Meliora - Emanate - 23

[lady_mab]

Lionel Darcy

Jun is waiting for me outside of my algebra class, which must have been quite a feat. I don't remember seeing her pink hair in this part of the school ever before.

Her uniform tie is slack, and her pink hair is pulled back into twin buns on either side of her head. Her phone, in a decorated case with several little charms, occupies her attention. But she looks up just as I step through the door, and she smiles in a way that lets me know she is here to see me.

"Hi, Lionel," she chimes, tucking away her phone and falling into step alongside me.

"Hi, Jun. Did you ditch the last few minutes of your class to meet me here?"

"Of course not. We had a lab, and it let out a bit early. I forgot when I saw you last that I wanted to talk to you."

I have only talked to her maybe a total of three times. Why she would want to seek me out makes no sense. "Yeah? Computer problems?"

Her head tilts to the side and she hums. "Sort of. I want to know what you know about the APM's program."

I pull up cold in the middle of the hall. Jun allows herself to be carried away by the tide of students for only a moment before stopping and turning to look back at me. "About what?" I ask, certain that my voice cracked in an attempt to remain inconspicuous.

Jun's smile is small and impish, nothing like the polite girl I had seen standing next to Zoné and Glen. "The app that the Assistant Program Manager asked us to install on their phones. I'm very curious about it. And since you pulled it from Ayumu’s phone, I thought you might have some more information on it."

It takes a bit longer than necessary for my feet to kick back into gear and I have to force myself to catch up with her. "Are you suddenly another computer genius that I'm not aware of?"

"Hardly anything like that." She waves a hand to dismiss the idea. "I... hm." She makes the hum in thought again and mutters something to herself that I can't understand. "I don't really know how to explain it. You have done something that I don't think many other people have, and I want to know if you will be willing to tell me how it works."

Generally, the quickest way to get on my good side is to flatter me. However, when Jun says it, I shake my head to dismiss her claims. "I hardly think I'm the first one to figure this out. I mean, it's not that amazing."

Jun stops me in the middle of the hall, hand resting gently on my arm, and she places herself in my path. Her dark eyes flash under the fluorescent lights. "Please don't sell yourself short, Lionel. There might be people who do the same thing, but they are scared. There is a phrase in Mandarin -- lànhǎorén." The unfamiliar sounds roll off her tongue with ease, and I marvel over how effortlessly she pronounces English as well. Far better than my accent allows. "It means someone who tries to appease everybody. To the point where they do not have the courage to act."

The halls are mostly empty by now, the rest of the students moving off to their after school activities. Lia hasn't come to find me yet, nor has she tried to text me. She's probably off with her friends.

Something that I don't know how to interpret curls up inside of my chest and refuses to budge. "Why are you telling me this?"

She matches my gaze without flinching back. "Glen is my friend too. Zoné is keeping something from me."

He kept it from her this whole time? Far be it from me to concern myself with how other teams manage their affairs, especially when I hardly know them.

"Perhaps you should ask him about it instead. I don't want to get involved." I try to move around her, to put up the normal front of disinterest.

But Jun's hand presses against my chest with more force than I thought possible. I can feel the pressure of her fingers through my wool sweater, tie, and shirt. It's more than just a gesture -- it's a demand. "I am asking you because I don't think you should be that sort of person."

It's a challenge, and my pride doesn't want to allow me to back down from it. And she knows it. I can count the number of times that I've talked to her on one hand.

I lean into her hand, rocking forward on my toes. I want to make her draw back first. "Are you calling me a coward?"

Her head cocks to the side, and she regards me with searching eyes. She doesn't retreat, doesn't show any sign of hesitation. "Yes. Perhaps I am."

When she finally draws her hand away, it feels like she takes my breath along with it. I suck in air through my nose, trying not to visibly gasp. Instead, I narrow my eyes and cross my arms over my chest. It takes a lot to resist the urge to rub the spot she had poked it. "Alright then. Fine. What do you want to know?"

She shrugs, the one gesture during this conversation that doesn't seem loaded with another meaning. "Everything you do."

"And what do you plan on doing with this information?"

