Sara and Jun - The Valley of Dead

Chapter 3: The Partners We Will Work With

(Narrative: Sukeo Yoiki)

After I dismissed with Araka and Jun, I headed to the secondary meeting room with Okuri.

"Man, I was still wondering why they received such special attention." Okuri seemed to be bothered by a bit, "oI mean, it's not saying that they did not deserve the attention for what they did, but at least, if we were always working together, then why we had to be separated from them?" It seemed to be that Okuri was still bothered by that.

"Maybe they did more research then us, or they actually had some connections with the incident," I tried my best to not expose to much information to Okuri, even though I knew that it had to do with their family.

Just as I finished my sentence, a guy with messy brown hair I could recognize approach us.

"Hi, Sukeo. It's nice to see you again."

It was Gu Shokaon, a friend from the SAIR intern technical branch, who was also a friend of Jun. Even though he was from Bakju too, I didn't know him before joining SAIR as he was from a high school from the other end of the city.

"Oh hi, Shokaon, how you doing today?"

"Well, it was pretty good. I just continue working on my novel recently. Oh, by the way, have you seen Jan Jun today? It would be a surprise if he was not here."

"Well, he was here today, but he was appointed by the hosts of the meeting to join the full-time group."

Right after I finished the sentence, he started to a bit panic as usually: "Ahh, How could he be promoted so fast? Does that mean that he would be a full time agent at this point? Did I not try hard enough-"

"Hey, brother, could you calm down a bit please," a girl with short, brown hairs came behind him and grabbed his shoulder. It was Minhei, Shokaon's big sister. She had a quite strong metabolism, with muscles being easily visible from her arms and core. It was even harder to believe that she was in the research branch, given most of her job was just doing site surveys and analyzing samples. Though she looked much shorter than Shokaon, she was actually two years older than him and she had already become a full time agent of the command branch for one year.

"Hello, Minhei, nice to meet you." I tried to greet her.

"Hello," as usual, she replied with her iconic facial expression - lazy eyes, static face, and staring eyes. I tried to hide my expression behind my glasses, so she couldn't be mad at me.

"H-ello, there, Minhei-sa-" Okuri tried to interact with her like what he usually did, but of course, he also met the staring eyes, and her light punch toward his chin. It was not lethal, but Okuri sure learned the lesson again on how to greet this type of people.

"So you guys are heading to the secondary meeting room, right?" She asked.

"Yes, we are heading there for the meeting for all of the intern workers."

"Tell me something funny, so I can exit this mode." It was her old trick - people usually didn't get what makes her laugh, so by doing that, she could either find new friends or getting along with old friends."

Shokaon tried first: "What was the type of house that you can enjoy the nature without going outside? A greenhouse."

Of course it didn't work for her, because it was a very overused joke. As expected, Minhei punched his face and said: "Bro can you think of a better joke? you had told this for like 300 times! Next."

It was my turn. From what I know about her, she seemed to be interested in internet memes.

"Inkreto Brecellio." It was a popular meme, which was the punch line of the main character of a well known animated series.