Chapter 15

Freshmen year in University would start in five days. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to attend University anymore. I had agreed to go to the States with Achord. We had planned to leave for the States in three days. Exactly three days from today.
Three days and I would be in a whole different place, a place where I would start my new life with Achord. I don’t know if I should be happy or nervous about it.

Yes, I had agreed to go with Achord, but a small voice inside my heart kept telling me that it was a wrong decision.

Mom really wanted me to go with Achord. She had been convincing me to go. I really didn’t know what was wrong with her. I thought she didn’t like Achord, but she wanted me to go to the States with Achord like really bad.

People around me had been acting different lately. Mom... Aaron…

Aaron was still cold. I was so stupid to think that he had changed when he had not. Maybe he was high at the night he came to my house. That might explain why he was nice that night.

Today’s practice was like hell to me. Aaron was my worst nightmare. He kept yelling at me. I didn’t do anything wrong. I did everything as he told me to do. He was horrible although I still believed that he had a caring side. I just didn’t get why he had to hide it.

Time sure did fly. I had been learning boxing for more than three months now.
But Master still thinks that I need more practice.
He wouldn’t let me join the big class. He wanted Aaron to train me more. And I hated it. I couldn’t stand his coldness.

I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about Aaron. These past few days, I’d been thinking a lot about him. My stupid brain and mind just wouldn’t stop thinking about him. Why? I didn’t know why.
Even my heart wouldn’t stop leaping every time I thought about him. It felt like it was going to burst.

Aaron oh Aaron… What had you done to me?

I heaved a huge sigh as I finally reached my house. I took my key out of my pouch. I slipped it onto the door knob’s keyhole and I found the door was already open. Mom is at home? Why didn’t she close and lock the door?

“Mom, are you home?” I yelled as I opened the door. I stepped inside the house and found my house was a disaster. I saw the table was upside down. Photographs hanging on the wall fell on the floor. What happened?
My house looked as if it had been robbed.

I heard voices from the kitchen. I wanted to know who did this to my house. I walked to the kitchen and I found mom kneeled down in front of these three guys. Who were they?

“Please, give me some time.” She begged, crying. One of the guys kicked mom causing her to fall to the ground. What the…

“MOM!” I rushed up to her side. I kneeled next to mom. She tried to sit up. “Mom, are you okay?”

She nodded and whispered. “I’m okay.”

I knew she lied. I could see there was a small wound on her cheek. And there were bruises on her arms and legs. These guys might have hit mom.
These guys were obviously bad guys. They must have wanted something from us.

There were three of them. One of them looked the same age as me or a bit older. The other two looked old enough to be my dad.
I gave them a hateful and cold look. But they didn’t seem to be scared.

I took a deep breath. “What do you want?” I shouted bravely, putting a fierce look on my face. I didn’t care what they would do to me. I just wanted to protect mom. I had to protect her.

“Oooh, so this is your daughter?” One of the old guys smirked. He made eyes at the other guys and laughed.

“How about give her instead?” The other old guy who was wearing hat laughed. What was he talking about?

Mom cried harder, “Please! Please… I promise you. Three weeks! She’s my only daughter. You can’t do this to me.” What was mom talking about? Three weeks? What?

“She has the guts. I like her.” The guy with a hat walked up to us. He looked at me. “Why don’t you come with us?”

Come with you? Oh puh-lease! Did you think I was dumb? “I don’t want to. You guys are bad guys!” I said loudly which made them laughed out loud, except the younger guy who looked the same age as me. He only smiled bitterly.
“Get out of my house!!” I shouted at them.

The old guy lifted up my chin with his hand. His jaw clenched as he stared coldly into my eyes. “Don’t mess with us!”
I was frightened by his stare.

My body felt weak. This guy was indeed scary. I wanted to cry, but I had to hold it back. It wasn’t the right time to cry. I had to be strong.

“Dad, she’s just a girl. You’re scaring her.” The young guy walked up to this old guy and held his arm. This fat old guy was his dad? They looked different. He looked handsome and gentle. He had this perfect body figure. But his dad looked old, fat, and ugly.

“TOP, son.” He let out a huge sigh and continued. “You’ll never know how evil a woman can be. You should remember what your mom did to us. Don’t be fooled by her weakness.” The old guy took a glimpse at his son and then quickly looked back at me.

“I think we had scared them enough today. Let’s leave, Dad!” The young guy, who I think was called TOP, said convincing his dad to leave.

“Ray, bro, the woman had promised us three weeks. Give her a chance.” The other old guy said. What were they talking about? What chance? What three weeks?

