"Are you alright?" After a long period of silence, Lisa finally asked the girl at the other end of the line. She felt that the other party wasn't feeling all that good as well, earlier.

"..hmm, bad dream." The girl replied. 

"I see.." 

there was another period of silence..

"About tomorrow's tour, I might have to deal with something again, so, can we postpone it?" Lisa asked. She suddenly wanted to surprise the girl.

She didn't like the idea of going back to school but thinking about being schoolmates or possibly classmates with Jennie, somehow, excited her.

"..hmm, sure." Jennie replied.. there was a hint of reluctance in her tone..

"..uhm, take care.. I mean, keep yourself safe, whatever you're going to do." She continued.

Lisa pursed her lips, attempting to control the idiotic smile that was leaking out from it.

She's heard that sentence a lot of times from the people around her but when she heard it coming from Jennie, it somehow sounded sweeter and felt a bit different.

"I will.." Lisa replied. After calming herself down.

"You too, take care.." She continued.

It was silent from the other line for a couple of seconds before she heard Jennie saying,

"mhmm, I will.." it came with a hint of gentle giggle. Lisa could almost picture the girl's gummy smile from the other end of the line.. and this made her feel inexplicably happy.. 

There was another round of silence as both parties suddenly found themselves run out of things to talk about, but neither wanted to drop the call.

"Have you had dinner?" Jennie ended the silence with a question.

"I haven't.. been too busy, you?"

"I haven't either. I fell asleep after I took a shower."

"Let's go grab a bite, then?" Lisa suddenly asked.

"Hmm? But it's already half past midnight." Jennie asked confusingly.

"I know." Lisa chuckled

"Let's head to our own kitchens and eat a bit, midnight snack."

"Oh, I see.." Jennie's tone suddenly went a bit gloomy.

"Just to fill our stomachs with something. I'm kinda hungry, so." Lisa chuckled.

"Do we have to hang up?" Jennie suddenly asked.

"We don't have to." Lisa answered with a smile.

From the other line, Jennie was smiling widely as well, hugging her pillow tightly.

"Let's go?" Lisa asked. 

Jennie could hear shuffling from the other side of the line as Lisa patted her wrinkled clothing and made her way to the kitchen.

"Yeah." Jennie got up as well. 

Lisa just grabbed a cereal and poured some into a tiny bowl then filled it with milk. While Jennie found herself some cookies and a glass of juice.

They were both munching on their foods whilst still being on their phones. 

They were still silent and not talking much while they were eating but both of them felt comfortable. 

After finishing their meal, they went back to their bedrooms and sat down on their beds..

They weren't talking but they still didn't want to hang up. They felt like they really needed each others presence, specially after what happened to each of them.

"We should probably go to sleep" Said Lisa, breaking the silence.

Jennie kept quiet for a while. She was finally calm but the thought of having another nightmare still frightened her a bit.

"Scared of having a bad dream again?" Lisa asked as if reading her mind. 

"..hmm" Jennie answered quietly.

"Well... then, don't hang up the phone. Keep the call on, I'll do the same. I'll be here so don't be scared..Let's just lie down and stay on the phone till we fall asleep." Lisa proposed.

"Okay." Jennie felt lighter. 

She slowly lied down and hugged her pillow again, she put her phone on speaker and put it on another pillow next to her. Lisa on the other hand, connected the call to a wireless earphone and put the phone on her lamp table beside her bed. 

They stayed that way for who-knows how long until their eyelids dropped and both finally fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a dark, dimly lit room were comfortably seated two gentlemen, one older and one younger. These two were two of the seven people the world feared the most. 

Whether they be "Known" families, those that are famous all over the world, owners of different corporations, companies, mafias, triads, yakuzas, etc., that almost everybody knows in the world; or the "Hidden" families, those who secretly control almost all of the known families. Not many posses the knowledge of their existence, these families tend to keep themselves off the board, so they can control the game. However, no matter how fearsome all these families can be, they all would lower their proud heads and bend their straight backs with a bow, in the presence of these two gentlemen seated in this dark room.

"It has begun." The older one uttered with a deep and cold voice.

"Hmmm, they finally couldn't hold themselves in." The younger one said with his equally deep voice, playfully.

"When do they ever learn." The younger one continued as he shook his head.

"They never would. It's simply human nature for people to crave being on top and thereby challenge the ones standing in their way. Even wolves challenge the alphas in their packs." The older one replied.

"This is going to be annoying though." The younger one complained. 

"If your people hadn't screwed up twenty-four years ago, it wouldn't be this 'annoying'." The older one corrected.