"Damn, there's nothing in them," said Jace Quentin, another of Elian's best friends and consigliere of his gang.

"You mean, everything has been deleted?" I asked dreadfully.

Jace nodded. He was called here to crack the new passwords of Elian and my laptops. He was successful, of course, but our laptops were completely clean. There was not a single file or document.

All my hard work and saved files were now... gone. I hoped whoever did this hit their pinky toe on the table corner many times.

"Can't you retrieve them?" Elian asked.

"I will try, but it might take some time," Jace replied.

"Good luck," Ashton mumbled, cleaning up the dishes from our dinner. He had ended up not only making lunch for us but also dinner because Elian and I were both incompetent in the cooking division.

"Ashton, don't do the dishes. It's Elian's turn tonight," I hollered as Ashton put the dishes in the sink.

"It's fine. Ash is happy to do it for me," Elian responded, and I shot him a death glare. He sighed and grumbled, "Fine, I will do it later."

"No, you will do it right now," I said sternly.

He rolled his eyes and left Jace's side to go to the kitchen to start washing the dishes.

I sat down beside Jace and asked, "So how long have you known Elian, Jace?"

"Since childhood," Jace answered curtly.

He was a little more uptight than Ashton, with whom I had chatted the whole evening while Jace and Elian were focused on the laptops.

"I see. I have always been interested in hacking. Can you teach me something?" I asked.

"Don't, Jace. If she learns hacking, the first thing she will do is hack into my electronics to increase my workload and decrease hers," Elian protested from the kitchen.

"I will never do that!" I exclaimed innocently.

"Oh, you would," he replied.

I was about to open my mouth to retort, but Ashton spoke up, "As much fun as it is to watch a lovers' quarrel, it's getting late, so I think Jace and I will take our leaves now."

"Aww, you're leaving now, Ashton?" I asked sadly. "I'm going to get bored with Elian. He doesn't talk." I could see Elian scoffing from the kitchen.

"I will come again some other time, Alena. Now, we need to go back to the base," Ashton said with a smile.

I bonded so well with Ashton in such a short time, he was already a good friend of mine. It was like I had known him forever. Jace seemed nice as well, though he seemed to be trying to maintain distance from me.

After Ashton and Jace left, I sauntered over to the kitchen to poke Elian. He was almost done with the dishes.

"Elian, scrub the glasses nicely," I told him wisely.

He ignored that and said, "So you're going to get bored with me?"

"Yes, of course. It's not like you're my friend or boyfriend. I can't just chat with you about life," I shrugged.

I was expecting Elian to say that we could be or something, but he only hummed. I meant for it to be a joke because I never had a boring moment with him—yes, there were terrifying ones, but not boring.

I felt bad because he still didn't want to be my friend. What was with him? Did he hate me that much? Or did he secretly blame me for the blunder in the military assignment?

I decided to leave him alone after that.

It was late at night when I was looking through the fridge and heard footsteps. I raised my head to look at whoever it was.

"Ghost!" Lance screamed, dropping the phone box he had in hand, and pulled out his gun.

"Don't shoot me!" I also screamed in fear and dropped the plate of cake from my hand.

Elian came running out of his room and asked, "What's going on?"

Lance didn't lower his gun and said, "Don't you see? There's a ghost!"

Elian facepalmed. "That's just Alena, dumbass. She's wearing a face pack. Drop your gun."

Lance squinted his eyes at me. "Is it Alena?"

"It's really me, Lance," I clarified. "You just scared the shit outta me."

"You did too. You are dressed like a freaking ghost," Lance accused.

I glanced down at the long white t-shirt I was wearing and my bare feet, then at the fridge's reflection of my face covered with a white face pack. My hair was wet from taking a late-night shower as well. I didn't look like a ghost, did I?

"If I was, Elian would have screamed too," I retorted.

"I bet he did too at first," Lance muttered, and Elian smacked his head lightly.

As I stared at Elian, a throbbing pain shot up in my head as a blurry vision appeared.

"What the fuck?" a guy screamed, standing in the same kitchen, and grabbed the nearest pan for defense.

A girl laughed and said, "It's just me, idiot."

