News With The Neverseen

Episode 16

TW: Mention of de/ath threats

Gisela's POV

"Welcome back!" Someone I couldn't recognize said to me as I walked in.

"Uh, thanks?" I said, but they were already gone.

This happened again, not a few minutes later. How did so many people know who I was?

I reached my desk and sat down. I turned on the desktop planted there–yeah, like the ones in the library–and began mindlessly scrolling, waiting for Fintan or Gethen to assign me my task.

When I reached the company's site, I paused. They did a Q&A while I was gone?

Shrugging to myself, I clicked to "admin mode" and scrolled through all the questions asked. Some were answered. Most weren't. Almost all of the questions were for Gethen from his obsessed fans. Now thoseannoyed me.

When I reached the bottom of the question list, I gasped. It was a question from UmberRocksNWNSux. That sounded... familiar. It made me uneasy.

Squinting at the screen, I read it to myself.

Better watch your back, Gethen. I'm coming for you. -Umber.

I shot out of my chair. Before I could talk myself out of it, I snapped a picture of the computer screen and marched to Fintan's office.

If there was one thing I knew about Gethen, it would be that he would never tell anyone if he got a Q&A submission like this. He was too proud–also too caught up in his own world. It was almost like he thought he was invincible sometimes.

But someone needed to tell Fintan that Gethen was in danger. Umber did not make empty threats. This... this was real. And I figured that it was my duty to report it. So what if Gethen got annoyed? It would be worth it.

I knocked on the door of Fintan's office and stood waiting for the door to open.

Fintan didn't look surprised to see me on my first day back. "Gisela! Nice to see you back! What do you need?"

I looked behind me to make sure Gethen wasn't nearby to stop me.

I didn't trust my own voice, so I held out the screenshot for Fintan to see.

Fintan's smiling face seemed to age a decade. His eyes widened. "Please come in. And close the door behind you."

+++

I sat down in a seat facing Fintan's desk.

"Tell me more," Fintan said, breaking the awkward silence.

I launched into an explanation. Fintan stared at it for a minute, then stood up from his seat. "Thanks for informing me of this development. This was from the Q&A day, you said?"

"Yes, sir."

Fintan nodded.

"Oh, and Gisela?" Fintan said as I turned to leave. "Please tell Gethen that he should have gone to me right after he saw that message. And that appropriate measures will be put in place right away."

+++

"Gisela!" Gethen rushed to my desk. And I might've been imagining things, but his smile looked rather forced.

"Gethen. Hey! How were the bagels?" Gethen's face fell. "Oh, those. Fintan forced me to throw them away."

"Oh, sorry."

Gethen nodded solemnly. "Life is tough."

"You're telling me," I muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Are you going on the air soon?"

"Yeah, so I'm here to assign you your job before I go in for hair and makeup. We need you to look into more information about the mysterious Cassius Sencen."

"Cassius? What did he do?"

Cassius? Of all things, I needed to look into Cassius?

In case you don't recall, Cassius was my ex-boyfriend. He dumped me because... because of how I looked at Gethen when I was on the news. I was glad Gethen didn't remember who Cassius was–not that I expected him to.

Gethen had eavesdropped on a phone conversation between me and Cassius that was rather hard to forget–unless he pretended to for my sake.

And now, Cassius did the only thing that would get back at me for betraying him–he joined the Black Swan. Our enemy. Our mutual enemy.

When I snapped back to reality, Gethen was staring at me like he was trying to look into my soul.

"There it is again." He mused.

"What?" I asked, suddenly defensive.

"That jolt you do whenever I mention his name."

"What jolt? I don't do a jolt." I replied quickly.

Gethen examined me some more. "Yes, you do. Do you... know him?"

"What? No!" [A/N: Yes, it's my favorite ITZY quote that is present in almost everything I write XD]

"You do know him! Who is he?"

"Gethen." I met his eyes. "Stop asking questions. I'm trying to focus."

"Fiiiine," he said, drawing out the word. "See you on the air."

But before he could leave, a woman walked up to my desk. But not just any woman–Umber.

"W-w-what are you doing here?" "I don't know what you're talking about." Umber subtly motioned her head towards Gethen.

Right. Gethen probably didn't know this was the Umber.

"I'm new." Umber said, a sparkle in her dark eyes. And all my knowledge gathered by my years being friends with Umber all came down to one thing–that sparkle was never good. "Can you speak to me in my office?"

"Sure. Yeah." I said, trying to hide my annoyance. Umber had an office?! Why didn't I?

"Great. Follow me." Umber led me away, and I couldn't ignore the way Gethen's eyes followed every step she took.