Dean Morton : The Paupers' Guardian Angel

007 - Getting Kicked Out

Dean is taken aback by that question. Clearly, he has experienced some oddities in himself recently. But he keeps in denial and tries to ignore it.

  

“Um, can I borrow your money?” asks Dean as he comes over to her. “I need to get home, but I didn’t bring any money with me this morning.”

  

Knowing that Dean is trying to ignore her concern, Mary just puts on a tired face.  But then, she takes out a piece of 20,000 Estol bill from her pocket, the third highest denomination of the Estuaria currency.

  

She reaches it out, and Dean takes it with a bit of confusion. That one bill can help him survive living by himself for a month, not something someone would borrow to get a taxi.

  

“Are you flexing or what? Don't you have money smaller than this?​” he asks.

  

“That’s the smallest one that I have,” says Mary.

  

“How am I going to pay this,” mumbles Dean.

  

“You don’t need to pay for it. That’s just half of my daily allowance. You can keep it.”

  

“Damn! What are you? A philanthropy? I said to borrow your money, so I’ll give it back later.” Dean retorts as he walks away intending to look for a taxi.

  

“Oh, that’s right!” Mary calls in half shouting before Dean gets too far away. “If you join me, you might be able to raise a monthly income of 50 times the money I gave you.”

  

But Dean just keeps walking away, shaking his head with a silly face. “I didn’t know she was that desperate to invite me into her stupid club.”

  

“You know what?! If you feel something strange again, you better follow your instinct!” Mary advices him in half shouting.

  

“Yeah, yeah!” Dean ignores her with uninterested gesture.

  

Afraid that the taxi driver wouldn’t have the change for that money, he goes to a convenience store to buy something. After all, he hasn’t eaten anything since this morning. He picks bread with chocolate topping, and then goes to the cashier to pay.

  

“Let’s hope this chocolate can fix my mood.”

  

And there he meets again with Theo and Tiana. He tries to ignore them, and then gives his 20,000 Estol bill to the cashier, which is enough to attract those two’s attention.

  

“Look, we have a rich boy here,” utters Theo.

  

“It must be nice, huh? Living as a freeloader in someone else’s house, you don’t need to pay rent and food cost,” Tiana adds, talking with a despising gaze, with slightly pursed lips while chewing gum.

  

Dean receives the changes from the cashier, and then walks away without paying attention to the two of them. He simply takes a bite of his bread, trying to act as if they never exist.

  

It is effective to provoke Theo’s madness. He leaves his girlfriend, and rushes toward Dean. And right when Dean licks the chocolate topping on his bread, again, he feels something strange.

  

Unlike before, he just follows his instinct without asking too many questions about what’s wrong with him. He then takes a fast three steps forward, just right when Theo tries to kick his butt from behind.

  

“What the?” mumbles Theo in confusion.

  

Dean turns back, and then notices that he just managed to evade Theo’s evil intention. His face is still looking confused, the same confusion with what Theo has.

  

“Don’t get a head of yourself yet, you fucker!” Theo comes closer intending to grab Dean’s shirt.

  

But Dean simply steps back, just enough to evade Theo’s hand, which makes Theo stupidly grab an empty air.

  

“Come here!” he grumbles as he tries to grab Dean again.

  

But Dean is still looking confused while avoiding his hand again. He finds that man moving slower than how it should be.

  

And somehow, his confused face is misunderstood by Theo that he is playing a joke on him. It makes Theo even more annoyed, and slaps Dean’s head.

  

“Aww! That hurts!” says Dean by reflex, even though in reality, he is not that hurt by that slap.

  

But then, the more evil emotions ignite Theo’s action, the more Dean can see his movements and intentions. He even nonchalantly bites his bread while avoiding Theo’s serial punches simply by tiny head movements.

  

He intends to fight back. But then he notices six dudes, who are all in the same gang with Theo from the same basketball club, coming toward him.

  

Doubting his chance to fight back, he looks for a chance to flee. Luckily, it’s also draws the security’s attention, and that officer immediately shouts from afar.

  

“Hey, you punks! Don’t you dare to start a fight here! Want me to put you into jail?”

  

“Ah! No, Sir!” replies Dean in a startled. “I don’t mean to…”

  

Dean drops his guard down, and only then does Theo manage to land a hit on his face. But Dean doesn’t want it to look like he is having a fight, because it would be troublesome if the campus forces him to bring his parents.

  

He takes it easy, and grabs Theo’s knuckle with his left hand, even forcing the tall Theo to bow before putting his right arm around Theo’s shoulder. And then, he smiles awkwardly toward the security officer.

  

“Sorry, Sir! This is not a fight. We were only joking around. Hehee.”

  

“Then find some other places. Don’t do it here!” The security officer scolds him by putting his hand on his baton stick.

  

Dean gets away from Theo, still with his awkward smile. He even takes the chance to say goodbye to Theo, acting like they are best friends.

  

“See you later, mate!”

  

Theo doesn’t answer it. He just keeps gazing upon him with his mad face and shaking clenched hands while enduring his irritation. As a genuine bully, he feels so humiliated with how Dean took him so nonchalantly.

  

Despite that, Dean is still confused with that oddity. He thinks that Theo was just putting on a joke on him by making slow movements in his attempt to hurt him. One thing that makes him baffled is that he clearly felt Theo’s madness and evil emotions.

  

“There’s no way he was simply putting on a joke with that slow motion,” he mumbles.

  

He calls for a taxi. As he waits, he finds an empty soda can on a pedestrian bench. Out of nowhere, he stupidly reaches out his hand.

  

It seems like he is trying to lift that soda can from a distance with some kind of telekinetic power. And…

  

“Damn! What am I thinking?” he shakes his head with a stupid face. “I should stop watching too many movies.”

  

About an hour later, he reaches home and finds the car which took him and Monica to campus this morning.

  

“No way. It's really just like what she said.”

  

He rushes looking for Monica. But then, when he gets to the second floor, he sees a bag in front of the door to his bedroom. He checks on it, and finds out it is full of his clothes. He tries to open the door, but it’s locked.

  

“What is it now?” he mumbles with a pale face.

  

He can’t help but think about what Monica said this morning. It seems like she really doesn’t want him to stay in that house anymore.

  

“So, they are kicking me out, huh?”

  

He believes Monica is currently in her room. He intends to knock on the door to Monica’s room, but he suddenly feels so unsure about it.

  

His face looks so gloomy. Since the start, he’s felt no one in this house really accepted his existence, except Monica who was the one who invited him. But now, Monica is clearly despising him too.

  

“Who am I to argue with? I'm just an orphan with an unclear origins.”

  

He picks up his stuff, and then leaves that house. It’s a good thing that he got money from Mary before. But he is so clueless where he should go.

  

“Should I go back to the orphanage? Would they still accept me?”

  

He just keeps walking down the road with a solemn face. Until at some point, one luxurious car appears and stops right beside him.

  

There’s no way this car would not catch his interest. It’s the kind of expensive sports car so rare to be found in Dildior. Since it is made from a far off country which is far more advanced than Estuaria, the price is so astronomical.

  

The thing that makes him even more shocked is when he sees who the owner is. It’s none other than Mariana Durham herself, who lowers the car window just to talk to him.

  

“Hey, have you found your girlfriend yet?” she asks.

  

Dean doesn’t answer the question. He is stunned in awe, not believing his eyes with what he currently sees.