“Let me guess, you don’t have bills?”
I shook my head. I got so used to the cashless life back in Sector B that the idea of bills went out of the window.“It’s fine. It can’t be helped since you don’t have any cash. The meal, just think of it as my treat.” He said with a smile. “Follow me, it would be dangerous for you to go through the entrance. You should take the backdoor instead, it’s much safer and the people outside will not notice anything since its in the same direction of the restroom,”He led the way, and the owner noticed us and gave us a confused look.“Something came up, Mr. Kim. Please deduct her meal from my paycheck.”The owner just gave him a thumbs up.“I don’t know if you’re just visiting Sector D but make sure not to do that again. You're fortunate that you did that here in our shop otherwise things would have turned ugly. Do you know how to get home?”“Of course, I’m not a kid you know?”The look he just gave me irritated me for some reason. Is it because I flashed my card ignorantly?“Well, as long as you know how to get back safely. That’s reassuring enough. Go now and be sneaky about it.”He gave me a push and so I left. He just stood there watching over me until I walked far away and he slowly disappeared in the distance. I passed by the street where the entrance of the shop is and saw that the group of thugs were busy talking to each other, so I hurriedly walked towards the street.When I safely crossed the street, I let out a sigh of relief. I was careless. If it weren’t for him, I would be in big trouble. I can already see the roof of our building, a reassuring sight that took a weight off my shoulders. But just as I was celebrating, I heard a set of footsteps following me.At that moment, I felt my heart skip a beat and negative thoughts flooded my mind. I turned around to check and surely enough, my thoughts were right. The group of thugs were following behind me.I can immediately feel my breathing get constricted as if I was breathing through a small hole. As I picked up my pace, their footsteps got busy as well. At this point, I can definitely tell that they are trying to follow me.“I have to reach at least the corner of the street and call for help. I’m sure the guards would hear my call.” I told myself as I started to panic.Knowing that they’ll catch up to me, I started to run. And so did they.“Hey! Where are you going?!”I heard one of them call out to me. I don’t have the luxury to look back and just run as fast as I can.“Why are you running, miss? Come play with us for a bit! We don’t bite!” That’s exactly the line of people with bad intentions! Even I can understand that much! Just when I was about to reach the corner of the street, I slipped and landed on my arm and sprained my ankle. It was the worst case possible that could happen. It was impossible for me to run away anymore, they were already closing the distance between us. “Look at you trying to run away. See? If you hadn’t tried to run away from us, you wouldn’t have gotten injured~” “Help! Someone help!” I cried as they stood behind me, hoping that the guards might hear but nothing happened. Is this my karma for going out at night? No way! That’s not it- “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” “Huh? Who is this jerk trying to play the hero?” A familiar voice reached my ears. If I remember correctly, it was the voice of the server from the shop earlier. We turned our gaze around and surely he was running towards us while hurling something with his hands. It took me long enough to realize what he was hurling until it hit one of my pursuer’s faces. Steam burst out of the plastic bag as it exploded, it was boiling hot broth. Another one landed on someone’s chest, and both of them danced in pain. It was more than enough to rattle the rest of them but they immediately recovered and attacked the server back. I managed to get back up using the streetlight as support as they tried to gang up on him. I thought he would be beaten to a pulp since the thugs have amazing physiques, but I was wrong. Instead of fighting them, he evaded their attacks until he was able to reach me. “Are you okay? Can you run?” He asked. And before I could even respond, he swept me off my feet and carried me away. I was too stunned to say anything and he ran straight towards our building. Is he perhaps aware that I live here? “Help! Please help us!” he cried on top of his lungs. I looked back and saw that the thugs had already gathered and were following us. There was a good distance between us so we might be saved since there will surely be guards stationed near the entrance of the building, but there was none. He saw it as well and as a final attempt, he opened the door of the building and gently pushed me inside. “There are scary looking misters here in the building, I’m sure you will be safer here.” He sounded like he was not going to join me, and I was right. I was just calling out to him to come inside as well, but my voice didn’t reach him as he dashed away