“Sir. It’s morning, and there are people close to us. I think you should reconsider.”

That is a very polite reaction. This girl’s calm like still water.

A man’s boner knocks you down, and you remain calm? I’m even wearing one of those hospital gowns with no pants. What amazing composure.

I’m heading straight to jail.

I move closer to help her up. She moves her head and scans the area. There’s no one else around.

“Sir. I will scream. Please reconsider.”

Wait. This is a trope! I am not falling for this!

I raise both my hands and move away. An unknown object tried to trip me! I maintain my balance, and it’ll take more than that! To topple me!

The distance between us grows as I inch backwards.

“I know what it looks like, but it was an accident. I swear.”

She looks at me and breathes a sigh of relief. She takes another glance at my spear, though.

“I understand. I believe you.”

“Thanks.”

She’s reasonable. I look her way, noticing her tiny figure and black hair. As I focus my gaze, I notice something unusual. Her face was blurry. I couldn’t make out her face. This blur puts the ones they use on the news to shame.

I know it’s rude, but I couldn’t stop staring.

“Looks like we have our own problems. Sir.”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

“Sir, can I ask for a bit of help now? Sorry, I was a little scared when you were trying to help me earlier.”

“I understand completely.”

If she didn’t react that way, something’s wrong with her head.

I help her up. We sat down on a bench together and started chatting.

People adapt fast, huh?

“I’ve had this condition since birth.”

“Me too. We’re similar in a way. Sir.”

“You can remove the sir. I’m Atlas. Miss?”

“Saori, but don’t add the Miss.”

“Got it Saori. Our first meeting was pretty unique. Sorry about that again.”

Our chat is pretty fun. Saori’s pretty cool, and topics to talk about never seem to run out.

“I currently work as a part-timer. I help with the props on a show called ‘As the river flows.”

“Oh, I know that one! That’s the historical drama showing on Channel DH&L.”

“Yes, that is the one. I got this injury on set. What about you?”

“Forget about my minor injury. They fixed me up already. Your story is way more interesting.”

A pretty smooth way of deflecting, like a martial master redirecting the flow of energy.

“An actress on the set had quite the temper.”

“Ooh, that’s juicy. Who?”

“She was not at fault. It was an accident. While preparing the prop, she kicked something close to it. It was a chain reaction. Something fell on my leg and the rest is history.”

Did anyone else get hurt?

“It was only me who got it bad. I always had bad luck.”

“That’s cool, in a way. Like dominoes. The last piece to fall was your leg.”

“Haha. I guess so.”

We hit it off. I’m having a comfortable chat with her, and we’re enjoying our conversation. Various topics came up as we continue.

“So, what’s its size?”

I don’t know how it ended up here. Honest.

“I haven’t measured it….”

Alert! Alert!

“Can I compare it with my arm?”

“Uh. Sure?”

Why did I say sure? What am I even thinking? What is this girl also thinking?

“Ho-how does it fit?”

She’s moving away a bit from me. I then made a huge mistake—a massive misstep. In order to distract her. I talk about my experiments. How did we even end up here? She asks more questions.

“So, it never goes away? No matter what?”

This revelation surprises her. If I could make out her face, it might contain pity. I’m feeling like an idiot today. I share information about my tests, and my more destructive endeavors that never works.

“Is it the reason you ended up here?”

How did she figure that out?

“No. I work for security and a bullet hit me near my neck. I’m lucky I’m blessed with a stronger body.”

“Oh. I am a bit like that too. My wounds heal faster. My bones even heal!”

“I mean, we got all these problems, so they gave us some benefits at least.”

She laughs a little and agrees.

I am in the zone. I am deflecting unwanted questions. Today I control the flow, and I can redirect the flow of a river right now.

She claps her hands. Fingers dancing around with each other. She faces me. I can’t discern anything from her face. Judging from the way she’s moving. She’ll hit me with the hard questions.

I’m ready. This will be easy.

“So… Have you tried it?”

I got complacent.

Start the meeting! The meeting happens inside my mind.

“Emergency! emergency!”

The strategy room is bright red. It has a circular table where four people sit. On that table is one big button. The one who yells ‘emergency’ enters the room.

“Sir! This is code red. What do we do?”

A panicking person enters the room. One of the four knocks him out. The knocked-out person looks like a carbon copy of me.

“First. Get rid of the distractions,” says the one who slapped the person earlier. He looks like me, except for his bald head.

“We need to make up a fake story to tell fast!” says an eye-glasses wearing me.

“Tell her we’d love to try it!” says a censored shape.

“This is easy. Just tell the truth!” says a kid me.

He then clicks a button on the middle of the table. A text then pops up above it.

‘Say: They get launched away like rockets.’

“YOU’VE DOOMED US ALL!” the three say, unified.

…

Now, back to reality.

“I’ve tried. Before contact… They get launched away like rockets,” I say.

Is this the best idea my brain could conjure?

“What do you mean?” says Saori.

“I’m not joking. I had to apologize and pay for the hospital bills after. She never made eye contact with me again.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Did you only try once?”

She looks at me. Her body was moving a little.

“I tried a couple of different times….”

“And?”

“I’m like a space program that way.”

A slight sound escapes her lips. Her hands went to cover them.

“Three… Two… One…”

It was futile.

I hear one of the loudest laughs of my life.