Chapter 104: John's memories

"Wait, what the hell happened then? From what you just told us, it seems like you just became friends. Then how come all this became total shit, huh?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, if you just listened to my full tale rather than blocking my words like this, you would've understood what happened. Just listen to me now, will ya?" Kunjan sounded furious as he spoke.

"Ha, I apologize. You can continue." Thankappan spoke.

"Anyway, as you said, everything was fine in the beginning. It seemed as if we were gonna end up as best buds if the streak continued. However, it all took a weird turn just an hour ago." Kunjan spoke as he looked out of the window, reminiscing the events that happened an hour ago.

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One hour ago.

Both John and the plankton lost count on how many lemon teas they drank. It's been that long, however, the ones who went away still didn't come back. What baffled them was even M'Baku didn't make his way back after all the talks about distancing himself from Shivani and stuff. That's when the plankton learned that M'Baku mostly pulled that antics just before Taro. He hoped for him to continue doing so without external pressure.

"Hey, I'm an alien, so I won't get diabetes. However, that's not the case for you now, is it? Just how many cups of tea did you have right now? Can't remember clearly now, can you? Ha, the sugar has corroded your brain." Kunjan sighed as he tried taking the cup away from John. Although he did show some initial resistance, John did give away his cup.

"How long are they gonna take? I mean, how many games are they even playing?" John groaned.

"Well, why are you so worried about their return to here?" Kunjan asked.

"Hmm, I'm bored, I guess?" John thought for a while and answered.

"Why the hell do you think that them returning to the Holy Land will get rid of your boredom, huh? You know why you're so bored? Because you just kept on waiting for the longest time for no freaking reason. So, if you're that bored, why don't you watch the television or something, they'd surely have something that excites you." Kunjan replied.

"Well, that would have been the case if you guys had subscribed to all the freaking channels in the cable, you cheapskates!" John sneered.

"Oyy! Don't blame me for that! I'm not the one micromanaging the overall finances of this household! If you gotta blame someone, blame MIB, since they're a bunch of assholes who keep their money for themselves." The plankton scoffed.

"Hey!" John took the insult as if the plankton insulted him on person and was about to confront #69420. However, the plankton was quick to defuse the situation.

"Oh, I meant the MIB in the Snehatheeram base. They sure are weird, aren't they?" He gave out a nervous chuckle. When he noticed that John had receded back to his seat, he considered it his victory.

"I guess you're right about that. Bunch of weirdos." John nodded his head with agreement to Kunjan's statement. Although Kunjan did feel happy since he got a backing to his outlandish statement, he thought it to be weird that one of the weirdest guys in MIB was calling the Snehatheeram base weird. That was indeed a thing to behold in the plankton's eyes.

"Yea, yea! I know I'm right!" Kunjan decided to play accordingly to the situation.

"Ha. I don't care about that though! Why aren't they coming?" John snorted. Kunjan was surprised by his confidence on the ones out to kick out the boredom off his life. He was surprised because he never did notice the slight blushing of John's cheeks.

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John was in a dilemma. He saw how actively Thankappan participated in trying to set up Rita with Taro. Normally, it would've been fine because he doesn't care about something trivial like this. However, this time around, he was feeling something iffy. He didn't know the reason behind it, but it sure did piss him off. He didn't like it.

What fumed him even more was how Thankappan asked him to drop Rita to the school, even when the school was literally minutes away. Although it did anger him, he knew that Taro was not gonna give in to such persuasion —that is until he did. He was perplexed because he never expected that from him. Then he learned that it was because Gibli was going along as well and wanted to play badminton. This relieved him just a bit. However, the inclusion of Thankappan into this squad didn't help his anxiety, since he knew that the guy was planning something.

And it did seem like that was the case. Hours passed; yet they saw no sign of them. Although the thing from the plankton civilization assured him that they'd be just playing badminton, John couldn't help but envision Thankappan playing shenanigans and isolating Taro and Rita in some way. Who knows, alone time with a person—especially one from the opposite gender could change the feelings that one has for that person. Yet again, John didn't know why he worried about this case—he just made himself believe that he was worrying about it because he worried about hiding the existence of aliens from people. If Taro is gonna date Rita and somehow reveal to her that he's an alien, that would cause a lot of annoyance for the entirety of MIB. That would mean that before things escalate any further, he'd have to flash the—John suddenly forgot what he was planning to do with Rita. However, he didn't think much of it, because moments like these, where he suddenly forgets what he was thinking was pretty usual these days. He didn't know the reason behind it, however since he didn't think much of it as well, he never dug deep into it.

Anyway, he wanted Taro to return home and as soon as possible for the alien community on the Earth and MIB—but most importantly, for himself.

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"Ah, I remember now! Wados has something quite similar to badminton of this world. The people over in that planet are super crazy about it—just imagine the football craze in this world; it's something like that. And as of Gibli, he's naturally athletic; so he'd pose a good challenge against the badminton crazed Taro. I guess they'd be smashing twenty or thirty minute rallies right now. Because if it's them, that sorta thing is possible!" Kunjan gave out an exciting tidbit to raise the morale of the annoyed John.

And it did work! However, not in the way Kunjan expected. "Smashing…" He mumbled the word repeatedly. Somehow, he felt as if the word had some other meaning than two men playing badminton. Something more—something that he forgot.

"Ah, yea… Smashing." Kunjan gave out an awkward laughter when he heard John repeatedly mumble that word. "Hey, what do you think? Taro would be totally flashing his badminton style against Gibli right now—right?" The plankton pulled off some words that he'd never say in a lifetime just because he knew about this weird infatuation that John had for Taro.

"Flashing…" Yet again, John mumbled one of the words that #69420 spoke and this time as well, the word seemed to unlock some of the innermost memories of his that had been locked away previously.

"Yup. He'd be flashing like that!" Once again, the plankton followed the mumble with an awkward laughter.

"I see. Just like you lot flashed the neuralyzer on me, not once—but twice?" John followed it up with an insane laugh while Kunjan glanced at him all dumbfounded.

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" Kunjan tilted his head.

"Ha! Don't act like you don't know shit! I was-" He was about to say something, before he was cut short by the plankton.

"Yea, I know you were flashed. However, it wasn't like I was the one who did it to you." Kunjan replied.

"I know that! But, you get the point on what I'm trying to say, right?" John sighed upon hearing Kunjan's side. It's not like he ever stopped the MIB maniacs from doing that injustice on him.

The plankton sighed. "So, you remember everything?" He asked.

"Yup. I clearly remember how Taro 'smashed' through that wall in that karate tournament!" He spoke with a smile on my face.

"Shoot! That's why you were mumbling smash back then, huh?" He sighed yet again.

"Exactly! And now, thanks to you jogging my memory back, I'm gonna snitch on those guys to the ones in the HQ. It'd be pretty fun to see what's gonna happen to them then." John gave out yet another maniacal laughter, before making the stupid decision of showing off his smartphone before the plankton. However, in his defense, he was confident that Kunjan wouldn't be able to snatch the phone off him. Little did he expect the "plankton" to actually crack open the exoskeleton of his and grab his phone away from him and head back into his exoskeleton all in one go. Well, even if he had expected that, he wouldn't have definitely expected the small plankton to have an insane amount of strength. Hence, he was truly defeated in all aspects in that particular case.

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