During the whole dinner, Yana didn't speak with Luka. Instead, her eyes were glued to the TV while Luka shovelled more food onto her plate, Yana silently accepted. Luka didn't know if she noticed or not but he was already content with being next to her, he didn't want to push her further this time.
After the dinner, Luka tried to appear as pitiful as possible to melt Yana's icy heart but in the end, he was still shooed away by her and had to very aggrieved, go back to his apartment. He could only comfort himself with the thought that Yana lived right next to him. Closer than she's ever been.
On the other side, Yana was exasperated and started to overthink. Even slight panic caused waves of ripples to pollute her heart. There must be a reason why Luka suddenly moved next to her. Was it to keep an eye on her? Note her daily activities? Worse was if he trailed her when she went out at night to collect clues.
It was horrible. For Luka to stay here and to once again catch her off guard, to cause her calmness to be shaken apart like she was in an earthquake, to have him strike her like thunder growling in an endless black night, Yana had no idea what to do. She just wanted to get out of his way but of course, Luka didn't want that. Luka had his own goal for him to stick so close to her.
Yana wanted to rip out her hair for him swallow, so he could cough up her presence and form it out of her hair strands that hopefully double inside his stomach.
Yana took a deep breath and grabbed her phone. Then she hesitated, she always seemed to go and rely on Roy. She knew how bad it was but at this point, she had no other choice.
If only he gave her part of the money to manage like everyone else, then she wouldn't need to bother him all the time! Although there was plenty of money in Yana's bank account that could put a successful lawyer's annual income to shame, it was still not enough to get by in an A-tier city like City A or M.
Especially when Yana needed the money to make decisions to rent a place or bribe someone or anything spontaneous. For that, she needed at least a million! With that thought, Yana wanted to call Roy and complain. She was also working for the EF and did important missions as he said. So how come the captains get more money to use than her?
Roy was too stingy. It wasn't as if the EF didn't have enough money to sponsor her but Roy made her out to be a reckless spender, which she wasn't. Yana knew very well how to take care of money.
As the phone was dialling, even Yana thought she was acting childish now. She quickly swallowed down her anger and wanted to approach the matter more civilised but then the "Hello?" caught her off guard.
It wasn't Roy's voice. It was that of a female, mature yet warm and friendly.
"Pama!" Yana instantly beamed. She hasn't talked to Pama for so long. Out of everyone, Pama was like a big sister not only to Yana but everyone else as well. She had that cosy and comfortable feeling that made people want to depend on her.
"Yana? It's good to hear you," Pama's soothing voice was a stark contrast to the busy and loud background.
"I've missed you!" Yana sounded like a little child that wanted to be coaxed by her parents, "But it seems like you're busy, did I call the wrong number?"
Yana looked at her phone but it was indeed Roy's contact.
"No haha," Pama laughed, "Roy's busy, so I picked up for him. He's somewhere outside. Right now, I'm taking care of some patients. Speaking of that, I hope you're properly following the diet I gave you. No unhealthy habits right?"
Pama was a medic in the EF, a so-to-say healer every combat group needed. One of the best and rare ones. She was also the one who slowly but surely pried Yana's iron claws away from her glutton tendencies.
"I did. I did," Yana quickly agreed, sweating just thinking about the consequences if she didn't. Even if Pama was heartwarming, when she got serious, she could be very scary.
"Good. What did do you call Roy for? I relay it to him."
"It's fine, I'll call back."
"No," Pama's voice was determined as if she could predict the future, "There might not be a chance for a while. We're really in a tight spot."
"Oh," Yana heard the noises coming from Pama's side and suddenly felt like her problem was small.
"I wanted to move from my current place?"
"Why?"
Yana remained silent for a few seconds before telling Pama that she ran into an unexpected encounter that could ruin the mission.
"Yana," Pama sounded rushed. She must be taking care of the wounded soldiers while talking to Yana, "The apartment's in a perfect location. Stay there. Don't forget that you have to be able to improvise and adjust to any unforeseen variables. You need to manage it. You have to grow more mature and not be fazed by something like this."
Pama was right. Something like this shouldn't pose a problem to Yana. She just needed to recalculate her plan with the new variable but the problem was that Yana did it last time and the results were horrendous even if it was salvaged at the end.
"I get it but I don't mind if it's someone else. It just had to be him," Yana mumbled and pouted.
"What do you mean?" Pama was confused. Yana didn't tell her about Luka, only mentioned him as someone and Pama didn't know about Luka and Yana's connection from the past.
"It's nothing. Thanks for the advice. I'll hang up and won't bother you again. Good luck with the operation," Yana threw her phone on the sofa while she laid down.
What a huge pain in the ass. As if Yana didn't have enough problems. First, she still didn't have any leads and then Luka had to barge in and make everything complicated!
She needed to be wary of him and hopefully find out what this agenda was. Yana looked at the time, it was already 10 pm. She was too exhausted to go out tonight and she didn't want to be suspicious on the first day when Luka came to be her neighbour.
If he saw her sneaking out in the middle of the night. There ought to be some problems.