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Chapter 3

Aster: third person's point of view.

—

Bringing a girl– a drunk, blabbering nonsense kind of girl to his apartment unit never crossed Aster's mind.

Earlier this morning, he was already planning to sleep on the comfort of his bed, hugging the daylight out of his newly-bought fluffy, white pillows to sleep and wake up feeling decent at least. He thinks ahead like a boss.

That girl was definitely not part of the plan.

A big, fat N to the O.

"You look hot, grim reaper." He remembered her remark.

He grimaced at the thought. I'm a what? And what the heck is a grim reaper?

And why am I even thinking of irrelevant things this late at night anyway?

He shook his head and forced himself to sleep, tossing and turning to the small, white couch for the third time. His large blanket is now all over the place, barely hugging his whole body.

He opened his eyes and closed it again.

He did it around 15 more times before scratching his head at his own stupidity.

Frustrated, he stood up to grab a drink from his almost empty kitchen. While waiting for the glass to fill up with water, he stared at his bedroom door, lowkey hoping that the stranger would come out and say bye-bye to her freaking grim reaper.

I miss my bed. Bummer.

He sighed and fished for his phone from his jean's back pocket. It read 12:46 AM. Wow, how early.

Right, he also forgot to charge the stranger's phone, which is kind of reckless on his part.

After finishing the glass of cold water, he wiped his mouth dry, stood up from the stool, and went inside his room again. He carefully approached the snoring stranger's phone and good grief, I use android, she doesn't. How the heck am I gonna charge this shi-

"Nevermind, screw that. It's annoying," he muttered to himself.

He took a quick glance at the stranger again. Strangely enough, his gaze stayed a lot longer than he intended and before he knew it, he was already taking in the tiny details etched on her messy face.

Long, thick eyelashes, bushy eyebrows, double eyelids, pointed nose, frowning lips, fair complexion-

Dear Aster, please refrain yourself  from checking her out. You're becoming a creep.

He hurriedly pushed himself away from the bed after the girl started moving around again. He tiptoed towards the door and closed it as quietly as his cold, tan hands could muster.

Aster grabbed something on the coffee table and turned it on. He skimmed through the endless array of landscapes and memorable sceneries taken from different cities and countries. He found himself smiling as he checked the much older photos. He let out a sigh of satisfaction at the way they were taken.

Ah, t'was a good time.

But the smile grazing on his lips soon disappeared when he eventually laid his eyes on the first saved pictures. His thumb stayed resting on the delete button as he hesitated to click it but soon stopped himself from doing something he would probably regret.

Or would I?

He closed the camera and rested his neck on the couch. Much to his dismay, he can't seem to sleep, a certain woman kept on entering his mind over and over again.

It's already frustrating the heck out of him, but he chose to stay calm and composed– at least for the whole night.

Come on, at least for the whole night. Breathe in, breathe out, Aster Clyde.

The meditating session continued on until halfway past 1:00, and he finally got a wink of sleep...

–Until a random thought popped up in his head again.

What happened to that drunk woman, then?

"Who the frick are you?!"

He almost squealed at the disheveled sight in front of him. The person who was interfering with his thoughts is already standing there, with a weird stance. She successfully represented a true amazona. Should he be impressed or scared?

What the... and when did she get that saucepan?

"Hey, put that thing down, it's ceramic."

"Who the frick are–"

Still not entirely getting over her sudden appearance, he cleared his throat and cut her off while mentally chanting, be as calm as possible.

"Why, thanks for disturbing my supposed to be peaceful night, miss."

And wow, she had the audacity to roll her eyes. "Say your name or I'll drop your precious Rachael Ray cookware."

His face remained emotionless as he calmly took out a black, rectangular shaped object out of his jean's pocket. "Not if I throw your phone out of the window first."

The girl widened her eyes and gripped the cook ware's handle even tighter. "What?! No! You wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

She rolled her eyes again and sneered at him. She placed the poor saucepan at the coffee table and stretched out her hand. "There you go, now give me that phone."

"Explain why you had to enter my car without consent in the first place."

"I said– wait, what?"

"Oh, I forgot, you were drunk."

"Oh my goodness," she ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. "Did I do anything stupid?"

"Nothing much, you just called me hot."

Nodding, she looked at Aster from head to toe and smirked. "I have a good eye when I'm drunk."

"You're weird."

She shrugged. "You're hot."

Good grief, what did I do to deserve this? I can imagine my mom smacking me in the head already.

He sighed and threw her phone which she, fortunately, caught mid-air.

"What the fudge?!"

"Your coat's over there. Do you need cash for the cab?"

"For the record, I'm not broke..." She searched for her pocket and gulped. She ran to the clothing rack and grabbed her coat to check the front pockets but widened her doe eyes again. She took out a bunch of keys and frowned.

"Um, did you take my wallet too?"

"Nah."

"Shiit-"

"Yeah, shiitake. You know, the mushrooms?"

She grimaced. "Whatever, I'll just walk home."

He shook his head and put on his own coat. "Not gonna happen." He grabbed the car keys from the drawer and opened the door.

"Tell me your address, I'll take you home."

He stopped walking when he heard no footsteps following his own. He looked back at the girl who's looking at the door behind him.

"Hey, let's go."

She patted his shoulder and went past him to open the door of the apartment unit across his.

She looked back and smirked at his surprised expression.

"Well, sleep tight, kind sir."