CHAPTER 9  THE ROAD LEADS TO

 

 

 

“Hey, you should look where you are going!” An annoyed Tiffany snapped at a girl most likely same age as her. The girl, who was running and now few steps ahead of her, looked back and bowed.

 

“Sorry…. I’m sorry.” The girl said and ran again.

 

Tiffany shook her head and mumbled on how rude the girl was. She was about to pick up her bag that fell during their collision when she realized something. It sank in to her how the girl looked agitated… scared. The girl looked like she was running away from something… or someone.

 

“Geez…. Don’t think ahead of yourself.” She mumbled as she picked up her bag.

 

She sensed something is very wrong but she couldn’t pin point what it was.

 

“Damn it.” She hissed.

 

And then, a group of 4 men came running. Seemingly looking for someone. Those men passed by her and she heard one of them said about the girl who she thinks the one who she collided with.

 

“Oh crap, Tiff. Not a good idea. Not a good idea.” She told herself when the men turned into the corner where the girl also went.

 

“Damn it.” She hissed again and scanned possible routes. She immediately ran once she found.

 

“What’s with the superhero gig?....*sigh*” She asked herself. She wanted to stop but her body kept on moving. Tiffany never had an intense gut feeling like this before. And, never that her body acted on its own for any heroics.

 

“I’m gonna be late for school…..” She sighed again while running.

 

 

 

“There!” Tiffany heard a man yell. One of those four men. She was hiding at the side of the building, along a shallow street. She could see the girl hiding behind the pile of scrap appliances at the side of a shop across the building she’s currently in.

 

The men were nearing the girl and she could see how the girl is fully aware of it and is so scared. Tiffany is contemplating on what to do next. She knew that she will be in a deep but the desire to save the girl is too much.

 

“Oh.. me.” She muttered and put the hood of her jacket on her head then ran across the street.

 

“Hey! You! You think you could run away from me like that after bumping into me?! I could see your red shirt peeking out from that dumpster!” She yelled as she ran towards the dumpster.

 

The girl’s eyes grew wide.

 

The men heard her and ran towards the dumpster which was on the other side of the building where the shop was. She quickly changed direction towards where the girl hid. She grabbed the girl and entered the backdoor of the shop. She led the girl upstairs into a room.

 

She could feel the girl wriggling from her grip but she tightened her grip on the girl’s wrist even more. She could also hear the grunting and tired breaths from the girl.

 

“I’m saving you. Stop wriggling.” She said without looking at the girl.

 

 

She knows where to go in that building. She knows there is a room on the third floor where they could hide. She knows the passcode of the room... or.. she could just disarm the lock if ever the owner of the room changed the passcode again.

 

She dragged the girl inside the room..after.. well... disarming the lock and shoved the shaken girl to an Arabian night themed bed. Her friend, the daughter of the owner of the building, and is the owner of this room, will not mind her intrusion. Or so she thinks.

 

“Just wait here.” She told the girl after pushing her into the bed. She quickly went out of the room.

 

Tiffany headed to the roofdeck of the three storey building where the shop was. She hid behind the 1.2 meter high parapet wall.

She could hear the rambling footsteps of those men from a far.

 

“She’s hasn’t gone far.” She heard one of the men shouted. The men ran farther away until she couldn’t see them anymore.

 

“Sheesh…. What a trouble.”

 

Tiffany headed back to the room to interrogate the girl, wishing that the girl has a very valid reason for all of her troubles.

 

“Care to explain to me what’s the meaning of this?” A young lady standing by the door asked Tiffany.

 

“Its not what you think it is.”

 

“And what am I thinking?”

 

“……………………………………..”

 

 

Then the door openned. The owner of the room obviously not happy with the sight unfolding infront of her eyes. And the keylock of her room had been disarmed again for the nth time.

 

“Barging into my shop…. My room… with a pretty girl in tow. And yeah… without my permission, too.”

 

“Its not your shop, Hyo. Your parents’.” Tiffany answered while still staring at the stranger that she saved.

 

“The same banana. This shop will be mine in the near future. And don’t change the topic, Slick. You’re at my mercy so you better explain properly or I’ll throw you and you’re girlfriend out of my shop so that those men could mince you alive.” Hyo's family business is mostly about tech stuffs and apparently, she's been watching the ordeal from the comfort of their shop.

 

“Wow. I never thought you could form a paragraph.” There's a signature sarcastic strike.

 

“And you’re a walking trouble as usual.” And there's the signature ' you too' comeback.

 

“Just let it slide for now. I’ll tell you later.”

 

Hyoyeon nodded and eyed the girl.

 

“Just don’t have on my bed.” Hyo warned.

 

“You’re weird. Should it be that you’ll be afraid of what will happen to your shop and not with your bed?” Tiffany clicked her tongue.

 

“They'll be pulvorized before they could enter my shop. And I repeat, no ing in my bed. Do it in the floor."

 

"Calm your , Hopper. I'm not gonna in somebody elses room. And I'm not gonna anyone! I'm too young for that!" Her temper is rising again whlie Hyoyeon just kept staring at her with such menace. Tiffany just shut up and cleared .

 

"My bed, Slick. My bed.” Hyoyeon’s final warning before going out of the door.

 

 

 

With Hyoyeon out of the room, Tiffany's full attention is with the girl again.

 

“What’s wrong? Why were those men chasing you?” Tiffany asked the quiet and mysterious girl. She could not properly see the face of the girl because of its hair almost covering the whole face.

