Niles sent Blair a nodding-head emoji.
Whistling a peaceful tune, he tucked his phone back into his pocket, just outside Wesley's ward.
He was about to push the door open when he saw what was going on inside through the glass window. Wesley wasn't alone—Garnet was with him.
Mouth agape, he fished out his phone, opened the camera app and raised it. But he found Wesley looking at him with his sharp eyes. 'That guy must have eyes in the back of his head!' Niles exclaimed inwardly.
Under Wesley's watchful eye, Niles covertly took a photo of him and Garnet, pretending to call someone, phone to his ear. After a few seconds, he abandoned his pretense and sent the pic to Blair. "You busy now? Check this out," he texted, indicating the pic he had just taken.
And that was when Garnet appeared at the door.
Niles clicked the "send" button, put his phone back into his pocket, and waved at her with a smile. "Hi, Garnet. Come by to visit Wesley?"
Garnet nodded. "Yeah."
"Wait. How did you… Oh, that's right! You transferred to the base in Y City, huh?" His family talked about helping Garnet get a transfer to Y City, so Niles naturally knew a bit about it.
"Mmm hmm. Your brother helped a lot." Garnet cast a grateful glance at the man in the bed.
Niles whistled at his brother, came over and flashed a goofy smile. "He's a piece of work. With his contacts and reputation, it was a piece of cake to get you deployed here. Right, Wesley?" He tried to lick his brother's boots because he was afraid of being found out.
Wesley, however, didn't buy it. With a deadpan face, he spat, "Your phone."
"Huh?" Niles panicked. 'I guess he knows. Am I that obvious?' he mused.
Garnet couldn't help giggling. "Niles, you forgot to turn off your flashlight," she reminded him kindly.
Niles was dumbstruck. 'What? I was such an idiot!' he cursed himself inwardly.
Putting on a fake smile, Niles hummed and hawed over an excuse. "I guess I must have accidentally turned that on. Silly me—"
"Your phone! Now!" Wesley repeated in a cold voice.
Left with no choice, Niles took his phone from his pocket, quickly trying to delete his text to Blair before giving up his cell. Wesley realized his attempt at subterfuge. "Just hand it over. If you touch it one more time, I'll draft you. You'll be under my command at that point, and I'll make you work out till you drop."
'Till I drop? Every day? My God! I'm so dead.'
Niles shivered at the thought. Resignedly, he held the phone in his cupped hands and offered it to Wesley.
When Wesley took the phone from him, it just happened to buzz. It was Blair's reply.
Luckily, the phone was still locked and Wesley didn't know the code.
Niles tried to figure out a way out of this. He refused to let go of the phone. "Wesley, I have a message. Let me have it. It might be important. And you have no right to read my personal shit anyway."
Wesley's finger slid across the screen of the phone. "No right?" He cast a scornful glance at Niles. "I have every right. How respectful have you been when it comes to my privacy?"
Niles was at a loss for words.
A laugh escaped Garnet's lips. "You can't argue with that, dude."
Niles opened his mouth, but no words came out. 'Garnet's right. Once Wesley decided on something, no one could change his mind. It's like he's stuck in concrete.' He had to let go of his phone. That was when he saw Wesley's thumbs moving faster and faster, typing characters into the password field. "What are you doing?" Niles asked.
"Trying to crash the password UI," Wesley said. Niles could only helplessly watch and scratch his head as Wesley overwhelmed the phone with too many asterisks in the password field. Soon, the lock screen crashed, and Wesley was able to use Niles' phone normally. Wesley hopped on WeChat and opened Niles' chat history with Blair.
Niles leaned in closer and saw her latest reply. It simply read, "Okay."
Nothing else.
Wesley scrolled through Niles' chat history with Blair. Luckily, they hadn't talked much, and pretty surface stuff at that. Nothing damning. Niles secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Garnet was curious as to why Niles took a photo of her and Wesley, but she had a pretty good idea why. She checked the time before saying, "Guys, I got to go now. Wesley, take care of yourself. See you next time."
Wesley raised his head and nodded at her. Then he turned to his brother. "Niles, walk Garnet out."
"No, thanks. I'm good. See you later." After saying that, she picked up her army cap and walked towards the door.
Niles wasn't in the mood to walk her out and waved goodbye. "Bye, Garnet."
When Garnet was out of sight, Niles couldn't help but ask Wesley, "Happy now? Give it back!"
Wesley rolled his eyes. "Ten-hut!" he commanded.
'Come on! I'm not in the military, ' Niles cursed inwardly. But he was used to it. He came from a long line of career military, generations of valiant servicemen. His dad and grandpa always did the same thing to him.
Nile stood up straight, with chin up, chest out, shoulders back, and stomach in. His arms were at his sides, his heels together, toes apart. His eyes were directed straight ahead. He was a doctor, a decidedly civilian profession, yet he adopted the standard military posture.
Wesley sent Blair a message with Niles' phone. "Feeling better?"
Blair, on the other hand, was in a bad mood because of the photo Niles sent. When she saw his message, she was confused. 'How did he know I was hurt?' she wondered.
After some deliberation, she figured Wesley must have told him. "Yeah. You still visiting your brother?"
"Yeah." The reply was short.
Blair was puzzled. The reply made her feel like she was talking to Wesley. She took a closer look at the username, and it was Niles.
But Niles had never just sent one word to her. In fact, he never used one word when he could type ten.
Blair shook off the weird feeling and wrote, "How is your brother?"
"Much better."
Blair heaved a sigh of relief. "So Garnet's been taking care of him?" 'Niles knows I like his brother. That won't sound too weird, ' she thought.
"No."
Blair could feel something was wrong. 'Am I talking to Niles? He never talked like this!'
As she was still pondering over this, another message came. "Hey, Blair. Since my brother is fine, I'd like to go visit you."
This time, Blair wasn't the least bit suspicious. This was more like Niles. However, her left hand began to ache after texting like this. She had to send him a voice message saying, "No, no. That's not necessary. I'm okay. Just take care of Wesley."
"I don't need to."
"Oh right. Garnet's there. If you get tired of being a third wheel, you know where I am." Her voice was full of disappointment. If it weren't for her injured feet, she would have gone to visit Wesley.
Niles didn't reply to her.
Before long, someone walked into her ward. To her surprise, it wasn't Niles, but Wesley, who should have been in bed, recovering.
