"I hate potatoes..."

Wangnan fell back in his seat, sighing heavily as two small mountains of potatoes were sitting before him; one pilled and one that awaited to be. Well, not mountains per say, but through his eyes, it seemed like it.

He rubbed his hands and hissed a bit in pain. Being he, part of pilling potatoes was also cutting his hands repeatedly. He was clumsy, he was bad at anything that didn't have to do with throwing bombs at targets and most of all, he really, really hated potatoes in any form except fried. He would order food from outside, but they were a little...tight when it came to this month's budget. And the ever increasing size of their team didn't help much either.

Team...More like a baseball team at the rate we're growing.

He reminisced this month's tournament. Anything that could go wrong did, but even though there were hardships, even though they were almost bound to fail, they somehow managed to pull through. They succeeded to make their name heard all over the Tower. The Team that defeated the Slayer.

The Prince snorted inwardly at the name they claimed. Defeated. Yeah right. If letting us win can count...

He had witnessed in previous matches of what Viole was capable of. He knew well that a man who can take a hit from the strongest active High Ranker-slash-Irregular and survive could well wipe the floor without even moving. He let himself be defeated, Wangnan wasn't stupid. Like he let himself be tricked in the past, this time, he let himself be defeated.

He could gloat about it and probably milk the fame that came from it. But, that wasn't a choice. Not anymore. This wasn't the 20th Floor.

"Ya know, cutting potatoes includes, as shocking as it may seem, well, cutting potatoes."
Beta. Wangnan was still trying to figure out how the heck a guy like him came to be in the same team as he. It was probably Viole's ever growing charm or something else.

Wangnan grunted and continued cutting the potatoes, the unwanted visitor having already made himself comfortable in a nearby chair. But Wangnan didn't mind. It was okay.

He noticed the way he eyed the potatoes. Like something worth examining, like something the exotic, the amazing. He even took a bite from one, only to scoff in disgust. Well, he spend most of his life in a lab. And there's only so much to learn about potatoes when you were mostly fed drugs to make yourself the ultimate weapon. Speaking of weapons...

Bending a little, he saw the living room and inside it, Emile and Traveler, being all "lovey-dovey canoodling", as Viole had surprisingly put it. He looked then at Beta, who was still trying to figure out whether this was the way one should eat a potato -by licking it, of all means. When the couple's sweet talk reached their ears, Beta made a grimace of disgust. And it was not from the potato.

Come to think of it, he is, what, Miseng's and Verdi's age? Or the Money brat's? Of course he wouldn't like the concept of...Exchanging saliva-"HEY, THERE ARE KIDS WATCHING, YOU TWO!" One of the potatoes found its way towards Traveler's head, giving him a well deserved headshot. He also noticed a small brown head moving away from the scene and also noticed a small flash of light, seemingly out of nowhere. This girl needs to learn another means of having fun...

Heaving a sigh, he returned to his potatoes and...guest. He was still eyeing the potatoes, an act Wangnan didn't judge.

He looked at Beta again. His veins shining from the devil being inside him. He looked at the serum on the table, the thing that made this heretical fusion of man and demon possible. A freak of nature, an outcast...But Wangnan didn't mind. It was okay. For he too was an outcast.

Slick.

And now, an outcast with an extra cut.

"...I hate potatoes..."

Viole opened the door and entered the place he came to call home once more. He was stiff however, almost unhappy one would say. It felt...weird of how things turned out. And Viole's experience with happiness was bad. For one hill of happiness, he would have to face a mountain of misfortune and misery.

He was by no means pessimistic, of course not. It was just a bad feeling, a hunch he had that their current contentment and delight was soon to be replaced with sadness and severity. He just couldn't relax anymore.

"Hey, Gloomface."

On the other hand, maybe he felt so unsettled because a certain redhead's all watching eye was nailed on his back in the whole shopping trip.

"What?" he grunted. Knowing her, it was going to be either a sex joke or her usual sarcastic remarks. The only instance she was ever serious with him was when she told him that he and she were very much alike. And that's it. No explanation at all. Even after 8 years, he still didn't know what to think. Well, experience from all these years told you one thing, Baam. It was probably a joke.

He looked at her direction, his face distorted in a grimace of jittery and annoyance. But, she was not there anymore. Deciding to ignore the whole thing, he tried to head to the kitchen, only to find Hwa Ryun floating on her staff upside down.

"Kyah!" he jumped back in terror. WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS DO THAT?! He grabbed his chest in his futile attempts to stop his racing heart from trying to explode out of his chest.

"What's wrong?"

He looked at her in the eye for the first time in 8 years. Viole wasn't sure whether it was her tone or her general posture of her crossed hands -which, no matter how serious, looked ridiculous with her being upside down-, but he knew she didn't mean the jumpscare she just gave him.

"I'm fine. Nothing's wrong."
"And I'm Yihwa. I don't burn food."

In her language, this was the equivalent of "I don't believe you". Viole sighed. She knew him like the back of her hand. Lying was not an option with her. But Viole would take his chances.

"I said, I'm fine." He grabbed her from her shoulders and put her back on ground, on a proper position. When he turned her around, he noticed it; A scoff he never expected to see on her face. "Really." That scoff only deepened. "Really." he said again, and this time tried to smile. Tried. What came out was a twitching bastardization of all smiles that befitted a rapist rather than himself. He knew it was. Even without Ryun's critical look, he could feel it in his face.

"What's wrong?" she repeated. Viol...Baam, at this moment, could feel it that if he lied again, he would receive a well-deserved slap and would be made to sleep on the couch. No, they weren't sleeping together. But she could do it. And she would, until he would tell her what was wrong. That was the thing with Hwa. She always got what she wanted.

He let out a sigh and with that, what troubled him. "I just feel that everything will go wrong from this point on. Everything."

Ryun nodded. She didn't blame him, she was part of the reason he had to now build his life upon uncertainty. Well, greater than the usual amount. She closed her eye and blurted out."Then you better enjoy it. And be glad they sent me to supervise and not the Mad Puppy or someone else. I'm not the big scary monster in the closet, you don't need to be afraid that I will try to screw this whole thing over for FUG."

"I'm not afraid. Really." Hwa Ryun started walking away, seemingly ignoring him. However, the direction she was heading to... "Oh come on, I didn't even lie on that last one."
"Which means that you lied on all the previous ones, thus my actions are justified."
"Sigh..."

Two things had not changed in the past 8 years Viole was on the Tower. Hwa Ryun and his understanding of women. Stopping himself from banging his head on a wall to knock himself out of his misery, Viole picked up the groceries and headed towards the kitchen, meeting endless mountains of potatoes, Beta -still twitching from utter disgust- and Wangnan, being buried in the potatoes and seemingly with more cuts than hair. "You know, you could always order."

"...Shhhhh-"