322 Mysterious Find

While trying to tell myself to calm down and act normal, I headed towards the exit of the archive. The same guard was there at the exit and that made me feel quite nervous. It went without saying that I had never stolen or inappropriately ‘borrowed’ a document like this before.

I flashed the guard a little smile before casually walking past. After taking a few steps away. I honestly thought that I had made it; however, things didn’t quite end as smoothly as I had hoped.

“Little lady, if you put that back where you got it from, I will look the other way and pretend that this never happened..” the guard muttered in a low voice.

My body froze at his words when I realized that my stupid attempt to smuggle the document out had failed spectacularly. He must have been watching on the security camera and caught on to what I was up to. It was regretful but I had no other choice except to return the document from where it came from.

“I’m sorry..” I mumbled a soft apology as I turned around.

To my surprise, the guard didn’t seem angry. Actually, he had a lazy look on his face like he couldn’t care any less.

“It’s not really fine, but it’s fine. I have no idea why any of these old papers interest you or why you would want it so badly that you would go as far as to steal it..” he said before shrugging his shoulders.

“Can’t we just say that I’m borrowing it?” I asked as I tried to push my luck.

“Put it back, little lady..” the guard snapped without giving my suggestion any thought.

.....

“I would very much prefer it if you could really look the other way while I silently walk out of here..” I suggested before showing him a sweet smile.

“Stop pushing your luck. I can’t let you take anything out of here; however, you can snap up some photos..” he replied in a firm voice.

“Right..” I whispered before letting out a sigh of resignation.

“That’s the best that I can do for you. After you’re done, please put the papers back where you found them,” he instructed as he glared at me as if to make sure that he was getting his message across.

“Yes, Sir..” I replied with a fake salute gesture of my hand.

I could feel his gaze on me as I almost stomped all the way back to the cabinet where I had found the document earlier. Although I knew that I wasn’t supposed to try to steal it and that the guard had really been lenient on me by just forcing me to put it back in its place, I still felt like it was such a shame that I couldn’t take the document with me.

“Goodbye for now..” I whispered to the document as if it had ears that could hear me.

With a depressing sigh, I took the guard’s advice and took out my phone and began snapping up photos of the documents. I made sure to capture the details carefully on all pages. When I was satisfied with the photos that I got, I placed the document back in the folder where I had found it and stuffed it back into the cabinet before closing the doors.

historical

It was unfortunate that I can’t show Ace the real version of the papers, but I had to make do with these photos. They probably won’t have the same impact as showing him the original version of the papers. While telling myself to give up on the idea because there was nothing that I could do about it, I walked back toward the exit where I knew that the guard would be waiting for me.

“I put it back already..” I reported grudgingly to the guard.

To my surprise, the grumpy voice of the guard did not answer me. The silence suddenly made me feel uncomfortable. I looked around and couldn’t find the guard where he was usually stationed. I wondered where he went because he was just here scolding me to return the papers that I had planned to snug out.

“Excuse me?” I called out to him again.

Once again, there was no reply. I began frowning as I continued looking around. Thinking that he may have entered the archive while I was inside and we had missed each other, I took a few steps back into the archive. Although there was no real good reason for me to look for him, I ended up doing just that out of curiosity.

“What are you doing here?”

I closed my eyes and pursed my lips together into a tight line at the sound of Ace’s overly familiar voice. He seemed to have suddenly gotten much better at appearing out of thin air lately and I hated the feeling of being caught red-handed although what I was doing wasn’t exactly a crime. I tried to tell myself that since he had some secrets he wanted to keep from me, I also had the right to have some secrets of my own.

Ace was standing there with a curious look on his face. I had no idea how he found me here unless he followed me here. That thought spooked me a little bit as I managed to paste a smile on my lips.

When did he get here? Did he hear me talking to the guard just now?

“I..came to check out something..” I murmured while my eyes darted around to look for the guard.

Where did he disappear to?

“I told the guard that I would appreciate some quiet time alone in the archive. He’s taking a break right now and probably won’t be back for a while,” Ace said as if he could hear my unspoken question.

Being alone with him just made me feel even more on edge. I was sure that he thought that my behavior was suspicious; however, I didn’t actually do anything wrong. With that thought in mind, I took in a deep breath and straightened my back.

–To be continued..