Chapter 5: Strange Events Occur
Coran spent the greatest time of her entire life in Garden, but something seemed to make her sad. As the days past, Squall noticed and decided to ask her. After a training session with Zell at the Training Center on morning, Squall headed for his room to think about it. A while later, he left his room and headed for the room Coran was given the next day she came. It was close to his so he had told her to come and see him if she ever needed anything.
He knocked at the door and waited a few seconds for an answer, wondering if she was in there. When he was about to knock louder, the door opened and Coran's smiling face appeared to him.
"Squall! Come in!" she invited.
He entered and stood in the middle of the room while she was closing the door. She turned to him with a smile.
"What brings you here?"
Squall was looking at her, trying to find if he could see what was wrong just by the look of her face. He tried as hard as he could, but couldn't figure it out.
"Shall we go for a walk?" he offered.
"Sure! I'm kinda bored right now."
They left the room, and walked in the Garden.
Earlier this week, Coran gave her answer about becoming a SeeD. She didn't want to, for now at least. She would rather enjoy a little job at the cafeteria or the library or maybe the Festival Committee. Squall was deceived she didn't want to be a SeeD but guessed she had her reasons.
They walked without saying a word for a while until Seifer past by them, going the opposite way. He glared at Coran just a second for Squall to notice before looking away. Coran was looking at him too, but much staring than anything else. She stopped walking and traced Seifer until he disappeared. Squall was sure she didn't even notice she had stopped and was staring. He looked at her face. She had shining eyes and there was that little something on her face Squall finally figured out what it was. He wide opened his eyes as he looked at Coran, then to the way Seifer had gone, then back at Coran. No doubt in his mind anymore: she was in love with him!!
"Coran?" he called.
She didn't seem to have heard him. He waved in front of her face.
"Coran… Hey!"
She shook her head and looked at Squall with a surprised face.
"Huh? Squall! What's wrong?"
Squall crossed his arms on his chest and smiled at his sister.
"You got a crush on Seifer," he said more than asked.
She blushed.
"Is it that obvious?"
Squall was stunned. He was waiting for something such as: 'No, I'm not!' or 'What are you talking about?' He had changed his smile for a bewildered face.
"It's true, then? All those times you were tracing him, and looking hopefully for him every time I was showing you around and all those questions about the Disciplinary Committee? You love him."
She looked away, not answering.
"I don't know why… I felt strange as I looked at him the day you introduced him to me. How he was looking at me and how he was looking… His hair, his unique eyes, his dressing… The whole of him made me feel strange. Like if I met him before…"
"I don't think so but it's still possible. He traveled a lot when he was under the Sorceress's control."
Then she looked depressed. Squall was concerned.
"What's wrong?" he asked in his brotherly tone he started to use since Coran's arrival.
"I still can't see in him every bad things you told me about. I just can't think he did that!"
Squall smiled and went in front of her, lifting her chin so she could look at him.
"That means you really love him. You can't see anything bad in him, because you only look at the goods."
She smiled back.
"But he and I…it's impossible…"
"Why?"
"Didn't you see how he was looking at me? He doesn't love me, I know that!"
Squall giggled, making Coran frown.
"What's so funny?"
"I know him better than anybody else, Coran. He's not the feelings-out type. Just like I was before I met Rinoa. Speaking of which, she's gonna come tonight. She wants to know you better."
Coran didn't hear that last sentence about Rinoa. Only the words 'He's not the feelings-out type' were ringing into her mind over and over again. With shining eyes, she looked at her brother, hope all around her face.
"You say that… he likes me but he's not showing it?"
Squall shrugged mysteriously, looking away.
"What better way to find out than to ask him?"
"Oh, no!" she exclaimed moving backward. "I'll never have the guts!"
Squall decided to take care of everything. He walked to Coran with a so serious face she almost moved more back from the fear. He took her by the shoulders and looked straight into her blues eyes.
'I feel like looking in a mirror,' he thought before getting back to the point.
"What do you mean 'you don't have the guts'?! You left the only home you knew at twelve to look for our father and me all by yourself and fighting monsters on the way… And you're telling me you don't have guts?!"
She looked down, nervous.
