Wednesday, 28th July
It was a silent morning; not a single sound was uttered throughout the room. At least until…
"OWW!"
Turns out, it only took an unexpected bug bite for Porco Galliard to jolt out from his slumber. So he whipped open the blanket Zeke had lent him to find a large fire ant scurrying down his leg along with a red bump next to it.
"Goddammit, shouldn't have worn shorts!" he said before hitting his calf where the ant ran around before it went down his foot and onto the floor. "Hey! Where are you going, little shit?!"
And so he started off his day by chasing a harmless bug around the apartment. It started with him hunting the ant down around the bedroom, but then it escalated to the point that now he was in the bathroom, still wearing a singlet. He could've let it be, but being the stubborn man that he is, he could never start something without ending it.
"Ha ha! There's nowhere for you to run now, fucker!" he took the showerhead from above and aimed it at the ant trying to climb up the drain. Before the insect could move any further, Porco pumped up the jet pressure and sprayed the ant down the drainage. "Hah! You're still no match for me!" he scoffed before laughing like a maniac for thirty seconds with the showerhead still spouting water.
After that ordeal, he quickly cleaned up after himself and left the bathroom to find himself staring at the living room for a minute straight, struggling to recover his memories from last night. "Where… am I?"
He wandered around the apartment, clothes still slightly wet, which led him back to the bedroom. The room was dim and gloomy, considering the only lightsource there was was the tiny streak of sunlight from the crack between the curtains. He could barely make out anything besides the single bed next to his futon, so he approached the blinds to let in the ray of sunshine and illuminate the room. The window behind the white curtains framed the view of a couple of skyscrapers and other various kinds of tall buildings. Ah yes, a typical morning for an Eldian living in Trost District.
"Oh yeah… I stayed at Zeke's apartment last night… He must be on campus..."
Yawning, he took a step back from the window and plopped himself onto Zeke's empty bed. He hadn't checked the time yet, but he knew it way too early for him to wake up. He was also on a "vacation", why would he want to get up at the crack of dawn?
That's what he would've said, if not for the reddening bug bite on his leg.
"Ughhh…. Why..." he groaned as he slowly slid down the bed and onto the cold floor. He sat there for a good five minutes before getting on his wobbly feet and walked out of the bedroom. "...Where's my phone…?"
He scanned the room and finally found his phone settled on the small coffee table next to the couch. And so he slumped onto the couch, his hand dangling from the edge to fish for his phone. When he checked the time, it turned out it was already 8:30 in the morning. But alas, it was still an ungodly hour to wake up for him, especially on a day off.
"Oh, that's right. Marcel's on his way here." he said when he opened his messages. "Guess it's time to practice…"
He got up and headed towards the kitchen. The subtle smell of coffee lured him to one of the cabinets, where an empty jar with the slightest bit of coffee grounds was. He craned his head to where the sink was to find a cheap mug with coffee stains on top of a couple plates. "Gotta be kidding me."
Since he couldn't start his day without a cup of coffee, he impulsively came to a decision. "I'm pretty sure I saw a coffee shop around here last night,"
So he changed his clothes and put on his shoes before heading towards the front door. Two minutes later, he was still standing in front of the doorway, hand pulling on the doorknob. And it was at that moment that he realized the door was completely locked.
"The hell?" he tried pulling the lever harder, yet it still won't open the door. He looked around the kitchen counter, seeking for a key. But the counter was completely empty, only specs of coffee were seen here and there. "Don't tell me…"
Not ready to give in, he began searching every nook and cranny of each room, only to be disappointed by the absence of said key. "No way he locked me in here…"
He took out his phone from his pocket and dialed Zeke's number. Unfortunately it was still early in the morning, which meant Zeke was too busy to answer the call. Which left him having no choice but to spam his text messages. But a couple minutes after he spammed the group chat, he finally realized that Zeke couldn't even come back to unlock the door for him, let alone want to.
"HAAAGHHH…." he groaned as he buried his face into a pillow. At that point, he was spreading his body on top of Zeke's bed. "Fucking moron..."
It had been roughly three hours since he dozed off for a second round, and things didn't really change when he woke up. He laid there for a couple minutes before something caught his eyes. When he looked over his shoulder, he spotted a stack of notebooks next to the edge of the desk prepped in the corner of the room. Out of curiosity, he sprawled down the bed and approached the desk. At a better glance, Zeke's laptop was also next to the stack of books, the small light flashing indicated that it was still on. "Did he forget to bring his laptop or what?"
He began flipping through the pages of the first notebook, which led him to the bookmarked page. There was little to no information written on the page, considering most of the handwritings were scribbled over with blue ink; but the only remaining words that weren't scratched out was a name, a name foreign to him. Below the name were lines of what seemed to be a phone number, and below that was straight hogwash. And so Porco focused on the name written in capital letters, "'Mike Zacharias'...?"
