After the operation, Charles and Justin let the others go home as they would take over from there.
On that point, Ralph stopped by to a fast food restaurant to order some food, Tristan was sitting on the Moped while waiting for him in a daze, Ryan was with them tagging along using a skateboard, he noticed that Tristan was in a deep thought, and didn't bother to ask him about what his thinking.
Soon Tristan's phone suddenly vibrated, he quickly pulled it out to check, but...
Sender: Luna Lumineux
Subject: Did you get to work fine?
What was that text? Is she worried or something. Tristan thought, they weren't really friends, they just happened to be neighbours in both classroom and apartments, aside from that, he didn't have any other connection to the girl.
He decided to reply with simple message
"Yeah, no problem"
After pressing send, another text came in
I see, that's good. If you finished your work, you should go home soon, it's dangerous at night.
"Are you my mother?" Tristan muttered, then typed in his reply.
T: Sure... I'm on my way home, just picking up some dinner
A second later another text came, this time Tristan was certain, the girl was not actually studying, she was passing time by talking to him.
L: Really? Ah~ ah, I got hungry all of a sudden
T: I thought you were studying?
L: I'm on break~ ;p
"This girl..."
Deciding to ignore her now, Tristan put back his phone on his pocket.
"Who was that just now?" Ryan asked.
"A classmate"
"Heeeh~ what did you talk about?"
"She just texted me some random stuff"
"I see, so she was trying to socialize with you"
Tristan cocked his head, to be honest, up until now, aside from his sister, and the female members of DESTINY, he never had a proper conversation with a girl.
Counting Mae on the list was probably out of the question as she was bringing contempt of his own classmates with her.
"...Is that how it is?"
"Yeah, you should try and entertain her more, it's not everyday we can talk to someone we don't usually talk with, right?"
"Yes... But small talks a bit..." he wanted to say out of his range, but he didn't finish his sentence.
Sensing some distress on his junior's face, Ryan raised his finger with a troubled look.
"If you have a topic you wanted to talk about, why not just bring it up casually? If both of you find common grounds, you could become friends, right?"
Tristan sighed heavily as he dropped his shoulders, even though he wanted to take Ryan's advice, it just seemed like it wouldn't work, but Tristan gathered the courage to try.
He pulled out his phone and switched it up to the messaging, for a moment he stared on the conversation thread, thinking of what would be a good topic.
At that moment, he felt a light tap on his helmet, appearing beside him was Ralph carrying a paper bag.
"What's up with you? Got some woman problem?"
Feeling that he won't be able to continue the conversation with Luna anymore, he put away his phone.
"If I did, you're the last one I'd talk to about it, so I'm fine-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Ralph slapped his helmet hard enough to jerk his head.
Tristan woke up at the sound of his phone, after he got home last night, he went and tackled on his homework up until he could and just fell asleep on the desk.
Still half asleep, Tristan groaned as he picked up his phone "Who the hell would message me this early...?"
Looking upon the ID of the message, he let out another groan.
From: Luna Lumineux
Subject: Good Morning!
He slumped back on the desk, he looked over the time and it was still Six am, normally, Tristan would intentionally wake up at Seven, go to school at 7:30 and arrived barely on time to spare himself from the angry glares of his classmates.
Being awake from the usual time he should be awake, he was feeling groggy, but since he was already awake, perhaps arriving at school early would be a good change of pace.
Tristan got up from his seat and started preparing his breakfast with a usual bacon and eggs. He turned on the TV, and just as he turned it, the news report featured the arrest of Victor Bateroux, but just like the usual news, the name of DESTINY was never mentioned, Tristan made sure to check the background of the pictures that showed on the news, last time he almost got busted because of a simple picture.
After getting dressed, Tristan looked at himself in the mirror, his bed head looked like hell, since he had time he decided to fix it a little by combing it a little.
Awhile later, he got out of his room and headed for the bus shed. On his way, he noticed a Silver-haired young girl also waiting on the bus shed.
Finally the girl noticed him and greeted him "Oh, Good Morning, Blitz, it's rare to see you so early"
Tristan wanted to ignore her, but he remembered Ryan's words.
If both of you find common grounds, you could become friends, right?
"...change of pace" Tristan replied.
About a minute later, the bus finally arrived, Tristan and Luna got on, Luna closely followed Tristan and sat beside him.
Having no idea why, Tristan just let it slide since it was just on the way to school.
However, the awkward silence between the two was killing Luna, she made a glance at Tristan, and it looked like he wasn't bothered in the least.
She then decided to break the silence. "H-Hey... Did you hear the news earlier?"
"About what?"
"There was an arrest on a Mercenary, right? Uhm, who was it? Vi... Vicky...?"
Luna kept stuttering as if she had forgotten the name, but Tristan decided to correct her before she even got it wrong "Victor Bateroux"
"Yeah, that!" Luna happily pointed at Tristan "I heard that guy was uncatchable, how did you think the police got him?"
"...Who knows? Maybe they prepared a carefully laid out trap"
"Maybe, but the location didn't seem like it was suitable, and it was near our district, right?"
Since when was this girl a strategist? Tristan thought. "Don't know, HCPD isn't the normal police around the world, they're skilled enough to catch anyone"