Dr. Galen put down his gla.s.ses and drank some water to satiate his dry throat before looking at the silent dark-haired youth sitting opposite of him. There was a clicking sound as the recorder was turned off, signaling the beginning of another conversation that should never be disclosed to outsiders, not even the doctor"s closest confidants."I really don"t understand, Bin. Mina is three years old this year but you said you"ve escaped the facility when you were five or six. How does it make sense that she was there too?"
"It doesn"t.. Because she wasn"t, at that time."
"But it is a fact that, at some point, she was held in there too, right?"
Bin nodded his head and clenched his fists.
"So you were captured again and met her or what?"
"No, Shin went and got her out."
Galen ma.s.saged his aching temple while pondering about this troublesome issue. After an inordinate amount of time, he said:
"You escaped when you were young but you didn"t tell me how you met her. Was it at the orphanage?"
Bin seemed reluctant to talk about it but after a long internal struggle, he decided to tell the truth, well, part of it.
"Just like me and all the other children in that orphanage, Mina was also experimented on but it wasn"t the same kind of "experiments", per se. In essence, the people in there focused on two things; Power and Immortality. To achieve the latter was harder than expected so most of the subjects were put to sleep in the last 1970s."
"Put to sleep? In what way."
"Frozen in an artificially and Maninfused capsules. Mina was one of the subjects, I got to meet her right before I escaped and several years later, Shin broke in and brought her out. It was then that she regained full consciousness."
"So Shin went there alone and left unharmed?"
"Not all the experiments performed on us were a failure. Some were bestowed frightening powers… Shin was one of the fortunate ones, I guess."
Dr. Galen raised his pen and got ready to write as he asked Bin again: "Do you have any idea what his power was?"
"Immunity." Bin only said one word, not even fully explaining its meaning. This left Galen confused but he didn"t ask further than that as he noticed that the youngster was becoming paler, probably because he was remembering the unforgettable memories of the past.
*****
Now that he knew that the Kind Driver was actually a powerful magic-user, Bin viewed him with a new light. His gaze was focused on the front of the limo, he didn"t even notice Jasmine"s peculiar gaze. Only when she nudged with more force than necessary did he snap out of it and robotically turn his head toward her.
"What is it that you said… honored?"
Her words held contempt and mockery as she appeared angry or perhaps annoyed, as usual, of course. Bin shrugged his shoulders and gave no reply to the black-haired girl who snorted and coldly added:
"Since the day I met you, you"ve never been respectful to me, your master! Yet you said you were honored?"
Bin let out a long sigh before saying: "Look, you"re younger than me and the only reason I behave respectfully in front of your parents is because you"re my employer. My boss, basically. The relationship between us is that of a master and servant, I don"t need to revere your existence 24/7."
This time, Jasmine didn"t lash out at him and, instead, crossed her arms and rebuked: "There"s still time… I"ll teach you some manners sooner or later."
Bin didn"t dignify that by a response and just went back to thinking as there was nothing to do inside the car. It will take a bit more time to reach the academy, which was actually their destination. In fact, he only caught a sense of that when he saw an unfamiliar rode and the car stopped in front of a medium-sized villa.
"Where are we?"
Jasmine seemed to have calmed down, she took out her phone, calling Melissa while answering him: "Since you didn"t tell my anything about what happened to Rika, I decided to go check on her personally."
"So this is where she"s staying?" He paused for a moment before adding: "Melissa lives here?"
He appeared genuinely surprised as he didn"t expect that two-faced b.i.t.c.h to live in such a shallow place, compared to Rika and Jasmine"s homes, that is. Even from a normal person, the villa was grand and really big but after seeing the manor Rika was living in, Bin wasn"t impressed by the villa.
"Maybe you should give her some time."
Jasmine completely ignored him and got off the limousine and headed toward the villa. There were no security guards, only a blond girl standing at the entrance, clearly waiting for Bin"s master. As her "loyal" servant, he quickly followed her why sneaking a couple of glances at Melissa, who wasn"t smiling like usual.
Rika has stayed with her as she clearly couldn"t go back home after "that" happened, furthermore, Melissa definitely wouldn"t let her friend return to that horrible place, at least not until everything has been solved. Even though Bin didn"t tell her the truth, an intelligent girl like her easily figured the cause of this whole mess hence her actions yesterday at the hospital.