Chapter 16: Courier

We laid on the bed under covers, legs crisscrossed. We're both naked and we both just subsided from the high we've had from our carnal passion. It's embarrassing to think that we just became lovers for a couple of days and we already had s-x.

"That time, when we've just met, why did you let me in and out of your place? You barely knew me. And I think you're not someone who trusts a person easily."

"During the first night, you were drunk. I couldn't leave you all alone in that bar. And I don't know where your house was, so I brought you here."

"And during the second time?"

He's caressing my hair with his hand while I'm shamelessly hugging him, even in my nakedness.

"Well that time, you were sleeping. And it's already midnight. How can I let a gorgeous young woman go home alone?"

Gorgeous.. he called me gorgeous…

"Then why did you keep on seeing me after? Why did you give me your slippers? Huh? Why did you give me an excuse to come back?"

He let out a low laugh and stared at me so lovingly like I am the most adorable thing in his eyes. "Why are you suddenly asking these things?"

I reached up to give him a peck on his lips.

"You know how to bribe me," he remarked.

I giggled when he said that. So that means I can bribe him with a kiss.

"That morning, when you were cooking, my kitchen smelled nice."

I waited for another answer. But it seems like that's it. That's it?!

"I'm confused," I admitted. "Your kitchen smelled nice?"

I expected something deeper?

"It's ironic that when I'm cooking, I can't smell how good the kitchen actually smells. But because it's not me who's cooking, I can smell how nice it is. The sink smells nice too after you wash dishes there. It's weird because I don't smell it like that when I'm the one washing. It's weird, but it's also nice."

He gets sentimental about very trivial things.

"It's nice to actually have someone else inside my place. It felt strangely good seeing you padding across my apartment floors. My place felt like home."

I'm confused about whether I'm lying naked beside Neuron right now for the success of my mission, or because this is what my heart really wanted. Whenever I have to lie to him, I wonder if I'm lying because I had to or because I don't want him to leave me.

Whenever I laugh because of him, I get confused whether I'm doing it to pretend or if I'm actually laughing out of real happiness.

I wonder if I'm with him because I need to or because I want to.

Moments ago I was sure of my feelings. I was sure that I love him. But now, I can't help but doubt. Am I just being too immersed in my mission? That even me, myself, have now the tendency to believe the lie I started?

I don't know anymore.

"I grew up in a very glamorous and ridiculously enormous house."

"So you're filthy rich. That's why you don't need a job," I reacted.

He laughed but didn't pay much attention to what I said.

"Our house is so big that I only see my family on occasions. And even with those rare occasions, I had to see them along with hundreds of people. Isn't that sad?"

"It is sad," I affirmed sympathetically.

"I've been alone, practically, all my life. And it thrilled me to see you making noises around my place."

"Neuron, that's so trivial. So ordinary. There's nothing special about them."

"I told you, ordinary things are extraordinary to me."

"So what does your family do?" I asked. Will he answer me truthfully? We're in a relationship now, so maybe it's time for him to tell me he's actually a prince?

"They run a very very big organization. Yah. That's what they do."

Well, I guess not today. I want him to confess already about being Mirando's son. I want him to bring me to the palace so I can do my thing and then just go back to focusing on being his lover. I wanna do that. Please let me do that. No one knows what will happen during our final mission.

It's either we succeed or we fail. And there are only two results. We fail, then we die. We succeed, then I'll leave Maharlica. And both of those results imply that I'm never going to be with Neuron after the mission. Either way.

He sat up on the bed and reached his hand out to one of the drawers of his bedside table. I saw him take a box out of it. He opened it and took something from it.

A ring.

I thought he was going to give it to me, but I was wrong. He wore it himself.

Silly! Why would he give me a ring? It's only been days.

He gazed at me. He held my left hand, and to my surprise, he slid a ring on my ring finger. "Neuron-- no way! Don't you think this is too much? We've just been together and you're already giving me a ring--" I stopped talking when he intertwined our hands.

"Ma'am, I don't care about that. I act according to what I feel. Am I being too hasty? It's just that you make me want to buy you things."

"Don't do that."

"I wanna do that."

"Still, don't." He's putting pressure on me.

I glanced at the ring on my finger. It's a diamond ring. I noticed we have the same ring. It's a very elegant-looking twist diamond ring with a flower in the middle, decorated with very small diamond stones. It's so pretty.

"These are promise rings," I stated while looking at both of our hands with our rings on them. "But what do they signify? A promise of what?"

"Do you see this flower right here?" he replied while touching the flower in my ring. "This is a Butterfly weed. It symbolizes love and togetherness."

