"To our partnership.""To our partnership." The audience echoes with great cheer as glass clinks and the people merry.Ethan, after years of trial, has successfully sealed the deal he always dreamed of. "Revolution of E-shopping." He calls it. The very first target to enlarge his brand innovation was someone with great influence, someone everyone would like to partner with to get their hands on a share, "Neon's Mall," to be specific, "Neon's grocery mall."His idea is to create the very first non-human mall, with the wonder of AI. "I have to say, you've surprised me, Mr Ethan." Neon says as he shakes hands with Ethan, clinking glasses as they share a toast."Well, what can I say, I'm just full of surprises." He answers with a loud laugh. The two laughs till their bellies are full, even if the joke was not funny, for some reason it makes sense to them. Maura and June are by their spouses' side to make sure they don't get drunk and make a fool of themselves. Ethan takes a sip of h
Again she reaches out to Maura, but Neon refuses to let go as he tightens his arms around her. "Well if you would all care to come with me, I'd like to show you something interesting." Ethan proposes to have Maura stay for Kathleen's sake. "As much as I would have liked that, I'm afraid my wife's already tired, so I'm afraid we must leave." She can feel his grip around her waist tightens, he's not letting go as he pulls her closer and further away from the others. Although Neon is merely trying to protect her, Maura isn't enjoying this as her mood turns sour.He looks at Kathleen who grins at the sight of this, catching up with the fact that he's lost the moment Maura's mood switches. He knows there's nothing more he can do about it. "Oh, but Mrs Oxford." He calls out to the woman, "if you don't mind, I'll like to invite you over to my place next week, I'm sure Maura will like it if you paid a visit one of these days." She looks at Maura expecting her answer. "Well, what do
"Maura, wait." Neon yells a bit too late as he races out of his car towards her who's standing before the elderly couple. She shows no fear on her face. It's the bravest look Neon has seen her showcase aside from the time when she crashed the wedding. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to be nice to old people?" She asks aggressively.The two bouncers stare at each other. In their eyes Maura has the look of an angry mother, scolding her children. It was a challenging look to overcome and has a whelming atmosphere as well. Neon catches up a bit late and sees the situation."Excuse me," he says to them as he grabs Maura and pulls her into a corner. He lowers his head to have a proper chat with her when he catches a proper look at the elderly couple, helping themselves up from behind her. The elderly woman bears a striking resemblance to a certain someone, and aside from that, they both look like they were well off. "So why are they being treated this way?" Neon wonders. At onc
"What the hell." She says in annoyance. Sniffles and whimpering echo in the dark room and suddenly, a bright light shines on a figure in the room.A lady is seen in the room with Maura, who's responsible for the cries she's been hearing.Carefully, she walks towards the weeping woman, as she draws near, Maura starts counting her footsteps with caution. When she reaches the woman, she starts noticing some points about her, for instance, her short and dark hair.Her heart starts beating fast as she retracts, no longer reaching out to her as she walks up to stand before the lady."The weeping woman bows her head as she cries, as if she doesn't want to be seen, hair bangs covering her face so that getting a proper look at her, is almost impossible. Maura lowers her head and gets on her knee to take a closer look. She sees blood, dripping down her face as the woman hides behind her hands. "Who….?" she asks, "who are you?"Suddenly, the crying ceases as she raises her hand to look Maur
The entire time they have breakfast, Maura can't help but stare at the two siblings, she could sense that something was wrong and yet refuses to alert them as they won't figure out what she knows. Their eye movements, stiff shoulders, awkward dining and the tension in the room.Maura was certain that these two sure have something to hide and a good story to tell, but even so, she wants to lighten the mood."So, Chase, how are your studies?" She asks, desperate to lift the heavy heavy mood. Chase tilts his head as he raises an eyebrow. "I graduated three years ago," he tells her. Maura, taken back, stares at him with surprise, her brain trying to process that what she remembers is from later than three years ago. Now she realises that everything feels different with his words and instantly starts asking herself if there was something she was missing.Tracing her memories, she confirms that a huge piece of her memories is missing. "Oh!" She says with a pause, clearly taken back."
