disciples" She says as she crosses her arms. From her voice, I could barely hear the resemblance of Anette's usual words from the one right now. She sounds more sadistic and sarcastic today. She doesn't even realize what she's saying. Everyone remains quiet as she waits for Dave's answer. She becomes uncomfortable and turns to me.

"Tell me what happened." She immediately said. I look at them and they gesture for us to gather for a little while to discuss Anette. Vilea, Chris, Altair, and this bastard Dave, circles up and quietly talks about what to say to Anette. Everyone keeps suggesting that we shouldn't mention about her and Cherry being drugged.

"But there wouldn't be this situation without that main incident." Vilea explains quietly. "Her and Cherry being drugged is the main reason why we're even here."

"Me and Cherry are drugged..?"