Crystalline °liskook°

05. More Proposals.

Chapter 5: More Proposals. Dangerous Proposals.

They were less than five minutes later until I found myself in one of my darkest nightmares.

Please, don't notice my dramatic self.

The door of the big armored van clicked as Albert closed it from the outside before getting into his driver's seat, leaving out all the noise. The people screaming, the flashes, the reporters; all of them out.

And I was inside the van, together with Jeon Robert, his driver, and his nephew sitting next to me in the back seats.

This was, once again, one of those moments where I start rambling about how the butterfly effect of not letting my mother's opinion get to me had led me...to this. To all this.

The truth was that life was unpredictable sometimes. It doesn't matter how much common and ordinary you think you are, your world could still turn upside down. And you will have to just adjust to it.

"Are you okay?" Robert's voice brings me back to the present. "You're pale, are you going to faint? I didn't think crowds scares you."

To his side, Albert laughed as he keeps driving out the place.

"Can we even call that a crowd?"

"You're right, but my point is still valid." He looked at me again, through the mirror. "Lalisa, are you okay?"

Afar from the "crowd", my paleness was due to that seat companion who observes the window without uttering a single word.

"Ah... yeah, I think... By the way, can I know why I'm being kidnapped?"

"Sure! You're in your right to know!" He acceded without correcting me. He took out a pair of glasses and covered his eyes with them. "Look at, Lalisa... I have a proposition to make you."

Eh?

This gives me deja vú...

I frowned as the atmosphere inside the van gets... tense. First, I wanted someone to fucking explain me what this all media scandal was about, second, I didn't know if trust in his "propositions" anymore. They weren't something light. I knew he wasn't going to offer me something simple that could benefit both of us. ¡No! His proposals came in big packages, of enormous value, that exclusively benefited me. The Academy, the job, the damn heritage... All of that feels too much already.

And from what I notice, the other two persons in the van knew what he was talking about. As I said, the atmosphere turned totally tense.

"Proposal? Another one, you mean?

He clicked his tongue, raising up his finger.

"Those were opportunities, not proposals."

"Well, damn proposals! Mister Jeon, at this point it wouldn't be surprising if you offer me the whole mansion," I folded my arms over my chest.

He turned around to look at me, and I perceived a hint of a smile on his face.

"Oh, well... You won't be so surprised then."

"Surprised about—"

Oh.

Wait.

"What?"

I am sure my face got even more pale as my arms fell against the sides of my body.

He laughed.

It couldn't be real.

It had to be a fucking joke.

"Mister Jeon... How do you dare to joke with things like this?"

Obviously. A joke. Because he couldn't be seriously talking.