Hugo was whistling while tossing and catching a baseball ball in the air.
"I’m... bored," he sighed for the umpteenth time this morning. He snapped his eyes at the bed beside him, his face twisting. "How come he still hasn’t woken up? As far as I remember, he was shot in the back and not in the head."
He shook his head, thinking about how he willingly volunteered to stay with the guy. Who would have thought it would take this long?!
"If you’re going to die, just do it." He waved his hand dismissively. "If not, then just wake up."
It wasn’t like Hugo had been here all this time — he was here most of the time, but that didn’t mean he didn’t leave the guy. There were times Hugo had to go here and there, sneaking out carefully because he was still a patient.
"My sister’s reunion is today," he grumbled, tempted to throw the ball at the comatose patient. "I want to go in there and reminisce all the good days in the past with his sister. Everyone on the basketball team would be there, so it would’ve been nice."
Hugo shook his head mildly, sighing for the umpteenth time. "Should I just leave this behind?"
Hugo pondered about it until he felt a vibration on his side. Glancing at it, he picked up his ever-boring phone and checked which of the very few frequent callers it was this time.
"It’s First Brother," he muttered in surprise. "What does he want this time?"
Hugo answered without a second hesitation, only to hear Atlas say, "Help me."
*
*
*
"Help me," Atlas breathed out, holding his phone still while staring at the person standing several steps across from his desk. His expression was pale and hard, his eyes shining lifelessly and with utter disinterest.
There, standing several feet from him, was Slater.
Slater was holding a purple shirt with Penny’s face printed in small size plastered all over it. His mouth was stretched from ear to ear until his eyes were squinting. When he flipped the shirt, revealing its back, there was a gigantic lettering on the back:
[I love Penny.]
"What do you think, First Brother?" Slater wiggled his brows knowingly. "Do you like it?"
"Ahh... Slater, huh? For a second there, I thought it was an emergency," Hugo, who was still connected to the call, laughed while sighing in relief. "Is he asking you to come with him? But you were a member of the fan club! We are there — I mean, Dad should be there as well. He and Uncle Haines were also members, aren’t they?"
Everything Hugo said went to Atlas’s ears and then out to the other. All Atlas heard was Hugo’s first sentence. "It is an emergency for me."
"Huh?" Hugo’s face twitched. "First Brother, did you hear everything else I said?"
"I didn’t bother, knowing they were unnecessary information which I’d eventually dump."
"Come on..."
"Go with him." Atlas snapped his eyes and looked away from Slater. "I’m not going. I’m busy."
"..." Atlas thought about it for a second, looking up, wondering what memories he could remember from this fan club.
All he could remember was... using the fan club website to reject all the admirers who were trying to confess their love to him. It helped him for a while, but then, those who were confessing to him were already a fan as if they had heard his antics.
"I still can’t think of anything else why I should come," Atlas expressed, snapping his eyes back to Slater. "Give me one good reason. Just one."
"I need to drag Penny to that event."
"Huh?"
Slater huffed. "Do you know Lily?"
"What about her?"
"She suspects that Penny would concoct an evil plan just not to attend the reunion," Slater expressed with determination. "So, she asked me to make sure she comes no matter what!"
Atlas thought about it for a while, nodding. "Well, that’s not a bad reason at all."
****
Meanwhile, outside Atlas’s office, Allen was walking quietly toward it as he thought of dropping by to see Atlas before his official return to the office. But before he could reach Atlas’s office, he noticed that his office door was wide open.
"He hates it when it’s open," he murmured to himself, smiling as he snapped his eyes at the office. He reached out for the door and closed it, just like usual.
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