You fill my lungs and take away the air [Global Examination]

Chapter 12: Monster made of memories

"That dumbass. Why isn't he back yet?" Wen Yuan tapped his foot impatiently, pouring the freshly boiled water from the kettle into the teapot, taking his mind off 154 for just a couple of seconds so he didn't risk spilling scalding hot water on himself, before going back to thinking about his partner.

While 154's complexion did look a little better than before, and he was coughing less... he still looked quite tired and under the weather, and naturally, Wen Yuan was still a little worried.

Why wouldn't he be? 154 said that he'd come back quickly, and he was always one to complete his assigned tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, as sick as he was.

If there was anyone that Wen Yuan trusted to get things done... it was most definitely 154.

Qin Jiu was somewhere on the list as well, but he had... changed, upon becoming an invigilator; Wen Yuan still remembered what the man was like, back when they had met in that examination center.

Something about a military base, or was it a war zone? Wen Yuan no longer remembered the details, but he did remember quite clearly that Qin Jiu had come in via helicopter and hijacked a car.

The memory of who Qin Jiu had once been, and the image of him now... it almost felt like Qin Jiu was a completely different person, now burdened by something he didn't exactly remember; which wasn't too much of a long shot, considering that all the invigilators seemed to be suffering from some kind of memory issues.

Everyone... except for 154.

Wen Yuan never got the feeling that 154 remembered too little.

On the contrary, sometimes he'd look at 154... and feel that 154 was seeing too much.

He wasn't sure what was on 154's mind half the time, that stubborn idiot had a bad habit of just clamming up and not talking at times, especially whenever things got a little too hard to handle... but in Wen Yuan's opinion, there was nothing wrong with that, not really.

In a place where the System's invisible eyes were everywhere (Wen Yuan might not be as sensitive to it as Qin Jiu and 154, but he definitely did get the phantom feeling of being watched every now and then), only someone not in their right mind wouldn't try to hide a bit of themselves, to not feel so seen, exposed, like they were an onion, with every single layer gradually being peeled back until nothing left of them remained.

And yet... no one seemed to see past that side of 154 that he wanted everyone to see, past the walls and barriers that 154 had put up, to see his friend for who he truly was.

A certain bitterness filled Wen Yuan's heart at the memory of everyone just looking at 154, silently urging him to be one to deal with the System's bullshit.

It wasn't just because of 154's rank, or being Qin Jiu's subordinate... Wen Yuan got the heavy feeling that they just didn't like him all that much.

It wasn't anything new, and was actually something he had been hearing a lot about, ever since he first got the news that he was to start working directly under 001; many of the other more experience invigilators had all originally been rather against it, and thought it would be better for him to reject the offer.

After all, with 922's clumsy nature being known to anyone who had invigilated with him for about ten minutes, they all feared that 922 would accidentally do something to make 001 upset... as unlikely as it was; it was a well-known rumour that 001 had been quite the troublesome examinee in his time, and that was pretty much cemented when Wen Yuan learned that 001 was actually Qin Jiu, someone he had actually done an exam with in the past, someone who was, really, quite lax and chill, and even rather playful, when no one's life was in danger.