Ghost Scarab

Corey's POV

Fingers crossed that I did Corey justice in this chapter.

I was struggling to focus on my work and not the fact that Sang would rather share her bed with me than with Raven. I knew I shouldn't read too much into it, she might just see me as a safer choice than Raven. But she hasn't pulled away from me like all the other girls I have been into in the past.

Over the years, whenever I brought a girl home, Brandon would find a way to talk to her, and afterward, she would either lose interest in me and leave or she would start dating Brandon. I've never confronted Brandon about this, he's my twin and I don't want to let a girl come between us, I simply stopped bringing home the girls I liked.

Sang was standing on the balcony, enjoying the view. She views the world with such enthusiasm, eager for new sites and experiences, and watching her experience things for the first time reminds me of the wonder of it all.

Like playing video games, I have delved so deeply into making them that sometimes I don't see the game anymore. I see the mechanics that make the game work and the flaws that could be improved upon. But teaching Sang to play, I get to view it as a game again. It reminds me of why I wanted to learn how to make games in the first place.

I pulled my attention away from Sang and back to my work but looked up when I heard the balcony door start to close.

"Actually, could you leave that open, the breeze feels nice."

"Of course."

Her answer was as polite as always but there was something off about her smile, it was like something was bothering her but she was afraid to say anything about it. I discreetly watched her as she pulled a short sleeve shirt out of her bag doing my best to analyze how she was feeling without making her feel uncomfortable by staring at her. Without a word, she headed to the bathroom, presumably to change her shirt.

She had acted in a similar manner when we got back to the car after lunch. It was right after she emailed Emily to apologize for not showing up for work. At the time I thought she might simply be feeling guilty about not having contacted Emily sooner, but I was starting to think it might be something else.

If she didn't say something soon I would ask her about it but in the meantime, all I could do was hope she would choose to come to me about whatever might be troubling her.

I felt my phone vibrate and looked down to see Raven was calling. I answered, "Mouse," and waited for Raven's response. The Academy's code is random, someone trying to guess the code would probably respond with a word related to the one I gave.

"Vibrator," Raven answered easily. "I'm going to have to go buy a whiteboard from somewhere. If you need a whiteboard before I get back you can use bathroom mirror."

"Take your time, it's going to be about an hour before I'm ready to start doing calculations." I also didn't want to deface the bathroom mirror. I did something like that in a hotel before, Raven told me the markers were erasable, erasable my ass.

"Good, I wish to pick up something for our маленький котенок."

I started to ask him what he was planning to get her but he hung up before I had a chance to.

Sang came back to the bedroom and any thought I had about what Raven planned on getting her went out the window when I saw her expression. She looked so nervous and guilty that I just couldn't help but get up and go to her. I embraced her in a hug, she felt so small and fragile, trembling in my arms and it shocked me when she gently pushed me away.

For a moment I felt hurt over the perceived rejection but one look at her face told me she wasn't rejecting my touch, she just didn't think she deserved to receive comfort from me.