Chapter 177 - How Jedd77 and Frost Met

Not long after Scarlet returned to school, Alicia put together a study group session so that they could help Scarlet with one of her assignments. Mike had to bail because of club activities and Beatrice said that she had yoga classes. That left Alicia, Mandy and Edward for the study meeting. 

While it wasn't a terrible thing, Edward couldn't help but feel suspicious. Alicia usually didn't do something and rope him in without ulterior motives. When the girl organised something and wanted Edward's attendance, he was usually the one doing the grunt work. If he wasn't there to do grunt work, Alicia would be borrowing his intelligence to solve some problems.

In the study group, Edward was very sure it would be the latter. Sadly, he wasn't feeling in the mood to help anyone.

That thought quickly flew out of the window when he saw who was in the study group. Mandy and Alicia booked the library meeting room for an entire afternoon till it closes so they would be stuck in the room for four hours. Edward was expecting four hours of utter hell but as it turned out, the girls failed to mention there was an additional person in the study meeting.

The girl, no, the angel looked at Edward in surprise and Edward found himself not knowing what to do until Alicia snapped at him.

"Hurry up and sit down! You're already late. We're here to help Scarlet catch up on her assignments since she was sick for a week and missed lessons. The assignment is due in two days but if we put our heads together, she should be able to finish it by today."

Mandy nodded. "Since Edward is here, I will leave to find the books needed. Edward, you're better at teaching than Alicia. I'll leave it in your hands to teach what Scarlet doesn't understand."

Alicia agreed and looked through Scarlet's course assignment. The module was similar to what they studied in psychology so Alicia was able to find her notes to print out for Scarlet to reference seeing as the poor girl didn't have anything to refer to after she was away for a week. Edward, on the other hand, was walking on a tightrope.

Scarlet felt as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest when Edward pulled a chair closer to her so that he could share her laptop screen. The course assignment wasn't very difficult given Scarlet's intelligence. Even if she didn't attend any class, the writer knew she would still be able to manage on her own by reading up extra during the weekends. However, Alicia was nothing short of persistent so the writer gave in and agreed to attend the study group. Now, she wasn't so sure if it was a good idea.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I got all the notes. Please continue without me for a while, I have to go to the printer's to get my print outs," Alicia smiled and left hurriedly.

Edward didn't know what the girls were up to but he didn't mind the opportunity created to be alone with Scarlet. The spy was curious about many things but was never able to find any answers as Jedd77. Even though Scarlet was openly honest as much as she can be with him as Jedd77, Edward was never truly able to read Scarlet like how he did as Edward in the brief moments that he saw her in person.

Scarlet in person was very different from how she was in the presence of the media and on the red carpet. If Edward were to put it in perspective, Scarlet was like a warrior without openings on the red carpet and in front of cameras. Every action was calculated from her smile to her tears. Even appearing vulnerable was part of Scarlet's strategy to stay ahead of the game. Liu Xiu Wen's popularity wasn't only because of her looks and acting skills. She had many fans because she was mysterious and unpredictable. Just when the public thought they knew all there was to know about the actress, Scarlet would throw them a new bait to show them that they were wrong.

Working as a spy and observing people was Edward's strength. He could tell at once that Liu Xiu Wen was a professional actress in just about every aspect of her life on camera and in the industry. It was close to impossible for any celebrity to not be caught up in any kind of scandals no matter how hard they tried. Apart from work promotions, there was nothing about Liu Xiu Wen's personal life revealed. Edward did his best to dig up the connection between the popular actress and the Wilde Family but he couldn't find much until the Sweet Sixteen Gala.

Even so, Scarlet's name didn't appear very widely in China. More people still know her as Liu Xiu Wen and even lesser people could make the connection between the actress, writer, Wilde's second daughter and the masked singer from the disbanded Britannia. If Elfie didn't reveal so much to him, Edward might have never found out that Liu Xiu Wen wasn't Scarlet's true self.