"It's not the same thing…"
"You're right. What to lose? If he refuses, at least you won't be tortured by the wonder anymore. And if he does share your feelings…"
He smiled at her hopeful face. He never saw hope so often on a face before.
"How should I?"
Squall thought of having to play the experienced brother, but he only had one girlfriend and it was the one he still had today. For that, he didn't do anything; things worked up by themselves. Maybe it could work for Coran and Seifer too!
"Ask him to go to the Secret Area."
"In the Training Center?"
"Yes. If he does have feelings for you, this is the best place to tell. If he doesn't say anything, then go for it!! Listen to your heart and tell him!"
Squall couldn't believe he said that. He would never have before. Wait a minute! That was Seifer he was talking about! His sister had a crush on Seifer and he was encouraging her to tell him!
'Forget about him! He's not the good guy for you! He'll make you cry!' were the thoughts spreading through Squall's mind.
"Good luck," he said with a smile.
She smiled back, her eyes still shining as she headed in the direction Seifer was gone, waving at her brother.
Squall shook his head. Maybe the chat he had with Seifer the day before made him do that.
[Flashback]
Squall was walking to the Headmaster's office. He had a call from Laguna. The SeeD cursed himself not to have told his father he actually found his twin. Laguna must have been so anxious when he saw Squall going to search for her and he didn't give back any news!
He was just about to enter the elevator when a voice called for him.
"Squall, I need to talk to you."
Squall turned around to see Seifer climbing the stairs to catch him up. He had a strange face Squall never saw before.
"Make it short, Laguna's on the phone from Esthar."
"I…um…it's…"
Seifer was clenching his hands nervously and was sweating a lot. Squall never saw him like that, not even before the SeeD exams. He tried to comfort his old rival.
"Calm down, would ya? I never saw you like that, is there something wrong?" he asked with concern putting a friendly hand on his shoulder for the first of… for the first time.
"I feel… strange. Like I'm sick or something."
"Did you see the doctor?"
"Yeah but when I told her since when I was feeling like that, she said I was sick and there was just one way to help it…"
Seifer looked at Squall, hoping he would understand without he had to go further. Squall could see there was something Seifer wanted him to guess but he didn't know what.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand."
Seifer sighed, starting to get angry.
"I suppose I'll have to make it clear for you," he said with a stupid voice. "I got this feeling when I'm looking at somebody in particular. And when I don't see this person, I can only think about her…"
"A girl?"
Squall understood in a heartbeat.
"You're telling me there is a girl in this world that makes your heart beat faster?"
"Shh!! You want the whole Garden to know about it? Why don't you go make it an announcement on the way?"
He looked around to see if anybody have heard. Nobody was paying attention to them.
"Well, that's great!" Squall said. "I don't know what's wrong about it!"
"I just don't know what to do… Should I tell her? When I look at her, I feel like she feels the same thing, but I'm Hell so unsure! I would feel dumb if I tell her and she reject me!"
"You look already dumb to me!" Squall joked.
Seifer frowned at him, not seeing what was so funny in a love affair.
"I'm sorry, it was a stupid joke."
"I think I just had to tell someone. Don't bother, Squall."
And Seifer quickly went away, not answering to Squall's call for waiting. Shrugging with a sigh, Squall went to the phone where he told Laguna about Coran. The excited president said he would come soon to see her at the first second he would have the time.
[End of flashback]
Squall walked to the entrance of Garden to see if Rinoa was already there. On the way, he heard Quistis call for him behind. He stopped and turned around to ask her what was going on from the tone of her voice. He froze when he saw she had the face to go along with the voice. She was panicked, fear and concern all over her face.
"What's going on?"
"I would like to know!" she exclaimed hysterically as she stopped in front of him and clenched her chest to catch her breath. "Students are missing!"
"What?"
"A few disappeared, about five according to the source. Four are SeeD candidates…"
She paused, concern taking more space on her face if it was possible, as she was unable to continue.
"And the fifth?" he asked preparing for the news.
Quistis looked at him with a helpless and sorry face.
"It's a SeeD… Squall, Zell is missing also!"
Squall stood there, in shock. At least he was thinking the candidates freaked out before the exam, but Zell! Where could he have been? He never left Garden like that! At least not before telling somebody! If it was something urgent, the less he could have done was to tell Squall, his best friend! Just thinking he saw him just a while ago made it harder to believe for Squall. How could he disappear in such a short time?