He turned to mom. He stared coldly at mom’s face. “Three weeks.” His voice somehow sounded threatening.

The old guy, who I assumed was TOP’s dad, took his leave, followed by the other old guy behind. TOP looked at me, and I looked back at him. We exchanged looks and he smiled bitterly at me before he took his leave.
What was that for?

When the bad guys were already gone, mom heaved a huge sigh of relief. She was still sobbing.
I realized mom might get hurt. I tried to help her stand up. Then I helped her walk to the couch and let her sit on the couch before I began questioning her.
I grabbed the bruise relief gel and sat next to mom on the couch. I ripped off the top of the gel packet and then squeezed it on to my finger.

“Mom, who were they?” I asked quietly as I slowly rubbed the gel to mom’s bruises.
I wanted to know who those people were. I wanted to know what had happened. How not? It didn’t look like a small matter to me.

Mom didn’t respond.

“Mom.” I looked at her, groping for an answer to the question.

“I don’t know.” She lied and I could tell.

“What were they talking about? What’s in three weeks?”

“It’s not important. What important is that you’re going to the States in three days. How do you feel?” She asked. It was obvious that she wanted to change the topic.

I took a breath. “Mom, I want to know. Are you hiding something from me?” I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes.

Mom looked at me nervously. I knew she was hiding something from me. I wanted to know.

“I’m sorry.” She said in a shaky voice, avoiding the question.

“How can I leave if you’re like this? You’ll make me worry. Now, tell me.”

Mom bowed her head down and let out a huge breath before turning to me to explain. “I owe them money, huge amount of money.”

“What?” Why did mom owe them money?

“I have my reason.” She said.

“Tell me about it.” I made sure I tuned up everything she was going to say.

“You know the lady called Snowy from the pub, don’t you?” She asked and I nodded in reply.

She turned her face forward, not wanting to look at me. “Well, she told me that she was doing a big business. She said that if I gave her a sum of money, she would double the money.

I didn’t believe her at first, so to give it a try, I gave her my US$200 and she really doubled my money. She gave me back $400 in just two days.
I wanted to have more money, so I borrowed a huge amount of money from Ray, the guy from earlier. He’s a loan shark. He lent me a huge amount of money and told me to pay back in week’s time.

I knew I would pay him back soon since I would have my money doubled. I couldn’t wait to double the money, so I gave Snowy the money I had gotten from Ray. Snowy told me not to worry about the money and that she would double it in two days.
Two days had passed, I waited for her, but she never showed up. A week later, a guy came to me and told me that I had been scammed. Snowy had run off with the money. He told me that Snowy already had a lot of victims, including me.

Now, the money is gone and I don’t know how to pay Ray back. He will do anything to get the money back.
To be honest, I tried to hide it from you by bringing you to go shopping, but now you’ve found out about it. I don’t know what to do… I really don’t.” Tears were falling down mom’s cheeks. I couldn’t believe this. How could she be so naïve? How could she trust someone with a huge amount of money?

I leaned closer to her and hugged her tightly. I wanted to comfort her, letting her know that everything was going to be all right. I couldn’t blame her. I don’t want to give her more pressure. I love my mom.

“Mom, how much do you owe Ray?” I finally asked.

It took her a minute to reply. “$5000”

My eyes flew open. I couldn’t believe my ears. $5000? That wasn’t a small amount of money. I had to do something.

Mom pulled away from the hug. She stared into my eyes. “Gui, promise me you will go to the States. Don’t worry about me. I will take care of this. I don’t want to drag you into this. I don’t them want to do anything bad to you.” Her eyes were watering.

How could I leave her now? I am not such a heartless daughter who would leave my own mother when I know she’s in a big trouble.

~~

I ground my teeth and went for the phone. I dialed Achord’s cell.

“Gui?” He answered on the second ring.

I had to tell Achord. “Achord….”

I’m sorry Achord. I’m really sorry. I guess this is the end of us.

= = = = = = = = = = = = =

No Aaron on this chapter hehe.
But OOHMYGOD, TOP! HAHA! xD were you guys surprised?
Don't blame me! I’m really addicted to Big Bang’s newest song, Tell Me Goodbye. *SCREAMS* Taeyang & TOP’s parts have killed me. *DIES* Big Bang is HOT <3
Taeyang had appeared in my other story, so I wanted to make TOP’s appearance here LOL. I know, I’m so lame :(
Don’t kill me! Haha. Hopefully you liked this chapter.