Oh, I need to focus on the interview with my superior.

Agent L

Yes sir. I'm ready.

Authoritative Voice

Good, you better be. Now for the first question, how long have you been in the agency?

More than enough. Can't even count the years I have in this hell hole. Albeit, a very necessary hell hole. I answer him with a short but confidence sentence. He nod and scour through the writing in his personal memo. Seems like he's crossing things in his book, maybe it's about me.

Authoritative Voice

How far are you going to dedicate yourself to your country, Agent L? The task that I'm going to give you would be very difficult after all.

I answered him swiftly without a hint of doubt. I'm here for my country, my land, and to be quite honest, the money. Sure I didn't tell him that part, but hear me out. Man's need to eat, and sometimes having enough money to not starve is quite nice.

Authoritative Voice

I've read some parts about your skills and overall performance while you're here. Gotta admit, this is some solid graph of progress you're showing us here. The skill that you posses on manipulating magic is really good and you're quite attentive at making scripts. For example, here you've made a magic script that allows the user to pick up very small objects with great precision. The best part about it, we're still using that same script you've written like five years ago. Well done.

He have no idea how long I need to test that script. The amount of mana used to create that fool proof script, at least to test it, was pretty much ten times what I usually use in my daily life. Glad that everyone liked it though. Made me happy that the things I've made get used to this day.

Authoritative Voice

But it seems that there's something missing here. It's true that you are a successful man, dare I say, a king at his field. But I'm not seeing or hearing any queen in your vicinity. What gives?

This is a very personal question. I think this is a dodge-able question as long as I play my cards right. It would be hard though, knowing that this agency literally defines the direction of the law in this country. They're not some bunch of schmucks with badges, these guys are the real deal. Answering the question honestly wouldn't be a bad idea either. Guess I'm just going to say that it's hard to find partners when all of my focus is on improving myself.

Authoritative Voice

Ain't that commendable. It's true that improving yourself is one of the most important thing that you could do in life. Especially if you're aiming to be a great magician. However, you should not neglect other things in life. Like having other people to depend on. I might not be the best person to say this, but your experience will obviously be different than mine. But as long as you're being loyal to your partner, and your partner is loyal to you, nothing could stop a couple from doing incredibly difficult things. Such as, rising a good kid that's loyal to those he or she choose to love.

This is a very roundabout explanation isn't it? Felt like I'm talking to my parents about the status of my marriage. Which is non-existent. I would like to change that, although it seems hard to do, in this time and age. With all the external and internal wars going on in the country, seems like this matter should be at the very bottom of my priority list.

The voice then continue its line of questions, with a very serious look.

Authoritative Voice

Are you gay by any chance, Agent L?

What...?

Authoritative Voice

I'm pretty sure that you've heard me. But I'll repeat it, just to make sure.

Are you gay, Agent L?

Homosexual.

Liking men.

Sword fighting connoisseur.

Agent L

No sir, I'm not. Although, I fail to see the relevance of the question regarding the mission at hand.

Authoritative Voice

Oh, believe me It's very relevant. Also, you do not have the right to question the relevancy of my question, Agent L. I am the only one in this room that knows what this mission is all about after all.

He closed his memo and pulled out a file out of his cabinet. It's a folder with a brown cover and a big red letter that says classified. He gave me a bit of peek in it and I can see that it's filled with pictures of a young and very beautiful woman. Her body is slender with small stature, maybe about 150 or 155 centimeter with silky hair and skin smoother than a polished marble. Maybe it's edited, but I doubt that knowing that these aren't just some picture you pick from a photo album. This is her private professional head-shots. For those of you that don't know what head-shots is, it's basically a formal picture that shows only the head and some of the upper body. Hence the name, head-shots.

He picked one of the pictures and gave it to me. Seems like he's waiting for a reaction out of me. My face is locked shut and not a single micro-expression came out of this very cool and controlled head. Or so I thought.

Authoritative Voice

Sorry, but you can't hide that kind of expression, even when you suppress it. I can see that grin a mile away Agent L. Seems like you've taken a liking to her. She is a unique girl, without a doubt. Talked to her once some years ago.

We talked about her aspiration, motivation to keep on working, and things like that. It was about a week after she joined the agency. She said along the lines of "caring other people", "being more supportive", "a good wife".

To be frank, I haven't seen a lot like her. At least, not in this industry. What an angel.