"When?" Squall asked in a low tone.
"Some said they saw them this morning and then, PFF! Nothing more from the missing ones. And I saw Zell just this morning, heading for the cafeteria to get some hot dogs, as usual. Oh, Squall! Where could they be?" Quistis blurted out so fast Squall had to concentrate to understand her.
She was in shock, panicked. Squall was worried too of course but he had to stay calm and handle things as the Garden leader.
"Those news must be keep secret as long as possible," he told his ex-instructor.
Seeing she was about to faint from emotion, he took her by her shoulders and shook her gently but firmly.
"Quistis, snap out of it!"
She looked at him a few seconds with big eyes before shaking her head.
"Thanks, Squall. I needed that. It's just so unusual! What if they were kidnap?"
Squall released his grip and slowly shook his head down.
"I don't think so. Nobody looking suspicious can make it through Garden without being stop for questioning. Plus, if it was a kidnapping, we would have receive a ransom demand or something."
She nodded at the reasonable speech.
"Now let's see… You said you saw Zell going to the cafeteria this morning? Then let's go there if somebody saw him."
He dragged Quistis to the cafeteria.
Seifer ran his hand through his blond hair, trying to make some kind of order in the papers on his desk.
"Who would have thought being in the Disciplinary Committee could mean having so much work?"
He scratched his head a bit, thinking his hair were getting pretty long. With an annoyed sigh, he threw his pencil on the desk and stretched backward against his chair.
"This is so boring!"
He suddenly heard a little knock on the door. It was so sudden he almost fell down of his chair. He got up and went to open the door when a folded sheet of paper was slid under it. He took it and quickly opened the door. Nobody around. Frowning, he closed the door and leant backward against it to unfold the paper.
"Meet me at the Secret Area this midnight, signed: you'll know when you'll be there," Seifer read out loud.
He looked in front of him, frowning and thinking.
"Who can this be from? To the Secret Area? At midnight? It's way after curfew! Whoever it is must ignore that I lead the Disciplinary Committee!"
His anger from too much work flew away as he thought twice about this mysterious message. He leant his head backward, looking up.
"Secret Area is a place where couples or friends meet. I don't have any girlfriend and I can't call the others 'friends' yet. So who can this be from?"
Unable to figure it out but deep inside hoping it was who he was thinking about, he put the sheet of paper in a pocket of his trench coat and got out of the room.
Seeing Quistis couldn't take care of the problem, Squall walked directly to the girl behind the counter of the cafeteria.
"Commander!" she exclaimed.
Squall frowned at the title. He didn't like it at all. The girl noticed so she just called him 'Squall'.
"What can I do for you, Squall?"
"A lot if you were the one working here all the morning."
"Yes, I was. Why?"
Squall looked around and bent over the counter for secret chat.
"Have you seen Zell this morning?" he whispered.
"Yes, of course! He took some hot dogs, as usual."
"And do you know where he went after that?"
"Well, he said something about the Training Center before he left. I had to serve somebody after him, so I barely noticed him talking to somebody at the entrance. When I turned back his way, he was gone and the person too."
"Do you know who it was?" Squall asked in a hopeful tone.
The girl shook her head.
"Nope. Didn't have the time to notice. Why? Is there something wrong?"
Squall sighed. He wanted to keep this a secret but he knew it would be known sooner or later.
"Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course!" the girl exclaimed with shining eyes.
"There are five students missing, Zell one of them."
She covered her mouth and widened her eyes from concern.
"God! And nobody knows where they are?"
Squall shook his head.
"If you ever learn anything, anything that could be useful, contact me."
"Of course! You can count on me."
Squall thanked her and walked away, Quistis by his side.
"At least we know he came here."
"I bet the person he talked to is responsible."
"I agree. Let's go tell the others and ask around."
Suddenly, he stopped and slapped his forehead. Quistis turned to him.
"What?"
"Rinoa! I forgot about her! She's coming for supper."
"Then why don't we ask her? Maybe she can be of some help with her Sorceress's powers."
Squall looked at his friend and cursed himself for not thinking about it sooner.
"Of course! What a fool, I am! You go tell the others, I'll wait for Rinoa."
Quistis nodded and they both went different ways.