Chapter 162 - The Past
While someone's love life was being planned, Kyle was busy scratching his head back in Sage Class.
He was busy hitting himself on the head for the not realising how easy it was to figure out the date of the memory of what Kylie was going through today. It was only the second day of school, right? Back in Country M, his son is 8-years-old and his daughter is 6-years-old.
The key thing here is that it would be his daughter's first day at pre-school. That would be a key memory. Kyle attributed his lack of ability to figure out the proper 'landmark' event because he had been too affected by the nightmare. Now that he had calmed down and was able to look at it objectively, it came to him easily.
However, before he accessed the memory, he had to wrap up a few things.
[Kay, do me a favour, please]
[Of course, brother. What is it?]
[Contact the agents of Nanny Op. I want a full report of what happened yesterday and today. I need it tonight]
[Sure, but is anything wrong, brother? You know that they'd report anything unusual to you.]
[I know, but I have this nagging feeling that there's something going on]
[Does it have anything to do with last night's nightmare?]
[I suspect so. I don't know the full details so I want to go through everything that I can think of]
[I'll check out the company and your uncle's movements. There might be something]
[Thanks, Kay]
Kay raised her hand and waved, blowing Kyle a kiss from across the room. Kyle acted as if he caught it, put it to his chest and pretended to faint. Kay's laughter peeled through the room while everyone else ignored them completely.
It was just one of those days.
Kyle now focused on the computer screen in front of him. Similar to Sam, Kyle had the privacy filter for his computer although in his case, he bought it. Thus, he had no qualms about using the computer to do his MIB work at school.
His fingers flew across the keyboards, doing the necessary preliminary steps to mask his IP address then going through several servers before finally contacting Agent Oreo. Kyle preferred this mode of communication even though using the burner phone would have been easier.
Since his voice broke, he no longer had to use the voice changer but he still had to change the manner of how he spoke. Since Kyle now works openly at MIB as 'Kyle', the one that 'Boss K' was grooming, he had to make 'Kyle' and 'Boss K' completely different.
Getting into character was tiring. Typing was much easier. It was more secure anyway, as he didn't have to worry about someone eavesdropping.
'Boss' - Agent Oreo
'Status?' - Kyle, referring to Kylie.
'Normal' - Agent Oreo, indicating that Kylie had not done anything unusual nor had there been any unknown or new subjects making contact.
'Increase radius' - Kyle, referring to taking note of the condition surrounding Kylie and the kids.
'Roger' - Agent Oreo
'Out' - Kyle
Kyle quickly terminated the connection. The communication had to be done quickly so as to avoid any trace back to him.
[Anything?] Kay asked
[No] Kyle answered, then got up [Going back to the dorms to shift through some memories. Can't do it here]
[Not getting lunch then? You should still fuel up before that]
Kyle headed to the pantry and took some apples and bit into one [This'll do]
Kay gave him a glare, rolling her eyes. Kyle, who could take three plates for breakfast, would be satisfied with just a couple of apples?
[5pm dinner for you. I'll be waiting at the cafeteria]
[Okay, Mum]
[Stupid]
[Love you too, Kay]
Upon reaching his dorm room, Kyle flung his backpack onto his chair and went to the bathroom to freshen up. It was a habit from his past life: he would bathe 2x a day and if he went out, he would bathe and change before getting into bed.
The bed is sacred and had to be clean, free from any dust or whatever that you brought from outside. Xing Han once commented that Kyle was more Asian than he was and Kyle shrugged. Old habits die hard.
Kyle lay down in bed before he started. It wasn't necessary to be in bed but it was the most comfortable, so why not, right?
Also ... Kyle thought with a sigh. He's going to be watching his kids. That's the real reason why he couldn't access the memories outside or in public. He wasn't confident enough of his ability to look like he wasn't doing anything. Having your memories re-play in HD sucks at times like these.
He calmed himself and closed his eyes (again, not necessary but he felt better doing it).
?? Flashback : Kylie ??
[Note: though it is a flashback for Kyle, it's actually present-time for Kylie. This timeline plays havok in your mind, right? (*??-) ]
Joseph and Lianne were sitting at the breakfast table, eating their jam and toast.
"Are you excited about going to school, Lianne?" Kylie asked her daughter, smiling.
"Yes!" Lianne said excitedly, her eyes twinkling.
Kylie smiled, brushing aside a stray curl that went down her cherubic face as she ate.
"Your big brother is in the same school, so if there's anything, you can always ask the teacher to call for him, okay?" Kylie said gently, looking at Joseph.
"If anyone bullies you, let me know, okay?" Joseph said to his little sister with a smile. She grinned at him, nodding.
Kylie looked at her husband, who was busy with reading the newspaper at the breakfast table with a sigh. She handed him his cup of coffee and he took it with a small word of thanks.
He looked at his watch and said, "Hurry up, kids. It's almost time for school"
"Yes, Papa," they chorused in unison and ate quickly, gulping down their milk.
After finishing their breakfast, they brought their plates and cup to the sink and washed their hands. Kylie washed the plates and cups quickly, and stood behind her kids while they said their goodbyes to their father.
They gave him a hug and walked over to the door. Kylie leaned over as well, saying her goodbye and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
"Drive safe," he said as he watched them go, before going back to his newspaper.
Kylie nodded and sighed as she looked at her husband slowly drinking his coffee. She closed the door quietly and turned with a smile as she ushered her kids into the car. Throughout the journey, she talked to her kids and sang with them as she slowly made her way to the school.
?? Kyle ??
Kyle watched all of this with a deep ache in his heart. He knew he could fast forward this scene but, against his better judgment, he persisted. His hands reached out towards the image, wishing that he was really watching this through a television.
At least, with television, he could touch the screen and pretend he was touching his kids. As it was, his hands reached out to empty air. A lump formed in his throat. He missed his kids so much. He wanted to hold them again, hug them again, kiss all over their faces and have them kiss his face back.
But he can't.
All of that was not his anymore.
He was not their mother in this form. He would, at the most, be a big brother. Would that be enough?
Kyle wiped the tears that fell down his cheeks and took a deep breath as he continued watching. He focused on their cute little faces, their smiles, their laughter, their voices. Being able to see and not touch was torture. Yet, he knew that if he didn't get this under control, how would he be when they are in front of him?
He knew it, but he still couldn't help stop the pain. So, he continued to watch on.
He saw as Kylie parked the car, walked to meet Lianne's school teacher then head off to work after making sure Lianne was settled into her new classroom. He observed the surroundings and saw nothing out of the ordinary.
However, one figure in the distance made him pause to think. He recognised the figure very well. It was MIB.
The implication of that was mind-boggling.
Is the timeline he was experiencing one that had already deviated from the original? How is that possible?
Kyle felt like this was strangely like the illogical 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures' where their time traveling jaunts didn't make sense. Since it was a silly movie anyway, no one truly questioned how two boys, who had absolutely no music sense, would become the ones who created music that made an idealistic future - and those music skills were the result of the actions of the men from that idealistic future, when they went into the past.
Now he was living the illogical timeline.
No. That's not right. It's not exactly the same.
When Kyle was reborn in the past, he made sure that his actions had no effect on Kylie. His plans would only come into action upon Kylie's death. Thus, what he had experienced as Kylie, would continue. He did not disturb anything in Kylie's life nor was he giving Kylie some sort of skills to avoid what happened.
Still, seeing MIB there in his memory as Kylie was still weird and gave him a headache just thinking about it. It made no sense but at the same time, it did.
Kyle shook his head. He's getting sidetracked. He needs to focus on what's happening now. He continued watching through his memories, struggling to get his sadness under control.