I see what you did there. Are you trying to "sell" me this girl to me? Is this how salesmen works? They lure you in with good words and promises. Then, after you bite the hook, you'll get smacked with the "deal of your life". But I'll bite. What he's trying to "sell" me is something that I took interest in after all. I still don't understand the relevancy of this mission and that girl. Yet, the possibilities for me to be in the same mission as this angel couldn't get any less real. I mean, she seems to be a good wife material. Maybe this mission could give us some much needed bonding time?

This guy sure know how to make a good bait. He knew how old I am, the things I care about, and what I want in life. It's like a targeted internet advertisement, but it came from your boss and you have to click it.

Before I could think about what the mission could be, he took the picture out of my hand and put it back in the folder. There's a bit of a smirk in that wrinkly face of his. Felt like I'm trapped in something that I can't get out of.

Authoritative Voice

Before I give you the detail and benefits of the mission, I must give you this paper. A legal paper that you must sign, before anything happens at all. By the power bestowed upon me, I will represent the agency and shall give you two choices. First, if you sign this legal paper, then you're obligated to work on the mission to its completion. Second, you could also get out of the door and act like nothing happened in this room and you may go back doing your regular day to day job.

Which is studying magic, mixed with a lot of dad jokes and singing along to musics from the 80's. I told him that I need time to think about this. I also asked him how that girl is related to this mission. His smirk widens, and answers my question with a smug expression.

Authoritative Voice

Sorry, but as long as your signature is not on that piece of paper, I would consider that information as classified. Although I do understand your hesitation, I don't have all day to wait for your answer. Instead, I will give you this much time.

He pulled out a small sand timer and flip it. As expected, sand starts pouring down to the container below, as if stating that the time is ticking down for me.

Authoritative Voice

Cool huh? I bought that for about 100 Kane in the market. It sure is cheap, but I bought it specifically for this kinds of situation. It's timed for about 1 minute 30 second. Aaand I've wasted about 12 seconds of it, sorry.

Ah shit ah shit ah shit! Ok, so how the hell am I suppose to solve this kinds of situation? Let's start to list the things that is important in life. My parents, that's important. But I'm pretty sure they're doing pretty well right now, even without my help. How about my skills in magic, would it be helpful to improve upon it instead of doing this mysterious mission? What about my unfinished scripts? What kind of alibi that I can give to this man that also satisfy the fact that I just rejected a super secret mission that's already made in a super secret agency?

Authoritative Voice

You sure think things thoroughly. 45 seconds left.

How the hell does he know how many seconds left, oh. There's little notches on the side with numbers on it. I guess that's how. As I say that in my head, I realized something very cruel.

There's no need for me to convince myself to get away from this mission. I could just say no and live a good life that way. I will continue learning about how I could hone my skills in magic and actually have a more stable life that way. But it's not that simple isn't it? Not when there's a very little, yet real possibilities that I might get a chance to meet this girl. To this day, I can't seem to find a reason, a good one at least, on why I should leave my regular life behind for this mysterious mission. I mean, I know exactly why. But I can't just say to myself in the future that all of this is started because I want to meet a girl that's displayed on a 3 by 4 inch picture. That would be really embarrassing. Situation like this is something that you ought to take to your grave.

Authoritative Voice

10 seconds left.

His face lit up a bit when I showed my hand that's hiding below his desk. This is it. I threw my life away for a super secret mission with high consequences, because of a single picture. God forgive me for I have simped.

The bottom part of that little sand timer is now filled to the brim with sand. There's a pen in my right hand and a legal paper on the left. I read it carefully, even though I'm definitely going to sign it either way. It's not a complicated piece of paper you see, quite surprising to see that I haven't read a single legalese on this paper. Just straight up, "you're going to be on a secret mission, do your utmost to complete it" kind of legal paper.

After I signed the document, he took it to another folder, now with a different color, then store it away in his cabinet. He smiled and nod at me, as if I'm making the right choice. I hope he is right.

He then proceed to brief me about the mission and its main objective.

Authoritative Voice

This mission is about mana and the method we use to extract it. It seems that it's been a very sensitive topic for us to cover in public, to the point where we need to intervene and right the wrong in their understanding of this concept. Are you familiar with how we generate mana, by any chance?

Agent L

I'm not an expert at the topic, but buy and large, it's about transferring it from a higher level of concentration to a lower concentration container right?

Authoritative Voice

That's correct. But you must realize by now that it's hard to find sources where the mana concentration is higher than usual, right? I mean, the only organism that we've extracted mana from are plants and microorganism. Unless...

