Changes (Discontinued)

Chapter 11

John's Pov

"Sera!!"I called out her name, in hopes of catching her attention before, she could go away further in search of me.

She seemed to have heard my voice, as she has glanced around the area. It didn't take her much time, in spotting me, due to my black hairs that stood out the most in the crowd.

"Where have you been?!!" she asked in concern, with a bit of annoyance in her voice."I've been looking all over for you".

"Erm. I needed to attend a call from...Dad"I answered, coming up with the best excuse I can at the moment.
"I didn't mean to worry you!"I further added.

"I was not worried" she said dismissingly.

I couldn't help but smile at her childish demeanor of denying the obvious. As much as I wanted to tease her about it, I knew that it was not the time.

I turned to her.

"Sera it's getting late. I think we should return now..."I said, trying to sound normal despite my anxiety.
"Besides, I still haven't finished my trigonometry homework yet."

She seemed a bit surprised at the sudden change of plans. She frowned on looking at the time, in her watch.

8:30 PM

"You are right. Maybe we should call it a day." she nodded in approval, to my suggestion.

With that she turned on her heels, and began to walk towards the exit. I followed closely behind her keeping a close eye on the booth.

It was surprising to see that the booth was quite crowded. People of all ages, were rushing there in hopes of getting the prizes.
I noticed that the ability gauger wasn't the same guy at the mall.

I pitied the high-tiers, who were unknowingly getting themselves in trouble. A question lingered in his mind:
'After the mall incident, the authorities should have at least done a background check on these ability gaugers, before granting them the permission to set stalls here.'

Due to the crowd, we had some trouble getting out of here. But somehow we managed to make our way through it.

No one's pov

John decided to come here later, after coming up with a good strategy. His mind was lost in thoughts thinking about the possibility of extracting information from them:

If he confronted them directly, then it will not only cause a huge commotion which will result in hurting the people there, but also give them the distraction to run away.

His thoughts were cut-off by a nudge, which he assumed came from Sera, who was glancing at him.

"John are you alright?" she asked in concern, noticing his troubled expression.

"What...oh yeah. I'm fine" John responded almost missing the question.

She frowned at his distant voice.
'He is acting rather distracted' she thought.
"Are you sure?
You've been spacing out a lot recently.
Is something troubling you?" she said in a questioning tone.

John was taken aback by the seemingly obvious question. Tension filled the air as he thought for a moment on how to answer her.

"I was just worried about the homework. I heard from Blyke that it's a bit difficult. "he answered nervously, scratching his nape.

"It was pretty easy" she remarked, causing him to frown.

"Easy for you to say"he muttered.

"I can send you the pictures if you want," she assured him as they continued to walk.