After entering the cafe, Doon, the blue-eyed guy with a short but sharp hairstyle, showed Mia the seat, being the gentleman he was.Mia happily sat down, and then Doon sat opposite to her. Gabe sat next to Mia, whereas Carrie sat next to Doon, leaving Freddy standing because every table had only four seats.Freddy pulled a chair from another table and sat at the same table as the rest.“Today has been a little crazy,” Mia said. “I almost lost my family heirloom not once but twice. My parents would be ashamed of me if they were alive.”“Don’t blame yourself for things that aren’t in our control, Miss,” Doon spoke in a friendly, sweet voice all the while showering a subtle smile that got on Gabe’s nerves.“You are right,” Mia said.The waiter came, and Carrie ordered macarons and bagels for herself. Freddy asked for a hot chocolate. Doon wanted a smoothie. Mia wanted a lemonade, and so Gabe also asked for a lemonade and felt like he achieved something.After the waiter left, Mia started
“I’m so sorry!” Mia was quick to apologize. She couldn’t believe what she had just done. Spilling a drink on another person’s face… she had never done anything remotely close before, so she was in a shock. “I didn’t mean to…” She took out her handkerchief and gave it to him. “I’m really sorry.”“It’s okay,” Doon wiped his mouth with her kerchief. While doing that, he also noticed the rings that were on the hands of Mia and Gabe. What caught his eye was the copper ring on Gabe’s finger. He soon squinted his eyes, and his pupils faintly glowed.[Uh-oh…] Systa immediately sensed the frequency vibration that she detected in Doon’s mind. [Gabe, I have to tell you something right away.]“What is it?” Gabe asked mentally.[Doon is… a transhuman.]“What?” Gabe ended up speaking out loud. “Ahem, sorry.” He then quickly went back to speaking in his mind while keeping his gaze on Doon who looked normal to his eyes. “What do you mean he’s a transhuman?”[There’s no doubt. He’s the owner of the Te
Getting spilled in the face was something that never happened to Carrie, so saying she was shocked or humiliated wouldn’t be enough.It was a heart-stopping experience for her, but what was even more shocking was that Gabe didn’t even say sorry and instead began to mumble something as if he was talking with himself.Freddy tried to clean Carrie’s face with the same kerchief that Doon had wiped his face with, and that made her even more angry. She grabbed the hot chocolate glass and threw it in Gabe’s face, including the glass.Gabe moved his head away, and the glass hit the customer sitting at the table behind Gabe.“Kyaa!” Carrie screamed in shock and acted like she fainted.The customers at the other table quickly came to quarrel, but Mia and Gabe apologized and tried to calm them down, but one of them, a bearded guy, still threw a milkshake on Gabe’s shirt and said, “Now, we’ll accept your apology.”Gabe clenched his fist and stepped forward.Mia held his hand and stopped him. “Don
Gabe froze like a chicken whose throat was held by the butcher. All he could do was watch as the butcher put his throat under the knife.There wasn’t any cash in Gabe’s pocket, either, so he just didn’t know how to react to this situation.Mia took out the money from her purse and paid the bill. The waiter left, but Gabe was still blankly staring with his mouth partly open.“There must have been some kind of issue with the card,” Mia said, even after she believed that there was no money in Gabe’s bank account. She didn’t want to make him feel embarrassed.Gabe pressed his lips together before putting the debit card back in his purse. He wanted to say thank you to her, but words didn’t come out of his mouth for some reason.[You should look at your face in the mirror right now. It’s hilarious.] Systa leaked out an annoying laugh to further test his nerves.Gabe’s face had no more color left to lose.[I told you already that the punishment will make you cry and beg me to forgive you.] S
Venkat’s face darkened like the night. He wanted to slap Gabe straight away, but after experiencing Gabe’s strength on his shoulder, he didn’t want to risk it.Instead of giving way for Gabe to leave the cafe, he walked alongside him and went to where Mia and Nora were talking.“Why don’t you two join us?” Venkat asked with a smile.“We just ate, so…” Mia apologized. “Sorry.”“Then, you can at least treat us to a nice meal,” Venkat suggested. “You two got married but didn’t even call us, so you can at least do this much for us, can’t you?”“Uh, sure,” Mia agreed out of shyness.“I’ll wait outside,” Gabe said and was leaving, but Venkat grabbed his hand.“Don’t go, my friend. We have a lot to talk about,” Venkat forced him to come with them and sit at the same time once more.“Order anything you want,” Mia told Nora. “I’ll pay for everything.”“That’s the Mia I know,” Nora excitedly called the waiter and then began to look at only the premium items. From burgers and ice creams to milk
The word ‘poor’ struck a vein in Gabe’s heart, especially because Mia was not talking back to Venkat anymore, which meant that she accepted his words probably because in her eyes Gabe was really poor.Gabe might have been able to clear his debts away, but he was still someone who was living in a small house that hasn’t been painted in decades.“Do you really work in UTS?” Venkat further questioned Gabe’s identity. “It’s a big company, so it makes me wonder if you’re really working there, or did you make a fake identity card to trick an innocent woman like Mia?”Mia looked at Gabe, wondering what he’d answer.“Why do you care where I work?” Gabe asked back.“Because you claimed that you earn more money than I do,” Venkat replied sharply. “So, obviously, I want to see if what you said was true or not. Why don’t you call your boss and talk with him in front of us?”Gabe slightly frowned.“Or, you can just show your bank statement for the past couple of months to show us your salary,” Nor
“Why are you spacing out when I asked you to do such a simple thing?” Mia snapped her fingers before Gabe’s face.“M-Mia, it’s a long story,” he grabbed her hand and took her to the elevator. Inside, they were alone, and he tried to explain things to her. “I want to give your money back, but I can’t. You know about the system I have, right? That thing is taking my money away.”“Huh?” Mia kept staring at him without blinking.“You don’t believe me?” He quickly showed the transactions and proved to her that his bank balance was zero. However, Gabe could easily have transferred the money to another account also owned by him, so Mia wasn’t too sure about what he was saying.“If the system is troubling you, then why don’t you take it off?” Mia asked.“Like I said, it’s a long story,” Gabe couldn’t tell her about the millions of dollars that he earned through the alpha system and then breaking the deal. It was too sensitive of an information that he didn’t want anyone to know.“Alright,” M
Claire didn’t trouble Gabe as much as he thought she would. After eating the chocolate ice cream, she just shook hands with him and Mia, and wished them luck. In the end, she lightly hugged Mia and whispered, “I was planning to go after him, but you got to him first. You are lucky.”Mia’s eyes enlarged in response.“See ya later,” Claire waved goodbye to Gabe and left as a happy woman. She looked more like a teenage girl now who didn’t care about looking a bit childish, whereas in the UTS, she looked like a lioness.Gabe didn’t even wave back at her, but Mia raised her brows and asked him, “She seems to be more than a co-worker. Did you two perhaps date in the past?”“What? No!” Gabe was quick to respond.“Then, do you have feelings for her?”“Of course not,” Gabe’s reply was faster this time. “I told you that I love you, didn’t I?”“I don’t believe your words anymore, Gabe,” Mia blew air through her nose. “From today, I’ll keep a knife with me, so think twice before trying to take ad