Click, a puzzle that I didn't know exist now look a lot more solvable. The public has been a bit busy these past few days because of the legitimacy of the mana produced by one of the government's department in the last 5 months. It seems like the rate where they produce this mana has exponentially been increasing even though research shows that there's not yet any source of power that could produce those large quantities of mana. The public felt that the Department of Energy and Mana is doing something shady in the background. Such as illegally extracting mana from something that has a very high concentration of it.

Authoritative Voice

Like from a human fucking beings. As you may know, the amount of innate mana that's contained within a human being is far larger than, for example, a plant. But as you also know, we most certainly will kill the organism once we began the extraction process. Now, do you see how important this mission actually is? We're talking about a governmental body that might harvest human beings for power.

He paused for a second and continues to explain the situation in a more serious tone.

Authoritative Voice

Everyone that knows me well will vouch for my experience in war. I've seen people murder each other for a scrap of food. Children killed in the battlefield by magic to the point where the only thing that I could see is some scraps of their clothes. But not this. This is something much more sinister.

I'm giving you this mission in the hope that we would know what's happening inside of that department. I want everyone involved in this mission to at least give us some intel towards the methods and motive that's happening behind our backs.

All of the important detail about your equipment, day to day objective, and new identities will be explained once you go out the door. Someone is waiting for you outside.

I guess that's it. Still, there's no more information about that girl. Felt like I was robbed of something that I never had in the first place.

I stand up from the chair, still holding onto my notebook and walked away. But before that, he looked at the back of my head and said something to me. His voice is low and very much inaudible to my ear. Very uncharacteristic of him, a person that will always speak loudly and proudly.

I turned my head around and told him politely that I didn't hear him. He sigh a bit and gave me a folder with a brown cover. My eyes glow up a bit with a hint of confusion.

Authoritative Voice

There is a reason why I asked about your sexual orientation. This person is the reason why. Pick it up, read it thoroughly, and then burn it. Good luck.

After picking up the folder, I met a woman outside of the door waiting for me. She's on the shorter side, wearing a prescription glasses and very classic secretary uniforms. The voice of her chewing gums is heard even without me trying to pick it up. Guess this is a routine for her, knowing that she looks at me with such a disinterested gaze.

Chewing Gum Lady

This is everything the agency gave you to complete the mission. The content of the briefcase is listed on this note right here. Also, congratulation.

This lady sure doesn't waste her words. Wait, what is she congratulating me for? Maybe there's a gift inside of this briefcase and she was the one who assembled the content of this briefcase? Or it might be a large amount of money and my identity is that of a conglomerate with great influence over the world? As if.

Agent L

Thank you for the briefcase. I suppose your name is also given to me on a need to know basis?

Chewing Gum Lady

Correct. For now, just call me...

"Chewing Gum Lady". I'm sorry if I looked a bit uninterested with your mission right now. There's a lot of things in my mind right now and I'm going inside of that room after you're gone. Take care, and good luck.

She then goes inside, welcomed by the boss and shut away the door. I turn myself away from that place and walks a bit faster than usual to my quarters. The room itself is located about 10 minute walk from the place where I talked with my superior and it's protected under several layer of security and guards. It's but a small room, enough to fit at least three people comfortably, decorated with beds and other common furniture. Once inside, I locked the door and put the briefcase on top of my bed. I lay down the contents on my table, hoping to not miss a single item.

Let's list all of the items here shall we. From the top, it's the "girl folder" that my boss gave me. It's not coming from the briefcase but it's worth noting. Beside that, a pitch black folder, thickly filled with papers and other notes that almost fell out of it. Per standard of the agency, a pitch black folder indicates that it's a very important brief for a mission. Then there's a marriage registration book, filled with the details of my new identity. I'm quite excited to open that one up. Last but not least, a single pendant with gemstone in the middle of it. It doesn't seems to hold any magic and dare I say, "boring" by the usual standard for jewelry. But it might be important to the mission once I understand the briefing.

I sit on top of the bed and starts to scour through the pitch black folder. There's a lot of papers and notes that came along with it, but I'm used to the chaotic nature of most mission brief. It does take me a while to organize the notes and papers but I got the gist of the mission in about half an hour.

The gist of the mission is, I'm assigned to get into an out-of-jurisdiction-kind-o-place, infiltrate the community that lives there, gather information, and then get out. It's not easy, but very straight forward.