He sat down on the chair next to him and turned on the desk lamp. He examined the words that were botched with ink to try to make out a single word. Luckily the bed of lighting from the lamp made it somewhat easier to differentiate between the black ink it was written with and the blue one. "...'Levi'... 'Zoë'..."
"Heh, it's like one of those hit lists from those thriller movies," he scoffed before flipping to the page behind it. The page would be completely untouched if not for the writing on the top left that read ' Mikeandike'. "What is this? Is he stalking that Mike guy?"
He peeked at Zeke's laptop from the corner of his eye as a mischievous smirk grew on his face. "Don't mind me…" he said before putting the book in his hand to the side and opening the laptop. It took a couple seconds for the computer to boot, but when it did, it didn't even ask him for the password.
"Idiot.." he added when he clicked 'sign in'.
A Google Chrome window was still open, and one of the many tabs was Line. He clicked on the tab for the screen to change into a long chat log.
Hange Zoë
So like yea
I dont know how but like we suddenly got close
Even tho its just been like a week
Ohhhh
Kinda weird but I see…
But that one time at the canteen
I think there was another one with you
The tall blond guy
Which one
The one with the bangs
Oh yeahhh
Thats Mike
I kinda forced Levi into befriending him
Sounds like something you would do
He looks nice
I know
Hes basically a living breathing himbo lmao
Yea I deff get himbo vibes from him
So like
Can I get his number or smth
For what tho
Its like for a project
I wanted to interview someone from humanities faculty
Hes a German literature major right
Ohhh ok
Wait how did you know?
He was reading a German book when we met at the canteen remember
Ohh that makes sense
[Can I get his number or smth] yea but he takes a long time to respond to texts tho
But I can give you his twitter handle
Oh yeah sure
Wait a minute
mikeandike
Ok thanks!
No prob
Porco cringed as he scrolled down. "What the fuck? He's so friendly…"
"Wait…" he took his eyes off of the screen and grasped the notebook he previously put away. "Here it is! Mike Zacharias! Oh, I'm so smart…" he said in satisfaction as he crossed his arms.
"And I found Levi and Zoë! Oh my God, I should be a detective…" he complimented himself once more. "But… why did he scratch off the other names…?"
And right when he began wondering himself, his phone started vibrating the table as the chorus of Renai Circulation boomed through the room. He glared at the screen of his phone that flashed Zeke's name before answering the call and holding his phone next to his ear. "Hello?"
"GALLIARD!"
"YES SIR! Wait what?!" for some reason, he got on his feet and saluted at the white wall.
"...What?"
"No, nevermind." He cleared his throat. His face flushed red as he sat back on the chair. "What do you want?"
"Is my laptop there?! I think I forgot it somewhere!"
"Uh, yep, it's still here, completely untouched…" he gently slammed the laptop close before brushing off the dust on it. "You're coming here?"
"Oh, great! Yeah, I'm heading back, give me ten minutes!"
"Thank God, I thought I'm gonna be trapped in here for the rest of the day…" he got up again and tidied up Zeke's notebooks so that he wouldn't notice. "Is that it?"
"I think so,"
"Well, okay. I'll put the computer on the couch, just don't wake me up!"
"Fine, mo fo."
Thursday, 29th July
Mike patted his stuffed backpack before swinging it onto his shoulders. He looked over to find the kitchen lights still on, so he went back and flipped the switch. After another scan of his house with a knowing look, he ventured off to the outdoors.
A couple minutes later, he found himself aggressively taking out his phone from his pocket since it had been buzzing an obnoxious amount of times, worsening his already unruly state. The buzzes turned out to be notifications from Twitter that meant that someone had just messaged him. He initially wanted to slip back his phone into his pocket, but he couldn't help but to open the texts after a single look of the sender.
"Zeke? Where did he get my username?"
His suspicion grew even further when he clicked on one of the notifications that led him to a shady request from the one and only.
Hello, is this Mike Zacharias?
I'm Zeke Jaeger from the Faculty of Engineering, I'm pretty sure we've met that time in the cafeteria
I know this seems sudden, but if you're up for it, I was wondering if you'd like to help me out and let me interview you for a project
It'll only take a couple minutes
He read through the messages as he started scrunching his eyebrows. "Really? At a time like this?"
Yeah that's my name
Sorry dude I'm really busy right now
Maybe sometime later?
I just need 3 minutes, no more
Today's the only free day I have
"So forcing…" he sighed before taking a peek at the clock on the top right of the screen. "Well, I guess I have twenty minutes before my train arrives…"
Fine
Where you at
Thanks a lot
Uhh I'm at the Reeves Coffee Shop near the campus
You can meet me at the back
"'The back'...?" Mike tapped his shoes against the cement sidewalk. "Is he an employee?"
I'll be there in 2 minutes
And so he thought he was heading to the location where the interview was held, what he didn't know was that a certain tall, blonde woman spotted him from the other side of the road.
"...Mike?"
