As Joan tried to figure out the situation she was in, Erik pushed himself in for an even deeper kiss. She tried to keep up with him by kissing him back.

They were no longer sitting down; she had her legs out and was almost lying on her back.

He was on his knees, positioned between her legs. His hands made their way down from her face to her waist. Everything was moving too fast.

Her hands were placed on the cement by her sides, attempting to stabilize herself.

Caressing her waist and trying to move his body closer to hers, Erik attempted to do something with his tongue that Joan was definitely not okay with.

Without saying a word, she bit his tongue with all her might.

"Fuck!" he yelled as he pushed her away and fell backward.

A bit satisfied with what she had done, she smiled and stuck her tongue out at him, showing the blood from the bite she took. Joan then turned to the side to spit on the ground.

Erik began to laugh, surprising Joan. "You're going to need to be this feisty if you're going to spend time with Ivar."

Although Joan didn't dislike Erik's actions, she had no idea why he kissed her. They barely knew each other. He was older, a successful medic working undercover, and, on top of all that, he'd never shown any signs of interest toward her. Why now, all of a sudden?

She probably would have been more suspicious if she weren't so flustered from the kiss.

Without any explanation of the kiss, Erik told Joan to follow him, which she quietly obliged.

"If Ivar tells you to jump, you don't ask why. You say how high. He doesn't fuck around, Joan," he said as he slid off the building.

Joan followed him but still couldn't get used to using the hooper upgrade on a daily basis.

"I'll be fine," she replied promptly. Still uneasy from the kiss earlier, she couldn't understand why he would do such a thing.

Even though he was eye candy, Joan didn't feel like it was right to kiss him. Isn't he technically my superior? she thought. Perhaps she wouldn't have felt this way if Erik wasn't the one who stole her first kiss.

Shit, I miss Robin.

Up until this point, Joan had completely forgotten about Robin. As she and Erik cruised down the streets of the G-Can, she slid her finger down her thumb and opened up her messages. There were over 300 messages and calls, all from Robin.

Hesitant, she didn't know what to do. She felt bad about ditching Robin on apple pie night and wanted to fill her in on everything that had happened over the past two or three days, but she also didn't want to bombard her with dangerous information. Joan didn't trust Erik or, especially, Ivar. She didn't want to risk her friend getting involved in any of this.

Wait, why don't I trust Erik? she contemplated but just brushed off the thought.

While Joan was having a crisis, Erik announced, "We're here."

He led her to one of the many pillars in the G-Can, but this one was different from the others. It had a waterfall running down from it, streaming to the place where she had fallen earlier.

"Woah," Joan whispered. "Where does all this water come from?"

"Apparently, Ivar made this waterfall come from an underground cave right above us. This city was supposedly already perfect, but after creating this, he made this place almost too good to be true, as some say."

"I bet. And this place used to be an underground discharge tunnel? Ivar is a genius," she said in a low voice so that Erik couldn't hear her.

Water is never a bad thing to have in a community, especially one that doesn't rely on resources from above the ground. It's a water supply, ecosystem, and energy producer all in one.

"Before we go in," Erik began, "I just want to tell you something."

She listened to him intently.

"Ivar is a master at controlling people. He charms people into doing things they never wanted to do. Just please," he touched her hands gently, "don't fall for it. You're smarter than that, okay?"

Nodding in reply, he smiled in return.

It was true that she was falling for Erik, but she was also falling for this city. Clean, happy, and well-functioning. It was nothing like the one she grew up in.

Mixed feelings within her fought over each other: the need to please Erik, then successfully take down Ivar so she could live the luxury life in her hometown. Or maybe, just maybe, she could make a life here?

"I know you wouldn't do anything to disappoint me," he said as he held her hands a bit tighter. "You're going to live that luxury life with the haven upgrade, right?"

Joan chuckled. "That would be the dream."

Letting go of her hands, he began to lead her inside the building.

It was like one of those fancy corporate buildings, but less crowded and stimulating. Everything was made of cement, and the few people walking by smiled at her. Even though she smiled back to fit in, she was definitely not used to the friendliness.

Following behind Erik, she felt a bit self-conscious about what she was wearing. Her clothes were old and tattered, and, on top of that, they were still a bit wet from falling into the river. Every step she took left a little water footprint behind.

Covering her head with her hoodie, Joan crouched her shoulders so people wouldn't look at her, but she knew they were.

Especially the women who passed by, looking in their direction.

Old women, young women, women sitting down or far away—they couldn't take their eyes off Erik. He just had that aura, or a pheromone about him.

Blond, blue-eyed, with an attitude that he was better and smarter than everyone. On top of all that, he was quite handsome. It didn't matter that he was still wet from the river. His moist skin from the unexpected dip earlier just made him look more alluring.

In the beginning, it had been easy for Joan to ignore his looks since she was so overwhelmed with all the new information and being in a coma for so long. But now that she was getting more and more used to her surroundings, she couldn't ignore Erik's alluring beauty. Especially after that kiss.

Erik turned his head around to check on Joan as they walked. She quickly turned her eyes away so that she didn't have to look him in the eye.

She didn't want to think about those kinds of things now. Joan used to consider herself the type of girl who didn't care about looks. But she didn't know what it was about Erik—she couldn't keep her eyes off him.

When they reached the front desk, Joan noticed the woman sitting in front of them didn't have any upgrades on her sleeveless arms. As a matter of fact, she didn't even have a helix upgrade. The woman didn't seem to notice Joan gawking at her, but Erik did.

As Erik signed them both in, the front desk lady without tattoos waved them in as she flutters her eyes at him. Going through the gates, they walked toward the elevators behind the desk. When they were far enough away, Joan whispered to Erik, "How does she not have a helix?"

A helix was the very basic requirement that every citizen needed. It was unheard of for someone not to have one. Upgrades, of course, could get too expensive, so obviously not everyone could afford them. But a helix? It was against the law not to have one. It was also necessary to work and survive where Joan was from.

"Ivar made it law down here in the G-Can that minors under 18 are not allowed to get any sort of helix or upgrades. You can only get it if you turn of age, and only if you really want one," Erik spat quietly, disgusted by Ivar. "Do you see why we need to take this guy down? It's a basic human right for every person to receive a helix at birth."

Something tugged at her heart. Something just didn't seem right to Joan.

Then the elevator made a loud bing! Sound as it opened up its doors to Joan and Erik.

The two of them looked at each other for a split second before they walked through the elevator door.