Despite taking only a few bites, Rose felt like her stomach was going to burst. As soon as she saw Amphi trying to get up, she quickly stood up and hurried away, all the while cursing Amphi in her heart.
Meanwhile, Amphi stood with unhurried grace, not caring about the gazes that threatened to rip him apart at a moment's notice.
After assuring they were a good distance away, Rose sped towards Amphi and leaned in so that no one would be able to make out their conversation. "Are you sure that was a good idea…?"
"Trust me," –he laughed, his closed-eye smile looking bigger than usual– "that was a terrible idea."
Rose's eyes went wide, and her jaw hung low.
"You'll get beat up..!" Rose mentally cried, wanting to rip out her hair. She was not a fan of confrontation, especially those that ended terribly, which was the exact situation she was forced to be in the middle of right now.
"Tehe!" He said, sticking out his tongue in a joking manner.
"You..!" Rose grabbed her head in frustration, "Fuck! Fuck, my gut! I don't think I'll live with you!"
"Relax~" Amphi laughed, a sadistic smile etched on his lips. "It wasn't useless. Because of those idiots, now I know some areas are monitored, and conflict is prohibited. The cafeteria being one of those places."
"You can say that but I know you just wanted to fuck with them…" Rose muttered, her eyes filled with doubt.
"..." Amphi avoided looking her in the eyes, and instead opted to whistle while looking at the deserts laid on the buffet table.
Rose took a deep depressed sigh, 'I should have joined Miss Jane's group!'
"But how did you deduce that?" She asked, looking up at him after she had thoroughly mentally beaten herself.
"He's the same guy from the boat–"
"–I know that part." Rose interrupted, earning a glare from Amphi.
"And, you saw how much more feisty he was there. Someone like that would have flipped the table the moment I opened my mouth."
"That's true, I would have flipped the table if that was me and then punched you." Rose nodded in understanding.
"..." Amphi took a step back. "For your information, they started the fight."
"That's true, that was pretty cool I guess. If we weren't like... Life or death right now, I might have even cheered." Rose grieved, mulling over all the scenarios where they stabbed them in their sleep.
"So," He said, his tone laced with a hint of amusement, "It was odd that he was behaving so poised. I just followed the direction of their eyes and saw a camera pointed at us. I don't know the consequences, but if he's behaving then it means they aren't good."
"Ohh!" Rose clamped her hands together in understanding, "I didn't even think of that..."
"Sigh, how could stupid people survive without me?" Amphi gloated.
"I'm not stupid, I'm just not as observant." Rose rolled her eyes, already used to his attitude. "I would punch you for that but I'd just miss 'cause you're so short."
"...I'm starting to question my decision to work with you." Amphi glared.
"Woah! Amphi! I can't believe they'd make fun of your height!" Rose huffed, blaming her transgressions at the group of guys they were just dining with, all the while pointing at them. Though she made sure only Amphi saw her pointing, and they remained blind to her actions..
"..." Amphi stared bitterly at his own tricks being used against him, unsure if he should leave or laugh at being the bad influence. "Just be quiet before I change my mind."
"Aye, sir!" Rose giggled.
Suddenly, the sight of people walking out of the caffetaria caught Rose's attention.
"Are they going back to the rooms?" She murmured quietly, peaking at them curiously. From the looks of it, they were. "I guess we should go too."
"Amphi–" She looked down to find that Amphi was already engrossed in his notebook, writing details about the new information he gathered in that short period.
"Amphi."
"Earth to Amphi."
"Amphi."
"Hello~" She tried to call out to him, but no matter what she said, he continued to ignore her and focus on his notes.
"We'll be left alone with those guys if you don't wake up." She groaned, finding it increasingly hard to ignore the stares of the group they just offended. Who were gloriously the only people still sitting.
As a last ditch effort, she started waving her hands in front of Amphi to block his line of sight.
"What?" He snarled.
"Everyone is leaving," She grumbled back, not daring to back down, "We should leave too."
"Yeah, whatever, let's go." He said, walking along the crowd with little disregard or care, still engrossed in his book.
