“Clark…, it’s ok, calm down, forget about the dream already”. Sonia comforted Clark in a soothing tone after he narrated the dream to her in the morning. “I’ll never put you in a situation that’ll endanger your life, I promise. Don’t worry, we’ll just have to be more careful and cautious”. She added in a softer tone to drive home her point. Clark finally calmed down a little after repeated calming words from her. He may have overreacted, but you’ll never understand his overreaction until a bullet is embedded in you. When you see yourself slowly dying and the tinder of life fading out of you, the trauma would speak for itself. Weaker-minded individuals can even develop psychological problems immediately. It felt shameful and embarrassing for a male soldier to be comforted by a girl because of a nightmare, but the feeling of him slowly dying still spooked him to no end. It was at these rare moments that he remembered his best friend, Leo. He could only cherish his luck and thank God for providing a temporary replacement, in the form of Sonia. The dream didn’t mean that it must happen exactly physically as he saw it, but this only increased his cautiousness. Though there were countless examples of dreams that never materialize in the physical world, he was not going to trust in a gamble, not that his luck was ever good before. After thinking it through, he finally decided to shove it to the back of his mind. Worrying will not solve any problem, it would rather make the situation worse, it was better if he worked on progressing his mission. During the past few days, he already went far in his mission progress. After becoming friends and flowing along well for 2 days, Frank finally presented him with an invitation card to the minister’s son’s birthday. On seeing the invitation, he politely thanked Frank the youthful way. Though he did it reservedly, inwardly, he was already doing a happy dance. This was abnormally fast progress on his part. This birthday was going to rock the whole capital city youths, as the birthday boy was well known in their circle, he was among the few famous gurus. Though Clark was happy at his progress, the birthday party still increased his caution to be careful as the security was surely going to be tight.… After a few uneventful days, the highly anticipated party day finally came. The whole event center was filled to the brim with people from different backgrounds, spreading happiness and youthfulness like a drug. The atmosphere was very harmonious and cheerful, as the youths did different dances with their various girlfriends or boyfriends. Clark naturally went out to dance with Sonia, to reinforce the notion that they were from big backgrounds and to not be the weird one among the youths that will draw unwanted attention. He didn’t know how to dance with a girl before now, but he learned overnight through his implant after Sonia predicted that it was required for their mission to progress. Till now, Frank didn’t know of their identity nor did he care to ask. He didn’t feel the need to, as he thought that they were a pair of lovebirds who ran away from home to enjoy life. After enjoying themselves for hours with the other youths, they finally spotted their target. The governor’s son was dressed in all white, as he danced with his girl also on white. He wore a white polo dress, with thick tight white jeans, complemented by white party boots. His wrists did not disrupt the combination, as it was beautifully adorned with a pure white stylish wristwatch. Clark did not act immediately on seeing him, he just patiently danced with Sonia as the music steadily blasted on. The beautiful beat combination kept the party alive. After a lot of other casual performances and entertainments from guest artists, the ceremony officially ended in the night. It was at this moment that Frank finally brought Clark to introduce him to the governor’s son. Clark felt relieved on seeing this, as he still initially thought that it was a prank when Frank said he was close to the governor’s son. The atmosphere was very harmonious, as the cadre of boys joked and drank cheerfully in a circle. “Yo…, isn’t that Frank? My guy, you are finally here. What took you so long?” Eminem asked with a wide smile appearing on his face, as he stood up to hug Frank before bumping their fists together. “Eminem, you look legit as always. I always like this your style, donning white with your girl. You feel me?”. Franck replied with a smile, as he gave his friend a passionate hug.“Frank, I can see you brought a friend here with you”. Eminem said while still maintaining the smile on his face, as he finally turned to face the boy and girl standing behind his friend. “Ah, yes, I almost forgot. Eminem, this is Clark, probably not his real name. You understand, right?”. Frank said with a strange smile, before throwing a rhetorical question at his friend. Eminem immediately understood on hearing the question and seeing the strange smile on his friend’s face. “Clark…, you are one of us who run away from home to enjoy love and life”. He said with a raised voice while bumping Clark’s shoulders with his smooth baby-like hands as a grin covered his face. “I envy you, bro, my father won’t even allow me to enjoy myself just a bit. These burly things he calls guards always follow me everywhere, including the bathroom”. This earned a laugh from the other boys, prompting Clark to laugh also. This guy was clearly a social guy. It wasn’t even an hour since they met before he and Clark turned into close buddies. “Bro, you got a legit girl accompanying you there. I can feel her freshness”. Eminem commented again with a laugh under the slight influence of alcohol, as he turned to admire the girl a bit.This remark strained Clark’s smile a little, but he quickly controlled his emotions, smoothly continuing his conversation with him as Sonia clung to his arm. After an event-packed day, they finally retreated for the night. They went back to their hotel, despite the invitation from their new friends to sleepover at their place. Before going, Clark didn’t forget to exchange contact details with Eminem, which he happily obliged. Recently, he started noticing that Sonia was now keeping a certain boundary between them after the last talk they had about their relationship. He felt relieved on seeing this but also felt a little empty inside. He didn’t know when or how it started, but he already started developing real feelings for her. She already started dominating his thoughts. “Life is really complicated man”. He muttered with a sigh, before tucking himself in and going to sleep. … As from the next day, the fruits of their hard work finally started manifesting. They directly started going out together with Eminem, as he began inviting them to his social events. After weeks of hanging out with him, Clark already started feeling a real sense of bond with him. The feeling was surreal to him, it seemed like the brothers in arms kind of feeling. Unknowingly to him, he already took Eminem as his real friend. Even spending daily time with an animal can develop feelings. If done with a human, the speed can only be faster, not slower. As the days flashed past like the wind, the feelings that he had for Sonia also continued growing, the more he stayed close to her. He clearly knew that they were on a mission, but at times, he kept having the feeling that he was on a honeymoon. Despite all these distractions, he didn’t forget the main reason why he was now in the Mocan republic. He already gathered a lot of information about the Madara Governor from Frank. Eminem never really talked about him; he was not proud to be the man’s son. Despite his father not being a soldier, he was a true tyrant and a beast. According to Frank, Eminem became like this because of his father. From when he was still at a tender age, he saw his father perform a lot of evil deeds which he didn’t bother hiding from his son. Almost every day, he would see his father carefreely kill any man that opposed him or his rule. His father killed the father of countless other children like him in cold blood just to advance his business, for political gains, or even for fun. According to Frank, Eminem said he always felt sick when he knew a child like him just became fatherless, from the actions of his father. Every time it happened, he always felt lost. This led him into this lifestyle, as he sought a way to escape the guilt he felt on behalf of his father. After listening to the story, Clark felt a strong surge of hatred in his heart, but he suppressed it mentally as the Governor was probably not the only government official like that. Even in his country, in the Spartan republic, there are government officials like the governor who seek pleasure from the pains of others. That night, Sonia was keen and familiar with him enough to detect his emotional turmoil. “Clark, don’t get too worked up because of that. That’s how life in this era is, you either strive to become the leader or be devoured by the leaders”. She softly comforted as they ate. Clark knew that he was overreacting, but he couldn’t help it. This was one of the main things he hated most about humans. “I promise to change all these trends when I become strong enough”. He growled to himself in silent determination, as this was the best and only thing he could do for now.