InterLife

Chapter 17

It took me four days and seven hours to realize he was avoiding me. After Ambrose had mimicked my movement and dropped the bullet, he had left me alone. He wasn't the one to wake me up the next morning, or the morning after that. It was Velocity that knocked on my door to lead me to the dining hall and eat breakfast with her and an irritated Hinode.

Neither Ambrose nor Athanase were anywhere to be found.

The days passed like a blur and it gave me time to fix some things in the meanwhile. I had called Ava, my boss, and apologised before explaining I had to take a break due to urgent personal matters. I had paid the invoice of the hospital on time and also put in the payment for next month as well, to make sure I wouldn't forget. Hinode told me that the message with the song came from Athanase and that he sent it to track my location for Hinode. He told me that was the only message Athanase had sent, which made me wonder about the previous messages. I chose to ignore my curiosity however, considering I had enough on my plate for now.

My days mainly consisted out of trying to fix any messes made the past few days and getting to know Velocity a lot better. I talked to Hinode as well, but he wasn't just a closed book - he was a book cemented shut. He never told me anything about himself, yet didn't avoid my questions. He grabbed them straightforward and simply told me it was none of my business. Even though his gaze remained annoyed and bothered, he didn't appear to hate me that much. At least not compared to how he had looked at Athan.

It helped a little.

Eleven days of Ambrose avoiding me had passed before the blur finally stopped. It happened the moment I set foot in the dining hall. Velocity was standing beside me, talking about her brother - apparently she had a brother, which she had never bothered to mention - when my eyes found the person next to Hinode. The man was laughing softly at something the Japanese man had said, before raising his hand and brushing it through his honey blonde hair. I could see his muscles flex underneath his shirt. His hair was messy, pushed back exactly as I had remembered. He was gorgeous.

Hinode's gaze captured mine first before his friend followed him.

Both of us stopped in mid-movement. Suddenly I was drowning in a mix of emotions and none of them provided oxygen. My heart turned into pure hatred and it began to pump anger instead of blood through my veins. Hearing people say his name enraged me, but seeing him right in front of me made it so much worse. He scrambled up from the bench and stood on his two feet, seemingly at loss for words.

"Ace.." Amancio whispered.

Just that soft whisper brought back a dozen of memories and in every single one of them I loathed him. Instead of turning around and walking away like I had done last time I had seen him, I closed the distance between us and stood right in front of him. Less than a metre consisted in between us. And without any hesitation, I balled my hand into a fist and punched him right in his face.

His groan of agony caused the world to stop turning. People had always told me that revenge was an empty feeling. That forgiveness was what made you a better person, what sufficed to fill that vacant hole in your chest caused by scorching agony of betrayal.

They were wrong.

Just the slightest feeling of revenge when my fist collided with his face was so much more helpful than any forgiveness I could have shown. His hands raised to clutch his bleeding nose and he stumbled backwards. The entire hall turned quiet and everyone was focused on the spectacle in front of him. I barely even noticed when six different guns were pointed at me; my only focus lied with the agony of my foe and the pleasure running through my veins.

I wasn't a violent person, never had been, but this was one specific, personal situation. And if I got shot for it, it would be worth it. I expected him to yell at them to shoot me, to empty the barrel of metal fragments into me. His actual reaction perplexed me.