STRANGERS FOR YEARS, THREE NIGHTS AS FRIENDS

˗ˏˋ A DETECTIVE'S OBSTACLE 'ˎ˗

Nobody kept track of how many minutes had passed since the incident that happened this morning. The main lobby was completely empty after a few 10 minutes, and nobody dared to clean up the rotten limbs. Who knows? It still might've been lying there.

The ship was quieter than usual today, the eerie silence filling the air like a foreboding cloud. The frightened guests had all retreated to their rooms, some with tears still wet on their faces, while others had taken the opportunity to jump into the sea desperately attempting to wash away the horrors they had just witnessed. They weren't even aware that they were committing suicide.

Some of the guests were so traumatized that they dragged their children down with them into the sea. And despite the number of suicides that occurred today, the cruise ship continued to head to its destination.

Back when Seven continued to stand on stage after the incident, he had been dragged out of there by Kenji and Prosper. And ever since that happened, all three rested in Prosper's reserved room with an intense shock that filled their minds.

There was a gloomy aura that weighed in the room, accompanied by the sounds of thrashing rain and thunderstorms. The splashes of water were barely audible due to the sudden lighting that flashed the clouds brightly.

Prosper sat on the side of the bed with his head hung low and his hands collected in his lap. With each ragged breath he took, he felt as if a weight was almost crushing his chest and his fingers continued to tremble in fear. Fear that he wouldn't know what would happen next.

Sometimes, he'd catch glimpses of Kenji's figure and Seven's. One who leaned against the door and the other whose attention was glued to the ground. Prosper couldn't see what look Seven wore thanks to their raven locks covering the sides of his face, but it was alright to assume that he was processing everything.

Then, he glanced at Kenji, who had a profound look of disgust on his face. His lips were pressed together in grimace and his eyes narrowed with horror. When Kenji turned his gaze to Prosper, Prosper looked away quickly as he could sense the tension in the room.

After ending the debate on whether he should say something or not, he forced the words to come out of his mouth. "Seven, what happened back there?"

Both Kenji's and Prosper's eyes lay on the black-haired man who kept his head low. Kenji wanted to add more to the question but was quickly interrupted by Seven's abrupt response, a sense of harshness laced with it.

"I don't know. I really don't know, okay? Like the two of you, I'm trying to figure out what's going on."

Seven kept each of his hands on his arms, slightly scratching his skin without realization. His mind was already rambled with stress and unsolved answers to this case, and to let such an incident occur so suddenly let those answers fail apart. What happened back on the stage was crucial to the case, yet it was barely figured out yet.

His nails dug deeper into his arms as his head lowered even more. What was he going to do now? With thoughts that spiraled around without control and overthinking what would happen next, Seven could barely rethink. Before his nails scratched faster, his wrist was yanked upward.

Seven's empty eyes stared up at Prosper, who was shaking his head slowly. "Seven, don't do that to your arms. Those members...didn't matter that much anyway. They were just there to play a few songs, right?"

The detective continued to stare up at him blankly as he thought about their words. Maybe it was just him, but Prosper's words felt...odd. Out of place. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but it didn't sound like what Prosper would exactly say. Not to mention that their expression and the tone of their voice didn't sound right either.

As his eyebrows slightly furrowed, Seven responded with suspicion. "Matter?  What do you mean? They weren't important at all?" A flashback of the slender white strings that slithered out of the band members' limbs came to him.

Kenji remained silent as he listened intently to their conversation. His arms were crossed, and he kept his head down. When he heard the two talking about the band, he felt sick to his stomach and couldn't ignore it. But he also couldn't ignore another thing. It was the thoughts he had back at the diner, one of them being Prosper's lack of concern for such issues.

Then, he remarked. "Prosper, are you saying that the band that you hired since you're the host of this whole cruise journey, didn't matter at all? They were just there for show?"

"No, no! I didn't mean it like that," he quickly objected, shaking his head once more. "I meant that the band wasn't that important to everything that happened on the cruise."

Seven's suspicions began to grow, every sentence that came out of Prosper's mouth burning into his memory. What he was saying didn't make sense at all, and he bet that Kenji could agree on the same thing. If Prosper had been involved in this, Seven would probably have to murder him. And as much as he wanted to stay cold and not grow attached to anyone on the cruise, a part of him didn't want to see Prosper die.

The events unfolding around him seemed eerily familiar, like scenes from an old forgotten case, but he couldn't make the connections. Each person he encountered had a face that was vaguely recognizable, yet shrouded in ambiguity. It was like trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.

Focus on the present, he thought to himself, forcing his attention back to the task at hand. But even the simplest details seemed unreachable, slipping through his fingers like sand. Was he imagining things, or was there something larger at play, manipulating his perception of reality?

Before Seven could utter another word, he felt a sudden, firm tug on his wrist. It was Kenji, who wore a suspicious expression. With a forced, ecstatic grin, Kenji leaned in, pulling the detective up and away from Prosper.

"Sorry, Prosp. Seven once talked about how he...was unsure if he was gay! And he asked me to help him try to figure it all out," an embarrassingly pathetic excuse breezed through his teeth. "But I forgot, so I'll be back."

"...What? " the shorter man hissed out with snapped eyebrows.