Tim and Jay continued to look for the mysterious hooded man's house, but the sun has started to set and Tim started to have concern again.

"Jay, I don't want to break this for you, but... It is almost nighttime. Maybe we should search up this place some other time..."

But it was not Jay if he wasn't persistent. "It will be okay, Tim! I brought flashlights, see?" Jay said while crack opened his bags to prove his claim.

He checked the bag and confirm Jay's words. He took one for himself. "You really came prepared this time, huh?"

"Yup. Because I always made you worry and stress out. That's why for this one selfish request, I tried to prepare as much as possible to make you feel more at ease."

Tim's heart warmed up after hearing Jay's explanation. Tim always knew Jay did all of this for helping everyone, but sometimes Jay wasn't considering the consequences when he pursued his goal. Tim flashed a proud smile to Jay. Jay noticed and his face reddened, but not red enough for Tim to see.

Tim continued to watch the videos on his cellphone. "If my eyes aren't bullshitting me, we should be nearby to his house."

"Then let's-!" The sound of crunched leaves suddenly disturbed their conversation. They looked up from the cellphone to saw the hooded man with a filthy yellow hoodie and wrinkled mask with a sad emote blocking their path. It was the man they were looking for.

"There he is!" Tim was going to go after the hooded man when Jay gripped him on the shoulder. Tim didn't understand why Jay tried to stop him, but his stare was pleading at Tim to let him try. Tim sighed and relaxed his body.

Jay's action clearly made Hoodie tilted his head in confusion. Jay knew this was the best chance and maybe the only time to try out his plan. Jay lift his hand and waved at Hoodie for the first time.

"Hello there! My name is Jay and this one is Tim, my partner!", he said while pointing at Tim. Jay tried to ignore Tim's stare of disbelief. "We have been noticing that you helped us a lot with our investigation. So, we decided that we should recruit you! I believe we could resolve our issues faster if we worked together instead of separately!"

Hoodie continued to stand still. So still that they could mistake him as a statue. It was hard to tell his reaction because of his masked face and he was distance away from them. But maybe he was speechless? Jay continued to observe his reaction.

While Tim was awed by what Jay just did. When Jay said he has a plan, Tim didn't think this was the plan. An overly simplistic plan with innocuous motivation, truly fitting for Jay.

Either way, Hoodie still wasn't showing any movement and Tim was getting impatient. "Hey, are you listening? If you are, tell us your answer now!"

"Don't scream at him! It might scare him away!"

Hoodie's body was suddenly jittering madly. He scratched his body as if he wanted to get rid of the shivering, but couldn't. He grew weak and collapse on his knees. Tim and Jay were not expecting that reaction from him and didn't know how to react back. Then, a bloodcurling scream came out of Hoodie's mouth.

"Why is he reacting like this? I was only ask him to join us!" whispered Jay to Tim.

"How am I suppose to know? "

Tim had a feeling that Hoodie would ran away after he was done with his breakdown. So Tim slowly walk toward Hoodie. He tried to make sure that he wouldn't notice the difference. Jay saw what Tim was doing and also following his footsteps.

Just as Tim expected, Hoodie suddenly leaped and bolted deeper into the forest. They immediately follow him from behind. They could not let Hoodie slipped away again. Even if Hoodie didn't join them in the end, they still want to know his motivation.

"I will not let you escape again!"

Author notes: I wonder if anyone notice, but I tried to implement more Show Don't Tell stuff. I have no clue if Im getting better at it or not. But I hope I get better,