Chapter 10
"You know, you really light up when you smile, Juli." Joe whispered to Jun, as everyone laughed at the expressions on Ryu and Jinpei's faces.
"Thank you... Hy..." Jun giggled. She looked askance at Joe. She wasn't certain if the Condor was acting, or if it was really Joe talking to her. She had never known Joe to be that good at acting or pretending, although she did know about his reputation with women.
What was going on with Joe? He had never been like this with her before. He had always tried to push Ken in her direction.
But Ken hadn't wanted the role of Hy...
Suddenly, Jun thought she understood. Ken had rejected her, by rejecting the role of Hy. And now that Ken had rejected her, Joe felt free to show some interest.
Could that be it?
And if that was it, how did she feel about that?
"You really are a special girl." Joe whispered again, trailing his finger down Jun's cheek and twisting one of her ebony curls around it.
Jun made up her mind. She was enjoying Joe's attention, and it certainly couldn't hurt... just for tonight... to play along. After all, this was pretend, right? If it didn't work out, she could always claim tomorrow that she had just been acting.
Being uptight was Ken's thing. And Jun didn't want to wait around for Ken anymore. Not when he couldn't even do such a small thing for her, such as play the role of Hy. Heck, Ken couldn't even pay his tab at the Snack! And if that wasn't a sign of disrespect...
Jun turned back to Joe, practically purring.
"You know, Hy, I've always thought you were kind of special, too."
A brilliant grin lit up Joe's face.
"Shall we talk about this further, in the kitchen?" he suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Jun giggled, letting Joe take her hand and lead her into the Snack's kitchen. She didn't notice the angry ice blue eyes following her as they left.
The kitchen door swung closed behind Joe and Jun, and the Condor brought his body as close as he could to the Swan's, without actually touching her.
"Now, where were we?" he smiled, leaning in for a kiss. He moved toward Jun...
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Jun screamed.
"What?" Joe was startled. He had never had that effect on women... even Galactor women!
Jun stood stock still, her arm outstretched, pointing behind Joe at the dead body of the man in the chef's costume on the floor.
Joe mentally smacked his head. Of course! The murder had taken place in here! So much for romance...
The kitchen door came bursting open, Ken rushing in with a frantic expression on his face.
"What did you do to her?" he sputtered, grabbing Joe and pulling him up threateningly by the collar.
"It's not me!" Joe smirked. "Check out the scenery!"
Ken turned to gaze upon the chef's body. Jun was already kneeling down next to man, examining him.
"Ken, Joe," she said, a frightened tone in her voice, "we've got a problem."
It took both men a second to realize that she had used their real names, and not their cover names.
"This was supposed to be a dummy." Jun said grimly. "But it's a real man."
"You mean..." Ken's mouth dropped open.
"And, there's this..." Jun added, pointing at a small red pin on the man's collar.
Joe moved in to take a closer look, recognizing the design the moment his eyes focused on it.
Galactor.