Love and togetherness? He is promising me that?

"I made our family jeweler attach this to our personalized rings."

"What? You have your own jeweler? That's crazy." I pretended to be surprised again.

They're royals! Of course, they have a jeweler.

"The rings originally just twisted band rings and I decided to customize it. I nagged the jeweler to make it within two days. It's supposed to take up at least a week."

"What? You're crazy! Why are you in such a hurry?"

He suddenly turned into a serious mode. Lips slightly pressed, eyes focused on me. "Because I wanted to give this to you as early as possible. While it's still early."

"What?"

"This is my early confession."

"Confession of what?" I am so confused right now.

Instead of answering me, he kissed me on my forehead and stood up on the bed. His glorious naked body filled my eyes. He started dressing up. I kind of was embarrassed so I looked away.

Silly.. after what we did on the mattress, I shouldn't be shy--but still--

Why am I debating against myself?!

"Get up, ma'am. And get dressed." He winked at me and cockily left the door.

Seriously, that man!

It's already one o'clock in the afternoon, and I still haven't had lunch. I lunched on something else (which is Neuron). And it only made me full for a while. Now I'm starving and craving real food.

I need to go back to my apartment at three to discuss my mission with Isagani.

I stared at the ring on my finger. Butterfly weed huh? Symbol of love and togetherness. I know Neuron has a romantic disposition, but I never thought he'd give me a promise ring.

This adds much more weight to our f--ked up situation.

I started getting dressed and looked for Neuron in the kitchen. He's there slicing spices.

"Let me," I offered and motioned him to move away.

He shook his head as a refusal.

"I insist, Sir." I took the knife from his hand. "You said you like how your kitchen smells when I'm cooking."

He gave me a naughty grin.

He slowly leaned in for a kiss but I stepped back. I pointed the knife at his chest. He didn't flinch but he stood up straight. His face had an expression I've never seen before. He looks--

Dangerous.

At that moment, a thought came across me. That maybe Neuron is not the man whom I think he is.

"Did you just point a knife on my heart?" He smirked and that made me uneasy for an unknown reason. The tone of his voice is menacing. It's terrifying. "You can't do that. You will hurt yourself."

I never had the chance to put down the knife because I was preoccupied with how treacherous he looked and sounded.

"You're inside. If you stab me, you'll stab yourself."

What?

I blinked a couple of times. I put down the knife and stared at him.

He is grinning from ear to ear. I felt relieved at the thought that he was just joking around. I thought it meant something else. It felt like he knew something about me, or was it just me being guilty of my facade?

"You're so unfair." He is back to his playful persona. He looks like a kid complaining to me now. "You're the one who threw yourself at me in broad daylight and now I just want a kiss and you're threatening me with a knife."

I laugh loudly out of relief. "You stay still, asshole. Don't do anything funny."

He just shook his head in disbelief and sat on the stool that is in front of me.

I started slicing the spices he was slicing earlier. "Seriously, what do you do? You really don't have a job? How are you supposed to spoil me? Will you spoil me using your family's money?"

He let out a naughty laugh. "Of course I have a job."

"You said you don't have one!"

"I was kidding. I help my family run the organization. I am also learning how to manage and run it. It'll be mine in the future."

Is the organization he is talking about, the Maharlican government? Is that what he meant? He is learning how to become a king because he will become one in the future?

A sudden irritation crept into my veins.

It'll be his? Is Maharlica just an asset to the Gruna that they could just be entitled with? This is making me really mad.

"Shut up. Stop talking and just sit there."

He was surprised because of my sudden switch of mood. "Your mood swings are really scary."

He stayed still while I was cooking lunch for us. I keep on telling myself not to overreact because he might notice something if I keep on overreacting on things. But I just can't help it. When it comes to the Gruna and Maharlica, I can get triggered even with the slightest pinch.

While I was on my reverie while cooking, a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist and that pulled me out from my reverie. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "Did I say something wrong?"

I sighed. "What are you sorry for? You didn't even do anything wrong. It's just me and my mood swings." I unwrapped his arms on my waist and faced him. Then I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I'm sorry."

He smiled.

I rested my head on his chest. "I love being this close to you," he confessed.

Me too...

"But honey.."

"Hmm?" I looked up at him when he called me 'honey'.

"I can smell something burning."

I snapped out of my senses. "Oh, sh-t!" I pulled out from him and immediately checked what I was cooking. What the f--k! It's burnt!

I glared at him when I heard him laughing.

--

Neuron had to go back to where he was working, which I assumed, the palace. He wanted to drive me home but I refused his generosity. When he left his apartment, I also left right after that.

