Excuses

Lad sighed heavily. He stared at Yeong's shrinking form and then looked to Lacie who was scrutinizing the two of them heavily. He could tell quite clearly that her suspicions were mostly trained on the girl, however. The expectations for her were much higher, and it also seemed to imply a string of such suspected incidents in the past.

“I'm sorry, Lacie.” Lad began. Yeong perked up in surprise, as did Kai who was sitting next to her.

“I wanted to show Yeong a party near my old stomping ground to try and get on her good side. I had no idea something this bad could happen.” Kai stared at Lad subtly once he finished talking. Lacie seemed to be in thought.

“We couldn't have expected something like this to happen. We do need to regulate how and when you all leave the facility now, okay?” Lacie broached for more gently than when she had began, considering Lad was the main culprit.

Stephan chimed in. “No leaving without security detail. No leaving without someone who has clearance knowing the destinations and the time frames involved in the trip.” He leaned back in his chair, tented his fingers and rested his gaze on a noticeably annoyed Yeong.

“I think this is more than reasonable. Unless some of you have some reason you would want to hide where you are going, it should not be an issue.” He passed a glance across the room from Janna and Joseph to Lad, Kai and Yeong.

“We're clear?”

“Yes.” Everyone agreed, some more reluctantly than others.

-

“You covered for me.” Yeong commented outside. Kai walked between them and glared at Yeong.

“Not just him.” She held up her HanCom and showed a projection of the two of them getting into a car outside.

“I scrubbed this one, as usual, but you need to tell ME what actually happened, got it?”

“Wait, Kai has been covering for you?” Lad asked.

“Of course. We live in a surveillance state and WE are basically the state. You think ChesAn wouldn't know where all of us were going at all times if I didn't fix things a bit?”

Yeong clicked her tongue. “Sorry, Kai. It was weird, I went out with Sebek and Lad tagged along. He took us to an Orc house party-”

Kai stopped him by holding out her hand, lowered her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“I'm not covering for you to go do obviously stupid stuff, Yeong.”

“It's not stupid, it was just unlucky.” She argued.

“Was it? It was a targeted attack.”

“They found us somehow, it's not that weird.”

Kai looked to Lad. When prompted, he added his piece. “I... Have to admit, Yeong, you were really really dumb.” The girl gasped and looked shocked. Her mouth fell agape at the accusation.

“The hell do you mean? Going to a party with someone I like?”

“No.” Lad reasoned out loud. He counted off on one hand as he spoke.

“First, I didn't know you never tell anyone where you're going ever, and even have Kai scrub where you're going and when you leave. Second, you went to a party where you literally don't know ANYONE else? Lastly, you took a drink that you had no idea what was in it or who poured it and just drank it on the spot.”

Kai's eyes widened. “W-what the fuck? How dumb are you?” She asked accusingly.

Yeong blushed deeply. The girl crossed her arms. “I'm not stupid! How could I have guessed that this would happen? It's a freak incident. It's not like girls can just randomly get assaulted at parties like that all the time.”

Kai and Lad exchanged a look of disbelief. “Is she...” Lad asked, leaning over to Kai. Kai whispered back.

“From what I understand, she became a girl recently... Like, close to when she came back from that other reality she suddenly started presenting Female and getting all the stuff done to be a girl. Which itself is fine...” Kai seemed particularly sentimental to that chain of events.

“So she has literally no clue?” Lad uttered in exasperation.

“I don't think so. Why do you have a clue, though?”

Lad glanced away out of embarrassment. “I... Had a lot of issues with people 'wanting me' really bad when I was down there. I had to learn.” Kai looked to him sympathetically and rubbed his shoulder gently. Lad offered a weak smile in return.

“I can 'read' what you're saying through body language, idiots. Stop trying to talk behind my back.”

“YOU are an idiot! That Orc obviously **** you and you still wanna go out with him again!” Kai exclaimed.

“The only question is... Is it related to the attack?”

“No.” Yeong rolled her eyes.

“Lacie's assistant, the Jackal, vetted all those secondary candidates. That's how I knew he was safe, even in this world. He's clean. What probably happened was, he picked up a drink that someone spiked and gave it to me without knowing. It was part of their plan and had nothing to do with him. He was distracted by something so it makes sense.”

“Moms assistant...” Kai tapped her chin in thought.

“Wait, what did you say the attacker looked like?”

“I couldn't see.” Yeong admitted. Shame seeped into her confidence from before. Even if she did not take full responsibility, it was clear even to her that she got caught out.

Lad raised his hand. “She... Had bronzish skin and a muscular build. Her voice was kind of harsh and she spoke aggressively. Still, it was a bit familiar if not for the tone. The other one was just a pale girl that was very standoffish. She would be super obvious due to her skin tone and hair in a crowd so it barely even requires a description.”

Kai looked through her HanCom. “But most Jackal's have a similar look, right?” She pulled up a staff photo of a Jackal with bronze skin and dark hair. She was smiling in the shot, even though she was technically not supposed to.

“This is Miss. E. My mom's assistant.” Kai mentioned.

“It's... Close, but really hard to tell without the mask. I'd be lying if I said I could tell one apart from just their mouth. Also, it's hard when I can't see her build. If she was very muscular and I could see her body I think it would be more obvious.”

“I've seen this chick around Lacie during checkups with the suit. I think that if someone was gonna attack us, it would be someone on the inside, right?”

“I think you might just be covering for your lover boy.”

Lad had to admit, that sounded like a distinct possibility. He did not trust Sebek at all, but there was a clear possibility of a mole and the assistant fit the description, even if it was just a bit speciesist to assume she and the attacker were the same based off their skin-tone and ears.

“It's obviously the assistant! I'm not just mindlessly defending a guy I like, I wouldn't do that.” Yeong argued. She turned to Lad and took his hand. Her cheeks flushed as she stared at him with a cute, embarrassed expression before kissing him on the cheek.

“Thanks for covering for me, by the way.” She leaned back and became slightly annoyed at her own actions, or him, it was hard to tell. Her face was still red as she added.

“This doesn't mean I 'like' you. It's just a reward for helping me out back at the party, and at the meeting. If you wanna help me even more, we should clear Sebek's name by investigating this 'Miss. E.'”

Kai took Lad's hand as well and budged Yeong away with her shoulder. “Lad, don't listen to her. I wanna help either way but Sebek is obviously bad news and I can tell that you know that just as well as I do. We'll work together to investigate him.” She looked to Yeong after and conceded.

“Then we'll investigate the possibility of my Mom's assistant being evil or whatever if that somehow turns up nothing.”

***

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