After the mission briefing, I'm quite curious about the marriage registration book that they gave me. Although the "girl folder" is a quite interesting as well, this marriage thing sure is quite interesting as well. Looking at the notes and the marriage registration, it seems like my new identity is that of a magic script writer that just got married a few weeks ago. "I" came from a not so friendly community of people but got through the stereotype and became a magic script writer out of pure perseverance instead of money and power. I suppose having a sympathy inducing backstory is a great way to gather respect in the community. On the second page, I found the name of the girl that I'm going to be "married" with, alongside my name above it.

"Parmadita Insan". That's the name of the woman that I'm going to be married with. Although the name "Insan" seems came from "my" family name, which is "Ilham Insan".

Last but not least, the "girl folder". Inside, there's at least several half and full body shot of her scattered throughout the documents. Her name is "Agent P", recruited several years ago by the recommendation of my boss. She is 23 years old, which is 2 years younger than me, with the height of 160 cm. Thank god I'm at least 5 centimeter higher than her. At least that's one thing that she can't mock me about.

Career wise, she's not an extraordinary one. A mission here and there but not that much field work. There's also some notes about her ambition, moral value, and the things the boss said to me while I'm interviewed before. I guess the agency does keep track of our emotional stability and moral compass, knowing that most of the notes in her folder is about that. Although this folder is being transparent to me about most of who she is, there's some mission details and names that's censored using magic. For example, although this document explains what her favorite food and undergarments are, it doesn't describe to me, not even once, what her true name really is. It's definitely not "Agent P", which is scribed on the second file of that folder.

At the time, I also have no idea how to use the pendant that they gave to me. I assumed it activates the moment a user wears it. Maybe there's some hidden mechanism when it's powered with mana. I've tried several methods to agitate the pendant to no avail. Even the mission briefing doesn't give me any clues about it.

After some time reading and catching up, plus some digging about who Agent P is, I decided to close all of the book and prepare the things I need for the mission. Because this is a long mission, I'm packing some of my essentials into a bag that I would bring to the job. But even then I can't just willy-nilly pack everything that I want, because every single item that's on me will be screened first before the mission started.

The checklist is as follows. Number One, I need to pack most of the clothes that I'm going to wear later. Shirts, underwear, jeans, and hoodies for a more casual look. I will also bring at least a formal suit, in case there's some official ceremony that I need to attend. Two, every single thing that I've just read need to be burned. Because of the fact that the folder is pitch black, I need to burn it in a special incinerator that's located in the building. Lastly, I need to remember to also burn the "girl folder". As much as I want to keep it for further archival purposes, I need to keep my words and burn it when I'm finished reading the whole thing. Let's call it, professionalism. I mean, they would never know if I made a copy of it and archive it for later use. But doing so wouldn't feel right to me, knowing the agency has been a real help for my research and professional life. I mean, sure, I did call it a "hell hole" but that's basically any place where your freedom is limited by your boss.

TODO: refactor everything below this text into "now" instead of "in the past"

I put every document except the pendant and marriage registration book inside of an opaque, black, plastic bag then went outside to the incinerator room. The room itself wasn't that far from my room, located right at the basement of this building. It's not as tightly guarded as the other places because of its low priority and the communal nature of the place. I guess management made it "communal like" so agents could interact and know each other while waiting for their documents to be incinerated completely. Clever bit of social engineering in my opinion. They know damn well none of us would interact with each other if not for this little instances of boredom and need of interaction.

As I came in to the room, there's an array of incinerators, ready to be used by the employee of the agency. The room looked clean and well lit, reminds me a lot of those stores that's filled with rentable washing machines. A girl with a familiar posture sit upon a low bench in front of a lit incinerator. The indicator nearby told me that it's about 10% complete. Seems like she's burning a lot of documents.

I went around and use the spare one beside hers. The way you use this machines was by firing it up for several minutes until it's up to the temperature, then you put the documents in. But that's the official way to do things, most of us just use a bit more fuel than usual and throw it immediately. The indicator says 0% right now, but it will keep rising soon enough. I turned around to find a spot to sit, while stealing a glimpse of her face that seems so familiar to me. It's the chewing gum lady. She looked a lot more relaxed than the last time we meet. I guess whatever her problem is was solved back at the office.

Chewing Gum Lady

We meet again agent. Burning documents I presumed?

Agent L

Yeah, it was the briefs that you gave me and some documents that from the boss. How about you? Some administration stuff perhaps?

She shook her head mildly.

Chewing Gum Lady

Not this time. This time, it's different. It's quite similar to the mission briefing that you've got.

Agent L

Well congratulation. I bet it would add a bit more variety in your experience as an employee. I mean, not to be rude, but I bet all you do here is desk-centric jobs.

