‘She’s silent.’

  Carrying the bck cat in his arms, Aleph proceeded to the lounge as per normal. On the way, he couldn’t help but wonder why Kurumi did not do any of her usual teasing today.

  “Why, you used to pet me before, no?”

  Kurumi’s voice rang in his head and made Aleph freeze. He recalled the times he habitually patted her cat form while she was asleep. What came were the memories of their close tact.

  It only happewice.

  Once was when Kurumi first ‘transformed’. The sed time was when they used Yod. It was one of Kurumi’s bullets that allowed them to see each other’s pasts. They did a total of two sessions, one for each of them, to finish it. In the sed task, they fell ‘asleep’ together.

  Aleph could still remember all sorts of sensations he felt at that time. Kurumi was shorter than him by more thay timeters. She was like a doll in his arms.

  ‘That fragrant smell…’

  The more he thought about it, the more his embarrassment started to ki.

  Seeing this rea, Kurumi began doubling down.

  “How about we sleep together tonight?”

  “...”

  Aleph’s ears turned beet red. It wasn’t enough as his face started to turoo. It took a while for the redo subside on his face, though it was still extremely visible on his ears.

  ‘I really am not a match.’ He thought wryly. ‘Ohe other two do something ter…’

  He had a daily schedule when it es to who to spend time with. Mei takes the most time in the m, followed by Mobius at noon. Kurumi takes his time at night—also the least time.

  “Ahem. Let’s talk about it ter. We still have this meeting for now…”

  *****

  ‘Damn.’

  Kevin looked at the meek-looking girl with a bck-red lolita dress sitting on the lounge’s sofa. As of now, only he, Klein, and Vill-V were present. Hua, who was sidered Aleph’s ‘junior’, is currently undergoing MANTIS surgery with Mobius.

  ‘Damn.’

  For the sed time, Kevin was still stu processing Kurumi’s revetions. Her existence didn’t e off as a surprise to him. Aleph told him several times of a certain childhood friend of his. What he didn’t expect was that she would possess the so-called ‘superpower’.

  However, that wasn’t the most surprising thing.

  ‘He took in three girlfriends at once…’

  He was sent speechless with that revetion. He doesn’t know where Aleph got the guts to it tirls at ohat wasn’t Kevin’s impression of him before.

  His thoughts were halted once he got out of the lounge. tally, he met Aleph who was about to enter.

  Their gazes met in the air.

  Pat.

  Kevin patted his shoulder.

  “I didn’t expect it. You actually had it in you.”

  “...”

  Seeing Aleph’s ft look, his smile nearly turned into ughter.

  “I won’t say anything else. I think you already know what to do.”

  It wasn’t wrong to say that Kevin was someone who was stantly shoved with Aleph’s and Mei’s flirting moments. It was too bad, to the point he wao tell them to simply get married.

  But then, Kevin also khat there was a reason h didn’t totally accept Mei’s advances.

  Now that the truth revealed itself, he no longer had anything to say.

  ‘So long as they are happy.’

  With the mi of having aplished something he ushing forward for so long, Kevin shifted the topic.

  Looking at the bck cat in his arms, he asked:

  “Did the surgery also treat your allergies to cats?”

  “...Yeah. It’s an ued side effect.”

  Others thought that Aleph wasn’t a cat person, but Kevin knew he was simply allergic to them. The st time he took in a stray cat, he had allergies for a week.

  In the end, the said cat was sent to a shelter.

  That period of time was also when Kevin passed along several missed seatworks to Aleph.

  “Sigh… I wonder where that guy is.” Kevin muttered. “There is still no news about him?”

  “Nope. But, I think I know where he is.”

  They were talking about the third member of their trio, Su. If Kevin was the active one and Aleph was the sarcastie, Su was the quiet one. He was the type to alk muside a library.

  ‘The abandoned areas in the north…’ Aleph thought.

  It serves to reason that MOTH’s resources were enough to locate one person. However, Su’s trails ended on the western ti five months ago. Him not having any online presence was ahing that made it difficult to look for him.

  It was at that moment did Aleph uand why it took years before Su reunited with Kevin.

  “I’ll go pick him up ter. He should be fine given his abilities.”

  “I hope so.” Kevin replied.

  Hearing this, Aleph smiled at him.

  “You will uand ter… at the meeting.”

  “...Your way of leaving us hanging didn’t ge.”

  “Heh.”

  Aleph ughed it off aered the lounge. He was greeted by yet another ambush.

  “Aleph! Is that true?! Not only Direei, but also Mobius?!”

  Both his arms were grasped tightly by Vill-V. Her pair of mountains shook up and down momentarily. It didn’t help that she was wearing her usual ‘meic’ attire.

  “It’s true.”

  “What?!”

  Vill-V froze. She was in-denial regarding Aleph’s retionship with Mei and Mobius.

  After all…

  “It looks like you won’t side with me anymore.”

  ‘Since when did I… Oh.’

  Aleph recalled their moments together. Be it their cooperation prior to the MANTIS surgery or him giving her oys and ideas, it did seem like he was feeding on Vill-V’s destructive tendencies.

  Flick-!

  “Ow!”

  Aleph used his vat right hand to flick her forehead.

  “As long as you don’t do anything bad, you won't fay kind of punishment, you know?”

  “It’s difficult! The director thinks some of my works were pointless…”

  “Weren’t they?”

  “...they’re not!”

  The bck cat in Aleph’s left arm watched the one-girl edic performah relish.

  Aleph had to calm her down in the end.

  “Alright, alright. As long as you don’t mess things up and finish the projects on-time, I’ll ask Mei to be less stri you.”

  “Hehe. My trust in you wasn’t mispced, partner.”

  Vill-V patted Aleph’s shoulder with a serious look. It was as if her previous as were nothing but a performanbsp;

  “If you do something bad, however, I’ll ask her to increase the penalties.”

  “Ah?!”

  Her smile swiftly turned into shock.