A few minutes earlier.Shiney was watching her favorite romantic movie online, and the scenes in the movie reminded her of her younger days.She used to come out of the school during lunch so she could visit Drake's restaurant. And she would eat in the kitchen while Marcus and Jim were busy cooking and serving the guests.Marcus asked her many times to watch him and learn how to cook, but Shiney was more interested in chatting with Jim.She would always ask Jim to escort her back to school after lunch. Jim would agree every now and then, depending on his mood and how busy he was on that day.One day, Shiney and Jim were heading to school in the afternoon. He was just accompanying her.“Are you sure you don’t want to join school?” she asked. “It’s really fun, you know. If you join my class, I’ll help you learn every subject easily. I’m always in the top five rankers of the class. So you can rely on me for your homework!”Shiney had come up with a big plan so she could spend more and mo
On a random bus traveling through the city.Many people were looking back at a person who was eating chicken lollipops from a bucket, and was also drinking cold lemon water in between.“Look at him. He’s eaten like 20 chicken leg pieces already, and he’s still going at it,” one woman said.“He looks like a bodybuilder. Maybe, his competition has finished, and this is his cheat day after a long time?”“He looks big, but he doesn’t look that big to be a bodybuilder though.”“He’s probably a calisthenic expert or something.”“Yeah, he’s gotta be good at some physical labor, or he’d never be able to digest all that meat.”The person they were talking about was none other than Jim.He had given one of Serpent King’s melted gold rings to a restaurant in return for a bucket full of chicken lollipops and a jar full of fresh lemon juice.Jim did not have any outward injuries on his body now, but he was still feeling tired. Internally, his organs and nerves were under a lot of stress. His body
There was no power in the city right now. Even the inverters in some houses were not working. So, most people were using candles and torch lights and other ways to light their houses.Many people were even thinking of sleeping because of the increased chances of thieves coming to rob the house in these times.Luckily, the inverter was still working in Lola’s house.Currently, there was a special guest that visited the house now, someone that Lola treated extremely respectfully.Because of his arrival, Lola arranged for a lavish dinner that she had ordered from a five-star restaurant named Eco Waves.Lola called everyone for dinner, including her husband and two daughters so that the table will be full and pleasant. But things were quite going according to her plan because neither of the daughters seemed to be in a good enough mood to even start a conversation with the guest.So, Lola and Marc kept the guest busy.“Mr. Tom, how is the food?” Lola asked him.“It’s pretty good,” Tom said
After Tom left, Lola and Marc entered the house.Lola was giving a cold gaze at her second daughter. “What is wrong with you, Shiney? Why did you show such disrespect to an important guest?”“He may be important to you but not to me,” Shiney indifferently replied.Lola’s gaze sharpened. “Cut with his crappy attitude. Do you have any ideas of ever moving forward in your life? Or are you going to stay as a loser for your whole life?”“Loser? How am I a loser?” Shiney asked back. “Oh, right. I’m not earning money by using my brain to cheat and manipulate others like you do, right?”“Nonsense. I don’t cheat others,” Lola quickly said.“Yeah? But you do lie a lot, don’t you?” Shiney retorted. “When you lend money to others, you give them for high interests, but when you take money from others, you take at low interest rates, saying that you are suffering a lot of losses and that you can’t pay them for higher interest rates.”“That’s a business tactic,” Lola patiently explained. “There are
Many years ago.There was a time when Lola, Marcus, and their families lived under the same roof.Jim was about eight years old back then, with Rena being seven and Shiney being six. They would go to the same school, and every morning, Shiney caused a scene because she would always not find her socks.Lola would yell at her and sometimes even discipline her with a slap or two, but Shiney would rarely succeed in finding both the socks every morning. Because of her, the school bus had to wait for a long time at their house, which caused Lola to get all the angrier.However, one morning, Shiney asked her mother for the missing sock again. Lola started scolding again, but then Jim looked for the missing sock, found it, and brought it to her.Lola loved what Jim did, and to thank him, she kissed him on the cheek and said, “Her name may be Shiney, but you’re the one who shines the most in this house, Jim.”Shiney wanted to do more than her mother, so she gave Jim two kisses and said, “Who s
Jim came home to find out in which hospital Rena was admitted in, but he wasn’t expecting her to be in the house, looking completely fine.But what shocked him even more was the conversation that Shiney and others had in the hall.Jim would be lying if he said he didn’t see this day coming.He definitely was better friends with Shiney than Rena, but Shiney never explicitly expressed her love to him, even when she knew that his dad was setting up dates for him. He had so much respect for her to not take her feelings for granted, so he never assumed that she might be deeply in love with him. Maybe, his subconscious mind might have felt that way, but he didn’t have any sort of a romantic conversation or incident with Shiney after their teenage years.Distance grew between them because Shiney got busy with her studies, and he was also focusing more on the restaurant.And when Lola talked about setting his marriage up with Rena, he did not hear anything from Shiney. Not a word. So, he was
Neither Lola nor Rena could answer Jim’s question.Marc didn’t like what he was seeing at all.“Why the hell are you two not asking him where the hell he was all this time?!” Marc came forward and caught Jim’s shirt. “Where did you go for two weeks? Where’s the car? Did you sell it somewhere?”Jim kept staring at Marc. “Did you know it as well? About Shiney…”“Why is that important?” Marc pulled Jim closer. “Do you know how much we’ve suffered because of you? Rena has been hospitalized for over a week, and we’ve looked everywhere for you like fools.”Jim’s expression changed. “I was kept in a prison. I somehow managed to escape.”His words shocked Rena. “P-Prison?”“Prison? What bullshit are you talking about?” Marc yelled. In his eyes, Jim did not look like he suffered in prison for two weeks.“Dad!” Rena tried to pull Marc’s hand away. “Didn’t I tell you that Jim and I were attacked? Why are you talking as if he’s the criminal?”Marc reluctantly let go of Jim’s shirt. “Why did you c
“Don’t you get it, Rena? Everything he said is a lie,” Marc shouted. “He sold the lamborghini somewhere, spent all the money in two weeks, and then returned empty-handed to fool us with some cock-and-bull story.”“Even though he’s left, I think he might return,” Lola stated. “We should tell the police so they can help us get him to the mental hospital.” She looked at Rena. “I mean, we’ll get him treated there.”“Mom, he’s not crazy!” Rena growled back. “The words he said and those eyes were not of a crazy man! Just what are you keeping hidden from me? What is this about the black magician?”“I really don’t know what he was talking about, Rena,” Lola said. “Please trust me. Besides, do you really believe in magicians? You are highly educated unlike Jim! Don’t be fooled by his trickery!”Rena frowned. She still clearly remembered Stanley getting shot by bullets, and those bullets couldn’t hurt him at all. Then again, he must be wearing some kind of vest? She didn’t know if vests could c