Dark Purple Rose [YiZhan FF]

Chapter 20

When the criminal movie was over, Yibo went to take a shower while Zhan sat down at his laptop and wrote Isko a text that Yibo and he thought about carefully beforehand. He wrote him; "Hi Isko, I received your email and will take care of myself. Don't worry, we are looking for a way to help you. Please let us know when your boss is back. If anything happens, write to me immediately. I have set an e-mail alert on my cell phone to inform me as soon as I receive an e-mail from you. Best regards, Zhan."

After Yibo, Zhan went to take a shower. Meanwhile, Yibo looked at a list of students who were at the university at the same time as Zhan, which Agent Lee had sent him. He used a neon yellow pen to mark the names and birthdays of the students whose birthdays were between October 1st and 10th. On another list were the current addresses of those former students, if available. However, Yibo has no plans to visit these former students with Zhan. Other agents would take care of that. He and Zhan must concentrate solely on Isla Isari.

Zhan came out of the bathroom, sat down next to Yibo and looked at the two lists. "None of the names mean anything to me. But they also studied something completely different from me. So I had nothing to do with them anyway." Zhan sighed and put the lists back on the table. He would have liked to know why Agent Nax took their blood samples and where the blood samples were now. Because Agent Lee couldn't provide an answer.

"At least if they were all the same age, it would probably be easier to find out why Agent Nax is interested in them. But they're all between the ages of 20 and 24. And I'm just going to assume that none of them know Agent Nax." Replied Yibo.

"I don't know anything anymore Yibo. I'm tired and I'm going to sleep now. At least for this night, I want to forget all this crap and dream something nice."

"I'm tired too and I'm about to go to sleep. I wish you a good, restful night and nice dreams."

"Thank you very much Yibo. I wish you the same." Zhan replied, yawned and went to his bedroom. Yibo looked after him until Zhan was no longer to be seen. Then he put the lists away, stretched extensively and went to bed too.

Zhan's guest room is small, but quite big enough for a normal-sized bed, a closet, a small table with an armchair, a floor lamp in the corner and a large lush green houseplant in the other corner. And two beautiful wall paintings that Yibo would describe as abstract art hung on the wall opposite the bed. There is a light white curtain at the window. And two black velvet curtains made sure that no light from outside could get in. All in all, Yibo thought, this is a very nice room in which he actually feels good, sleeps well and can relax.

As Yibo lay down in the bed, he smelled the fabric softener that Zhan always uses when washing. Summer breeze, as Yibo thought he remembered. The soft, fragrant pillowcase and comforter cover felt pleasant on Yibo's skin. The smooth sheets felt cool and soothing. Yibo moved his legs back and forth a few times and rubbed them against the sheet while the scent of the summer breeze tickled his nose.

Although there was no night light or television in this room, Yibo did not find it difficult to bear the darkness. He closed his eyes and felt his body begin to relax. Before he fell asleep, however, he allowed his thoughts to unfold once more. It occurred to him, not for the first time these days, that he felt unusually comfortable with Zhan.

During his training as a new agent at the training academy and from some of his colleagues, he had already heard that there were these "exceptions" in which agents felt emotionally attached to the people they were dealing with during their missions. This is completely normal and often even understandable because some missions are very intense and you unconsciously look for an anchor or an outlet, which are often the people who are part of the mission.

Yibo himself never considered himself to be a very emotional person, but he was certainly open to it. However, he had never developed such a feeling in his few previous missions. Either because the missions weren't intense enough for him to develop this feeling, or because the people didn't interest him in the first place. He wasn't sure about that. And he didn't care. All he knew was that Zhan meant a lot to him and that he was afraid to show it.