After hearing this question, everything that happened in the past year flashed before Jing Baiye's eyes one by one.
Gin, who went to France to pack things up for him and pick him up a month later, Shirley, who went to dinner with him, and... the three of them.
A wave of heat surged from the bottom of his heart to his throat. Jing Baiye calmed down and looked into those quiet and patient blue eyes.
"...It's neither good nor bad."
After Panno's death, a lot of things really happened, more than the combined years of his studies.
"Are you willing to listen?" Jing Baiye asked.
Panno nodded.
"When I first arrived in Japan, I had no money, so BOSS gave me a high-end apartment. Because it hadn't been renovated yet, I temporarily lived in the organization's safe house..."
"I didn't look for any more partners. Gin asked me to look for subordinates. He recommended two to me, and I found the other one myself..."
"The one I'm looking for looks a bit like you. Gin asked him to pick me up at first. His eyes are purple-grey, his hair is a little shorter than yours, he talks more than you, and he's more attached to me or hates me than you.
a little."
Jing Baiye's ability to describe has always been problematic, but Pan Nuo got used to it, and he quickly figured out the key points: "Based on my understanding of Gin, he asked him to come to you to test whether you would express your anger... But you
Instead, you fell in love with him?"
"Yeah." Jing Baiye nodded, "Because he is really good-looking."
Pan Nuo said nothing more, so Jing Baiye continued.
From his three subordinates arriving next to him one by one, to traveling to the lively seven-person hot spring;
From going to a movie theater and encountering an explosion, to accompanying his men to recover from their injuries and then heading to France for assessment...
Jing Baiye said a lot, and Pan Nuo listened quietly.
This was their usual way of getting along. Jing Baiye was not a talkative person, but in comparison, he was always the talkative of the two and the one responsible for talking.
"I have a calico cat, which is a rare male... You should know the calico cat, right? It is the prototype of the Japanese Lucky Cat. In addition to it, I also have a little bear."
"In addition to the apartment, Belmode bought me a villa and I moved there from the safe house."
"The three of them were all low-level members at the beginning. During this year, they passed the assessment one by one and got their code names, namely Scotch Whiskey, Bourbon Whiskey and Rye Whiskey. Among them, Scotch and Bourbon lived in the villa with me."
"Sometimes I finish my mission at night, and when I get home, the lights in the villa are always on..."
Someone is waiting for him to come home.
This was something he had never experienced in America or Paris.
So he wanted to tell it emphatically - even if it could never be repeated again.
"Scotland will prepare me dinner, and Bourbon will make some desserts."
"I like Amuro very much. He will make croissants for me. The taste is similar to the one in the coffee shop near my apartment. He learned it specially for me when he was in France. Because I like sweet things, he will always be there.
It's covered with honey, and the coffee he prepares for me always has enough sugar in it, so it's not bitter at all."
"We don't live together with Ley, but his apartment is not far from the villa. Every time I invite him, he will come over."
"Ley and Bourbon don't have a good relationship. They sometimes make noises and fight like children, stabbing their eyes with knives, scratching their hand nerves with blades, etc... As long as they don't slap in the face, I can stop them..."
When Pan Nuo heard this, he expressed his thoughts again: "Then where are they now? Such a mission..." He glanced outside at the mess on the ground, "You shouldn't come here alone."
"So what if I'm alone? I have the ability to go to more dangerous places and perform more dangerous tasks."
Jing Baiye's tone changed: "For example, sending your DGSE, or the local French gang that your boss has protected for many years."
He deliberately said the second half of the sentence and looked specifically at Pan Nuo's expression, but he found that there was no change on his face.
The dead partner just nodded: "I know."
Jing Baiye didn't know what he meant by knowing.
Like a rubber ball with several holes in it, he began to slowly lose his temper: "They didn't come this time... because they are undercover agents like you."
"...All three?"
It wasn't until he heard this that Pan Nuo was obviously stunned for a moment, his face full of surprise.
"All of them."
Jing Baiye also thinks this ratio is ridiculously high.
"One is the FBI and two are Japanese police, and they were all exposed."
"Curaçao said that I can find other good-looking, loyal and obedient people to replace them. If I really like their faces, I can find someone to have plastic surgery, but..."
