Bags of crisps, bottles of water, packets of chocolate. It wasn’t the healthiest food but it would get him through the struggle. Now, he only had 20 days to try and find his way out of this situation. To find the money to pay off his Oga and keep a roof over his head.
How he was going to do that was still well beyond him, though.
He decided to try and take his mind off everything. It wouldn’t be good to stress about the situation; it wasn’t like it would get him out of it. He’d surely benefit from just taking a bit of time to relax and let his mind drift elsewhere for now.
He did a few short hours of revision – he couldn’t stop that. He didn’t really anything else to his name besides his grades. It was always something he knew that he could work hard for and attain.
Something to be proud of.
After this period, he took time to relax, firstly by just watching TV. It would be his last day of the weekend before he’d have to return to school. How he’d be treated by Kam on his first day back at school he was afraid of.
Clicking his remote, the screen remained off. He clicked a few times, only to see that the TV wasn’t reacting to his buttons.
‘This damn thing again.’ He called out with annoyance, lifting to pull the plug for the TV, holding it for a few seconds before plugging it back in.
As he placed the plug back, the TV turned on only to say that no signal was being received. This was quite the routine when it came to using this old thing. He spent time trying his best to readjust the direction of his TV antennae, but it was still struggling to pick up anything.
A whole minute passed before he got an orientation that seemed to be working, even if the signal was practically non-existent. There was a harsh, crackly buzz as the TV ran, and the quality of the screen was far subpar.
Jumping back into his seat, he exhaled calmly to try and get back to his relaxation.
However, he lifted from his bed to take a closer look at his crackling television.
He put on the Blim Square news channel, detailing events that occurred within the apartment city. With crime being rife in the area, the breaking news section of the channel was always filled with dangerous events that had occurred in the city.
“BREAKING NEWS: Earlier this week, gunshots were heard from Floor 4 of Blim Square, and their origin remained unknown for several days. However, 3 bodies have been uncovered in a bordered off area of Floor 41 of the apartment city. Two suspects, one 22 years old and one 24 years old, have been apprehended and are facing life in prison.”
“Yesterday, a clandestine procurement operation, colloquially known as a shadowrun, occurred across the higher floors of Blim Square. They traversed in a group of seven, beginning their shoplifting spree at the convenience store Mongrove’s located on the second floor.”
“Gunshots were heard shortly after their appearance, with 3 of the individuals being detained. This is all the information we’re aware of at this point. The case is ongoing. The authorities are still searching for the identities of the other 4 individuals, so that they can be brought to justice.”
‘Goddamn it.’ Leo thought, shaking his head.
Just as he was trying to take his mind off all this, he was brought right back into it. What was he thinking putting on this news channel anyway?
The fact that the news station stated that 3 were ‘detained’ started to bug him. They glossed over the fact that one of them was killed for this.
Without trying to delve further into the situation, he just switched the channel. It now switched to a channel detailing events across the entire nation, not just in Blim Square.
On the screen right now was Kam’s father, Ryo Sung-Jin; it wasn’t rare to see him on the news. He owned a very large, law firm and events pertaining to the company were always broadcasted.
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There was the usual group of guards stood around him as he was stood upon a podium, addressing a crowd of interviewers. Behind him was a sheet, showcasing the logo of his firm ‘Sung-Jin Solicitors’.
They were currently celebrating the opening of a new branch in the country of Laoron, a rather low-income country compared to Astrad. However, the living conditions weren’t far below those seen in Astrad’s apartment cities by any means.
However, he couldn’t help but stare at one of the guards beside him. He sat up from his sofa, taking a step closer to take a closer look, close enough until he could see his TV’s individual pixels.
There was no mistaking it. That was the man he had seen last night!
Leo immediately placed his hands on his head. There was no way. A guard of Ryo Sung-Jin? Why would he also be a guard within an apartment city? Maybe, he was blowing this way out of proportion. Guards and bodyguards did have similar skills, maybe he was just performing these two jobs at once.