She smiled and continue to stare at the indicator that's on 19% right now. Then I realized something about what she just said. She said she's burning something similar with the mission briefing that I've just burned. It means that she's seen the content of the mission briefing.

Agent L

Hey, just out of curiosity. Are you the one that organize my mission briefing? Can you tell me about what the pendant does?

Chewing Gum Lady

You'll know what it's all about soon enough.

Very cryptic of her.

More time passes and I was reminded of a procedure for the mission. Which is to report to one of the mission rooms for further instruction by my boss. I suppose that would mark the start of my mission. Looking back to it, it wouldn't mean that much but at the time, I felt like it's the right thing to at least have a bit of a chat with her. There's a feeling that I wouldn't be able to chat with her for a very long time because of this mission.

Agent L

Hey, I'm sorry if this is a bit sudden. But it seems like I wouldn't be able to meet people from around here for some time. What do you think about a little chat one last time before I go out?

She lift one of her eyebrow and answered me worryingly.

Chewing Gum Lady

A little bit of chat wouldn't hurt, but are you alright?

Agent L

Oh yeah I'm alright. It's just, this mission is a bit scary to me. Maybe because this one might take me quite some time to finish. Also, the only reason I talked to you about it was because I have an inkling about who made these mission's documents.

Chewing Gum Lady

Nice observation, Conrad. Yeah, it was me who made those papers. I hope you read it carefully before burning those papers to ashes.

She replied, sarcastically. For those of you who are not "in the know", Conrad Lebowski is the name of a fictional character that's been synonymize with detective. Smart, charismatic, cunning, and toughen by the horrible condition that he's faced with, this character has become one of the favorite character within my local bookstore. Seems like she read those kinds of books too.

Agent L

Conrad? I didn't expect you to mention that name. He's a character from that book right? God I forgot the name of it.

Chewing Gum Lady

You mean, "The Good, The Bad, and The Unlucky"? I also didn't expect you to know him. Yeah I've read some of it.

Most of it.

All of it.

Agent L

Well aren't you a geek.

Chewing Gum Lady

Please, I wouldn't want to label myself as a geek. The only thing they do is to buy merchandise and make binders about their hobbies.

Agent L

Then, what should I label you?

Chewing Gum Lady

I don't know. Maybe you could label me as a lady that chews bubble gum all day.

I smirked then laughed at that self referencing joke. Quite happy to know that I'm on the same frequency as this lady, who ever she is. For about an hour, we talked a lot about geeky topics, especially those that we like. Most of them are about novels and comic books, but she doesn't shy away about asking the latest advancement in magic and gossips around the office. One of the notable gossip which I know is about that one sink that basically submerge the emergency stairway last month. Or that one time when the boss gave us cookies and beverages for his birthday even though no one know when his birthday is. Because you know, of course we don't, he's a mysterious person.

After a while, a ping came from the machine to reminds us that it's finished. I looked at the incinerator then back at her, a tad disappointed that our conversation ends here. She smiled at me and turned off both of our machines and told me something that I will always remember.

Chewing Gum Lady

Let's go. Don't make him wait for too long.

I jumped out of my seat and stood there for a solid 10 seconds. My mind went from one theory to another to understand what exactly she said right there. At the first second I was quite surprised to what she was saying because my mind lack the context necessary. Then on the third second I realized that I'm going to meet the boss right after I incinerate this documents. When the seventh second passed, I realized that she has something to do with the mission. Finally, when the time hits ten second, my brain figured something out. The theory must be true, that she's going to be someone special to me.

With a slow and low tone, I asked her something just to confirm my theories.

Agent L

Agent...

P?

She smiles and pierce my eye with a gaze of a thousands meaning and replied with a very cheery voice.

Chewing Gum Lady

At your service.

Author's Note (click me!)

I hate the pre-reiwa era romcom manga. Seriously, I really hate it. I really do think that every single romcom manga at the time was made by a bunch of very horny snakes. But now, I can't imagine having to read a manga where both the main couple aren't together by the first 20 chapters. Thank you Shinzou Abe.

Oh and also, I found some new analogy for describing operating systems, hear me out.

Windows is like fast food, it's cheap, easy, and unhealthy for you if you're eating it all the time.

IOS is like eating at a fancy restaurant. It's clean, tasty, but you won't go there everyday as long as you aren't as rich as a 1 percenter.

Now Linux is like a home made food that you make yourself. It's hard at first, but you'll used to it overtime. It's as tasty, healthy, and beautiful as you wanted it to be. Either way, people will respect you for cooking your own food.

Use Linux, be healthy.