After looking around the entire building with Yuki, even though Suga clearly could not remember everything, he was now lying restless in bed. The suitcase he was carrying was still lying on the floor, he did not know if he still had the energy to tidy up his clothes now, so Suga thought it would be better for him to sleep to relieve fatigue.
Eyes roaming around at the decoration and the unfamiliar atmosphere, the room was still empty. He sighed, his mind wondering somewhere. Closing his eyes, his tired body should be able to quickly fall into sleep but somehow he could not.
Clicking his tongue, Suga sat down. He decided to read the small notebook Yuki had given him, checking the work schedule for IHPS members. Before giving this book, Yuki told him— 'Don't think too much about the schedule since it often changes, you'll get really big money if you're summoned to do a mission! Even if you don't have any mission, you will still receive a monthly fee.'
Shooting training, sword training, wrestling, hiking, hunting, and academic classes. All of those were pretty normal military work.
Closing the book and placing it on top of the mini cupboard, Suga returned to laying down on the bed. He stared at the ceiling with eyes occasionally blinking, "Should I call Danny now? but I do not know what time it is in California. Let's hope he arrives safely." muttering to himself, a knock on the door made Suga's head spin towards the source.
The knock, turned into banging, Suga straightened his body, the door that was being banged on vibrated. He was uncertain as to who was approaching his room when he was feeling tired like this.
Suga opened the door hesitantly, pupils widening as he caught the unexpected man standing at the entrance. The man was tall with thick muscular arms, his skin tan as if it had been caused by the sun, and there were scars on his arms. He was the one who strangled Marcus— Josh.
The man looked directly at Suga who could not hide his confused face. "You are that new guy, right?"
Suga nodded weakly, "Uh, yeah, what's wrong..."
"Then you must come see us! Follow me!"
Us?
The man smile crookedly, somehow Suga did not have a good feeling about this. —Is this a bullying tradition for new people?
Not wanting to cause any more misunderstandings, Suga walked out and closed the door, following the big man's direction without asking anything. The man took him to one of the rooms, it was the room that exploded earlier. Miraculously this room already looked normal, leaving only scorched marks on the walls. The sofa that was burnt had now been replaced by a new one, the pool table that was damaged had also been replaced, the furniture in the room was neatly arranged.
"Oi guys! This is the new guy!"
Suddenly all the attention of the men in the room was on Suga. His throat instantly went dry.
"You were the one who came with Captain Nakajima, right?"
One of the men approached him with a friendly smile, he asked. There was a slight accent in his pronunciation, at that Suga guessed, maybe this person was not from here. Taking a closer look, this guy looked like an Asian guy.
"My name is Yuze! Nice to meet you!"
He said while extending his hand to Suga, Suga shook the man's hand briefly then nodded. "My name is Suga."
Yuze— that sounded like a Chinese name. Suga was somewhat relieved that this man looked normal, not intimidating, his stature was also not much taller than him, he was also an asian guy, so Suga felt like he might be able to be friends with this guy.
Suga's body suddenly jerked as he was pushed from behind, he was pushed until he finally entered the room and stood by the sofa,
it was Josh who pushed him, saying "Come on! Sit down!" While patting his back roughly, Suga winced at that. Josh's hands were huge and of course they made his back sting. The man who was sitting on the sofa raised his head to look at Suga, he shifted, leaving room for Suga to sit.
Sitting awkwardly, Suga felt nervous. He looked around the room filled with men, there were maybe 15 or 20 of them here. Five men were currently around him, the other men did not seem to care and continued playing cards and billiards, one man was alone in a corner, sitting in a chair with his head on the table as if asleep.
"Hey! Turn off the music you idiot! We're about to talk here." Josh shouted to no one, however the music immediately stopped.
Suddenly the room fell into silent, filled only with the occasional sound of billiard balls being hit. Josh's eyes turned to Suga who was waiting for what would happen to him after this.
"Are you alpha beta or omega?"
Josh asked, a normal question. "I'm a beta." Suga answered quickly in a rather low tone.
"What is your special ability that allowed you to enter this organization?"
So this was the interrogation for new member.
A tall man with darker skin and curly hair asked directly, folding his arms across his chest. Hearing the question, Suga thought hard, he came in here because of an insider, so he had no idea what to say to explain the reason why he was accepted here.
The people around Suga were all waiting for his answer, anticipating with obvious enthusiasm the answer that would come out of Suga's mouth, they probably thought he was some special person the captain himself had brought here. He felt bad for about to burst their bubble.
"Um," he cleared his throat, "I'm good at cryptography."
After a few moments of pondering, he answered so. It was not completely a lie, if Danny had a passion for robots and machines, Suga was someone who was kind of obsessed with coding, he was very good at it. In the past he was accepted to a prestigious college due to his talent, but after knowing that they did not have enough money— also if he did not work then his savings for Danny's school would not be enough, so Suga decided to quit college and prefer to work.
"Oh wow, you must be so skilled that captain Nakajima brought you here."
The man who seemed to be of Arab descent smiled admiringly.
Now Suga seriously felt guilty for getting their hopes up.
"Ah, your physique is thin, so it makes sense you're an expert in a field that doesn't use physical strength. Haha. Are Asian people always small like this?"
