I can't say your name

Cap. 4

It's just another day of school for Eddy: classes, practice and tutoring. Only God knows how much he hated his routine! If it was just for him, he would have practiced all day and skipped tutoring. The thing is: he'd already decided that he wanted to attempt the con after high school. Why did he have to do these boring math classes! Anyways, his parents didn't know about his choice yet, so let's play the good son and waste his time on maths.

He entered the room, scanning it with his eyes: every week guys came and went, so every week he at least had the possibility to know new people. That new Asian guy looks like a good choice, he thought while making his way to the desk beside him.

Eddy: "Hey, is this seat free?"

The guy looked up at him and nodded, adjusting his glasses with his finger

Eddy: "I'm Eddy by the way"

Brett: "Nice to meet you Eddy, I'm Brett"

He said outstretching his hand for Eddy to shake.

Eddy: "It's the first time I see you here"

Brett: "Yeah, I'd managed to convince my parents not to make me join the tutoring up to the last time, but today I had to"

Eddy: "How did you convince them? I've been trying to do the same this whole year but my parents won't listen to me!"

Brett: "Traditional Asian family I guess?"

Eddy: "Yeah..."

Brett: "Well I told them I wanted to attempt the con after school and they kinda let me decide if I wanted to come here or not, but my mother is still convinced I'll change my mind and go for med school, so here I am!"

Eddy: "I want to attempt the con too! But I haven't told my parents yet, obviously they are still convinced..."

Brett: "That you'll be doctor?"

Eddy looked down to his desk and sighed

Brett: "Btw what instrument do you play?"

Eddy: "Violin, and you?"

Brett: "Me too!"

Eddy: "No way!"

Brett: "Hey if you'd like we could go busk together on Saturday"

Eddy: "Sure mate!"

That was probably the only day where Eddy really enjoyed the math tutoring, not that he had listened much to what the teacher had said, his attention was captured by the shorter guy at his left.

Brett: "So... see you tomorrow to rehears our pieces?"

Eddy: "Sure"

They were about to exit the room when the teacher called Eddy back at his desk.

Eddy: "Did I do something wrong?"

Asked Eddy puzzled

Mr. Smith: "Oh no, calm down, I only wanted to propose a deal to you. Please sit"

Eddy sat down sweating cold and took a deep breath

Mr. Smith: "So Edward Chen, I think you know your grades, you're one of my brightest students"

Eddy: "Thank you sir"

Mr. Smith: "Let's play a game..."

He said, taking a piece of paper and a pencil

Mr. Smith: "Try to solve this puzzle"

Mr. Smith traced few lines on the paper and turned the page to Eddy. He looked down at the paper and analysed the puzzle: it was pretty simple, he was about to resolve it when Mr. Smith pulled back the paper leaving a more puzzled Eddy watching at him.

Mr. Smith: "Well Eddy this is not this simple...I know you can solve this in the blink of an eye, and I want you to listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you: this puzzle took me five years to solve, so yeah is not as easy as you think. Before I give you back the paper, let me just tell you that you are not as bright as the other teachers want you to think: but way more"

Mr. Smith handed back the piece of paper and Eddy quickly wrote down the answer. He was terribly scared by the man in front of him, he had always been scared by people who told him how good he is, because he always had the feeling that they were kidding or wanted something in exchange.

Eddy: "Can I go now?"

Mr. Chen: "Not that quickly Edward"

A voice behind him called. Eddy turned around in the blink of an eye and stared at his father sitting in the back of the room.

Eddy: "Father?"

Mr. Chen: "Eddy"

Eddy: "What is going on here?"

Mr. Chen: "You probably don't know that you have solved the highest level of recruiting test in less than a minute. Less than 15 seconds to be precise. Mr. Smith took the paper for me to start the timer. You have just done what years-trained agents do in thirty minutes with a calculator. Welcome to the agency then!"

From that day on, Eddy's life changed a lot and the old boring routine was replaced with one more suitable for him. He liked his new training and he liked the fact that now he could stop studying for med school. There was only one thing he hated: he couldn't spend as much time as he wanted with Brett.

Brett: "Hey mate, are you up for practicing together later?"

Eddy: "Sorry bro, still have homework for med"

Brett: "You're making me think that you actually want to join med school, or..."

Eddy: "Or what?"

Brett: "You don't like spending time with me..."

Eddy: "What, no! I really like spending time with you, I only have to find the courage to tell my parents that I don't want to become a doctor"

Brett: "You know that you can ask for my help"

Eddy: "Sure, thank you"

Brett: "What for?"

Eddy: "For existing"

Brett: "Oh come on stop, you're making me blush!"

It was true, he loved spending time with Brett, more than he should, maybe. His father told him clearly: love is a distraction, not that agents didn't get married, but they always put work before their partners. If they had to kill their wives or husbands to prioritize work, they would have to do it. Eddy would have to do the same one day if he decided to get married, there was only one problem: he would never kill Brett, not even if he had a gun in his hands and was threatening to shoot him. He would have let Brett kill him, would have let Brett do anything to him...yeah this had to sound this dirty, hey don't blame me it's only Eddy's mind after all!

At the beginning it was easy: traditional Asian families are not really into gay marriage so that was another thing against him, another reason to stop thinking about the shorter boy. Going on with the new found routine and the enormous amount of lies he had to tell Brett, he started to hate this job and hate the fact that he was basically not free to do anything:

-N°1: no people other than the authorized ones are allowed to know

-N° 32: other agents are not allowed to ask questions about your mission if they're not in your team

-N°51: if your master calls you, even in the middle of the night, you must be available

-N°59: if you want to get married, you have to ask two years prior to the wedding day, in order to give the Company time to find agents to cover your absence

-N°67: if caught socializing with members of other companies, you will be killed on the spot

Etc, etc...so many fucking rules he had to respect, and every one of them was another brick in the wall between him and Brett, how he hated all of this!