Yellow Fever (sorry)

“I think we’re to the point where I should ask where we’re going.” I pointed out. We’d been driving for a while at this point. Too long to be going to Vocx, and we both lived at the apartment complex.

“I’m surprised you didn’t ask earlier, really. I never even planned on not telling you when you asked, but now we’re so close it’s more fun to have it be a surprise.” Hana snickered.

We didn’t drive for too much longer. Soon, she was turning into a huge building. The Lovus Museum?

“I wasn’t lying to Ava; I really am bringing you to accompany me to the museum.”

“Uh… why?” I looked up at the tall building. It was a more modern style building, rather than the stereotypical museum-look. Very modern and artsy, with random spires angling out at different angles. If you shrunk the building down and picked it up, it seemed like it would hurt your hand.

What a terrible way to describe a building….

“I have school shit to do, and I didn’t want to do it alone.” She shrugged.

“Why not invite Ava?”

“Don’t poke holes in my plan, you’re ruining the fun.”

“So… this isn’t just a museum trip?”

“Just shut up and enjoy the ride, bud.” She grabbed one of those tickets for her car because museums are assholes who make you pay to park (even though you’re already going to pay to go inside).

We entered the building. A bored-looking, ugly guy was working the counter. As we approached, suddenly Hana held my arm and leaned into me, looking up with a big smile and adoring eyes. What?

Before I could ask her what she was doing, the guy at the counter audibly sighed because doing his job was apparently that terrible. “Two tickets will be fifty dollars.”

Hana nudged me. I looked down at her and she directed me to the counter with her eyes.

“What?! I’m paying!? I don’t even want to be here!”

Hana gave me big, sad doe eyes. “Baaaaabe…! You’re going to make me pay for a date?” Her voice sounded… dumber, like she was trying to sound like a bimbo. “Not very manly of you!”

“But this isn’t-“

“Isn’t what? Are you trying to act like this isn’t our six month anniversary?! Baaaaabe!” Hana genuinely looked like she was tearing up.

“Dick move, bro.” The tired worker piped in.

Before I could tell him to fuck off and stay out of this imaginary love-life Hana had come up with, Hana actually started crying. Like, real tears.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry… babe.” I took my wallet out and gave the worker most of my life savings.

“You should get yourself a real man, girl.” The dude said snarkily as he handed her the tickets. He even winked.

My eye twitched. A rage quickly bubbled over me, and I snapped at the dude. “Shut the hell up, you pimply-faced fuck.” I grabbed Hana around the waste and pulled her close. Hana yelped a bit, but giggled girlishly.

“You should go into acting.” I said dryly.

“I actually did consider, but I thought I could use the skills in better places.” Hana continued giggling.

“What, like free museum tickets from the man whose life is in your hands?”

“Hey, you didn’t do too bad yourself. I really thought you got pissed and all overprotective over me there… baaaaabe.” She made herself laugh again after redoing the dumb voice.

Why did I get so defensive at the end there? This bitch was unironically evil. Like, a villainous mastermind. She put a bomb in me! Also, I had a girlfriend. Also, I had a… uh… ghost… friend…?

We arrived at the security gate. Hana pried herself off of me as the guard instructed her through the metal detector.

Then the guard motioned me to pass through. Suddenly, a loud ring went off.

“Sir, do you have anything metal in your pockets?” He asked casually. He clearly didn’t think anything of it, likely having false calls dozens of times a day.

“I… uh, no….” I patted my pockets when it clicked; the bomb. I looked at Hana, and I saw she realized the same thing. I kept patting my pockets as though I was looking for something to give myself time to make some bullshit up.

Before I could, Hana saved the day with some more Oscar-worthy acting. “Oh, I’m sorry, Mister! He got in a wreck and had a surgery, and now babe’s got a metal rod in his back! He can still go in, right?!” Again, she sounded genuinely panicked and her eyes began to well-up. In my opinion, she was hamming it up a bit.

Luckily, the older security guard clearly didn’t want to bother with the pretty lady crying. “Oh, no, no; it’s okay, ma’am.”

I got passed and Hana clung to my arm again until we rounds the corner. “God, men are so easy to trick. One tear and you are all butter in the hands of the opposite sex.”

I couldn’t disagree, admittedly, but I still didn’t like that she’d cracked the code.

Hana led me around the museum. She must have come often, because she navigated through sections without a second glance at any of the signs.

Eventually, we ended up in a section describing the… what?!

“‘Yellow fever’?!” I asked.

“What of it?” Hana asked, acting casually.

“Don’t fuck with me, I know you know.”

“Wooow, racist much?” She covered her mouth in faux-surprise.

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up, you know what I mean.”

She giggled. The sign really did say Yellow Fever. Was this all an elaborate bit to have me seem like I took an Asian woman on a date to a Yellow Fever exhibit?

“You must be new to Lovus, huh?” She pointed out when she stopped giggling.

I nodded.

“Yeah, this was a big deal a couple years back. A company tried to compete with Vocx and began developing an affordable medicine to treat asthma. Basically, whatever concoction they’d made up was wonky, and it gave thousands of people this horrible fever that killed about 70% of the people on the medication.” Hana explained, sauntering through the display as it explained the same thing she did, but with much more detail.

“Shit. How did they not notice the fuck-up in the testing phase or whatever?”

“Oh, that’s the part that won’t be here. Vocx got some moles in the company and sabotaged the product right before it was sent out. What better way to eliminate competition, right? Have them kill a shit-ton of people. Vocx won.”

“What the fuck?!”

“Yeah, I know; like, I get the medicine gave the skin a yellow-ish tone, but who’s the comedian who named it ‘Yellow Fever’? Why not, like, Simpson-itis or something?” Hana continued casually.

“I feel like we’re glossing over the bigger picture here.”

-

Chapter 50 :)

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