Josh laughed at his own unfunny joke, the man named Yuze glared at him, as if to say that 'not all Asians are small'.
"Excuse me what's your name again? My name's Trevor." The curly-haired man who had been interrogating about why Suga could be accepted at this place, squeezed his shoulder lightly. He then sat beside Suga.
"Suga, Akagi Suga."
"Oh Japanese, but you don't look pure Japanese?"
"Ah, my father is from the Netherlands."
"You know, you can relax tonight because tomorrow is our day off." Yuze, who had been standing near Josh, sat beside Suga, making Suga sitting in the middle still feeling awkward. He handed him a can of soda.
"But on Monday we're going hunting, that's a schedule I don't like." Trevor added, he sank deeper into the soft sofa.
"Life here is actually pretty good, food is served, money keeps coming in every month, but we are no different from government dogs, haha!" Josh was laughing so hard it might not be an exaggeration to say the room was shaking with his laughter. Suga opened a soda can and took a small sip. So far, his interactions with the men in this room have been going smoothly.
"Still Suga ..." Yuze said, "You have to be careful here because people here aren't normal, they're fucked up in the head, don't let it rub off on you."
Yeah, Suga already knew that from a long time ago. That's why he originally didn't want to come here, unfortunately he had no other choice.
For now, the men around him were normal, except for Josh maybe. Yuze and Trevor were just sitting leisurely, watching movies with beers in their hands. Seeing that, for some reason Suga also felt like drinking, even though he rarely drank alcohol. Suga was more of a man who preferred coffee over alcohol.
"Tell me, where did you meet Captain Nakajima?"
Out of nowhere, a man with glasses appeared in front of him making Suga flinch slightly, where did this man appear from? The man had messy hair, tired-looking eyes, and drooling marks on his chin. Suga grimaced. This was probably a man who had fallen asleep in the corner of the room.
"Clean it up, you idiot!"
Trevor shouted with a disgusted face while throwing a handkerchief at the man, then the man rubbed his chin with it, he sat on the carpet with his legs crossed, still staring at Suga with intense curious eyes, waiting for an answer.
—Should I tell the truth? Is it safe to say this, I don't know, let's see what happens next.
"Well, actually I'm his childhood friend."
The room suddenly became silent, all the men in the room looked at him as if they heard something wrong. Their facial expressions were disbelief, looking at him as if Suga was lying, but he was telling the truth.
".... That guy has a childhood friend?"
"That guy looks like someone who has no friends because of how annoying he is."
A chorus of denial then sounded, Suga held back his laughter seeing people mocking Yuki somehow it was kind of refreshing.
"How does it feel to be friends with an annoying, psycho, idiot guy like him?"
The guy wearing glasses with tired eyes asked again, for some reason Suga could feel something wrong must be going on between Yuki and this man because the man saying that in a cold tone. Suga guessed, this guy probably hated Yuki.
The Yuki he knew was a reckless boy and always wanted to know about everything, he was extremely active and always dragged him to go outside to play, even though it all happened when they were little. He did not know what kind of a man Yuki was in IHPS.
"Well, like normal friendships, I used to play a lot like looking for a beetle, and running around like normal kids."
"Oh, so he had a normal childhood, he's a really smart guy, so I thought he'd have a creepy childhood or something." The man who said it was Josh, he added, "Back before he was a captain and still an instructor, that guy was crazy—"
"Ah ... so you're here Suga."
In an instant, the room became quiet, the voice from someone he knew made Suga turn his head to see a man who was standing straight in front of the entrance, a thin smile on his lips.
"Yes, what's up?" Suga stood up and then approached Yuki, the people around him resumed their activities but they did not look at Yuki, as if they tried to ignore his presence. They were probably scared because of this man's rank. Suga stared with pouted lips at the smiling man.
"I want to talk, let's go."
They walked side by side through the corridor, Suga had no idea where they were going so he just followed this guy. Honestly, he still unable to memorize the floor plan of this building.
"You got along pretty well with those crazies on your first day."
"Well thanks to you I guess it's because I said you were my childhood friend."
Yuki laughed with that signature annoying laugh, "Aha, really?"
"What's wrong? Why did you call me."
"Danny called me asking if you're okay, so I told him, 'yes your lovely brother Suga is fine'."
Hearing the news, Suga thought about Danny again. He had not called him today but it seemed like it would be better to let Danny rest first, maybe he would call tomorrow.
Sighing again and again, Yuki looked at him with sympathetic eyes, "Do you want to call him? you can do video call in my room."
"No, I don't think so ... I'm sleepy. Maybe i would, tomorrow."
"Haha, You're lucky that tomorrow is a day off, if you want to eat, the cafeteria is on the second floor."
Suga turned to leave, he was planning to return to his room. For some reason after interacting with those people, his body felt even more exhausted, if he continued like this he thought he would faint.
"Also Suga take this!" Yuki threw something at him, Suga caught it with alacrity, a small medicine box.
"Medicine with a calming effect, can relieve headaches, don't worry, it's not addictive and also has no side effects as long as it's used in moderation."
"Okay, thanks!" he shouted and put the box in his pocket. Walking away in the opposite direction from Yuki, trying to find his room.
Well, if he could, he wanted to sleep forever, his body and mind were so tired today.