She couldn't deny it, the mere mention of a treasure piqued her interest. She silently sneered, her voice softening as she breathed in the air around the room, before she stiffly turned around.
"I don't do free extra labor," she muttered, as she looked at Selena, who gazed back with anticipation.
Rubi silently pressed her lips as she slid her gentle fingers in her pocket, she grabbed a cold metallic item inside of it. "Tell me the full details," she stated as she grabbed her phone. "And do not try lying, unless you want to see yourself either in jail or dead on the street."
She then grabbed the seat with her free hand, unlocked her phone at the other, and slid it down to the table. Before she sat back, with her body weaving in a pleasant and comfy way.
The woman, Selena, had her eyes widened at the girl's sudden change of mind. She couldn't help to gulp for a moment, before she peered back at her in silence.
She could feel the strain on her body, still lingering from panic and desperation but she knew she had no time to idly more. Selena silently gripped the chair beside Rubi, as she pushed it, then within stillness, she sat on the chair with her back leaning against it.
"I..." Selena gulped as she looked down, then she raised her hand, placing it tenderly on the table, and crossed it. "My name is Qu Pei Ji, but I had changed my name to Selena when I started living in this country," she said as she looked down.
At that moment, she began introducing herself, where she came from, and how she got here. To the moment of how she got exiled in her own country. This was information that Rubi already knew, but as not to be direct, she let Selena speak for herself.
"I worked for five years in a newscasting report station, one of the major news stations in mainland china," she then pressed her thumbs on her fingers as she looked down. "I mainly do my jobs normally, but sometimes. I report news which the mainstream sometimes lacks to tell them, what they reporters don't tell sometimes — "
Rubi shook her head as she smirked, and then she tapped her fingers on the table. "Well, certainly, you have ways to piss someone off," she said, cutting her off as she softly smirked.
"It's my role as a reporter, if I do not, then what is justice held by rigged truth and limitation?" Selena asked, smiling soft heartedly as she felt her voice relaxing.
"Your foolishness and stupidity," said Rubi, as she sharply gazed at her. "To sacrifice your own for the sake of something even an entire country couldn't be part of," she murmured as she mockingly smirked. "No kindness will give you that kind of luxury, and justice is already rigged since mankind sinned."
This was not merely a hate over something, this was honesty over anything that everyone either degrades it or refuses to see. One that Rubi understood so well, even if she was still experiencing life.
If that truth alone was the hardest to swallow, if that alone is shackled by chains of many denials — to the injunction of humanity, then it is by the time we all know that no matter how many times we see the answer and solution to one problem, all will reject it for the sake of something.
And this will not change till this world burns like a cascade of corpses.
Selena gripped her fingers between, her eyes roughly, shot her with an intense and with disbelief look. "To do something for that sake, isn't all about behaving like a fool," she retorted, her palm pressed heavily hard at the table.
"Don't flatter yourself," said Rubi as she smirked and then, she crossed her hands as she breathed in with gentle silence, then she blinked. "You think doing something for the sake of everyone is worth the risk of your life...?"
Don't flatter herself?
Selena gleamed, her expression hardened as she looked at her. "You clearly lack the ability to emphasize," said Selena. "You know nothing," she added as she pressed herself, scraping the chair below her as she marched and stood up.
"Nothing of what had occurred to those people," she said as she purred. "There were massacred, there were people, trapped and enslaved, while being forced!" She added as she slammed her fingers on the table.
It was not mere news where everything should be validated as perfect, but the dark side of that is... Something no news media will ever want to cover... The reality and truth that everyone wants to bury and refuse to exist.
All for what sake?
"If your action is so called emphasis," the young adult, Rubi, clicked her tongue as she strongly spoke. Her voice was soft, yet firm and cold, despite being this calm. "Where did your actions lead you? Has it changed anything?"
This time, she leaned back as she glared at Selena, with her eyes flaunting in a burning determination. "Like I said, don't flatter your stupidity," said Rubi, with a sly frown.
Selena can't believe this, a young adult at this age, speaking like she knows anything makes her blood boil. She wasn't that stupid, no. She refused to be backed by someone who clearly lacks emphasis.
She pressed her lips as she tightened and spoke. "Shut up," she firmly said, as she shook her head, refusing to think that she might be right. "I didn't spend my years being lectured by a teenager," she said but clearly she couldn't deny that maybe, Rubi was right all along.
What did she have done?
All for the sake — what sake? Who's sake?
She...
Before, Selena couldn't even comprehend her words, she could not understand, and as she could process it. Rubi's patience perked as she stood up, her sliding at the chair, pushing it and creating a rattling sound was enough for Selena to look at her.
"On to the point," said Rubi, as she firmly looked at her. "You're wasting time with these idle nonsense debates," she then pressed her fingers on the table. "Just get to the fucking details..."
This wasn't the time to debate over something that she'll realize late, considering Selena is currently being chased. If anything, she doesn't want to know more about her idealism and heroism.
Rubi is here for a job, not to debate on whether she should call her foolish. And it may sound like she's cold, and firm, but she didn't care at all.
She had her own problems to deal with. If she keeps other people's problems, she's just gonna have another liability to handle. One she learns not to do so, and in any circumstances can she tolerate it.
And in this situation, that which Selena didn't understand. This woman, whom she thinks is not over twenty years old at best. Acted more maturely than most adults, which she had to meet, and who can't back down from a fight.
She nodded hesitantly as she began breathing in, and out, as she tried to calm down herself. Then silently, she pressed her lips as she looked back, hesitant for a moment but eventually she did so.
Rubi watched her as she paced through the hallway of her apartment, and entered one of the rooms, assuming it was her bedroom. A moment later, a voice piqued her as she heard that rustling sound.
Then words echoed. "When I first came to this country, I had nothing," said Selena, her words rang louder from the other room as Rubi listened.
She crossed her arms in silence, her body shifting, finding its way to lean on the side of the table.
"And I had no one in particular, but I was fine with that." Selena murmured, her words echoed as she softly spoke about her experience.
Selena began moving, her hands gently clutching the papers scattered on her bed. "For four years, I scrapped a job, but with my reputation as an exile, I couldn't find a job suitable for my specialty," she affirmed, as she huffed and moved a bit, grabbing the last item.
"I worked for about four years in the stationary bike station," said Selena, before she walked back towards the living room, carrying crumpled paper, and her laptop.
Then she fastened her pace, as she laid her laptop on the table, and scattered the papers around. "You are aware of The Hag, I presume?" She asked, as she showed the picture of their logo.
Rubi nodded, her moonlight blue eyes glazed at the paper, filled with information that was scattered on the table, as she leaned forward. "Affirmative," said Rubi, as she pointed to the face picture, where she found familiarity.
"That's right," the woman, Selena, said. "You are looking at the current second hand of the group, Ramirez Felton."