Saving the Villain

Meanwhile…

"Do you think the principal received the report?" Cosette wondered as they surveyed another high school from the cafe near it. "It looks like no action was being done."

Days ago, Cosette and Luke sent a detailed report to the head of this high school regarding the bullying going on inside the premises. If Winter Highschool was bad, this school was way worst since it was not just bullying, but also some other things were going on.

They didn\'t know all this, obviously, but after spending time with Remo, they discovered many things. Remo was a delinquent, so he knew a thing or two that others didn\'t. One of them was the use of illegal drugs the student used whenever they were cramming so they could study well.

Luke, who was sitting across from her, frowned. "I specifically told someone to slip it in the principal\'s office. There\'s no way he wouldn\'t see it the next morning."

"That\'s why it\'s strange," she replied, facing Luke, whose hair was perfectly split in half and wearing a huge coke bottle glasses to disguise himself. Meanwhile, Cosette was wearing a short wig and added some white to her face to make her appear paler.

"If he received it, why don\'t they take action?" she added, cocking her head to the side. "Since I don\'t want to send the video, I made to put some pictures where the girl\'s face isn\'t shown. That alone should be enough to alarm the school, right?"

"Unless they just chose not to take action." Luke\'s frown deepened, shifting his eyes to Maxen, sitting beside Cosette. "What do you think, Max?"

Unlike Luke and Cosette, Maxen only wore a cap. A weak way to disguise himself, but somehow, Maxen was able to stop them from nagging him by using suspense movie references where the characters only wore caps to hide.

"I think…" Maxen leaned back, glancing at Cosette\'s pale complexion and then back to Luke\'s silly disguise. "... it didn\'t reach the principal."

"What do you mean?" asked Cosette almost immediately.

"My opinion is highly subjective, though. I don\'t want to think the principal got the report and just didn\'t take action," he explained with a shrug. "That is just unfair."

Cosette kept her eyes on Maxen, pursing her lips, eyes a bit teary. \'He\'d really become a very nice person,\' she thought, mentally covering her lips to silence her silent cry of joy. All her efforts in guiding Maxen to become a better person were showing more and clearer results.

Maxen wasn\'t just simply holding himself back and calling it behaving. But instead, Maxen was slowly learning not to judge immediately and to not jump to the worst reason first. In a way, he wanted to believe someone like a principal in a high school wouldn\'t turn a blind eye to such a deed within the premises. There must be a reason.

She was very proud of him.

"What?" Maxen\'s brows rose when he noticed her prolonged gaze.

"Nothing," said Cossette, shaking her head mildly. "But maybe you\'re right. Maybe something happened, and he didn\'t see it."

"So, are you saying we should do it again?" Luke inquired, watching the two look back at him.

"This time, let\'s do it ourselves."

"Huh?" Luke scrunched his nose up, pointing up a finger as he drew circles in the air. "You want us to sneak inside that school and slip the report into the principal\'s office? Are you crazy?"

"Why? I mean, the last time, we just paid someone to do it and we didn\'t actually know if it reached the principal\'s office. Or if the guy did it properly. We\'re not even sure if someone just cleaned the office and thought it was trash."

"Still, how the hell did you think we can sneak in?" Luke pointed his thumb at the guy sitting next to him. "Can\'t you see how bulky this guy was? I mean, why are you even here?"

Luke turned to Remo. The latter was the only person who wasn\'t in disguise. How could Remo do, though? He came into this cafe, only to get dragged away even before he could order something. It wasn\'t like Remo didn\'t know they were here, but he didn\'t expect that Cosette and Luke would drag him with them to hide.

"Now that you mention it, why are you here?" Cosette also asked, eyes on Remo. "Don\'t tell me you wanted to settle the score with those guys? Hey, I\'ll tell your grandfather if you are here for trouble."

"I want coffee," came out Remo\'s deep and solid voice. "I want to try something else, but you suddenly drag me here."

Cosette and Luke narrowed their eyes suspiciously.

"Are you sure?" they asked in unison, and then Luke added, "there are other coffee shops around, and you chose the one that is close to that school? The school where those guys go?"

"They wouldn\'t be here," answered Remo with certainty. "No delinquent stays in class and leaves around the same time as others. They would\'ve gone by now."

"Oh…" Cosette and Luke\'s lips formed an o-shape as they nodded in understanding. "That actually made sense."

"So, that means it\'s just the three of us?" Luke cleared his throat, facing Cosette and Maxen once again. "This guy just wants coffee and still hasn\'t gotten it."

"I got him a parfait, though." Cosette glanced at the parfait in front of Remo. She pursed her lips into a thin line, but before she could raise her voice, a hand blocked the dessert.

"Cozie, how can you be so shameless?" Luke gasped, moving the parfait closer to Remo. "You ordered him a dessert, but the look in your eyes screams it\'s actually yours! You already took Max\'s snacks, and now you have your eyes on other people\'s food?"

Cosette frowned as she glared at him. "You\'re so loud, and I don\'t have my eyes on that delicious-looking thing over there."

"Don\'t drool if you\'re going to deny it —"

"I think we should do it." Maxen chimed in before Luke and Cosette got on to another round of banter. "Let\'s just sneak inside the premises later, so we\'re sure it\'ll reach the principal. If there\'s still no action, then we\'ll meet the principal or just report it to the police."

Luke and Cosette looked at each other and when they looked back at Maxen, they nodded in agreement.