14:37
Five minutes have gone by without a word spoken by either side of the table. On one end, Pratch was holding on to a glass of iced coffee, no added sugar and no condensed milk. Sitting on the other end of the table was Eyes holding on to a glass of ice blended watermelon juice, with added 1/4 tablespoon of syrup. With increasing tension as well as awkwardness, Eyes was the first to give in to the staring contest.
"Are you perhaps disgusted about my face to the point of being speechless?"
Pratch, without avoiding his eye contact, takes a sip of his iced coffee, put down the cup and voiced his opinion.
"Nothing of the sorts, you are actually closer to what I kind of expected of you"
"Don't bullshit me, you never speak this formal to me before, EVER"
"..."
Currently, Pratch's face could be described as an immovable man. His brows narrowed to the point of focus, lips closed shut perfectly still, and his pupils reflect the mirror image of Eyes' face. But on the inside, he is currently going through a certain phase of development.
For the past 20 years, he had met far more many people than an average people would ever meet in their whole life. He'd met with all kinds of people, all the sexes, all the ages, all the ethnicity from all around the world. But he never grew any "real" bond with them. It was a part of his job, to sometimes grow closer to the target, to sometimes deceive others to do the deed for him, to sometimes betray the trust of others and sometimes to kill without even knowing a thing about the target. Admittedly, he struggled to keep on betraying others and deceive others to accomplish a selfish goal. It was hard. It was suffering but by the second year of building up his career through blood and bones of others, he developed a certain immunity that now becomes desensitize towards any kind of guilt.
But there was one bond that he never once sever and still retains for the past two decades. The bond where it didn't begins with mutual goals and trust but rather a relationship where either side seek the benefits of one another and exploit them indefinitely until either side breaks. But it develops over time through communication and experience to become the perfect form of trust and companionship. The two would playfully bark at each other all the time like two dogs playing on the same field, but they no longer have the intention of biting into each other no more.
So naturally, with so much trust in one another, they initially thought that the idea of meeting up for the first time would work perfectly no matter how different they look to each other's expectation. Of course, Pratch was determined to follow through with this meet up just like how they planned without failure. But there was a single flaw in his plan that he unfortunately overlooked. He was too cocky. He thought he would nail this perfectly. However, expectations are often disappointing in reality
(how... how do I speak casually?)
This is Pratch's first flaw. His body, vocal cords and lungs have been trained to be able to speak over 50 languages in the native accent. But yet none of those languages has been trained to speak from his own heart. They were trained to the utmost limit to be used for his "work" and his "work" only. And so he possesses zero skills in socializing outside of his work purposes. The sole purpose of this skill was to be used to sever ties and relationship, as well as lives. Pratch would never want to do so to his one and only tie he has left. But still, if he doesn't make any move, the conversation would never go forward, and so must take the initiative. He musters up his courage and finally mutters out the first thing he could think of from the bottom of his heart.
"Nah, You actually did quite caught me off guard with that looks of yours!"
"..."
Pratch has expected response of sorts from his partner after he had finally answered the question. But there was no response to be given. That was because the seat in front of him was empty.
"huh?"
Not just that but he felt strangely hungry and thirsty as well. Having a bad premonition he reached for his phone in his pocket hoping that he hadn't done it again.
15:01
"...Shit"
His fears came through as he has repeated that one of his worst flaws at the worst time possible.
The phone in front of him vibrates.
It was a text message from Eyes.
'Yep heard that loud and clear, was just hoping you'd wake up around this time. I'm outside retrieving some packages, will be back soon'
It was one of these few moments where Pratch had no idea whether to feel proud or violated for having the world's most skilfull pervert hacker capable of hearing and seeing everything he does at all times instead of the government.
Every human being currently living in this world all have different concentration span. The limit to how much and how long could one stay concentrated. It was said in ancient Buddhism that there were ways for one to reach the realm of nirvana after they were enlightened due to the process of concentrating their power within oneself. Although there was no scientific evidence, there were written records in hymns and literature that in the state of nirvana, one might even feel the sands of time flowing through them and might even slow them down. This was one of the many theories as to why monks and practitioners of Buddhism's bodies don't decompose after their passing. But the truth still remains a mystery even till today. With that being said, there are a few chances among the people in the world that might be able to 'manipulate the flow of sands of time' whether be it intentional or accidental. One of those people was Pratch. Or so it was claimed to be the truth according to Eyes, quoting from the "sacred texts" he attained from an unknown source.
The condition for him to be able to trigger it was for him to be lost in his thoughts or when he came across a question that he cannot solve and tries to solve it. This might've been in fact very useful for an Assassin for him to use it to skips unnecessary time period between his allocated time frames, but unfortunately, he cannot activate it willingly, it would only occur when he seems to be genuinely struggling to answer a question. So that was why there were many instances when they were to get in a long debate, Eyes got to be careful of saying anything philosophical or Pratch might go AFK for at the very least ten minutes.
15:27
Pratch took a bite of his meal. The texture wasn't too shabby but the taste was explosively delicious. He was glad to see the classic pork kebab to still be in the menu despite it being one of the oldest food on the streets of Bangkok. And the taste he has received today was definitely worth the trip back to Thailand.
Just as he was about to pick up the second bite, he caught Eyes' figure in the corner slowly coming up from the staircase.
"Hey, Eyes! Took you long enough..."
This time he didn't get confused or anything, but Pratch's attention quickly shifted to the two conspicuous boxes that are being carried under both sides of Eye's arms. Upon a closer examination, there were gold engravings on top of both boxes.
"Hey P,....Would...You...give me...a hand...please?"
nice.