NOVEL WEB Chapter 79: A look at John's day
John was bored. His roommates had been going out regularly for their work, however he was back in the home, waiting for them to come back. Originally, he was to go with Lonappan to whatever work he did, however Lonappan cancelled on him at the very last moment. However, he did promise that he will take him out the next day. So, he was happy with that because there wasn't any reason not to believe him.
Even though the days were fine, it was much better than the nights. When he tries to sleep at night, he gets sudden flashes of memories occasionally. When he tries to focus on it, he gains nothing but a sharp pain in his head that would keep him awake the rest of the night. However, no matter how painful it was, he was kinda okay with it. That was because whenever he was up in the middle of the night, he could always see one person still up and watching television. It was Taro. Seeing the alien intently watching the television was fun for him. Therefore, whenever he is up, he makes two cups of coffee, one for himself and other for Taro and then intently watches whatever he is watching, even if it's the same movie for the trillionth time. As long as the other party was happy watching them, he was happy as well.
John himself didn't know the reason, but whenever he was near Taro, he got this special kinda feeling that wells up inside his chest. It's not just that. Whenever Taro approaches him to have some kinda talk, for some reason he always sees flowers and a bright atmosphere overall around him. He didn't know what to think of it. He wanted to think it was some kinda attraction to him, however he was sure that he was straight for his entire life. Although, he had read somewhere that straight people could end up gay too. It wasn't that he was against such an emotion, however sometimes he felt as if the feeling was forced. It was as if the mind was the one asking him to get attracted to the alien, not his heart. Anyhow, he was conflicted.
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As promised, Lonappan came by to pick him up. Although John's work here was to keep an eye at Taro, the one rumored to be a calamity-level threat, he trusted Thankappan with him to do a good job, because he was an MIB official as well. And he was aware of that Thankappan's from the dungeon, so that assured him as well.
Anyway, Lonappan took him to a beach. When John questioned him about it, he replied that it was the place where their base was situated; a place called Snehatheeram. Initially, he never thought he might have to stay in Kerala longer, so he never bothered to head to the MIB headquarters here, however now that him leaving this place seems like a distant dream for reasons unknown, he thought that it would be great to visit this place.
Once he entered the place, John learned that Lonappan was trying to tie him into doing desk work. Like, he was not against it, however if there's anything he excelled at, it was in working as a field agent. So, he requested Lonappan to let him do field agent stuff instead. However, Lonappan was slightly reluctant, but John didn't know why. Of course, John isn't aware that Lonappan was worried about letting him do that because there could be a chance that intense action might jog his real memories.
So, even though Lonappan and the boss Ponnappan rejected his request, he was totally cool with it, because it had been quite a while since he actually did something worthwhile. Therefore, John ended up doing all the desk work allotted to him in record time and asked for more. When they gave him more work to do, he did those in insane speed as well. It was as if he was some sorta insane work monster who gobbled up everything before him. It was certainly a wonderful scene in his fellow MIB employees eyes because their workload just went flying to John's hands who expertly completed his tasks. He did his tasks so fluently that Ponnappan actually ended up requesting Lonappan to take him to some field assignment because he felt that John might end up rendering his employees entirely useless if this went on. Reluctantly, Lonappan agreed and the two of them teamed up.
Meanwhile, the desk job squad was extremely sad that John was leaving the desk after one day, during which he completed about two months of work. They even ended up throwing a party commemorating John's legendary one day stint at work and promised that no one will ever forget John's work as they collectively nominated him as the employee of the month. John teared up during the party saying that he will miss them as well. Anyone who actually doesn't know the truth might have thought that John is a long time employee who formed a long bond with the employees here. That's the kinda impact that John made within one day.
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The next day was different. When Lonappan came knocking at his door, he handed a document to John. The document stated about an illegal alien spare parts trade center in a place called Ayyanthole. Lonappan didn't talk much, except briefing the current situation in that place. He spoke why this was confined into a two man mission and why catching the alien was of utmost importance to which John nodded his head.
Once they reached Ayyanthole by bus, they started walking towards a rather remote area. Finally they ended up finding a newly made shed. Once they got inside, they found nothing. However, Lonappan nonchalantly cracked open the secret underground passage in this small shed. Inside they found out many alien tech and learned that it was all hoarded by one alien alone. They would have understood if the warehouse was stocked by multiple aliens. However, the alien they caught spoke up and said that it was solely responsible for this shed.
The agents weren't buying its story. Therefore, they questioned it until it finally cracked under pressure and revealed its accomplices. Meanwhile, the alien did not forget to take a jibe at the MIB: Snehatheeram base for partnering up with a similar establishment like theirs. However, before John could hear anything about it, Lonappan knocked the alien unconscious with a straight punch.
By the end of it, the two of them called in support and managed to catch everyone involved in this illegal business. The captives, like the first one tried taking a shot at the MIB, however every one of them ended up suffering the same fate as their predecessor- a straight punch managed to knock them all out. John did wonder why Lonappan acted all aggressive against those aliens, however when asked about it, the agent simply said that they insulted him, which seemed like a pretty valid reason in John's mind.
After a successful raid, Lonappan invited him to have food with him, which John agreed to. Although John expected a fancy restaurant of some sort, Lonappan actually led him to a street food vendor. John was content with it because he believed that one could only learn about a nation's taste if they are to taste the street food there. Although the vendor suggested they eat Kolli boti combination (Tapioca and buffalo's intestine), Lonappan ended up choosing Tapioca and egg combination. Since Lonappan picked that combo, John was naturally intrigued about it as well and ordered the same. John ended up tasting one of the best foods that he ate in a long time. At that moment, he made a promise to eat this at least once more before he left India. Little did he know that the MIB base here was never gonna let him leave India.
After having food, John followed Lonappan to the WPP office, even though Lonappan told him that he could arrange an auto to the Holy Land if he wanted to. In the office, many looked at him with intrigue in their eyes, because most haven't seen a foreigner up close like this. However, many were surprised when John spoke fluent Malayalam. Gopan jokingly even said that his Malayalam was much better than Sadanandan's when he first arrived here to which Lonappan wholeheartedly agreed. Meanwhile, some of the WPP members wanted John to join their party, because it would be great to see a foreign flair to their party. However, Lonappan quickly put a stop to their advances by saying that he was a guest. Overall, John had quite the fun in that place.
An hour or two later, when he finally got back to the Holy Land, he saw that he actually arrived much later than his teacher roommates, which made them wonder what happened that day. Since they were the ones who told their tales from school whenever they arrived back home, John felt like it was a nice change that he was the one speaking of his day now.
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