After writing her letter to the captain, Key closed the card and put it under the stack of letters she made for the team.
She cleaned everything she used, leaving the letters on her bed as she picked up the other papers and put the other things inside the box.
After tidying up her room, she stared at the stack of letters and another dilemma entered her train of thought.
"How will I give these to them?"
Writing the apology is one thing, but giving it…
Key didn't exactly think about it while she was writing the letters.
She sat on the side of the bed, putting her elbow and arm on the bed while staring at the stack of letters as if they'd just suddenly go poof and appear on the hands of the members of JLNC.
If only an immortal like Key had such ability, but no, she doesn't so she have to think of how she's hand her apology letter to them.
All that thinking made Key fall asleep, and by the time the JLNC members arrived, Keychantel was already in deep sleep to notice.
Key had been traveling, for this reason, as there were times that she feel drowsy in the middle of the day or fall asleep without her noticing, Key ventured to various countries, and crossed all the time zones in search of a country where she can fall asleep and wake up normally.
She is immortal, she spent her life in constant challenges, suffering, running, hiding, and conflict so normally, she'd come to a point where she'll start yearning for peace and rest. Trivial things, as they used to call them.
"Oh, where's Key?" Quant immediately asked as soon as they arrived
"Did she go out?" Opal asked
"We just saw the other team leave so she's not there," Dewy said
"Did she go to Veganca?" Dewy asked and they exchange glances
"She's here," Rasheed said
"Yeah, unless Key had other shoes with her that's why her black converse and white sneakers are there," El pointed out and Rasheed nodded
"Maybe she just fell asleep," Rio speculated and looked around
"Nico, go wake her up, let's eat lunch," Bright told Rasheed who headed up the stairs
While Rasheed headed upstairs, the rest conversed about how the recent game went. El, Dewy, and Bright are saying their thoughts on the current game, they decided to let Rio play in the recent matches so he can get used to the feeling of playing in the line-up, while El is having fun watching and analyzing the matches.
"You might suddenly quit and come back as a game analyst, don't even think about it, El." Rio kidded and El chuckled before shaking his head
"No, I like analyzing matches but that's to learn and improve my gaming skills," El replied
"That's a good idea," Bright commented
"Alright, but let's pretend that's not what Bright said before he was promoted as a coach!" Dewy teased and tapped Bright's shoulder
"Well, I want to make way for the new players, Dewy," Bright replied while shaking his head
Meanwhile, Rasheed had grown impatient in knocking on Key's door because he didn't receive any response so he opened the door and found her asleep while seated on the side of her bed, with only her head and her arm on the bed.
He approached her and couldn't help but massage his temples when he saw the blinking earphones on her ears.
No wonder Keychantel wasn't woken up by his knocks, she was wearing earphones that probably have a great noise-canceling feature.
He was about to remove her earphone when he noticed the stack of letters on her bed, he saw their team's name on the cover so he took it instead and opened the letter.
He read it and looked at Key's sleeping image after reading the first line of her apology letter, he continued reading and shook his head after reading the letter.
He noticed that she made an apology letter to everyone on the team, except him, which made his brow furrow for a bit before he sighed and knelt to remove her earphone just she opened her eyes, and he noticed something different about how her eyes looked.
Key felt someone else's presence when her system woke up from her deep slumber but she didn't open her eyes and waited for that person's movements, she can recognize the present as their Captain's so she didn't open her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
When she felt his skin touch the skin on her ears when he took her earphone, she unconsciously opened her eyes and a wave of nostalgia hit her.
"Captain," she sat up, her whole system on full alert because of the sudden sense of nostalgia
"You're awake, let's go," Rasheed said and stood up
"You can give them these now," he said and handed out the stack of letters to her
"Get yours," Key said and Rasheed stared at her
"Oh, here's yours," Key said when she realized that her letter for Rasheed fell on her lap and it's no longer on the stack that Rasheed is holding
She handed him the letter and stood up, he accepted the letter and gave her the stack of apology letters for the rest of the team.
He left and Key sat down on the bed, pondering if she should go out or not but she's not a coward, so she stood up and marched out but then embarrassment came over her and she ended up running back to her room just as she was about to step on the stairs.
"You're just going to walk down the stairs, Colie." She scolded herself with her birth name in Spanish
Rasheed went to his room to put the letter Key gave him inside his drawer, and when he went out, he saw her marching out of her room and running back in before stepping on the stairs.
The side of his lip rose before he shook his head and went to walk in front of her door, there he heard her speaking in another language, but that wasn't anything new to him anymore as they are all used to her speaking in another language from time to time.
"They're waiting," Rasheed said and stopped in front of her open door
"Oh, alright," Key said sheepishly, almost mentally scolding herself for the stupid things she had just done that Rasheed most likely have seen
They descended the stairs and halfway down, Key stopped in her tracks after hearing them laughing and having fun downstairs, she felt nervous all of a sudden and she couldn't move.
She hasn't felt this sensation for a very long time, as she had been confident in everything she does after living for a couple of hundred years, so her mind has gone haywire.
"What's wrong?" Rasheed asked and held her arm, which are hiding the stack of letters behind her
"Nothing," she shook her head after flinching a little and mustered her courage to continue walking
"Oh, they're here," El, who was facing the stairs, said when he saw them arrive
"What took you so long?" Bright asked and Key unconsciously held on to the stack of apology letters that she's hiding behind her a little tighter
"She fell asleep with her earphones on," Rasheed said and Key smiled embarrassedly
"Let's go eat lunch," Dewy said with a smile
"Uh," Key was about to say something but nervousness crept up to her
"Are you going to apologize?" Rasheed asked her and Key slowly nodded her head
"Is this about the issue with the Dominant Rooks? It's fine now, isn't it?" Alexei asked her
"Yeah, don't worry about it, they really are annoying." Quant agreed and Key shook her head
"I'm sorry," Key said
"I… uh… I didn't see where I was wrong and I… thought…" Key's grip on the letter was loosened because her hand grew cold as nervousness slowly took over her system
Rasheed walked past her, pulling the letter she made for the whole team along, which made Key's grip on the other letters loosen, because of this the other apology letters were scattered on the tiled floor Key's eyes widened as she looked at Rasheed in disbelief.
"I'm sorry," she tried to pick the letters but the other members beat her to it after they saw their names
"She made an apology letter for all of you," Rasheed said
"You didn't have to, it's alright," Opal said and Key gave him a small smile before shaking her head
"Words that I say might not end up as sincere as an apology should be… so… I wrote those without filter…" Key explained while fidgeting her fingers in one hand
"We forgive you, Key," Bright said and Key smiled
"Thank you," Key replied
"Wow, this is probably the first letter I've ever received," Quant said while holding the letter with the calligraphy of his name
"Oh, I've received a lot since before so I'm not very flattered," Alexei commented while grinning
"But yeah, there's no need to apologize, Key, just don't do it again," Alexei added and smiled
"I won't, I promise," Key said and blinked her eyes to remove the tear that was forming
"Thank you, everyone," Key said with a genuine smile on her lips