 

She could hear the quiet sobs. The girl looked frightened, too. Well, who wouldn’t?

 

“Its alright. You’re safe now.” She tried to calm the girl.  

 

“Can’t you speak?”

 

Her class will start 30 minutes from now and she thinks she still could make it if she get going. But with this girl not cooperating, she knew it a lost case. She’ll be absent to class today..again.

 

“Oh come on.” Tiffany is losing patience. Fast.

 

Tiffany was about to stand up when the girl pulled her into a tight embrace.

 

“Don’t leave me.”

 

Oh…. That voice…

 

“Okay…….”

 

“Thank you….”

 

“Okay……”

 

“For saving me…”

 

“Okay…….”

 

“Those men injected me with a drug.”

 

“Okay…”

 

“Some kind of a date drug.”

 

“Okay……….”

 

“And I think…..”

 

“Okay…….”

 

“..that the drug is already working…”

 

Tiffany realized that she became like a fool. Speechless and answering with only a single word. She shook her head to remove all the cobwebs in her clouded mind. It was too late for her to realize that the girl was dangerously close to her and about to kiss her.

 

“Look.. Miss.. Uhmp------“

 

Tiffany was cut off by something delicious. Sweet lips on hers.

 

She thought about Hyoyeon’s bed but screw it. She never thought that she would be thankful for dissing class.

 

And as simple as that, she lost her innocence to a strange stranger. And that stranger was gone after that happened. She couldn’t even remember how the girl looked like. It seemed like she was put in a trance. Wonderful trance. How strange it could be?

 

And she had to face Hyoyeon’s wrath.

 

Sigh.

 

 

 

And after 5 years... in the present time...

 

“Hey Hyo! What’s with the expression?” Tiffany asked her dazed friend.

 

“Oh… ahm.. nothing.”

 

“Nothing? Oh yeah… tell that to Soo. Maybe she would believe you.” Tiffany deadpanned.

 

“Sooyoung?..... yeah… her..possibly her…”

 

“What? I’m not really digging you right now? What’s your trip?” She asked the still dazed Hyoyeon.

 

“If you’ll be like that, you better close the shop.” More than being sarcastic, she’s starting to feel genuine worry towards her friend’s behavior.

 

“Seriously, Hyo, what is it? We’ve been friends way back since West Gate. You could tell me what’s bothering you.”

 

“……………………………”

 

“Come on, Hopper. Spill it. I’m all ears.” Tiffany softly said.

 

Hyoyeon let out a long deep sigh before talking.

 

“I’m ually active.” Hyoyeon said in on breath with a flushed face.

 

“Oh…Wow… that’s….nice….”  Tiffany couldn’t say anything more. She’s puzzled. She knew how her friend being unromantic and unual. An android, she thought one point in time.

 

“But hey…. When did you?... I mean.. Anyway that’s nice. Right? Finally, you’re giving in to worldly needs.” She’s completely puzzled but in a way, she’s happy for her friend for finally becoming a normal human.

 

“So… who’s the lucky bastard?” Tiffany added.

 

“That’s the thing!” Hyoyeon exclaimed and came a pregnant pause. Hyoyeon shook head head and fixed her eyes on the floor, looking for right things to say.

Tiffany’s brows formed a single line.

 

“I’m positive that I haven’t sleep with anyone in my whole life! I even inquired in the customer service of the wristnet brand.”

 

“Now you’re really being weird. How could you be ually active without YOU knowing it? And what about the wristnet?”

 

Hyoyeon showed her wristnet data from the application they used before. It showed the “log” of ual activities and the App could also tell if the other person is same from the previous. And from what the data indicated, all the 210 ual encounters of Hyoyeon was with the same person.

 

“Oh.. …” Tiffany was left in awe.

 

“They said that the App is 100% functional and dependable. And they also asked me to try the App on other models of wristnet and I strongly refused, ofcourse!” Hyoyeon was near to hyperventilating. Tiffany kept mum, still staring at the data.

 

Something clicked on Tiffany’s head.

 

Sooyoung… you bastard.

 

Tiffany gritted her teeth.

 

“I’ll get going. And you, close the shop if you’ll just act like a zombie.” Tiffany said and flicked Hyo’s forehead. She headed for the door.

 

“Where are you going now?” Hyoyeon asked.

 

She looked ok though.

 

“I’ve got something to settle.”

 

“Okay. Take care.”

 

“Uhm… Hopper?...”

 

“What is it, Slick?”

 

“Who do you think it is?”

 

“My gut screams Sooyoung…. Because she always ask me to have with her.” Tiffany’s eyes twitch with the revelation. And now she has concrete proof.

 

“And what will you do if its really Sooyoung?” She asked Hyo but did not wait for the answer and went out of the shop. She failed to see the smile on her friend’s face.

 

Sooyoung, you son of a..

 

Tiffany doesn’t know if she’s gonna be angry or just laugh about it. She knew that her two friends have feelings for each other. She just sighed.

 

“Anyway… should I try it?” Tiffany asked herself pertaining to the App of the wristnet.

 

“What the heck?.. why not?” She decided to try it. After Clicking some buttons on her wristnet, the data showed. Her jaw almost fell on the floor.

 

“What…. In… the… name… of… ?......”

 

Last ual Activity

 3 weeks ago

 

Prior ual Activity

5 years ago

 

Encounter Partner Analysis:

 

With the Same Person