"Nothing. I'm no Lady or her Ghost. I admit, I am a bit selfish in my desires, despite encouraging you to not be the same." The hint of a smile flicks across Jun's lips as my eyebrows jump in surprise. "Perhaps I will share it with a friend of mine. He knows people who will know what to do with it."

My thoughts reel, trying to keep abreast of the conversation without looking like I'm confused. I will be put at a disadvantage if she knows I'm not keeping up. "You talk like you're friends with criminals."

Jun laughs, the action so completely innocent -- the way she lifts a hand to cover her mouth, the way she rocks back with mirth. But her hand isn't enough to block that smirk she wears. Nor does it hide the amusement in her eyes. "Now wouldn't that be silly," she says in a way that makes me think it's only illegal if you get caught.

"Alright." I have no choice but to give in. While I'm sure that she would stop if I tell her no, I can't find it in myself to manage that simple word. "I haven’t really had the chance to look into it. I just told Zoné what I was able to figure out I'm surprised he managed to keep his mouth shut long enough to not tell you."

"It's not that. It's probably just that he doesn't think I need to know." She turns on her heel and starts striding down the hall without waiting to see if I follow. Her little pom-pom buns bounce with her footsteps.

"But you want to?" I ask, jogging to catch up with her. I don't know what is making me keep this conversation going. It would be so easy to end it: No. I won't tell you.

"Like I said -- I think I know someone who might benefit from it more than me. He's an Informant." Before I can ask if she means her Informant, and that I seriously doubt Lysander would know what to do with it, she adds, "Not Mr. Stavros. Someone who has more connections."

We continue on for a few paces in silence, emerging through the front doors. Jun leads us to a bench that is a bit out of the way, but still has a good view of the main stairs and quad.

She drops down, and pats the spot next to her. I try not to look around, because there is no reason to be paranoid. ALICE knows whatever it is I know, and they know that I have told a small handful of people already.

One leg bounces as I try to gather my thoughts and find a good starting point for this conversation. I don't know why this feels so much different than when I told my team.

Jun waits with the patience of a saint, not once reaching out or urging me to hurry up.

And then I start to talk. I tell her about how Ayumu approached me with the issue on his phone, how I pulled apart the pieces of the app and my thoughts regarding its abilities. I stare at my phone instead of her, turning the device around in my hands.

I still haven't had the chance to investigate the app on its own. A part of me doesn't want to -- is afraid of what I'll find out ALICE is doing to our phones beyond just hunches.

When I fall silent, she continues to stare out across the quad. She squints against the thin sun poking through the cloud layer, but nothing beyond that. I half expected her to look older, or put off, or some other kind of reaction instead of her thoughtful non-reaction. "There's one more thing..." I start, and this time, she turns to look. "I scripted a proxy for the Informant's messages."

Now that I'm addressing her directly, she allows some confusion to show. "What does that mean?"

My thumb breezes over the screen and I pull up the message from Halloween before showing it to her.

Her gaze scans the scant few lines of text then lifts back to me. "I had my suspicions. That event, back before Ayumu's phone--"

"Yeah. Zoné brought it up to me in class."

She clasps her hands together and then places them between her knees. She returns to stare out across the quad. "Thank you for telling me. Do not worry. I will make sure that nothing is linked back to you, should anything be released."

Jun starts to rise to her feet, but I reach out and catch onto her wrist.

I gulp down the hesitation. "I know you're thinking to not involve me in this because of... my team's situation." It's not until I'm talking with someone about Meliora that I begin to realize just how careless I often am. The problem is I don't know if that is a bad thing or not. "But I don't want to be that... that lanhaoren or whatever."

A smile flickers across her lips, but I think it's more because of my pronunciation than my words. "Then you do with it as you will, Lianel Lions. I do not think it will be such a bad thing if it is known by more than a select handful." She gently removes my hand from her wrist, and pats it gently after she places it into my lap. "I will see you at school tomorrow. Say hello to Liala for me, hm?"

She adjusts the way her backpack rests across her shoulders and moves off without a second glance.

I watch her go, confused as to how she ever managed to become friends with Zoné -- and how she managed to get me to feel so comfortable around her without even trying.