"What happened to the art gallery process?" Molly asked as she sat on the stool besides her dad.

Mr. Bingo and Julia were present in the room too. The four of them were seated in the common hall while Selene was asleep in her room.

"Well, we need a place, which hasn't been confirmed yet, but... we also need enough people to believe that what we're doing is genuine." Sean said.

"It's going to be genuine, isn't it?" Mr. Bingo prompted as he shifted in his seat, "I mean, is it about numbers or they need a vote of confidence that this will work?"

"A bit of both." Sean answered, "Where do we find artists who are willing to put their faith in us and how do we get enough of them that the organizers are willing to give us the resources we need?"

"I do have some friends but... they're not very confident about their artwork being posted at such a large scale, at least not yet." Julia added, "We need to come up with something to draw people's attention to us."

"How about a mini art burlesque?" Molly asked, "We can do some marketing, make some posters and invite people for a walk-in art show. We can have a few art pieces from each person and it could be displayed in categories."

"We could do that, but we still need a proper space for it." Sean reasoned.

"Or... we could just do it digitally," Mr. Bingo suggested, "It's likely that we'll get more submissions that way and done well enough, maybe we could even have a fundraiser for our art shop to make it a success, eventually."

"Good idea. What do we call it though?" Sean asked as he turned to face his direction.

"The bingo-esque art gallery!" He declared proudly with a Cheshire grin.

Molly face-palmed herself and Julia soon followed her suit.

Sean chuckled at the weary expressions and stated, "Dear, the world doesn't always revolve around you."

"I am aware," Mr. Bingo beamed, if he already wasn't showing his full set of teeth, his smile grew only wider, "I just like the word bingo and the chips way too much not to find reasons to use it everywhere."

"Just admit it that you want to find reasons to boost your ego, Mr. Bingo." Julia said as she raised her brows at him.

Molly sighed in relief as she thought to herself, 'At least someone is on my side.'

"Well, about that—" Mr. Bingo looked for a quick save when he came up with an excuse, "I had this code snippet I wanted to finish up, I will talk to you folks later!"

They laughed at his expense as he quickly escaped the room.

"That was smooth," Molly commented, "Looks like its just the three of us now."

Julia grinned and Sean caressed her hair.

"I got a case recently," She finally opened up, "Lisa called after a long time and informed about Detective Garcia's passing."

"Oh god, that's tragic. What was the reason?" Sean asked in concern while Julia listened attentively.

"The food industry going whack, that is," Molly sighed, "Its as if, in the recent years, these companies have stopped bothering either following the guidelines or just going under the radar and adding unprocessed things which cause such harm."

"True. There need to be stricter guidelines in place." Sean said as he folded his arms, "Was it just him or is someone else affected too?"

"Detective Dean," Molly answered, "He's from CPD. This morning he took a PB&J sandwich from a different Blue Land Bakery location and it seems to contain unprocessed sucrose. It's either parts of sugarcane or plain ignorance on the processing team, leading to such malpractices."

"That only makes things worse!" Julia commented.

"It does," She answered, "Not that things already weren't bad before. But, its getting more serious and also more common. They take it that since people aren't really protesting, they can get away with it. But, there's countless of us who are trying to do our research and get to the bottom of this. Lack of action doesn't equate lack of awareness."

"Add to the troubles, the virus attack has already reached the Wlhaus region, which is barely fifty miles from here." Sean informed them, "Things are looking very grim."

"That's bad. Is it going to lead to a lockdown?" Molly asked him.

"Probably. But if it does, all other cases are going to be pushed to the background. Which would make it easy for the food and the pharmaceutical industries both to come together and advertise possible cures, one sponsored by another, it can create a toxic cycle that'd be very hard to break." Sean expressed.

"They really don't care about people's lives, do they?" Julia asked.

"Not that they ever did," Molly said in an exasperated tone, "It keeps getting worse."

Sean got a call and he excused himself from the conversation. Julia got up from her seat and shifted and they both were currently seated on the sofa.

"Oh, the world." Julia said at last.

"The world, indeed." Molly said, mirroring her tone.

"How's things with Mr. Bingo?" Julia teased her with a smirk.

"Nothing...?" Molly tried to dodge it but her lips inevitably curved into a smile, "It's not like we're together or something." She added.

