The Life Of Normal-Taro

What came after Ponnappan's reveal was a long and ominous silence. Lonappan definitely didn't like it, but was forced to put up with it to respect his senior's wishes. However, minutes passed and yet Ponnappan came up with no reply. And this irked Lonappan off. He could no longer stay silent; he simply didn't want to.

"Okay, I'm waiting. Any time now!" Lonappan spoke.

"What are you waiting for?" Ponnappan asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"What do you mean? You are gonna tell your backstory, right?" Lonappan looked confused as well.

"When did I ever say that?" Ponnappan asked.

"Well, why did you even mention you having a grudge against Glomerans then?" Lonappan asked back.

"Hey, you asked me a question. And I replied, there's nothing more than that. I wasn't gonna tell you anything about my grudge against the Glomerans. And hell, it's not even the Glomerans that I have a grudge against." Ponnappan replied.

"Then who do you even—you know what? No. I'm not gonna ask you that because you certainly don't want to reveal that to me, then why the hell do I even try? It's useless." Lonappan replied.

"Well, I'm glad that you understood that." Ponnappan nodded his head in satisfaction.

"Godammit, you're supposed to console me and say some shit like you trust me or something and eventually reveal your backstory! This wasn't how it was supposed to end up." Lonappan sounded frustrated as he said that.

"Ha, that's not gonna happen anytime soon. Look, you are my junior and all, and I feel like we share a special bond of sorts. However, we are not yet at the level to share personal traumas and experiences." Ponnappan drew a boundary at that moment.

"Damn. If not now, then when? I mean dude, we've gone through a lot of stuff together as a duo; as a team. And yet you can't trust me with something important and I feel kinda sad about it. No, scratch that. I really feel sad about it. And in some way offended as well. It's like the years of friendship amount to nothing for you. And here I was thinking that we had the said special bond that you mentioned, but obviously we don't." It simply was frustration that was heard from Lonappan's voice. It also had grief and it had a lot of sadness.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, I guess?" There was no remorse in Ponnappan's speech.

"An apology isn't what I need right now. What I needed was trust and yeah, it feels like I'm not gonna get that from you. Someday, maybe." Lonappan sighed. "Anyhow, I got a lot of stuff to do, so I'm just gonna leave. Have a good day, sir." He didn't even look back as he headed out.

Ponnappan looked as if he was about to stop his junior from exiting the room. However, in the very last moment he decided not to and sighed as he glanced at the back of his junior. His face looked conflicted.

#

Back in the Holy Land. Thankappan and Scarlet were getting a heroes welcome—or at least that's how they wanted to make it seem as. However, in reality they didn't get much of a heroes welcome. Rather, it was another simple welcome.

"So, how was it?" The plankton asked.

"It worked out pretty well. I mean. Ponnappan was really a nice guy. Like. he fights for alien rights and shit. How can I hate a dude like that?" Scarlet asked.

"Hey, come on, tell me your kidding! You are, aren't you?" Kunjan asked.

"Why would I kid about something like that? The guy is genuinely nice. Like, he was nice to me. He was nice to Thankappan. I don't understand why you feel so skeptical about this." Scarlet spoke. He was kinda pissed off by this.

"Honestly though, I am with Kunjan on this." Thankappan gave out his verdict.

"What?" Scarlet felt betrayed by Thankappan words. He thought that the one who accompanied him would at least side with him. However, he was gravely mistaken.

"Dude, I mean I've seen and talked to the commanding officer several times, while you are judging him by that one time you met him. However, in my case I have to judge him from the times I met him since the beginning, and that's a hell of a lot of times. So, while he might seem cool and understanding to you, I feel like that was all an act; a deliberate act to get us into some kind of scheme that he's planning". Thankappan explained his views.

"I see. That kind of makes sense. You do you, man. I will just judge him by what I have seen and what I've seen is what you said before; a calm and understanding man. And I believe that even if he's plotting some master plan in his mind, it would have some sort of sense behind it." Scarlet replied.

"Oh, there's no doubt about that. He is a good man. But let me assure you, he's trying to use us for something. That something might be good for us, or for the entire alien kind and humanity. However, that doesn't change the fact that he's trying to manipulate our thoughts." Thankappan spoke.  contemporary romance

"Well, if he wants to manipulate me into doing something good, I'd gladly be manipulated. I mean, I've been manipulated to do bad things, so this is certainly better than that scenario." Scarlet replied.

"I guess it might seem right to you, but it definitely isn't for me. For each their own, right? You can get manipulated as much as you want, and I'll try my best not to get manipulated and wait till he gives me a proper explanation and reasoning about what he's trying to do." Thankappan gave his thoughts.

"Whatever the case may be, the good thing is that Ponnappan actually agreed with Scarlet's stay in the Holy Land." Taro, who did not speak until now, gave out his opinion.

"I guess we could consider that as a win." Thankappan sort of agreed with Taro as well.

"Very well. Let's have a celebratory orange juice on this auspicious moment." Taro said as he ran towards the refrigerator to take that one bottle of orange juice that he accidentally brought way back. He wanted to get rid of it for a long time, but never got the opportunity to.

"Oh, and by the way, you have been appointed as the special caretaker of Scarlet as long as he's living here with us." Thankappan spoke as Taro came up with the bottle of orange juice.

"What?" Taro looked puzzled by this sudden revelation. "But why?" He asked.

"I mean, you are the only one capable of sensing Scarlet when he goes invisible. And that was basically the only factor that made Ponnappan seriously consider keeping him in the Holy Land. So there you go. Congratulations." Thankappan gave out his usual business smile. But Taro was pretty immune to it since he had seen it already.

The Wadorian sighed as he thought about. the predicament before him. "There wasn't any other choice, huh?" He asked.

"None whatsoever." Thankappan replied.

"Well, then. There's nothing to do other than lamenting to oneself in that case." Taro replied with a dismal look on his face.

"Hey! I am not that high maintenance." Scarlet argued.

"I know. It just feels like a burden on top of my teaching job." Taro replied.

"Then maybe you should quit the teaching job and focus on this one alone. I mean, Ponnappan is actually willing to give you a salary for your services." Thankappan lied a bit about it. Although, if Taro was willing to accept this job because of this clause, Thankappan will be more than happy to negotiate about the salary with his higher up.

"Hell no, man. I mean, cool. I'm fine with doing the job that you ask me to do, but don't ask me to actually stop doing the job that I want to do. You understand what I'm saying? I like teaching. I mean, I might not like some aspects of it. But at least I am able to go out and loiter around like a normal person. If I am to focus just on the job that you gave me just now, there is a pretty good chance that I might be actually confined to this one room alone. Now that I think about it, maybe that's the plan that your commanding officer thought of—like two birds with one stone, am I right?" Taro asked.

"I don't know, man. Maybe it is, but it's your choice. He didn't explicitly ask you to—you know quit your job. You can still work and have an eye on Scarlet, you know? Maybe even have him around you at school as an invisible dude. That works, right?" Thankappan asked.

"I guess. I'm fine with it. I don't know what Scarlet has to think about it." Taro replied, as he turned towards Scarlet for his opinion on the matter.

"Look, I'm fine with whatever you decide. I mean, I get to live in the Holy Land. What else do I need?" Scarlet replied with a bright smile on his face.

#

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