Rose followed behind, grimacing at his lack of reaction. 'We're in this mess because of you, you know!'
"What are you thinking?" She asked before Amphi's attention was completely sucked into the book.
"The motive," He started, his brows furrowed, his pen just inches above the paper as if waiting for his thoughts to connect. "It doesn't make sense.
"Everything I've observed says there isn't a hidden killer waiting for us— no, everyone is treating us like we're just guests. There doesn't seem to be a killing game soon, there are enough supplies on this island from what I saw. And, we couldn't possibly die in two days even if the supplies rotted or went missing.
"So, what is the motive in kidnapping us and making us play house as rich second gens?
"Moreover, nothing makes sense. The butler, and the 'npc's are being treated like normal people when we just saw their faces vanish. They're puppets playing humans.
"But their act is too solid to be machines. There is no error in their functioning, they audit like real humans. I'd say they're closer to paranormal creatures than humans, but I don't believe in the supernatural.
"So what is this? Virtual reality? But that's not even the most alarming part. It's the people. No one questions these NPC's. For me, I naturally deduced that they are not harmful when faceless, but you guys don't have that same deduction, you expect their actions to be human despite seeing that monstrosity—"
"Mm.." Ross hummed, already losing Amphi's thought pattern half way through the explanation. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't tune back into what he was saying. His fast muttering only sounded like incoherent rambles.
"Uh, yeah, you go back into your thoughts and think…" She muttered as she looked ahead, already giving up on his muttering for the sake of her brain cells.
"Haa," She took a deep sigh, slouching her shoulders and eager to return to the room and lay down for a few seconds.
'If I wasn't kidnapped and told to survive, I would be enjoying that bed, dammit!' She grieved, her two seconds of peace already shattered as she bitterly cursed her situation. 'I can't wait to leave this place…'
'Oh, his muttering finally ended.' Rose cheered as –what sounded like a broken clock– behind her finally vanished.
Curiously, she glanced back, wondering if he had found the lead in whatever theory he was crafting. However, no one stood behind her.
LoVel Islands, La Isle Hotel's Garden…
'Joey always said I'd one day get in trouble for locking in too hard,' Amphi thought as he was hauled by guys twice his size who had bounded his hands and mouth, 'If he was here, he'd be laughing at me right now.'
'Actually, even Rose would laugh at me right now–' His thoughts were interrupted as he was thrown into a green patch of grass, the grass prickling his cheeks like a bed of needles.
Without making a squeak, Amphi pulled his head up and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a small corner of a garden surrounded by the tall pillars of the hotel. 'Probably an inner garden, new landmark found.' He snickered, ignoring the group of men surrounding him and looking down at him like fresh meat.
"You really are insane." The boy Amphi had picked a fight with said, his brows furrowed with disappointment.
"Disappointed I'm not quaking right now?" Amphi snickered, opening his eyes, "Sorry, I mean — oh no! I'm so scared! What am I going to do now?! I think I'm about to piss myself from fear! What will little me, who's oh-so small and petite — that knows nothing except for calling my mommy — do now?!"
"Shut the fuck up." The boy interrupted, his voice low and fuming with rage.
"Oh, nooo! I'm so scared~" Amphi whinily mocked, hiding himself under his own hands like some type of coward. "Pwease spare me—"
The boy snatched Amphi by the collar and yanked him up, their faces now inches apart. His eyes were filled with unrestrained anger; a deep blue gaze with contrastingly clear irises bore down at Amphi, like the dark depths of an ocean that would swallow you inside — he looked like he was about to snap Amphi's head in half.
Contrary to his rage, Amphi only stared back with a ridiculing smirk that reached up to his own wide eyes. Amphi's gold irises glimmered in the dark like an opposition to the other man's blue ones.
"You must think I'm a joke, ha." The boy glared and barked out a laugh at him, tightening his hold on Amphi's collar and restricting his breathing a bit. "Did you forget who I am? I am Lance Raynold, the Raynold group's eldest son. Do you even comprehend what it means to mess with me?"
