Even If You Beg

Chapter 1

Hello, everyone! My name is Cantaloupe. Actually I do not like being called Cantaloupe so I have shortened my name to Can.

I just finished my midterm semester in university so I am currently on vacation. My vacation couldn't have happened at a better time because my dad has just been promoted to Chief Financial Officer in the big multinational corporation where he has worked for the past twelve years. Since the previous Chief Financial Officer had retired and since he had been his assistant all these years, it just followed that he would take over that office.

Ever since he has been promoted, my father has been very cranky, always quick to explode with just the smallest situation. At least I'm on vacation so his tantrums do not affect me. I don't have any exams to study for, so I feel relaxed and do not let my father's stress bother me.

What I am a little curious about is who could be his big boss to whom he has to report that makes him jittery and jumpy by the end of his work day.

Well, since his company seems to give him a generous salary which allows his family to live comfortably, I will not criticize whoever his big  boss is.

Right now, I am just enjoying window shopping in the mall that's not too far from my house. I don't like window shopping with friends or with my younger sister Lay because I do not want my activities to be delayed by having to wait for the others to finish shopping. I want my shopping flow to be smooth and uninterrupted.

I could not find any new electronics that I wanted to buy and since it was almost lunch time, I started to make my way to the upper floor of the mall where the Food Court was.

I was on the escalator when my phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket. It was Pete calling. Pete is one of the students from the IC department of our university where the very rich kids whose parents pay a sky high amount of tuition go to study. Pete became an accidental friend of mine only because he is a friend of my best friend Ae who studies on the same side of the university as I do.

"Hi, Pete, what's up?" I tried to make my voice friendly but I have always been wary of being friends with very rich kids. I really do not know what my friend Ae sees in him.

"Hi, Can, how are you?"

I wanted to say, just quit with the preliminaries and tell me what you want but my parents had always taught me to be polite to people and I try to be so as much as I can.

"I'm fine. What do you want from me?" Ooops, the rudeness slipped out of me.

"Can, I am with Ae at the mall right now. I was wondering if you want to join us for lunch at the Food Court."

Shit, I am already on the way to the Food Court. Too late to turn around now.

"Well, I'm actually on my way there. I was thinking of getting some lunch from the Mediterranean food booth."

"Okay, let's meet in front of it," said Pete.

I resigned myself to having a boring lunch.

Ae approached me when he saw me walking in their direction. He gave me a buddy hug.

"Please be nice to Pete," he whispered in my ear.

"Of course," I said with my fingers crossed behind me.

I ordered a plate of grilled jumbo shrimps with yellow fluffy rice and grilled tomatoes and peppers on the side. I preferred to order a bottled water instead of those sugary sodas.

I had just popped a jumbo shrimp into my mouth when I saw my arch enemy Tin approaching our table. I started to choke on my shrimp.

Pete turned around to see Tin. Ae must have seen the horrified look on my face and quickly said to me, "Can, I'm sorry, we forgot to inform you that Tin had asked to join us for lunch and we could not say no."

I jumped up from the table and started to walk away. I had managed a few steps when my wrist was grabbed from behind.

"The reason I came to have lunch here was because Pete and Ae informed me that you would be here as well."

I did not have to turn around to see who grabbed my wrist and who was speaking to me. I would always recognize that terrifying voice to my dying day.