"Alena?" Elian called out, and I looked up at him looking at me in concern. "Again?" he asked softly, and I nodded. "Are you okay?" I nodded again.

Lance cleared his throat to grab my attention and bent down to pick up the phone box he dropped. He handed it to me and said, "Here, Elian told me to buy it for you."

"Lance, you idiot, I told you not to say it," Elian hissed.

Lance rolled his eyes and said to me, "I, a total stranger who wanted to kill you a few days ago, bought a new phone for you." He turned to Elian and said flatly, "There, Elian, I completed my job." With that, he exited the kitchen.

I opened the box and gasped at the latest iPhone model. I looked up at Elian who averted his eyes.

"I just thought you might need a cell phone because... you need to keep your family updated," Elian mumbled, trying to act nonchalant. "Anyway, it's a gift from the company, so you don't have to pay me back."

I opened my mouth to thank him, but he turned around and cut me off with a goodnight.

Elian was definitely strange, but he was also nice and sweet, and I didn't know why but he made my chest feel warm and fuzzy.

The next morning, I woke up earlier to go to the gym. I had bought new gym outfits yesterday, so I put on a gray sports bra and black leggings with a new pair of sneakers before heading down to the ground floor.

When I reached the gym area, my eyes searched for the familiar black-haired guy.

I found Elian running on the treadmill with AirPods in one of his ears. I grinned and made my way toward him.

I got on the treadmill beside him and suddenly said, "Hey," hoping to scare him, but it seemed like he had already seen me coming.

He remained unfazed and replied, "Hey."

I frowned and turned on my treadmill to start running. "What are your plans for today?" I asked.

"I'm going to go out for a bit."

"For what?"

"It's Sunday. It's the day I focus on my other job."

"Other job, as in..." I trailed off, hinting at his mafia job, and he nodded. I wondered if he was going to be okay now that the police were looking for him. "Will you be back late?" He nodded again.

My frown deepened.

He was talking less to me this morning, no, ever since I said he wasn't my friend or boyfriend.

I tried not to pay any mind to him and continued my run. After a minute, he held out his other AirPod, and I arched an eyebrow. He rolled his eyes and put it in my ear and continued running. I tried to suppress my smile because I had the habit of listening to music while working out as well, and I felt happy that he was sharing his AirPod with me because mine was in my bag that got stolen.

Elian stopped his run after ten minutes and went to do other exercises. I ran for another ten minutes and stopped.

I drank my protein shake and decided to do some weightlifting. I was used to doing heavy exercises, so it should be nothing for me.

However, I must have gotten out of shape because I got overwhelmed by the weight when I was picking it up halfway. I was afraid I was going to snap my back in half until a pair of strong arms caught it.

"Be careful," Elian said and helped me put down the barbell.

Before I could thank him, he walked away, back to the ab crunch machine.

He was just going to leave me hanging every time I tried to say thanks? No way in hell.

I walked up to him and let out, "What's your problem, huh? You help me once, then you leave me hanging like a goddamn cliffhanger episode. I don't understand you! Do you hate me or do you care for me? Or do you have a split personality? I don't get it, and you know what? I'm done! I don't want to understand you!"

Elian stared at me blankly for a moment before he tried to say, "Alena—"

"Don't bother." With that, I walked away and joined a group of women who were doing aerobic exercise.

Maybe it was me blowing up at him from all the stress, but I couldn't help it. His behavior was confusing as hell. He didn't want to be my friend, but at the same time, he was always rushing whenever I needed help. What did he even want?

I at least knew that he didn't like me. After all, he was still too hung up on his kinda-girlfriend.

"Hey, it's been a while since you came by," a middle-aged woman said to me, and I gave her a confused look.

"Sorry, are you talking to me?" I asked, just in case.

"Yes, yes. I haven't seen you for so long," she said, smiling brightly at me.

"I think you're mistaken. I have never been here before—"

"What are you saying? You used to come here all the time until three years ago."

Three years ago...?

How could that be possible? I couldn't have come here. Sure, this place was close to my university, but I didn't remember coming here because at that time I was... I was doing what? What was I doing back then?

Where was I three years ago? Who was I with?

Blurry, indescribable images started flooding my mind before my vision went black.