in a hurry before the thugs could catch him. I immediately tried to open the door to see if he managed to outrun them but the sharp pain in my ankle prevented me from doing so. “Young miss?” I heard Steppen call out to me, I turned around and saw him running towards me. “What happened? You’re very pale.” Instead of telling him about my condition, I pointed outside. “Some thugs were running after a boy who helped me. Please help him.” It was only for a moment, but I seemed to have witnessed a flame lit up within Steppen’s eyes. He doesn’t seem to be the same Steppen I knew, it was like he was an entirely different person. “Bazx!” He shouted and Bazx, who is one of my father's guards, landed in front of me from the 5th floor. “Take care of the young miss, I have something I need to do.” he said coldly as his body strangely doubled in size. Even Bazx, who is bulky, showed fear in his eyes and nodded his head but it was not a time for me to think about such things, the safety of the server comes first. “Please make sure to save him, Steppen.” I pleaded and Steppen nodded his head. “Rest assured, young miss. I will fulfill your wish.” Steppen left and Bazx brought me to one of our doctors to give me first aid. Right after I received first aid, I insisted on waiting for Steppen’s return. And as if by coincidence, Steppen returned with a gloomy look on his face. I rushed towards him and he immediately apologized and handed me a notebook. I felt a sudden surge of fear enveloped me and the sudden realization of the chances he was hurt came rushing in my head. “No way. Did you find him, Steppen?” Steppen shook his head and explained briefly. “I followed the highly possible streets where they might have run to and only found this. There were traces of struggle but I failed to find anyone. I’m sorry, young miss.” I can;t help but feel shaken. If he was caught by those thugs, it was all my fault. Anyone would be exhausted carrying someone like me while running away from those thugs. To think that I brought harm to someone who did everything to help me, someone he doesn’t even know anything about, makes me feel sick and disappointed in myself.“How is she doing?”Steppen instantly prostrated himself in front of the company owner right after his inquiries all while bathing in cold sweat. An unexpected reaction from someone who was feared by his own subordinates.“This is all my fault! If only the ground floor was guarded tightly, then all of these wouldn’t have happened and the young miss wouldn’t be put in danger! Please allow me to apologize for my men’s lacking ability!”The company owner just looked at him blankly and buried his face beneath his palms.“It’s not like I’m pinning everything on you, Steppen. Sure, I’m angry that my little princess was injured but I’m glad that it was the only thing she suffered. Rather than that, I’m far more concerned about her mental health. She hadn’t sulked like this before, locking herself up inside her room and not eating her meal. That’s far more concerning for me.” The company head said, putting his pen and paper down.“She didn’t tell me anything about the young man who save
This really came to me as a surprise. I did not expect to see her hang around in the same place where she nearly got harmed. I can’t tell if she’s plain foolish or brave at all. I sat on the seat right across from her and looked at her. Our gazes met but for some reason, she quickly averted her gaze from mine. It caught me off guard. A few moments ago, she had no problem locking eyes with me. Did I do something wrong perhaps? “Hello, we meet again,” I said, greeting her with a smile like I usually do. When I did, she turned to look at me again. This time, she did not avert her gaze away and greeted me back. “W-We meet again. How are you?” It just came to me at that moment. The reason why she averted her gaze from mine earlier might be because of the band aids. She must have felt responsible for what happened to me and could not help but turn away in guilt. I quickly tried to remove the band aids from my face, but she immediately threw me a remark, stopping me from removing them o
It’s been a few days since my tutoring sessions with Ceri started. The first day was an exception since Mr. Lucius threw a celebration. The day after that was when the real tutoring session started. At first, Ceri was all shy and wouldn’t talk to me nor come near me. Considering the nature of what I came to their place to do, it made things a bit difficult for me.But after I asked her about the problem the next day, she didn’t explain and returned to how she was when I first met her. Maybe she was still trying to get used to the sudden change. I was told by their butler, Steppen, that this is the first time someone was asked to be her tutor. So I can understand her to a certain extent.The tutoring session was a good chance for me to review what I learned and started to enjoy myself. I used to tutor Ivan whenever he got in trouble with his grades, so tutoring another one is but a simple task for me now.While thinking about that, a voice came from behind me and grabbed my shoulder.“
