1. Tragedy

"If I were you, I wouldn't think twice about accepting Brian's date; you're the only stupid girl who can resist the charms of the campus belle! Seriously, I can't get over it. What's your problem? What kind of man do you want?" Emily was still grumbling while fixing her makeup, which was honestly still very perfect.

Sun Cafe is quiet this afternoon, quieter than usual; only Emily's voice and the song played by the cafe operator can be heard. As usual, we will always come here when we are too lazy to go to campus. Campus life is very boring, to be honest, as if the world continues to revolve around a man named Brian, a man I just rejected a few days ago. I'm not sure what the advantages of the man who is always glorified by the entire campus are; besides his handsome face, what else does he have?

Ah, let me introduce myself; my name is Jasmine Smith. There is nothing special about me; it's just that my family is quite rich, so my life feels very easy. I can get anything I want. But somehow, my life feels bland. Maybe because I have too much money, I no longer have the motivation to get something.

I glanced at the window, sighing, seeing Bastian still standing alertly beside my car. Bastian was the bodyguard that my father paid to accompany me wherever I went. Honestly, I didn't understand why I needed a bodyguard. Well, yeah, I was beautiful, but I wasn't an artist; my father wasn't a state official either; our family didn't have any enemies so far, so ... why should I be bothered by the presence of this strange man who kept following me?

"I know you haven't been listening to me all this time; for whatever reason, you're driving me crazy, Jasmine!" Emily threw the tissue she was crumpling in her hand at me.

"If you adore Brian so much, why don't you be his girlfriend? Why me?" I replied casually.

Emily threw me a death glare. Her hand pulled a tissue from her bag and squeezed it; not waiting long, the squeezed tissue hit my forehead softly. This is a beautiful relationship; how can someone as angry as Emily be able to stand being friends with someone as annoying as me?

"I would; I wouldn't refuse him if it was me and not you, he asked out on a date!" Emily pouted in annoyance.

I just showed Emily my neat row of teeth, an innocent smile that could make her stop being angry. We started to enjoy the fries and burgers in front of us.

"We have to leave!"

I choked as Bastian suddenly pulled me, half dragging me out of the cafe, ignoring Emily, who kept screaming and running after us.

Bastian pushed me into the car and drove the car fast through the streets of Jakarta.

"What are you doing?" I snapped and glared at him.

"Your parents are in danger; we have to go home," Bastian said without looking at me.

I didn't say anything and just stared at Bastian's words. My parents were quite healthy; they seemed fine this morning too, so ... what was the problem?

I could only hold on tightly to the seat belt that was wrapped around my body, holding back the dizziness because Bastian was driving the car like crazy.

Bastian ran out as soon as we arrived in front of the house. I tried to catch up with him, staggering because I was dizzy, until a few seconds later, I heard a very loud sound from inside the house, the sound of gunshots in succession. I ran in panic into the house.

My blood seemed to stop flowing when I saw my maids lying in a pool of blood on the floor; I saw blood stains leading to the second floor and ran, following the trail of blood. When I was about to go to my parent's room, Bastian pulled me quickly to hide behind the sofa while he was in the middle of a shootout with several men dressed in black on the balcony.

The gunfire stopped as soon as the men jumped off the balcony. Bastian tried to chase them while I ran towards my parents' room. My knees shook seeing the many bloodstains scattered on the floor in front of the room. With the remaining courage I had, I looked up to look into my parents' room.

I fell as soon as I saw my parents lying lifeless on the floor. Blood was pouring out profusely from the gunshot wounds all over their bodies.

"Bastian!" I shouted with all the strength I had left.

"Bastian!" I shouted again, louder.

Bastian quickly returned and ran to embrace my father's body to see his condition. The cold man shouted in frustration with tears flowing from his sad eyes.

Bastian put his father's body back on the floor and readied the gun in his hand as gunshots rang out from downstairs again.

"Stay here; don't go out without my permission!" Bastian looked at me sharply with his sad eyes still filled with tears.

After saying that, Bastian passed me and left, accompanied by the deafening sound of gunfire. I limped over to my mother, hugged her body, and cried my heart out. I didn't know what was really happening, but the pain was real; this was not a dream.

How could this happen? Why did something like this happen all of a sudden? God ... what is this?

"Protect Jasmine!"

Before my surprise was over, a group of armed men entered the room and made tight security. Shortly after, there was a ceasefire. I couldn't see it clearly because the door of the room was closed and left several armed men surrounding me.

Not a single word could come out of my mouth; I could only hug my mother's body and watch the men.

The truce faded away, the door opened, and the men made way for Bastian and another man I remembered named Jaden. He was my father's secretary.

"Take Jasmine away," Jaden said quietly.

Bastian didn't say anything and just walked closer to me, the man crouched in front of me with a look on his face that was hard for me to explain.

"Bastian," I called him softly.

"We'll explain it later; for now, come with me," Bastian said in a deep voice.

I shook my head weakly. How could I follow him without knowing what had really happened? How could I—

"Sorry," he said softly.

I still had time to see a tear fall from Bastian's eye before a blow finally landed on the back of my neck.