Chapter 155 - Ordinary Lives

Thursday, Chihua attended the classes as usual. Because of the recent accidents, parents were concerned about the safety of their children. Becuase if they do not, they will be seen as the shitty parents they are. Some were concerned, since there are still good parents, while some were just jumping onto the bandwagon.

Because of this, even with the bad reputation, the Public's image further plummeted. Surprisingly though, there was no mention of this in the news.

Chihua looked through his phone even though they were in class.

"The videos were deleted? What's happening?"

He searched and searched but there was nothing to be found. The teacher was aware of his doing. Not only does he not care, but he was also wary of Chihua.

Even with the Boss' absence, her position was still significant inside the Public.

Although the video was nowhere to be found, the discussion about it was still a continuing wildfire. The question of who's the guy with the hat, the cause of this fire, was the main topic. Some were able to provide suggestions but they cannot pinpoint him.

Chihua's face tightened when he remembered the fearful expression of Trisha as she looked at the murderer.

'Later, I will try to go to Trisha's house...'

He was a bit guilty that he felt excited but that was being overshadowed by worry and concern.

...

Meanwhile, within the Mershen High, the discussion regarding the Public and that incident was sounding everywhere.

"Iesa,"

Catherine stood in front of the school idol, Iesa Hun.

"Do you know where Teren is? He's not responding to our messages and he's absent too. You, his girlfriend, should know where he is, right?"

"I'm interested in this, as well!"

Lina then joined the conversation.

"He... didn't tell me either."

Iesa's eyebrows creased. However, she doesn't seem that troubled as she was supposed to be.

'If she's not worried about him, maybe, he's not in danger.'

Catherine thought that with Teren gone, they will be able to continue their lives peacefully. But that's not as easy as it sounds. They are still bound by the contract. That special relationship was enough to make them feel something else about the situation.

She took out her phone and showed Iesa a thread in a social media platform, discussing about the recent hot news.

"This... is him, right?"

"I think so." Iesa glanced and smiled.

"Wait! Let me see!"

"Hey, you can't just pull my phone from me! My life is in there!"

Lina took Catherine's phone and immediately read what's the discussion was all about while the latter protests.

"Read that in your own phone, damn it!"

The owner was able to snatch her own phone and looked if Lina saw anything else. She just sighed when she confirmed that Lina just looked at the thread.

"You're too sensitive about your phone."

Lina commented.

'Teren said I should record my own singing voice to hear my own flaws and improvements. If anyone heard these audio files, I'm going to kill myself!'

Catherine thought, thinking she was safe. Of course, she didn't know that there's a psychic in the classroom.

"And also, are you saying that Teren is the hat guy being talked right now?"

Lina asked while smiling, clearly showing that she didn't take it seriously. But internally, she believed otherwise.

"Huh? Of course not."

Catherine denied. In her eyes, Lina was just a curious outsider. She no longer stayed there to be interrogated by the class president and went back to her group.

She glanced at Nick but his eyes rolled to the side in response.

'He definitely knows something.'

As she sat down, she pinged Nick in the group and asked.

Catherine: [What's that guy doing? Tell me.]

Nick: [He told me to keep it a secret. Please, stop asking.]

Nathan: [Hey, don't just go telling that it's a secret. You should've replied that you don't know what's she's talking about!]

Nick: [But I think telling her would make her less... interested.]

Mira: [Inquisitive*]

Nick: [Yeah, that]

Nathan: [Well, this is the adults' job, students should stay out of this.]

Catherine: [Okay, just curious.]

Uncle Jo: [As long as you understand. Just don't go visiting him in the prison.]

Dennis: [Jo!]

Uncle Jo: [What?]

Dennis: [... too much information.]

Seeing this in the chat, Catherine and her group looked at each other. They just confirmed that Teren is the hat guy. It was already obvious but they weren't sure at first since there's a lot of dangerous people out there, not just him, from what they heard.

"Now, I'm getting more curious."

Catherine whispered which Mike replied.

"I think it's safer to be in the dark in this one."

Eline approached then and after crouching beside Catherine's desk, she whispered.

"That guy actually killed students in front of people, huh..."

"Yeah, I'm actually more shocked that I'm not surprised when I learned that he's the hat guy."

Hearing this, Mike sighed.

"As they said, we shouldn't really step into this. As long as Teren has yet to demand something, we should continue our normal lives."

"Oh yeah, now that you said it, aren't you picked as a regular in the basketball club? I heart you're also a substitute for the district meet after the Quarterly Exam."

Eline mentioned.

"Yeah! I'm kind of excited. But I don't want the only one to be focusing on our normal lives. You should too. If you don't, it'll make me guilty."

"But I don't really have anything particularly interesting happening in my so-called ordinary life."

Eline frowned and sighed.

"Eh? Aren't you focusing on practising your massaging skills?" asked Catherine.

"Y-yeah, but is that what I really want to do with my life?"

"That's enough. That's already a skill, you know. And I heard massage is more complex than it sounds."

"Yeah, professionally speaking, you need to know the human's anatomy and physiology to some extent etc. It's actually kind of depressing that science is in it..."

"Well, science is basically in everything now."

Mira suddenly stepped in.

"I hate it~~"

"But you're actually stepping onto that field, professionally I mean, isn't that amazing?"

Catherine clasped her hands which made Eline smile and asked her back.

"What about you?"

"Um... I'm still thinking of a hobby..."

'I'm actually practising singing. But I'm just going to tell it to them once I'm good at it!'

Catherine thought.

"Woah, seeing the darker side of the world really made us think more maturely, huh..."

Mira said as a reflection which everyone agreed.