The Shrink Program

Chapter 69

"That explains it!" I exclaimed, staring down at my hands in stunned horror. "It all makes sense now!"

"... What does?" Apollo asked warily... As if knowing he would soon regret it.

"How you could afford all those custom made jars!" I exclaimed, sending him a teary-eyed look.

"...they weren't that expensive..."

I felt my expression shift into disgust, then resentment as he spoke.

"I find out that you are rich five seconds ago," I said flatly. "And you're already rubbing it in my face?"

"You..." He cut himself off, realising the stupidity he was getting himself into, and gave me an exasperated glare.

After a brief showdown of wills, he gave up and went back to ignoring me.

It's not like I was trying to be annoying... Originally.

"Hey, Apollo..." I questioned, ignoring the fact that he was trying to ignore me. "If my ability is to figure out stuff from small details ... Then how come I never noticed that you were wealthy spoilt brat?

Apollo didn't react to the jibe, but his resentful words quickly belayed it. "Shouldn't you know that better than me? It's your ability."

Petty.

"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking."

Apollo raised an eyebrow at the frustrated edge to my words, taking pity on me a moment later with a defeated shrug.

"your deduction works best when you are feeling stressed, and it focuses on the source of that stress."

Slightly creeped out with how he knew something so... Personal about me when I hadn't even known he existed a week ago, I forced myself to nod.

It sort of made sense... Though I'd never really realised that was what had been happening...

"But your ability has a weakness." Apollo continued, surprising me.

I glanced up at him, but he didn't return the gaze, instead, keeping his eyes on his destination.

"Weakness?" I asked reluctantly, wary of where this was going.

"In the same way that it lets you see more, it can also blind you."

"...Okay?"I grimaced. " Going to need a little more elaboration on that one..."

Apollo sent me a bored look, one that said just how stupid he thought I was.

"I can't believe I'm the one who has to tell you all this."

I crossed my arms. "You seem to be the expert on the subject."

"I can hardly take the credit." Apollo rolled his eyes. "All the research was done by others, I just used the conclusions to my advantage."

...Others?

Apollo shrugged slightly, my jar moving up and down with the movement.

"Whatever. It's not like you're going to be the Jack for much longer."

"Don't count your chickens before they've hatched," I muttered, but Apollo ignored the wise words entirely.

"The theory is, self-preservation has a huge influence on your thought process. The more stressed you feel, the more focused you become. That is your strength. Your weakness, on the other hand... "

His gaze darkened.

"In cases where the truth will hurt more than help, the opposite happens... You ignore the clues and refuse to draw the obvious conclusion."