A few days have passed and I haven’t asked Ivan about his meeting with a shady man in the dead of the night. I tried to bring that topic up, but I couldn’t muster up the courage to do so. Despite us always walking up to school every morning, I find it hard to ask him something personal.Just like today. I’m walking alongside him, but I can’t bring that topic up. It’s just too heavy and the prospect of it being a mistake and ending up straining our friendship scares me.He is one of the few friends I have in school. If I were to lose him because of my curiosity, I’d greatly regret it for the rest of my life. I know it.I let out a frustrated sigh. I saw him looking at me with a serious expression on his face. It wasn’t his usual cheery and enthusiastic face. I seldom see him being serious. And once he shows that face, it will take a while till he reverts back to his usual self.“What? Is there something wrong?” I asked.I can’t be too obvious that something is bothering me. Otherwise,
Ever since Ivan confirmed it, I was not able to get it out of my head. To think that someone was spreading something like that here in the city. That alone is dangerous.If what they talked about was true then the drug or whatever it is has a deep connection to the abnormal appearances of Irregularity Breaks that’s happening all over the city. For now, the Exterminators are still able to contain the Irregularity breaks, but what if it continues to grow in numbers? Will the Exterminators be able to keep up?Now I understand what my fellow classmates were talking about. I also have grown restless. And if this continues, my college life and my hope for graduating college will be at stake.I’ve decided. For the sake of my life, my family’s life, I will do everything I can in my power, though small, I have to do this for me and my parents.I told myself that, I have resolved myself to do that, yet I was immediately hit with the biggest problem.“How can I do that? Will that cost money
It's been a few days ever since Ms. Owen gave me a prescription. I thought it wouldn’t be accepted by the pharmacies since it came from someone who works in our high school, but I was wrong. They easily accepted it without batting an eye, just like when I gave them all the excuses I can think of.This made me wonder if they really needed the prescription at all. Anyway, that made things easier for me. Thanks to Ms. Owen’s prescription, I was able to purchase the cheapest sleeping pill from the nearest pharmacy. To think that they use this kind of trick to make sure they’d dispose of expensive sleeping pills by having the cheap ones needing prescription while the expensive ones do not.“Have you been getting sleep now?”A voice called out to me as I passed by the hallway as I entered the school building. I turned to the direction where the voice came from and saw Ms. Owen’s blinding beauty. For someone looking so perfect, It made me wonder why she’s in a place like this. The way she
While I was conducting my own investigation, the abnormal Irregularity Breaks continued to tear through the city. It is still at the extent where the Exterminators within the city could handle. But who knows how long it will stay that way?Based on what that man said, their stocks are being swept like a wave. That only means that there’s a lot of people that have already got their hands on that drug. It will only be a matter of time until the explosive number of Irregularity Breaks occur. When that happens, this city is done for.With that in mind, I need to figure something out while I still have an opportunity. It was Saturday, so my tutoring session with Ceri was moved after lunch for weekdays. Because her father is also busy with the chaos created by the abnormal Irregularity Breaks, the building where they live has become so hectic.All the people who have been standing idle the first time I visited this place are nowhere to be seen. Leaving only a handful of guards for the
Two days after receiving the drug, I kept my eyes peeled at the news. There is a possibility that I wasn’t the only one whom he met that night. There might be others as well who were planning to buy drugs from him. But after keeping tabs on the news, I got nothing.The only thing left to do is to confirm it myself. It was during my part-time job when the person I asked to meet arrived at the shop. I immediately cleared a table to accommodate that person to the best of my abilities.“Leave things in the shop to me and get down to your business. But you better hurry. I don’t know how long I can hold out without your help!”I nodded my head and thanked Mr. Kim for giving me the opportunity. “You’re quite greedy, Ren. I did not expect you to take advantage of Mr. Kim’s kindness.” said Ceri, while tying her blonde hair.Her presence sticks out like a sore thumb. Aside from her beauty, the aura she exude screams nothing but maj