Chapter 75: Morning Face, Milk, And Netflix On Harolin’s Phone!
Ruaan opened his eyes the next morning.
He blinked at the ceiling twice and then tried to move, and his entire body filed a formal complaint in every direction simultaneously.
He groaned, pressing his teeth together.
A hand touched the back of his head, and he flinched.
"Rest," Harolin said to him with that thick morning voice, his face not too far from his.
’Wow, he’s so hot. Wait... He’s still here?’
Ruaan thought as he refused to rest, just like Harolin had instructed. He turned over slowly, with the energy of someone negotiating with their own muscles, and found Harolin lying beside him, looking completely fine. More than fine.
He was looking better than last night. With his eyes clear, his skin doing whatever skin did when a person had no physical complaints whatsoever.
Ruaan stared at him.
"Why do you look like that?" Ruaan said.
"Like what?"
"Like a person. Like a normal functional person. After everything that last night, and I’m like the wrecked one."
Harolin kissed his forehead. "Isn’t that how it worked?"
Ruaan had several responses to that and chose none of them. He tried to sit up.
Harolin’s hand pressed his head back down into the pillow.
"Sleep more."
"I need to eat breakfast. Especially since I passed out after the fifth..." Ruaan stopped. "Five times. You did that to me five times."
"You passed out after the fifth," Harolin said, like he was recounting something mildly interesting. "So technically it was five and a half."
"That’s even worse." Ruaan pulled the pillow over his face. Then pulled it off again because breathing was important. "I’m not a machine. I’m a person."
"I know," Harolin said.
"You don’t act like you know."
Harolin got off the bed.
Ruaan watched him from the horizontal position of someone who had been informed by their body that vertical was not yet available. Harolin moved around the room collecting his uniform wherever he had dropped it last night, like someone whose body had received no complaints this morning.
Ruaan watched him button his shirt.
Then he watched him notice his watch and look at it, and his expression did something.
He answered on the watch. "I’ll be there in a minute." He disconnected.
The notification displayed ten missed calls on the phone in front of Ruaan.
Ruaan blushed as he lifted his head to look at him. He realised that Harolin had stayed till this time, waiting for him to wake up. He remembered the last time Harolin had left before he woke up. But it was different this time. His face reddened even more as he thought of it.
"You stayed because of me."
Harolin looked at the mirror, adjusting his collar. "If I say yes, are you going to spread your legs for me again?"
Ruaan pressed his lips together very hard.
"Go to your meeting," Ruaan said. "I need to eat breakfast."
"Already handled." Harolin walked to the small table on the other side of the room and came back with a tray. He set it on the bed in front of Ruaan. Covered plates. A glass of milk. Fruit cut into small pieces.
Ruaan looked at it and looked at Harolin.
He pulled one cover off, reached in, touched the contents and put his finger in his mouth.
He moaned as he raised his brows.
"This is really good," he said. "But why is there milk?"
"It’s for strength," Harolin said simply. He pulled the chair close to the bed and sat down to put his shoes on.
"Strength," Ruaan repeated.
"You passed out after five. I’d like you to be able to manage six." He looked up briefly. "The milk will help with that."
"What? You’re a monster. Why should I be able to manage six?"
"That’s why the milk is here. It’s for you to catch up to this monster," Harolin said and winked.
"That’s... shit!"
Ruaan picked up the glass.
He wanted to say something about that. He had several things he wanted to say about that. He drank the milk instead because he was hungry and his body was actively in favour of anything that would help it recover from last night.
"Have you seen Seo?" Harolin asked. Still on his shoes. Not looking up.
Ruaan lowered the glass as he remembered the situation he had had with Seo the other day.
"You know he’s interested in you," Ruaan said.
"Yes." Harolin finished the shoe and moved to the next one. His expression was completely unbothered. The expression of someone who had filed the information and decided what to do with it.
"And Lev," Ruaan said.
Harolin looked up.
