Seeing Jim and his family members come out of the restaurant, the coconut shop owner Luke strung half-dozen coconuts together and brought them over with great effort.“Jim, you seem to be in a bad mood,” Luke said. “Want me to give you another coconut. It will calm your nerves.”“Hey, geezer,” Marc snorted, “do we look like we’ll drink coconut water from you? You look like you haven’t washed your clothes in a long while!”“S-Sir, these spots don’t go even if I wash them because I received them while cutting banana trees,” Luke said. “But I wash this shirt once every week.”“Once every week?” Marc’s expression warped. “Get the hell out of my sight, or don’t blame me if I kick you away!”Luke leaned closer to Jim and whispered, “Take these with you.” Saying that he walked away quickly.“Hey, why aren’t you taking these coconuts away?” Marc asked aloud, but Luke didn’t respond. Marc then angrily looked at Jim. “Did you pay him secretly?”“I know him, Uncle,” Jim said. “He gave these for
Shiney’s heart jumped into her throat when the bird smashed the glass window and began to scream and rolled in the back seat. It turned out to be a big peregrine falcon.“A bird?” Shiney’s heart was able to return to its position after confirming that it was just a bird.Jim, on the other hand, looked a bit frozen for a second. He opened the door and grabbed the falcon by the throat and forcibly brought it outside and took it to the side.“What’s he doing?” Shiney looked at her dad.“He probably wants to beat the shit out of it,” Marc said. “I’d do that if it was up to me. But…” he glanced back and saw the broken window. “It’s a tough glass. A bird shouldn’t be able to break it.”“It looked like a falcon, Dad. It must have come super-fast,” Shiney opined. “Luckily, Jim moved out of the way, or it’d have probably hit him on the neck.”Meanwhile, Jim was observing the falcon. Its eyes were completely red as if someone painted red on its eyes. Its pupils were barely visible. “The strengt
The sudden crash in the front activated the airbags and protected both Shiney and her dad from suffering any serious injury.Jim, however, did not have any seatbelt on, but he pressed his hands against the front seat Shiney was sitting in. This helped him cushion the impact, though his arms had to take a lot of pressure as a result. Even though the car seat was made of high quality plastic, the pressure put by Jim’s hands broke it.The loud noise alerted everyone even though there was a lot of traffic. Rena and Lola also heard it.“What’s that?” Rena’s heart trembled for a second. She tried to look to her right.“Don’t bother,” Lola said, not even turning her head a bit. “Accidents happen all the time. Let’s get out of here once the signal turns green.”“M-Mom,” Rena’s eyes widened a bit. “I think that’s our car.”Lola’s brain buzzed at once. “WHAT?”Rena stepped out of the car fast and was shocked to see the damage caused to both the cars involved in the accident. Luckily, there was
After talking with the police officers, George paid them 100 dollars secretly, and then they acted like no accident ever happened. If some part of the road or the divider was destroyed, then the police would have demanded more, not officially, of course.George then asked Jim to drink with him because Jim saved him from getting hit by a damned eagle which came flying out of nowhere.Jim, knowing that the eagle wasn’t after George but himself, couldn’t agree to drink with George. “Why would you want a drink with this useless guy?” Jim retorted.“I-I said those words on purpose. You shouldn’t take them seriously,” George said. “The wine I have is really good. I brought it from my sister-in-law’s house. Once you take a sip of that, you’ll go back to the time Jesus turned water into wine.”“Hoho, is it that good?” Jim felt tempted.“Well, obviously, it can’t be that good, but it’s better than anything you can find in your lifetime,” George assured. “I kid you not. It offers a taste better
Jim’s brows steadily drew together as George took the gun out and pointed it at him. “Why?”George raised his mobile and showed his picture. “Don’t know what you’ve done, but the Black Flower gang just released a bounty on your head. 25,000 dollars.”Jim was very much surprised to hear that. “Black Flower gang? Are you part of that gang?”“No.”“Then are you part of the mafia?”“Well, you can say that because I help them store drugs every now and then in my shed,” George smiled, which didn’t surprise Jim that much this time.“So you want to kill me and get the 25,000 dollars,” Jim slightly gritted his teeth. “Did you get that message after you brought me here, or before?”“After.” George was still pointing the gun. “Don’t hate me for doing this. 25,000 dollars may be small to you who has a rich wife and mother-in-law who drive in a Lamborghini and can threaten the people their vehicle dashes into in the streets. But 25 grand is a big amount for me. If I get it through the black market
Jim left the garage with the gun in his possession because he wasn’t sure who would attack him along the way.The first thing he did was buy a cheap jacket and cover his face with the hood.Then he took a taxi driven by an old man who had his family photo in front of his seat, so the chances of him being part of a gang were less.Jim had to be this cautious because he was anxious. Even though he wasn’t showing tension on his face, his heart was beating faster than usual. After all, a bounty was put on his head, and he had no way to know who’d aim for his head. So, he had to be sober and vigilant all the time and behave with the possibility that anybody could be his enemy.“25,000 dollars. It’s not big enough for infamous bounty hunters to act,” Jim thought. “That’s a good thing, but that’s the only good thing there is. If a random garage owner received a message, then a milk boy, pizza-delivery guy, or a taxi driver, anybody could be part of the gang. They might already be looking for
Shiney spoke in a sweet and cute tone, “Carry me inside.”Jim kept looking at her because, again, this was something she hadn’t done before. Was she purposely waiting for him at the back door? No. Jim decided to use the back door to avoid any shooters that might be waiting at his house, so how would Shiney know about it? Moreover, she was found drinking here while eating chips on top of that. Would someone feeling lonely or depressed eat chips along with alcohol? Jim wasn’t an expert in psychology, so he had no idea how to come to a conclusion.Nevertheless, he said, “You can clearly talk, so you can also surely walk, can’t you?”“Whatcha sayzing?” Shiny spoke in a slurred speech all of a sudden, making Jim feel not so good about what he’s dealing with. She still kept her arms raised. “Pick me. Armz. Into your armz.”Jim controlled himself even though he felt like pinching her nose until she acted normal. ‘Fine.” He turned around and squatted. “Get on my back?”“Huh?” She stretched he
When Jim was heading back to his room, he could hear Rena talking loudly in her room, seemingly on her mobile. Jim, thanks to his enhanced sense of hearing, was not only able to hear her voice very clearly but was also able to hear the voice on the other side.Jim understood from the voice that it was Austin Woakes. Jim didn’t like it. “He may be her boss, but why is he talking with her at this hour?” He paid more attention to their conversation.“Your abstract was liked by Steve, but he wanted you to refine it even more,” Austin said.“Of course, sir, it’s just the barebones of the idea that I had,” Rena said. “If I work on it for a few more days, I’ll be able to make it concrete.”“Good. Good. But where exactly did you tour to?” Austin asked. “How did you get the idea of making it so concise and neat? I’m sure you yourself told me that day that the interior design is already optimized with no unnecessary things added.”“Yes, sir. I remember that, but back then, I was only looking at