"You guys are anything but together!" Julia complained, "Mr. Bingo isn't that bad, you know?" She said as she nudged her.

"Since when did you start taking his side?" Molly threw her hands in the air.

"Let me think," Julia said as she propped her hands on her chin, "Since you guys hugged."

Molly's face turned beat red. She had been caught like a deer in headlight.

"That doesn't mean anything." She managed as she tried to calm her racing heart.

"Your blush says it all," Julia said as she turned to pull Molly's cheeks, "Besides, you haven't blushed like this since college!"

"And I haven't been entirely single since then either!" She retorted, "Yes, I like him but no, I am not going to make a move on him."

"Are you going to sit back and wait for your charming princess to come around for you then?" Julia suggestively raised her eyebrows.

"His charm's irresistible," Molly admitted, her cheeks turning a shade of crimson red, "But it's better this way. His ego is the size of a football field."

"Aww, I am sure he's caring too." Julia cooed.

"He called me Juliet the other day, I am still mad about it." Molly complained.

"Are you worried that it'd be another Romeo-Juliet tragic tale? I can help you save that!" She offered.

"Shut up!" Molly said as she blushed and hit her with a pillow.

"Oh you wanna fight now? I will show you what a fight is!" Julia said as she made her own attack.

The pillow fight went on for a while until their mother, Selene, entered the room.

She rubbed her eyes as she tried to wake out of slumber, "Why are you two fighting?"

"She started it." Molly said as she pointed at Julia who was also pointing at her.

"Can't I take a nap in peace?" Selene questioned them.

"Fine, you win this time!" Julia let go at last.

"I am surrounded by idiots." Molly mumbled under her breath.

"Adorable ones at that!" Julia winked with a grin.

"Okay, you know what? I am done here, I am going to my room. My brain needs a nap!" Molly walked out of the room with feist, leaving the two confused.

※※※

Molly stomped off to the first floor and wanted to get away from everyone, but in the process, opened the door a bit harder than she intended which jolted Mr. Bingo awake.

He was casually splayed on the couch. Shirtless.

She quickly turned towards the wall, her face burning from both embarrassment and the racing hormones. "Please put on a shirt."

It sounded more like a plea than a request. She hated the desperation in her voice so she cleared her throat.

"Sounds like you had a good time." Mr. Bingo said as he took his shirt off the couch and put it on like a coat without buttoning them.

Once she was convinced it was safe to look, she turned around and gave him a glance.

"I have had my fair share." She sighed after a long moment of silence.

"Fun with your sister or...?" He casually asked with a smirk. He knew he was pushing her buttons but he felt adventurous to do so.

As long as he doesn't end up with a broken arm, he shouldn't have a problem, no.

"Shut up!" Molly shrieked.

"Oh how I would love to—"

Molly had already walked to the room and closed the door behind her, panting from all the emotional roller-coaster she faced today.

After taking her usual hot shower and changing to casual clothes, she decided to check the group for any messages.

Miguel: Dean is doing better now. It was a minor air passage blockage but it definitely scarred his insides so it'd take another week to heal.

Mr. Bingo: That's insane. Couldn't have been just the unprocessed sucrose is it?

Miguel: No, there's more to the case. They have sent his blood for lab sampling but we'll have to wait till then.

Mr. Bingo had reacted with a thumbs up to his message and there were no further messages.

She quickly sat up on her bed and started searching up articles about ES02.

There weren't many articles about it or rarely at all. The documents they had about food standards were from Lisa.

It was as if they purposely hid it.

But why?

※※※

a/n: a fairly shorter chapter than usual but i like how things are taking a turn.

ahem, regarding mr. bingo and molly, you are not getting a kiss out of the two, you're welcome.

the banter between molly and julia was an absolute riot to write, i kept grinning from ear to ear xDD

a comment regarding mr. bingo from an off-page reader: "You've created a guy who's unapologetically proud of himself and loves to stir the pot but also understands where to draw the line. He's confident and bold but without that toxic masculinity that permeates so many characters."

on another note, i would like to clarify that in this fictional world, lockdown has never happened before, so no covid and other shenanigans. they MIGHT experience one if the "virus" gets to their region, 50 miles isn't that far from a place now, is it?

i am yet to figure out a lot of things but for now, toodles!

what are your thoughts and comments on the work? do let me know!

with loads of cats and purrs,
Sara