Jing Baiye lowered his head, remembering Curacao's indifferent expression when he made the suggestion.
He knew she meant well. She cared more about him than them. She didn't want his mentality to be affected by them, and the same was true for everyone else in the organization.
But he couldn't accept it.
"...There are many things that no one who comes after you can replace."
"Even if they look exactly the same." he added.
Just like the little prince and his rose.
Even after he saw the large rose garden, every flower was so beautiful, it still did not impress him.
Because what is precious is not the rose itself, but the time they spent together.
"Although I only got along with them for a year, during this time, we were together every day, and I was very happy."
Members of the organization will not stick together all the time. Take Curacao as an example. They will never get along with each other for more than a month. Even if they are Belmode as a guardian or Shirley as a child, he cannot get along with them.
Meet every day.
On the contrary, his three subordinates, especially Scotland and Bourbon who lived together, actually spent a lot of time with him.
——Longer than the time I spent with Panno.
"So I don't know what to do with them."
Jing Baiye felt that he was crazy. As a member of the organization, he actually complained to an undercover agent who died in his hands, saying that he didn't know how to deal with the other three undercover agents.
But after saying these words, he felt much more relaxed.
The night wind blew on Jing Baiye's face, and it was not cold at all. His hand was still holding the pendant. After the pendant was extremely hot, its temperature began to drop, and it lay cold in the palm of his hand.
He can no longer escape, he must give himself and them an ending.
————
Looking at the young partner in front of him, Pan Nuo felt a little dazed.
What does it feel like after death?
He didn't have any memory. He only remembered that he was in the villa a second ago and saw Angostela standing at the door with a frozen expression after opening the door. The next second, he was in this foreign country.
He knew he was dead. The transparent body and the slightly more mature Angstra's face indicated the failure of the suicide arrest.
This was within his expectation.
After all, he knows better than anyone how strangely powerful this partner, who is ten years younger than him, is.
There was no hatred or pain in his heart, and there was no relief at the end of the suffering. The only thing he did was stare at the red eye.
Eyes are the most difficult aspect of expression control. He is used to judging a person's true emotions through his eyes.
He could see that Angstra was sad now.
——This is an emotion he has never had in the past.
"Angstra," he began, "do you regret killing me?"
The little partner in front of him was silent for a moment and nodded honestly.
Because he regrets killing him, he will feel embarrassed when facing three men who are all undercovers - he doesn't want to solve it in this way again.
"Then do you want to apologize to me?" Panno asked again.
This time Angstra shook her head.
"...I don't want to use that method again." He looked at him, "But that doesn't mean that approach is wrong."
"Same here," Panno said. "I won't apologize for attacking you on your birthday."
"I am an undercover agent, and you are a member of the organization. It is only natural for me to arrest you, and the same is true for you to kill me."
Why ambush him on his birthday?
An undercover agent, trying to catch a member of a criminal organization when his defenses are at his weakest - what other reason is needed?
"I just have some regrets."
Panno met the eyes that were suffused with fire.
"It's a pity that I didn't catch you when you were weaker. It's also a pity..."
——"Time will ease all sorrows. When your sorrows are appeased, you will feel satisfied because you have known me..."
——"Wait Pannuo, that person came out early! It seems you can only continue to read to me next time."
The blond mixed-race undercover showed his first helpless smile that night.
He looked at Angstra. His partner's expression now was exactly the same as when he saw that the dessert shop was closed.
"...I didn't finish reading "The Little Prince" for you on that day."
That was the penultimate chapter, the little prince's final farewell.
It's obviously just a little bit away from reading the ending.
Angstra loosened his hand tightly on his chest. He had nothing in his hand, and his whole person calmed down completely.
There was something moving in his eyes, but his expression was no longer confused. Just now, he made a certain decision.
"I'm leaving, Panno."
Jing Baiye's tone was serious, reluctant, and extremely firm.
"I'm very happy to see you again today. This is really a good gift... But you are already dead. I killed you with my own hands. I can't keep you."
"I want to go to the living, and I already know what I have to do."
I tried too hard on Panno. I originally wrote about his relationship with the protagonist to rationalize the protagonist not to kill Whiskey directly (there has been a precedent. I don’t want to regret it anymore), but the result...
Sure enough, you still need to leave appropriate white space.