"He’ll do anything to have you for himself just to hurt me. He’s done it before, and trust me, he won’t hesitate to do it here," Ruaan said. "Taking people from me. Partners. Friends. He finds out what they’re not getting from me and offers it. He’s good at it." He put the milk down. "He’ll try to get between us. He might even try to frame me for something I didn’t do."
Harolin reached over and took his hand.
"I won’t believe him," Harolin said.
Ruaan looked at him.
Harolin held his gaze and said nothing else. Like the three words were complete.
Ruaan exhaled and smiled at his tray.
"What about Seo?" Ruaan said. "Did you talk to him?"
"Not yet. I have nothing to say to him."
"He threatened to get himself and me into the bottom ten together." Ruaan started eating properly. "I heard it myself. He called someone and asked them to rig the game. I don’t know who he called."
Harolin looked at him.
"I know who he called," Harolin said.
Ruaan looked up.
"I’ll deal with it," Harolin said. "What you need to know is that Seo is the director’s son. He has access here that other prisoners don’t. He’s not what he presents."
Ruaan stared at him. "The director’s son is in a grey uniform in this facility."
"Apparently by choice."
"That’s insane."
"I know." Harolin stood. He smoothed his uniform down and put on his jacket. "I’ve also heard things from other officers. About Seo’s history. His behaviour patterns." He paused. "The hunters might not only be here for whoever they were paid to find. There’s a possibility Seo is connected."
Ruaan put his fork down.
"You think Seo could be in danger?" Ruaan said.
"I think the situation is more complicated than it looks." Harolin picked up his cap. "Which is why you should be careful around him. Not cruel in a way that he suspects something. Just be careful."
Ruaan nodded slowly.
Harolin walked back to the bed.
He looked at Ruaan’s mouth. At the small trace of milk in the corner.
He leaned down and kissed it off.
Ruaan went completely still.
"I’ll be back by evening," Harolin said against his lips. "Tomorrow is pool day. Rest today."
He straightened and walked out.
The door closed.
Ruaan sat in the sudden quiet of the room with a fork in one hand, and the other hand pressed flat to his own face and stayed like that for approximately ten seconds.
Then he picked his fork back up and kept eating.
He was halfway through the fruit when he noticed the phone on the bed.
Exactly where it had been when he read the notification. The screen was dark, but it wasn’t locked, apparently, because Harolin had been using it while he slept.
Ruaan looked at the door and looked at the phone.
He picked it up. The screen opened without a passcode. He stared at it for a long moment.
He looked at the door again, hoping Harolin wouldn’t come back to get the phone.
He pushed the breakfast tray gently to the side and got the phone propped against the bedframe at the right angle and opened the app store.
He found Netflix. He opened it and saw that the subscription had expired.
He bit his lip. Looked at the payment screen. It asked for a password.
He typed 0000, and it worked.
Ruaan sat up straighter with the specific pride of a man who had correctly guessed a password and was going to enjoy every second of that victory. He completed the payment with the card on file and went straight to the anime section and found something he had been meaning to watch for three months.
He pulled the fruit bowl back toward him, settled against the pillows and pressed play.
"This," he said to himself, very quietly, "is perfect."
.
.
In the meeting room two corridors and one building away, Harolin’s watch vibrated.
He was mid-sentence to the assembled officers about the investigation and the pool day decision, and he glanced at the screen.
A notification about... payment processed.
Netflix subscription from his account. He stopped mid-sentence.
He covered his mouth with one hand and looked at the documents in front of him.
The officer across the table asked if everything was alright.
Harolin looked at the notification again. The timestamp. Nine minutes ago. Which was exactly when he had left Ruaan alone in his room with his phone on the bed.
He pressed his lips together very hard.
"Everything is fine," he said. His voice was completely steady except for the very small thing happening in his chest, which was apparently what happiness felt like when it arrived at an inconvenient moment.
He put the watch face down.
"That brat," he said under his breath, and went back to the meeting.
