Chapter 594 Gossip

The car ride was chatty. Everyone seemed to be engaged and wanting to make "Lee Seng" feel at home, again. It felt weird for Keng to have so much interactions with the people he's watched through the lens of Lee Seng.

"Oh!" Manny piped up. He lifted himself up as he stuck his head next to Ritsuka and Keng. He turned to look at Keng, who naturally looked at him, almost getting kissed by Manny.

"Bro." Keng shifted away. "What?"

"Since you're back, we could do a job." Manny suggested. It was an interesting suggestion. They hadn't been able to do anything with Lee Seng for four whole months. "What do you think? Up for it? How 'bout sometime later this week?"

"Mmmmm…" Keng thought aloud.

"I think we should let him rest for at least a week." Evan responded. "Dude's literally been on a hell ride for the last two months. I'd be mentally and emotional tired from going through what he went through."

"True." Manny nodded. "Fine, let's pick a time later then!"

"Mmm." Keng nodded. Olivia pulled into the parking lot and picked a spot not too far from the front entrance. The group buzzed as they filed out of the car. Manny stuck close to Keng and the others. He wrapped his arm around him and smiled at him. "You're feeling better now?"

"I didn't think you'd come home so early! Of course I'm feeling good! It's gonna be a good week!" Manny announced loudly. Keng and Liz shook their heads as they filed into the building. The Academy was bustling with students. They were all chatting away as "Lee Seng" moved through with his group around him.

"Hey, isn't that Lee Seng?" A student asked, pointing.

"Didn't he run away or something?" Another student asked. They all turned and watched him and his team pass. Keng poked his cheek with his tongue as they moved to the four-way intersection.

"Alright!" Liz turned and grabbed Manny. She ripped him from Keng while he complained about wanting to spend more time with Lee Seng. "You have a meeting to attend to. A last minute one."

"Ow ow ow ow! Let go! I just want to—" Manny screeched as Liz pulled him away.

"We'll see you guys later at the parking lot!" Liz waved.

"Bye! Have a good day!" Olivia waved.

"The amount of times she's done that to him already…" Evan shook his head.

"And they're just friends?" Ritsuka asked.

"What's wrong with a platonic relationship between a girl and a guy?" Olivia retorted. She lifted an eyebrow up at Ritsuka who instantly regretted what he said.

"I didn't—"

A smile crept up on Olivia's face. She shook her head and brushed it off. Ritsuka relaxed for a minute as Olivia gave one more serious stare, spooking him.

"I'm just jokin'." Olivia chuckled. "I won't tease you anymore, I promise. My daily tease is over."

"You always say that but you still tease me…" Ritsuka mumbled.

"Cause the chiseled and built guy in front of me has a weakness like this." Olivia pointed, looking at Keng. "You two spend so much time with each other, I'm sure you knew this."

"More than you think I do." Keng nodded.

"H-hey! K—Lee!" Ritsuka stuttered. The two looked at each other, Keng giving him a chuckle before patting him. "I-I was being all nice to you too so you could rest! And you betray me like this?"

"You feel betrayed?" Keng raised an eyebrow. Ritsuka stopped, realizing he had accidentally triggered something. Keng's eyes softened as he looked at his hands. "Betrayal is odd." Ritsuka, Evan and Olivia watched as Keng walked off.

"Ahh—" Ritsuka lifted his hand up. "Shit…. Lee Seng! Wait up! I-I didn't mean it like that!" Ritsuka chased after Keng, leaving Olivia and Evan on their own.

Liz pulled Manny through the halls, far enough away from Lee Seng and released him. She let him go, watching him stumble in front of her as she looked at him with displeasure.

"Hey! I wasn't done yet!" Manny shouted, turning to look at Liz. Liz sighed, shaking her head. She pushed off her hair in her face and adjusted her glasses.

"Manny," Liz called out to him. "I understand you miss him and everything, but you're making it too apparent that you're into him. You gotta stop. He just got back into things. You can't be attached to his hip."

"But Ritsuka's already doing it!" Manny retorted.

"Because Ritsuka and him were close beforehand. You're still his best friend, but you gotta respect people's boundaries. He clearly doesn't seem interested in conversing with you that much."

"Oh, so you think the whole him and Sara thing is my fault?" Manny asked, offended. Liz sighed and muttered something under her breath.

"This proves my point." Liz motioned at him. "You literally miss the point."

"What point?" Manny asked. Liz moved past him, forcing him to turn and walk with her. "What am I not getting? Am I supposed to just wallow in my emotions while I wait for him to return like the rest of you? We all cope differently and—"

"And you decided to fuck around because you can't control the raging sea inside of you." Liz turned and stabbed a finger into his chest. "Don't be overly attached to him. Give Lee Seng space. I get you wanted to help him yesterday by going with him, but you can't throw a fit and decide you'll ring up one of your sex buddies and fill yourself up enough to temporarily forget your problems."

"W—All this because of Lee Seng coming back?" Manny asked, confused. Liz rolled her eyes and took a step off to the side, letting people pass.

"Go to your meeting, Valentin." Liz waved goodbye. "Don't do anything stupid. Don't get mad when they talk obviously mention gossip." Liz turned and left her friend behind. Manny stood there baffled as he watched her walk off.

Academy Twelve

"Is everyone here?" Vickie asked. A third year student counted, eventually stopping at himself and turning to look at Vickie.

"No. One's missing." The third year student announced.

"Who's missing? This was pinged and emailed last night. You should've all seen the emails and pings by this morning. Who's missing?" Vickie asked, peeved. The door opened and Manny stepped in, obviously not in a good mood. Vickie sighed and motioned at Manny. "Of course its you. Get in here."

Manny filed in, taking one of the two last seats as Vickie manned the meeting at the front. He set his backpack down and fished for his tablet as Vickie pushed her glasses up.

"I'm sure you all heard, Lee Seng is back." Vickie started the meeting. The eleven students in front of her nodded. "And with that, we're getting a lot of gossip. Gossip that pertains to him and is tarnishing the Academy's reputation."

"If it's tarnishing our reputation, wouldn't have been better to not let him back?" The third year male student asked.

"It hurt us either way. Having him not here would be best." Connor May, another Third Year student, spoke up. "People are going to talk about it either way, I think we should just boot him."

"He hasn't technically done anything wrong." Manny replied. "Chang was kidnapped and on the run for two months. Should we really blame that on him?"

"Of course you'd speak up for him." Vickie shook her head. Manny stood up, annoyed.

"And of course you speak against him like he's done a disservice to the Academy. Last I remember, he has straight A's, does well in his training and even has offered his services with my teammates."

"He has a point, Vickie." Victor nodded, looking over at Manny. Poseidon's head and eyes lowered at Manny, telling him to sit. Manny sighed and sat as Victor stood to address everyone. "Lee Seng is a model Academy student. Straight A's, exceptional progress in training and even has given community time to the Academy. What else would we want from him?"

"His reputation is what we don't want." Sara stood up. All of the Academy Twelve looked at Sara. Most of them were surprised by this. "He's a troublemaker for a reason. Even if you're tip top model student, you still can't hide your history."

"No, you can't." A female Fourth Year student piped up. "But you can work damn hard against your odds. If we give criminals the right to a second, third, fourth, so for and so on chance, why can't Lee Seng have the same right?"

"I second that, Belle." Victor pointed at her. Belle looked at him and smiled. She had curly hair that went down to her shoulders. It was light blue and she wore a fourth year uniform along with a pendant necklace. "If we are mimicking the rules of the world, then this is something that should be brought up. Do we really boot him just because he has history of causing… Uproars?"