On the same night.Jim, Rena, and Shiney slept in the same hotel room but on three different beds. The sisters did not quarrel with each other, not even once. But they weren’t being friendly, either.The next morning.About an hour before the sunrise, Jim woke up and found Shiney sleeping in his bed, right next to him, with one of her legs on top of his leg.He thought it was Rena, so he was a bit shocked to see that it was actually Shiney.He quickly got out of the bed and then walked out onto the balcony.In the past, he would generally hear the traffic. The heavy trucks that would be traveling fast on highways, and the noises of the horns and so on. But right now, he was able to hear very many distinct things.The most peculiar thing he noticed was the chirping on the birds in the trees. And he was able to see that the voices of the birds actually helped the plants wake up from the night before the sunrise.It was so beautiful to see while hearing the voices of the birds that he ha
After Shiney woke up, Rena didn’t quarrel with her, but she did give her the side-eye for a little bit.Jim just wanted the sisters to be friendly and not attack each other.After all, Jim did not have any male friends growing up. His parents were his only friends. And then, it was Shiney. And then, it was Rena. He owed these four a lot.So, he didn’t want his two still-living friends to be fighting right now. That was the last thing he wanted.Jim never experienced intimidation before, not even when he was fighting the three immortals or the eight masters in the Beast Dungeon, but right now, he felt chills when the sisters were looking at each other and not exchanging a word.He was losing his HP just by being in the same room as these sisters.Life felt like a game, like a simulation he couldn’t escape from.Yes, at this moment,he didn’t want to be in this room.“Girls, let’s go to breakfast,” Jim said.Both of them turned their heads and coldly looked at him.“T-This is…” Jim backe
The three of them returned to the room after finishing breakfast.“Jim, there’s a carrom board, so why don’t we play carroms?” Shiney asked him.“Sure,” he looked at his wife. “You want to play, too?”“Of course,” Rena replied. She couldn’t just leave those two alone, so she had to agree.They sat down in three chairs, with him sitting between the sisters. He sprayed powder and arranged coins on the board. “These smell like tamarind,” he said. “They must have been made from tamarind wood.”“Do you remember that we used to eat tamarind candy together when we were young?” Shiney said.“How can I forget that?”he quickly said. “The pocket money that my mom gave was spent on buying candy for you.”“Hahaha,” Shiney laughed as if she was proud about it.Unlike Shiney, Rena didn’t have many memories with Jim. They were mostly distant to one another, but she was always attracted to him because of his looks and the fact that he was a very hard worker. The reason Rena respected her mom but not h
The next morning.Lola woke up at eight in the morning. The house looked very silent and dull. She could not hear the voices of her daughters, or the sounds of Jim working in the kitchen.She went downstairs. As expected, Marc seemed to have ordered food instead of cooking.“Did you bring food from Malcolm’s restaurant again?” Lola asked, a lot of disappointment flowing through her voice.“I’m too old to be cooking right now, Darling,” Marc spoke without a filter because no one else was in the house. “How about we hire a maid?”“There are chefs who stand for hours and cook in hotels even when they are in their seventies, so why are you saying that you’re old?” Lola blurted, trying to control herself from yelling at him. “There’s no need to waste money on a maid. You’ll be doing the housework.”“But I want to manage the restaurant you bought,” Marc expressed his interest plainly.“Why? So you can steal some money and renew your addictions?” Lola asked.“I will be careful from here on.
Later that night.Shiney came to the room with a bag full of junk food, only to see Rena and Jim sleeping on the same bed, with her laying her head on top of his chest and running her finger in circles around his chin. They were talking about something, but when Shiney entered, Rena quickly got up and went over to her bed.“W-We thought the door was closed,” Jim said.“It’s fine,” Shiney tossed the bag on her bed. “I’m being a nuisance to you both, but bear with me for a little while.”“You’re not a nuisance, Shiney,” Jim said.“Yeah, can my sister say the same?” Shiney asked, to which Rena had no answer. “See. I told you.”Jim took a deep breath. “Why don’t we go out on a trip? All three of us together?”Shiney was shaking her head.Rena also didn’t look okay with his idea. “We don’t have money with us, Jim. We should spend every penny carefully. Just staying at this hotel right now is already costing us a lot. Tomorrow, I have three interviews. Hopefully, I’ll get a job.” She then l
After Rena insisted that Marc stayed at the hotel for the night, Marc couldn’t refuse. He also didn’t want to leave both of his daughters only after staying with them for a few minutes, so he decided to stay there.Rena told Jim to order some food for her dad and gave him her debit card.Jim went out to withdraw money from the ATM and then buy some food.It turned out that Malcolm’s restaurant was nearby, so Marc told him to bring the food from there, hoping that the restaurant wasn’t closed because it was night time already.Even though Jim didn’t want to visit that place, he wasn’t going to live with Marc and Lola in the future anyway, so he wanted to listen to Marc for this once.In about ten minutes, he reached Malcolm’s restaurant.The last time he came here was more than a month earlier as he was looking for a job. He was even willing to work as an assistant chef, but Malcolm told him that only a janitor’s job was available. He even humiliated Jim by telling him that he might ha
Four men rushed into the restaurant, pushed Jim to the side, and forcibly dragged Malcolm out.“What do you want?” Malcolm asked them, but they didn’t answer him.They brought him to the car, and the rooftop opened. Jerkins stood and revealed himself, smoking from a pipe, and wearing an old fashioned hat. He had dog-tag earrings.“M-Mr. Jerkins! What do you want me for?” Malcolm asked.“You see… your brother has lost it and stole a bag full of drugs from my basement and ran away,” Jerkins said. “Now that’s a special drug. One gram costs over 100 dollars. And he stole 12.6 kilos of it. That adds up to 1.26 million dollars. I’m going to have you pay me that money.”“T-This is ridiculous,” Malcolm raised his voice, and he was punched in the gut by Jerkins’ underlings. Malcolm coughed blood. “I can’t give you that much money. I already lost my restaurant.”“I know, but you still have your precious house, don’t you?” Jerkins said. “It has a value of about 800,000 dollars. I’ll take that f
Jerkins and his men were leaving home.“You’re still sweating, sir,” one of the ladies wiped the sweat off his face. “I’ve seen you break men’s skulls with your bare fists. But I’ve never seen you put your hat down before another man. Just who was that handsome bloke that made you bow?”“Jim fucking Daddy, that’s who he is,” Jerkins lit up his cigar pipe. “There are some people who make you want to fight for their place, and then there are other you make you want to get the fuck away from them. He belongs to the second category. The less we interfere with his affairs, the more it’ll be profitable for my businesses and I can sleep peacefully at night. Anyway, don’t go telling others that I gave in to some man.”“How could we do that?”“Well, alcohol makes anybody say shit, so I’m warning you both just in case,” Jerkins stated. The serious tone of his voice scared the ladies a little bit.“More than 2 million dollars are gone, but it is what it is,” Jerkins looked up at the sky while bl