The Life Of Normal-Taro

The next morning. Taro and company momentarily forgot about Scarlet since they were nowhere to be seen. But later on, the lads found Scarlet sleeping in one of the corners. The sight of the alien from the Crimson planet made them realise the huge risk that they just took for no particular reason.

"Hey guys!" Scarlet flailed their arms around as they saw the guys approaching.

"Hi, Scarlet. How are you doing today?" Thankappan asked.

The MIB agent was the one who found himself in the pits of hell. He was stressed out because things could screw up with just a blow.

On one hand, he had Lonappan to worry about and on the other hand, there was the returning John to worry about. And on top of that, Ponnappan suddenly called him and said that he was accompanying John to the Holy Land. That was the icing to the cake. 

"What happened, bruv?" Taro asked Thankappan who was biting his nails and looked extremely tense.

"Ha, just thinking about how to manage this shut situation." Thankappan sighed before revealing his predicament.

"Hmm, all three would be coming, huh? That's gonna screw up a lot of things." Taro spoke after hearing the tale.

"I know, right? What am I supposed to do now?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, isn't that something you should ask yourself rather than asking me?" Taro asked back.

"Technically, yea. Since I'm the caretaker of you lot, I should be the one making decisions as well." Thankappan nodded his head along.

"Although, if you were to ask me, I would simply ask you to not create a situation where Scarlet and the other three meet. It isn't that impossible, right?" Taro asked.

"Hmm, not really. Why the hell didn't I think of it before?" Thankappan wondered.

"Well, I guess you were a little too tense to think about it with common sense." Taro answered. "So now you gave me a chance to look like I said some unbelievably intelligent shit." Taro chuckled.

"...You did say the right thing at the right time for all that matters." Thankappan replied. "Now. Where shall I hide him?" He wondered yet again.

"Them." Taro spoke.

"Huh?"

"It's them, remember? Scarlet is androgynous." Taro corrected him.

"Ah, man… I live on a planet with two genders and multiple sexual orientations. And yet I find it difficult to just accept androgyny. Don't ask why. Even I don't know the exact reason." Thankappan sighed.

"Maybe it's because that is an unknown region for you humans. By the way, the crimson planet residents are fine with calling them a male or female though. Although, you gotta ask which pronoun they use." Taro replied.

"You are well versed in a lot of cultures, aren't you?" Thankappan asked as he looked at Taro in awe.

"Well, if you travelled around the galaxy the way I did, you'll learn a thing or two about each planet." Taro shrugged.

"Ha, flexing your galactic adventure experience, aren't you? Where did that end you up? This Earth, right? I know this planet better than you, so suck it!" Thankappan laughed like a maniac.

"...Weird. Isn't it natural for one to know about their home planet? Why are you speaking as if that's a great deal?" Taro asked, well knowing that his words can create a potential fight between them.

"What are you guys talking about?" Scarlet, who literally came out of nowhere, asked.

"My goodness! Don't just pop up like that! You just gave me a scare with it." Thankappan spoke.

"Is that so? I'll be careful with it the next time." Scarlet promised with a bright smile on his face. "And, what were you talking about?" He asked.

"You're awfully curious about what we talked, aren't you? Trying to find another leverage in our conversation?" Thankappan asked, giving out a suspicious look at Scarlet. 

Although he allowed Scarlet's hopefully brief stay in the Holy Land due to certain reasons. But that doesn't mean that he has a single shred of belief towards Scarlet. All that he sees is an opportunist who takes advantage of anyone and everyone.

"Not really! I just wanted to hear what you were saying, so that I get to participate in it as well without getting confused about what we're taking about." Scarlet spoke in a disappointed voice.

"Ah, screw that stuff. By the way, I wanna ask you, are you fine with being called a male or female and not androgynous?" Taro asked, trying to ease up the tense atmosphere.

Scarlet thought for a while. "Hmm, I guess I'll be comfortable if you treat me as a man since it would help me blend into here as well." Scarlet replied.

"Is that so? That makes it simple." Taro smiled as he replied.

"Shit!" Thankappan mumbled as he looked out the window of the room.

"What happened?" Taro asked.

"They're here and together!" Thankappan replied as he pointed to the three black suited men at the entrace.

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"It's not like you didn't knew about it before. So…" Taro shrugged.

"Yea, but what are we gonna do about this guy?" Taro asked as he pointed towards Scarlet.

"Five minutes. I can hold them off for five minutes. Do whatever the shit you want to and make sure that he stays out of the room when five minutes come by.

"Cool. Give me a signal then. I'll wait for that." Taro replied.

"I see. Hide for now in the bathroom or something. We'll deal with everything else later." Thankappan spoke as he forcefully dragged the two of them into the bathroom.

And in that exact time, the doorbell rung. Taro took a deep breath before heading to the door to welcome his seniors.

"It seems like you were a bit late in opening the door. What's up with your broken punctuality?" Ponnappan asked as if he waltzed into the room. 

"I was in the bathroom for a bit. So yea." Thankappan blatantly lied, hoping that they wouldn't check into the bathroom since he already arrived from there.

"Is that so?" Ponnappan mumbled as he continued looking around. "Where the hell is Taro?" He asked.

"He went to school already!" Thankappan replied.

"You idiot! You're supposed to keep an eye… Nothing. I said nothing." The commanding officer was about to reprimand Taro, but he thought against doing so, since John was nearby and literally everything related to Taro and alien mannerisms are taboo near him.

"I'm sorry, sir! This one was an honest mistake." Thankappan bowed his head and apologized.

"Nah, nah. It's as you said… An honest mistake." Ponnappan did a whole 360 on his behavior. "By the way, Lonappan and Thankappan, I wanna talk about something with you. John, you can go talk with your roommates then." He said as he headed out of the room. 

While this happened, the aliens dragged John far away from the bathroom, so it was an easy path to the outside if Taro was willing to jump from the first floor. So, Thankappan gave them the sign upon which Taro proceeded to escape the room.

Seeing Taro actually managing to escape, Thankappan breathed in a sigh of relief and headed out to where Ponnappan was waiting for him.

"You know, usually I would be reprimanding you for letting Taro go like that, but there are important things to worry about right now, so I'm gonna focus on it." Ponnappan spoke.

"What is it, sir?" Thankappan asked.

"The thing is that due to some unforseen circumstances, I had to flash the neutralyzer on John." Ponnappan replied.

"What?" Thankappan and Lonappan simultaneously gasped. This was the fourth time that John got flashed—not that Ponnappan knew anything about it.

The first one to recover was Lonappan. "So, did something happen? Did it work? Did he act in some weird manner?" He barged in with the questions.

He was naturally worried since he was the culprit of one of the unapproved flashed to John. Although, it is said to be fine to use in emergencies, Lonappan was a bit conflicted as to calling his situation an emergency.

"Slow down now, will ya? It's just the second time. Didn't really cause much damage in him or showed any other side effects." Ponnappan replied.

"Even then, we gotta be careful with this stuff, right?" Thankappan spoke. 

He wasn't worried since just like Lonappan, he was part of one of the four flashes as well.

"Says the guy who bunked his responsibility just a few moments earlier.

"That's just-" Thankappan tried defending himself, but didn't felt like it after he thought of it.

"Anyhow, I just told you what I wanted to tell. It kinda pricked my conscience to not talk to you two about it since you are the ones around John. But now that I talked to you two about it, I felt like a burden's off my chest." Ponnappan sighed as he said that. It was a sigh of relief.

However, that wasn't the case of the other two. A sense of guilt rose in their chests as they heard Ponnappan speak. However, neither of them talked about it. It was a sin that they had to bear. 

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