When Edward first met Scarlet as Jedd77, he was slightly surprised that Scarlet liked to hide behind anonymity. She would often change her name as well as personality whenever she hopped from room to room. In fact, if Edward didn't have the access to the moderator's panel to check the users based on IP address and have Elfie mark Scarlet out specifically for him, the spy wouldn't have known. Scarlet kept those identities true to their character and never slipped up when she got into character.

The girl intrigued him at first because of how professionally she was able to play different characters. Even as a spy, he had trouble telling the truth from the lies. However, after spending enough time around Scarlet and her personalities, Edward decided to cast the line out using a personality that Scarlet felt comfortable around. Hence, Jedd77 was born.

Edward's real self was slightly arrogant and condescending when dealing with others. He didn't do anything that he didn't like or want but would be able to do anything when it concerns a personal interest or a mission. Edward was a loyal person but he was also a merciless person who wouldn't hesitate to backstab anyone if the need arose. He knew best how he was like when he had a bad day and even Elfie didn't want to mess with the spy on a meltdown. Edward was no stranger to the counselling facility in the Interpol's headquarters.

However, Jedd77 was nothing like Edward. He might be a more mysterious person who liked to tell obvious lies a lot just to tease another person or insult them indirectly. He was fun and witty but also quick to pick up on other people's emotions to know what line to respect.

Frost and Jedd77's first meeting happened when a troll was harassing a regular chat room member who pinged the admins for help. Jasper entered the room first and was monitoring the situation silently while trying to calm the distressed members. The spy wasn't going to interfere with the moderator's duties even if he had access simply because it was none of his business. Elfie gave him the mod access so that he could identify Scarle so Edward wasn't interested in anything else.

Usually, the other moderators from the Special Class or the E.C. Class would handle such cases. Edward didn't think that he would meet the elusive writer. 

When Frost entered the chat, Edward didn't see anything happen for the next five minutes. He expected her to ban the troll and resolve the issue quickly. However, Scarlet did something that made Edward raise his brow. Of all the personalities that he saw Scarlet use, Frost was a rather passionate personality with a snarky tongue. The character of Frost that he knew before was a cold and unsympathetic person with OCD so seeing such a turn in development caught Edward's interest before he knew it.

Frost didn't step in as a moderator. In fact, she hid her moderator status from everyone and talked to the people in the chat room. The troll who created problems simply left when they knew that they weren't able to stay in the spotlight for long with so many people seeing the truth of their intention. Scarlet was merciless with the facts and her words. She exposed their 'back story' and the reason why they can only choose to bully others on the internet. Of course, the backstory was just a bunch of cliche scenarios based on well-researched statistics for anyone who knew a thing or two about psychology. Edward didn't think that Scarlet knew psychology but he was once again impressed by Scarlet's knowledge about people in general. Perhaps it was her acting experience or writing research that gave her such a bone-chilling supernatural ability to read into the hearts of others. Perhaps it was something else. Regardless of how she did it, the troll got spooked by how much Scarlet was reading into them that they had to leave to protect what remained of their identity.

As it turned out, the troll was actually someone else in the chat room who just wanted attention. Edward had to give credits to Frost for handling the situation so well. Not only did she not ban the troll which would have also banned the user in the chatroom, but she also delivered punishment swiftly to those who deserved it as well as a second chance for those who wanted it.

From that meeting onwards, Edward was unable to turn his eyes away from Frost and would try to catch Scarlet whenever he could. Having a conversation with Frost was always the highlight of his day ever since he was benched from missions.

Liking Frost was something Edward was unsure about until he saw Scarlet in person. Now that she was beside him, the spy was absolutely sure that this was the girl he wanted to dedicate his everything to keep her safe and happy.

"Edward?" Scarlet asked when she noticed the teen staring at her.

Edward smiled. He would work on Anastasia's case when he got back, it could wait for now.