~He's him~
Tomorrow was the deadline for the innovation competition, so there was no time to waste. Evelyne, Bryan, Bridget, Felix and Rainier were staying at the university from the end of their classes. There were things that still needed to be finished before the deadline came.
Bryan and Bridget were busy with the building prototype, checking if it was properly built or not. They were also inputting data to the report that had to be submitted as well.
While Evelyne and Felix were busy with the report at the automation system part. They need to explain the specification of the components used and the reason why they used them.
For Rainier, all he did was calculate all the electric components. The current flow, the power needed, everything needed to be calculated in detail. To make a proper calculation, he needed data from teammates. The problem was, calculating even for a single part took minutes.
"Hey, let's find a good place to stay together before they lock the main gate as well," Bridget said after she looked at her watch in her left hand. It showed nine o'clock, the time when the security used to lock the main gate.
Bridget's warning made everyone look at their watch. "I have no problem with it except I can't buy any food," Felix said, agreed by the whole team.
"Then, let's pack up and someone please check for a good place. It should have at least a private place for us, large enough so no one will break the prototype." Evelyne stood up, tidying her papers.
"A small hotel is enough, right? Or does anyone know a better place? I will check it." Rainier was ready with his phone to find and book a place.
A few seconds of silence felt like hours. Before they spent more time on nothing, Evelyne made a decision. "Just find a hotel near the competition's place. So, it should be around the YY area?"
"Oh great. Okay, will find one right away." Rainier focused on his phone.
"Don't think too much about the price, I'll pay for it. Just make sure it's worth it. We should've stayed there to begin with," added Evelyne as she continued tidying up her papers and the prototype.
After they finished packing things up, they left the university building to the hotel Rainier had booked a few minutes ago using three taxis. Three taxis were necessary since they didn't want to break the prototype they had worked on for weeks. 'Uh… I'm tired,' Evelyne leaned her body to the door side and tried to rest for a bit. While the other members were busy with themselves.
In thirty minutes, they arrived at the hotel. Evelyne paid for the taxi then the five of them entered the hotel and went to the receptionist's table. Rainier confirmed his booking and Evelyne, who stood beside him, was ready to pay the bill.
The other three were looking at Evelyne who paid the bill as if it was nothing. She did it so easily, making the rest of the team feel uneasy. When the process was done, Evelyne made eye contact with them as a sign to go to the room together.
"Eve… Is it really okay? It's a huge amount, right?" Bryan asked, worried if the amount would bother Evelyne.
"No, it's alright. If you are grateful, just do your best for this," answered Evelyne flatly, climbing the stairs, followed by the others.
Spending that much money was completely nothing for Evelyne. She earned enough money from her writing and tutoring job. Moreover, investing that money to maximise the performance for the competition was important. Honestly, she was regretting not doing this earlier.
Their room was on the second floor. When they arrived in front of it, Evelyne opened the door and they could see the room behind it. "Whoaa… This is amazing." Felix's jaw dropped in surprise.
"Alright, let's start with work. Only a few hours left before the deadline!" Evelyne entered the room quickly and dropped her belongings. From her bag, she took out the papers she used to calculate and her laptops to write the report. The other four were doing the same, and the prototype was built.
"Felix, can you check for this motor? Somehow it doesn't work quite well," asked Evelyne to Felix. "Uhm… Rainier, are you sure the input to this site is this much current?" She looked at Rainier.
The three of them then focused on the side Evelyne mentioned, matching all the calculations they made. "But, isn't it weird if the motor worked well yesterday, but now it doesn't?" Asked Felix confused.
Evelyne agreed with Felix, she thought it was weird. "Then, is something happened to the code? Or, maybe the wire?"
Rainier moved his focus from the calculation papers to the prototype. "Let me check with my multimeter. Maybe there's some external problem," said Rainier as he put down the papers and took his tools from his bag on the sofa. With the tools in his hands, Rainier examined the prototype. While Evelyne, she watched the way he did it. From the way he held the tools, Evelyne knew he was an expert, and his focused eyes strengthened her opinion.
'He's indeed Rainier that I know. In the past, he was a smart boy and now he's much better.'
With a little checking, Rainier found the problem. "Oh, here. The current dropped drastically from this point." He showed the measuring result.
"Okay, time to solve it. Thank you."
On the other side, Bridget and Bryan were busy with the report formatting and entering all the calculations from the papers to the report. Since their calculations were done when the building's prototype was finished. Yet tidying a document was so hard. Even moving a small item could destroy everything. To make it worse, typing formulae calculations needed more energy than just typing words.
Four hours passed and they finally finished, including the triple checking. It was two in the morning when normally people were still sleeping peacefully in their rooms. "We finally made it! Thank you, everyone!" Bryan said, satisfied with the result.
"Yeah, thank you. Let's have a good rest for now!" Bridget yawned, tired and sleepy from the hard work she did.
"Thank you, everyone!"
Evelyne looked at the result satisfied. With a yawn, she walked to the corner of the room. Even though she was tired, for some reason she couldn't sleep, so she just sat against the wall, staring at the prototype and the document on her laptop. She then gazed at her teammates who were sleeping on the bed at the other corner.
All of the sudden, a man sat beside her. "You never change. Cannot sleep even though it's late already," said Rainier, the man.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, I think you remember me? You look at me with the same eyes as you did before." Somehow Rainier looked disappointed. "Before, we used to talk about everything. Now, you choose to start everything over."
'So, he noticed me.'