At the same time Sera was giving Mickey a haircut—
"..."
"Tch... wonderful..."
Syd Barrett grumbled in frustration. He'd been watching the UEFA match where Aston Villa had just pulled ahead of Liverpool with a 3–1 lead in the 60th minute.
There was no coming back from that. Liverpool was going to lose. Annoyed, he shut off the screen and jumped into bed face-down, burying his head into the pillow.
He tried to sleep. But he couldn't.
Maybe it was the frustration from the football match?
No. As he scanned his own emotions, his gut screamed back at him: No, it's not the football.
He was brooding over Jody and his little sister.
He wasn't stupid. Roxxy had probably said something about Jody getting too close, being a little too chummy with him lately. Syd was almost certain she'd made a pointed comment.
Roxxy suspected that Jody was crossing a line.
But what Roxxy didn't know... was that it had nearly happened.
They had almost crossed that line.
The memory hit Syd like a wave. It was still fresh, clear as day. The room was cold with AC, yet his skin burned with heat.
He could still remember how Jody tasted. Her lips, her tongue—he remembered it all. Her saliva, sweet and lingering, may have long since gone down his throat... but the memory of its flavor clung stubbornly in his mind.
It drove him mad.
His lower half began to react instinctively. His mind couldn't help but circle back to that. To Jody.
Shit.
Calm down. You've been trained in emotional regulation. You've had hotter women than her come and go—
And yet strangely, he couldn't remember a single one.
Jody kept creeping back in. No matter how hard he juked and distracted himself, her face always came back.
"... Shit..."
And just as his mind spun deeper, something switched.
The fire in him suddenly vanished. His emotional temperature dropped like a switch had been flipped.
Two faces popped into his mind.
His mother...
...and someone else.
Ding.
"Who the hell—?"
He gave up on sleeping. Kicked off the covers, turned on the lights, and walked over to the door pad.
Jody.
"....."
"What do you want?"
["Open up."]
"..."
Whoosh.
He opened the door with a fake yawn.
"Yaaaawn~ I was asleep. What?"
"You were not asleep. You pressed the unlock button the moment I buzzed."
"God, I hate know-it-alls."
"Who else is around?"
Jody looked around innocently.
"You seriously haven't figured it out yet?"
"I was heading to the cafeteria. Help me with my leg, will you?"
Syd glanced at the door panel. 8PM.
Whether it was a legit excuse or not, it was still a pretty good one.
Unless—
"Why the cafeteria? You're not even the midnight-snack type."
"Why so curious?"
"Just sayin'—hey, what the—?!"
Without warning, Jody bolted into his room. Syd barely caught her in time to keep her from falling.
"You psycho! What if you broke your damn leg?!"
"Hehe... sorry~"
"And why the hell are you in my room?"
"Because... that's where the thing I'm going to the cafeteria for is."
"... What?"
She walked straight over to his fridge, opened it.
"Hey!"
"There it is. I knew you snuck them in."
She pulled out a crate of Korean strawberry milk—Syd's guilty pleasure.
"Jody! You maniac! Where the hell are you going with that?! Hey! Hey! This isn't okay!"
"You get one a day. Anymore than that and your blood sugar's gonna go boom."
She hoisted the entire crate up like it was hers.
"I'm putting them back where they belong."
"No!! No way! Gimme that back!!"
He lunged for her, but Jody turned her back and shielded the box with both arms.
"I swear I'll stick to one a day!"
"Nope. Giving you these is like giving a vault key to a thief. Like hell I'm trusting you."
"You can't! They might not have any more tomorrow! That milk's like gold!"
"Fine. I'll keep them in my room."
"Whose milk again?"
"..."
She gave him a devilish grin. Yes. Her room—across the hall.
"I'll guard it. If you want one, you'll have to come ask me for it."
"Why the hell would I agree to that?"
"I won't sneak any. I'm too old for kiddie milk."
"That's not the point—why should I let you?"
"Because you're adorable."
"...What?"
Boop!
She pinched his nose.
Whoosh.
Gone.
She'd walked off.
He was stunned. She'd just replaced his anger with confusion like flipping a light switch.
"...What the fuck?"
Back in her own room, Jody stored the precious strawberry milk in her fridge.
She stared at it with a soft smile. Then made her way into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror.
She liked checking in with herself every day. And she'd realized—ever since she met Syd... she smiled a lot more than before.
Nothing would stop her. Not even Roxxy's warnings.
There was still tomorrow to prep for the China mission. But for now, she was tired from training.
She turned off the lights and went to sleep.
And as the hours slipped away, midnight struck.
00:00.
Something happened.