Studio-
The photo shoot went well, making the atmosphere on set light and cheerful. Chase was exhausted after not sleeping for the whole night. Nonetheless, he was waiting for Obi after changing his makeup.
Beep...
Beep...
At first, Chase ignored the vibrating phone but his curiosity gave in. He slid the screen to see the notifications from Mark. His lips formed a thin line as he peeked at Obi talking with the people in the studio who were packing up for the day.
He was about to read the message but Obi outran him.
"Chase, not my phone." Obi was quick to take his phone from the hacker's hands. Despite having the complicated feeling about the incident altogether he didn't change his complexion.
"Chase, are you for real? Don't go unlocking people's mobile phones. I also want privacy, man." Obi whispered, almost losing his calm demeanour.
"Oh!" Chase's expression was unreadable; it almost felt like he was agreeing with Obi whilst mocking him. "Maybe we should leave?" Chase grabbed his bag and started to leave.
Obi followed behind him; he had already spoken with the crew and director which Chase most often disregarded.
"Hey, Chase slow down." Obi pulled the teenager by his collar forcing Chase to walk with his speed. He had always looked down upon passive-aggressive behaviour the most and the fact he didn't get along with Chase didn't help his situation at all. "What are you sulking for?"
"Nothing." Chase's voice was calm as his black eyes looked interested in having conversations.
They went straight to the parking lot. In the whole journey, both of them didn't exchange a word. Obi could sense something was wrong with the silver-haired from all the sighing but he didn't feel like asking. He speeded up the car to get out of the uncomfortable silence faster.
Apartment-
Chase removed his shoes and outer clothes at the entrance. The sound of tv was coming from the living room meaning Bai was there.
Chase met with the sight of Bai looking at the news channel. They were covering an unidentified body found in the forest three hours away from city M.
Chase stood behind biting his lip looking at the news. The body that was found was 5'11, male, age 20-28, race unknown. The news anchor didn't mention the state the body was retrieved but Chase concluded the face must have been unrecognisable for them to decide not to use it to gain TRP.
"Why are you standing like that?" Chase's process of thoughts was interrupted by Bai who changed the channel into some animal thing.
"He's out of it, today," Obi commented while checking his mobile phone for messages from Mark. The social media scandal with Charles Zimin was still ongoing. Charles deleted his remark but it only gave netizens more reason to discuss it. The scandal was affecting neither Chase nor Charles but the film Chase was working on.
Chase left the room after thinking about something, his expression was carefree but there was a glimpse of seriousness in his eyes which was caught by Bai. But he decided not to intervene.
Behind the closed blue walls, Chase sat in his secret computer room roaming through tons of clips of Jason White. The conclusion was Jason White was a 5'11, male, 25-year-old with dyed hair. He was an influencer with quite a large audience. Despite being famous for pulling some weird shit Chase could admit he was a famous guy.
_________
Art gallery, City M.
Country A holds a greater place for art in its heart. It has its style of art which was unique to other countries. The art gallery in City M was proof of it. It holds many invaluable paintings and sculptures.
Kira looked at the paintings curiously but her heart wasn't in there. "You could have brought Ivan." She mumbled in her mouth. But it was clear enough for Charles to pick up due to his exceptional hearing ability. Which he got from listening to the lectures of professors with voices so low that they were barely audible in the front row.
Charles heard all the mumbling without complaining, he needed to survive until Grekov arrives. Firstly he wasn't okay with meeting in public places after the internet scandal today. But JJ convinced him he should act ignorant of the scandal as if nothing ever happened. Charles felt weirded out with the suggestion, the idea of acting ignorant to the elephant present in the room was plain stupid. But so were the people interest in his comment on some musician's video.
"Sorry, for being late." Grekov was huffing, trying to hide he ran to reach here on time. "I went to a crime scene..."
"I was working... the higher-ups called... We all worked in the same department as you George." Kira had experienced George's disrespect for time first hand. But she didn't think she was coming as unreasonable right now.
"But we weren't doing his job were we?" For some unknown reason, her sentence rubbed Charles the wrong way. If not he wouldn't have been making unnecessary conflicts.
Grekov felt the tension their conversation was producing. He now felt the need to ease the tension but he also didn't want to turn on a land mine in the process. "Let's do what we were here for." Grekov pushed a fake smile which was the world's most awkward smile Charles had seen. But Grekov was only capable of this, to ease the tension as nothing great came up in his exhausted mind.
The trio walked to a different art piece in the process.
"By the way why did you guys choose an art gallery for a meeting? Rich second generations." Kira turned to Grekov and Charles for answers. She wasn't inherently wrong this time around.