Upon researching further, he couldn’t let this bugging thought go. Researching further, he opened a page detailing the guards of Ryo Sung-Jin. They weren’t just ordinary guards, Mr Sung-Jin was renowned for the level of security he had.
The page description went into some miscellaneous details Leo chose not to bore himself with and started to skim-read the page to search for more. That’s when he came up upon a certain detail.
This was their only profession, and they’d organise their time to provide 24/7 security with at least 2 guards near the CEO at any given time. Their profession?
He continued to look at the bald man before the news flashed back to the news presenter as they still talked about the new branch.
Leo’s head now rested on his fists, as he looked ahead. That was the man. It had to be. Not only that, but he illegally killed Eduardo right in front of him. Even if they were committing crimes, it was just shoplifting. They hadn’t hurt a soul in their entire run, but Eduardo had to pay the price, and maybe even the other two were dead as well.
Leo had to try and figure out more. Why would a bodyguard be in some random apartment city, shooting shadowrunners?
The day after, Leo had to head back to school and was pretty much left alone. Nobody wanted to end up like Kam, who was still in a cast after what he’d done to him. They saw him with not just disdain but in fear in tandem with that.
The feeling of isolation didn’t bug him as much today, as his mind was in a different place. He couldn’t help but shoot glances at Kam, thinking back to his father and that bodyguard of his. The man that killed Eduardo.
Something fishy was going on, and Leo wasn’t going to let this slide. He had to get to the bottom of this.
The lessons of school were as boring as usual but what Leo was looking forward to today was his first day of training after he’d unlocked his powers.
Leo played for his school’s football team, and it was always a great joy after a full day of boring classes and learning to let his worries go and play the beautiful game.
He wore his school’s football uniform. A dark blue kit with black stripes vertically along the shirt, with black shorts. Leo had only a black undershirt today to fight off the evening’s light breeze and chill.
Under his name on the back of shirt was the number 39, that he chose in reference to the floor of Blim Square that he resided in.
There were about 25 of them for the day’s training, with their head coach stood ahead of them.
He was in his late forties, with a hat on. His dark brown-grey hair spilled out from under the hat, and he also wore a scarf along with a dark green-brown hoodie.
“You know how we begin. Run around this lawn 20 times then return. The last to head back does 50 push ups.” He called out, with a firm, neutral voice.
It didn’t have a sense of anger or meanness to it, but came with a certain force that would make anyone comply. Nobody was bold enough to try and disobey the coach.
Kam, the arrogant boy, had tried in the past to talk back to the coach but was shown no mercy each time. He would force him to run several miles for his comments and make him do several other agonising exercises as punishment.
Nobody even dared talked to him after that day, not even Kam himself.
Kam was supposed to be at training today, but of course, due to his injury, he wouldn’t be able to take part.
Soon, the students were off and performed their laborious warmup routine. Leo didn’t have anywhere near the best stamina on the squad and always had to fight to not end up in last place.
After his long, draining training, Leo was looking forward to what came after. Today would be a set of 5v5 matches, with a single team staying off to perform 2v3 training drills.
Five of the team’s star players, besides Kam, were chosen
“Leo Milbourne, you go with Gustavo Day.” He ordered, pointing at Leo before pointing to Kam.
Gustavo had the number 11 shirt of the squad, with him playing as the team’s best winger. He was stood at 5’11 and had a lean physique but what came with that was immense speed.
“Urgh..” Gustavo said under his breath, before looking away from the boy.
Leo wasn’t their best player, but it wasn’t like he was all that bad, either. Gustavo’s dissatisfaction with the pick just came from the fact that he was Leo.
He wasn’t liked in their team due to his reputation, even if he wasn’t the least skilled. Leo’s mind wasn’t focused on all of this negativity today, though. Today wouldn’t be like always anyway.
Leo shook off his feet as he couldn’t wait to show off his skills. With his ability to slow time, this would be his chance to shine.
