I froze. Not because of the threat, but because of his voice… Wait a minute, all this time it’s…
“Eion?” I asked.
“What? What do you want from me?” He said. Turning around, he looked at me and then back to close his eyes, “Oh, it’s you.” He brushed me aside.
I choked.
It’s Eion! He’s not even surprised at my appearance!
Then as though he realized something, he looked at me again. And I expected him to exclaim like, “Why are you here?” How?”
Instead, he just asked, “Where’s my bag?”
I closed my still opened mouth, “I placed it on the compartment on top of us. Besides, it’s a person’s seat! That thing doesn’t pay.” I didn’t even pay a single cent for the tickets but let’s just pretend okay?
“So?”
My eyebrows knitted, “So? So what? I have to move that for me to sit. The woman who was even assigned to sit here dragged me in, and switched places with me, great.”
He was not listening, instead, he stared at my drawings of flowers and the sun. I quickly closed it, “And I’m drawing here! If it wasn’t in your head, I could have this masterpiece. But you were blocking my view, my inspiration! The least you could do is switch places with me.”
It was not even a masterpiece, just an excuse for me to sit by the window.
“A masterpiece?” Taking a quick glance at my notebook, he looked at it disgustingly.
“Whatever.” He said, closing his eyes again.
I just sighed and leaned towards the window, not minding him. I stubbornly looked at the window and docking his personal space.
“You’re just tiring yourself out. Why not sleep?” He commented and I gripped the chair and he suddenly turned to me, making our heads bump to each other. I groaned in pain. Our faces were merely touching.
I looked away. Silence passed. My stomach growled loudly. I looked away.
Damn, I didn’t even have enough breakfast. So wrong timing. I stopped. Then it growled again. Damn!
Eion reached out to his bag and grabbed biscuits, “Here.” He handed it to me.
I looked at his outstretched hand and to his face, narrowing my eyes in alert.
“Wait, you’re giving me food, this is so strange… you have poison in it, don’t you?” I gasped, “You want to kill me and get rid of an annoying brat like me!”
“If I did, you would have already died a long time ago.”
He dropped the snacks harshly to my lap and put headphones in his ear, “You growl like a whale. So irritating.”
*****
After I ate, I was kinda full. Not really full, but it will do.
Since I had nothing better to do, I had finally accepted the fact that I’ll be stuck here for a lot more hours. I don’t have a choice but to make the most of it. I turned to Eion, “Are you going to ask why I’m here?” I raised my eyebrows.
He glanced at me and did as I told him, “Okay, why are you here?” He asked.
I opted for another topic, “Oh, just for a trip.” I replied, then without thinking, asked him, “Just asking but, what are you gonna do in the Philippines?” My eyes widened, I had let my mouth rule me again without even thinking twice!
He’ll know for sure our purpose here, and Luke told me not to tell him. Damn! I smiled sheepishly, “I mean, I just learned it from someone.”
His expression turned sour, “That old man called and told me to temporarily manage his business.” The old man is now his father’s nickname huh?
“You have a business?” Oh, that’s really obvious since he’s stinking rich.
“What about you? The whole squad? You seem to also have plans to have a vacation break there.” He said, glancing from Luke and the other’s direction.
The whole squad? I choked at that. “W-What are you talking about?” I asked, stuttering. How did he know? Was I that obvious?
I didn’t answer, “I gotta go to the comfort room.” Standing up, he was quick to grab my hand to stop me.
He sighed. “I know it already, you don’t have to hide it. The squad’s here. That old man loves to plan like this. I’m used to it.”
I nodded my head and left. As I headed to the comfort room, I passed by the squad. I was about to whisper, yell at them and talk about how Eion found out our secret when I noticed they were sleeping.
I came nearer to them. Luke stirred in his sleep, and slowly his eyes opened. “Snow?”
I put my lips to his hands to shush him. “Abort mission, abort mission.”
His forehead creased in confusion, “What?”
“Eion knows. He’s sitting beside me! He knows you are all here and our plan.” I whisper yelled, panicking.
“Damn.” He cursed.
“What’ll we do?”
“Now that it’s done… I guess we’ll just have to go with the flow then.” He shook his head. “Uncle Adam will surely get angry!”
“Oh, he won’t, he’s nice,” I said, remembering that time I encountered him.
“He is. But you don’t know how he acts when he’s angry.” Luke added.
“Okay okay.” I agreed. “I better head back then. See you.”
After that conversation with Luke, I went back, I saw Eion sleeping again, or more likely, closing his eyes as earphones in his ears, probably listening to a song.
But he was sitting on my previous seat, and he’s supposed to sit empty. My eyebrows furrowed.
Trying hard not to disturb him and ended up messing everything up again, I tiptoed towards the seat and sat by the window. I pulled out my small notebook and drew the sky again, birds, and trees.
I glanced at Eion as a small smile on my face formed. So he was considerate after all. I leaned closer and discretely tried to hear what he was listening to.
“What are you doing?” I froze.