'Ah, this is risky territory, if I say something more, I might fail the mission.' He thought, his provoking smile twitching a bit while holding back on his ragebaiting.
"You finally shut up." Lance smirked, feeling his ego recover from their bouts.
"Yeah, did you forget? I'm still so terrified, especially after wetting my pants–" before he could finish, a fist collided with his cheek, sending him flying back and crashing into the grass.
"I can see why she wouldn't even look at you." Amphi laughed as he grasped at the newfound bruise on his face, looking up and continuing to stare at Lance with those wide eyes. The more he got hit, the more eager he was to spite the other.
"If I was a woman, I'd rather kill myself than ever kiss a face like yours–"
A kick landed down on his head, knocking him face-first into the ground. Lance towered over Amphi's disoriented form, the anger on his face replaced by a look of satisfaction as his gaze raked over the other.
'This is why Joey never sends me to the front lines,' Amphi thought as he gritted his teeth.
"Come on, you were just yapping so happily before, why're you so quiet now?" Lance asked with false ignorance, kicking Amphi in the stomach next, earning a loud cough from him.
"Agh…" Amphi spoke through his gritted teeth, "I hate spoiled assholes like you."
"Can you say that again but louder? I can't hear you!" Lance laughed, kicking in the same spot again. The guys around him laughed similarly, leering at the sight.
"Butler! Help, they're fighting!" A loud voice suddenly shrieked from afar, causing all of the offending guys to flinch or pause and step away from the scene.
In that small moment, a rock came flying and hit Lance straight in the face.
"Amphi! Hurry!" Rose shouted as she ran towards the group, yanking Amphi up from the ground with her before running away.
Even Amphi was too stunned to do anything.
"I'll kill you when we're back!" She wailed as she ran with Amphi on her shoulder like a stack of potatoes.
Lance, and Amphi stared with wide eyes before Amphi disappeared into the horizon.
–
Rose panted painfully, her lungs struggling to adjust as she sat beside Amphi on the cold hard marble floor inside the building. Their silhouette directly under the camera's lens.
"This is why you shouldn't have picked a fight with them!" She finally screamed as she gathered her strength, however the scream left her breathless again.
"Please~" Amphi giggled, shrugging his shoulders as if he didn't have purple bruises painting his once pale skin. "Everything turned out well didn't it?"
"That's because I saved you!" Rose screamed, her disheveled appearance making her look almost as roughed up as Amphi.
"Yeah, that's true," He nodded his head before smiling mischievously, his clear golden irises staring down at her huddled form, "Now you're an accomplice,
"If they come to murder me tonight, they'll go after you too."
"Aahhhhh," Rose whined as she grabbed her hair and sank into her knees, "If only I didn't trust my gut to follow you! Now I'm going to die..!"
"Gut?" He raised his brow, "Is that the reason you've been following me?"
"Yeah, my instincts told me it would be a good idea. They're never wrong so I followed you. But why did they have to be wrong this one time!" She whined in her corner.
"Oh~" He hummed, "Let's test if they're really always right: Was that a good thing?"
"What..?" Rose blurted, offended by his audacity to ask that. But her curses were stuck at the top of her throat, as if hesitant to disagree. She paused as she evaluated her complicated feelings.
"Yes.. it was a good thing.." She muttered, clutching her shirt, "uh, not the part where you got hurt though..
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, just a scratch." He laughed. "My mothers punches hit harder."
"Uh? Huh?" Rose muttered, question marks flying in her head, "They don't look like a scratch?"
"It'll be fine in a few days, this isn't my first rodeo." Amphi laughed as he poked at the bruise on his face.
"Stop that.." Rose muttered, feeling hurt on his behalf. 'But, I'm not even surprised he gets beat up…'
"Oh yeah! We have that med kit in my room. We can bandage you up."
"What're we waiting for? Let's go!" Amphi said, drawing out the 'go' in a sing-song voice as he pranced towards their rooms.
"Hey! Wait up!" Rose called before scrambling off the floor and rushing towards him.