I packed my waistband holster with knives on the left and a gun on the right.

"Are you crazy? Do you wanna get caught right at the entrance?"

I stared at Isagani.

"You think you can enter inside the station if the guards discover that?" He continued while eyeing my holster.

"Then what? Are we just gonna go there unarmed?"

Isagani unfolded a large piece of paper and placed it on the table that is in between us. I saw that it's an exclusive map available only to authorized personnel at the station. These details on the map aren't something that the general public should know.

"Where'd you get this?"

"This came from the Commander and handed to me by the Captain," he answered. "Here," he pointed at the map. "There's a manhole from the outside leading to the back of the ticket booth. I don't know why this manhole was built, but it's a good thing for us."

I nodded.

"So we're gonna get inside the station through this manhole and then you do your thing."

"And you? What are you gonna do?"

"Me? I'm going to be just following you discreetly. If anything happens, I'll be right there."

At quarter to five in the afternoon, Isagani and I were already dressed in our outfits for the mission. We also wore our in-ear device. Then we left the apartment to go to Prego Station.

I'm wearing a red shirt and a black bull cap just like what the Captain told me to wear. I also wrapped a shawl on my neck even amid the very irritating hot weather. This is the dress code I have to wear for the courier to recognize me.

Isagani is wearing a black jacket, black pants, a black cap, and a black mask. He looks so suspicious no matter how I see it. "At least take the mask off. Are you announcing to the world that you are about to do something not allowed?"

He took his mask off just like I said. When the taxi dropped us off in front of the station, Isagani checked the map once again.

"We need to go there," he pointed to the left side of the entrance. We walked towards there and I saw that at the very side of the building there are blocks of cement that make a pathway leading somewhere. We followed that path but found no manhole.

"This is odd. The map definitely says this is where the manhole is," Isagani mumbled.

It's gotta be here somewhere…

I noticed that there looked like metal between two blocks. I tried moving one of the blocks, and surprisingly, it moved. "Gan, here!"

Gan moved the other one, and we found the manhole we were looking for. Gan opened the metal opening.

We went down the manhole, and it was completely dark as expected. Isagani and I both turned on each of our own small flashlights. The small tunnel smells like earth. It's not dusty but it does have that type of dusty smell of earth.

We were both silent as we went through the tunnel. As we are nearing the end, Gan spoke. "If anything, just if something suspicious happens, just run. Do you understand, Paul?"

I nodded at him. Gan helped me go up on the manhole by pushing me up on my waist. I struggled to get to the top but I did it in the end. Gan had it easier going up than I did.

As soon as we were back on the ground, we ducked down because we were at the backdoor of the ticket booth that is cemented from the ground up to a person's chest level, and then glass upwards. If we don't duck down, people buying tickets will notice two suspicious persons. Which is us.

We successfully escaped from the ticket booth. Gan subtly separated from me as I blended in with the busy people inside the station.

"Platform three. Guy in a black hoodie that has a big letter H printed on the back." I heard Gan from my in-ear.

"Copy."

I casually just walked like I was there to ride a train. I walked past platform 1. Many people are waiting here to board the train, some are alighting from the train.

I looked at my watch and I only had two minutes to get into platform 3. I walked faster, then I started running.

When I was halfway to get to platform three I noticed a familiar-looking man who's looking my way. I dropped my cap lower to cover my face.

But…

He is so familiar! That bulky body. That skinhead haircut. Where did I see him again?

That man started walking. He couldn't be coming for me right? He's surely not the courier. But he sure was suspicious and seems to be observing people. When I reached platform three, I roamed my eyes around. And a man is leaning on a post with his back on me. I could see a big letter H at the back of the hoody, hood over his head, crossing his arms. That's him!

I walked slowly towards that man. I saw the man put his hand on his ear. Is he wearing an in-ear device? And then I noticed the man's watch.

I stopped.

I know that expensive-looking watch! I know it so well! That physique, that stance, that back!

And then it hit me. I turned my head back to where that suspicious guy was. That bulky guy. The skinhead haircut. Michael! It's Michael!

Don't tell me the courier is--

The man leaning on the post suddenly turned around facing me from a distance. I immediately looked down and covered my face with my cap. "Gan, out! Out now!" I screamed at Isagani in a hushed voice.

As soon as I started running, Michael and the supposed-to-be courier of the file started running after me. I ran and ran and ran like my life depended on it. Because it does.

I know.

I know…

Even if he has a hood over his head, I know it's him. That watch, it's his!

"We've been tricked!" I informed Gan.

"To the escape route! Faster!" I heard him say.

What is Neuron doing here? And why is he pretending to be a courier?