The door goes as she smiles to herself upon seeing that the door is unlocked. Slowly the door moves backwards, and Maura pushes the door further and walks in to see a spectacular view.Inside the room, is a beautiful room, styled warmly so that she feels the entire air surrounding the room before she walks in. From the peaceful colour of the wall, anyone can tell immediately that the room was decorated by a female. ‘Her.’A white rug in the middle of the room bearing a mini round glass table.A monstrous brown wardrobe by the wall right opposite the bed, a makeup mirror with ring lights around the mirror, several expensive makeup brands, and lastly, the king-sized matrimonial bed. Maura feels nostalgia as she looks around, everything feels new to her, like she’s never seen it better, and guess what she hasn’t.On the walls are photos of Maura and Neon looking like the envy of every couple. Cute, loving and happy. All the photos had a Neon she’s never met before. Never in her lif
“Hey, is this seat taken?” A bright cheerful woman. She looks like she’s in her late thirties, but still, she stands out, beaming radiantly that even the sun worships her radiant cheer. The person she’s speaking to happens to be a very conservative woman, who seems somewhat shy to be around a woman like her. Shy and embarrassed, she doesn’t want to keep the lady waiting and moves for her to sit on the park bench together. Her eyes stare at the lady who takes her seat elegantly that she envies even the way her hair dances to the wind. The first few minutes of seating together create an awkward atmosphere as they end up watching the open together as cars drive by. The cheerful lady stares at the other, her fingers drumming on her cup of cappuccino as she chews off her other finger, wondering how she will approach this conservative lady. Finally, she gives up on thinking and stretches her hand out, “I'm Maura just so you’d know.” “oh…I’m Drusilla.” She answers shyly, taken aback
It's Maura, she knew that much because her voice gave her away. Now that she had called the words just weren’t coming out as she was drowned in nervousness. “I….it… it’s me. We… We met today…. And you... You gave me your card.” “Calm down Drusilla, if you could hear yourself right now, you’ll laugh so hard,'' Maura says to Drusilla who’s already at the point of tears due to her nervousness. “You must have felt worried because I didn’t say anything right? I’m sorry.” Drusilla, without Maura knowing, breaks out in tears that she covers her mouth so her crying can not be heard. “Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?” Maura asks.“Sure,” Drusilla answers speedily with excitement. When she realises the enthusiasm in her voice, she tries correcting herself to avoid making Maura think she’s weird, as it is, she already feels Maura can read her mind, and the mere thought of it makes her tremble.Her happiness knows no bounds in making her very first friend, and she’s eager to meet
"Ah!" She sighs, as she bows her head between her legs. Today marks day two of their awkward breakfast and Drusilla has lost the voice to complain. "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have spoken to him that way in his own house," she regrets. Ever since her breakdown, Neon has been trying his best to make sure that she doesn’t feel alone, or that she doesn’t rush into doing something that she would later come to loathe herself.Although it may be a little too late for that. Druuuu~Druuuu~By her side, her phone slightly skips on the bed as it moves towards Drusilla as if it knows its master. This makes it the eleventh time the phone rang in the short span of five minutes, and the repeated sound of the phone ringing is doing its best to tick her off, especially at a time like this when she’s still bent on finding herself.She glances at the screen, frustrated.If she doesn’t answer, the phone will most likely ring again, and again, and again, until she’ll be forced to do something s
Flashback~Cats and dogs are at bicker, as they wage war upon the earth. Houses and roofs were inhabited by people who wouldn't care less who owned the building. What everyone knows at this point, is that they have to take shelter, so they were automatically turning into house owners, as they inhabit houses who's owner they don't even know. Even if they had to share the same roof with other people.Still, while everyone took shelter, cars honked at each other. It's a good thing it wasn't sunny, otherwise, these people might have flooded the jammed road, yelling into each other's faces. However, far from their non-stop bickering, a car drives freely on the mountain highway. Maura, helps herself to the heater, as she drives without anyone needing to trouble her. "I can't hear you, honey, the signal's bad, the weather's horrible," Maura said, her eyes glued to the road, and hands clenched in the steering wheel as she drove. She wears an earpod on her right, connected to her phone
If overwhelmed was a person then it would be Drusilla. She whispers to herself, unable to comprehend what she just witnessed. With hurry he reaches towards her, "Drusilla…" he calls out her name, just a few inches away from reaching her when she slaps his hand away. She turns around."Don't you dare say my name," she warns him a second time, her hand violently flickering in his face. The sound of air forcefully escaping her nostrils is heard as she pants heavily, her tears stroll down her red eyes, sticking her lashes together, disorienting them. The guilty man stares at his hand, his hand bright red from the slap he received, "I'm sorry."From furrowed eyebrows to gritted teeth, and finally shaking lips.Drusilla's face displays different looks within seconds until her resolve weakens and she breaks down. "You lied to me, you... you tricked me, over and over again," she tells him, counting his crimes repeatedly with her fingers. "I didn't lie to you," he tells her.Despite his
With her hands on her mouth, as she realises the figure before, she pulls Neon’s hand and turns him towards her.Like a statue, Neon stands still, his cheek all red with small blood at the corner of his lip, she extends her sleeve to wipe away the blood, almost teary from having him protect her, and yet, she wonders what would have happened to her if she took the hit instead."How dare you disrespect my daughter in such a manner that you even get to clone her,” the angry woman explodes barely being held back, not minding the wound she’s inflicted on him.Drusilla, understanding who she was talking about snaps, now it’s her turn to protect him, as she hides him behind her back despite him being taller than her, she was going to face the woman one on one, one woman to another."I'm not a clone,” she corrects her."Oh yes you are, and you should be ashamed of yourself, you just called yourself by my daughter's name.”Silence falls upon her as she realises the woman wasn’t lying. She trem
It's been three days since their big argument. The fake couple goes back and forth as one tries to make amends for their foolishness, but all efforts bear no fruit. Whenever the sun would rise in the morning, Neon would disappear without a trace leaving for work before the light-headed woman would move her head from her bed. When the sun sets, he would take out his phone which he muted. His eyes would glance through the screen as he reads the inked text in his phone before putting it away.In the night, he returns like a thief and quicker than a shadow, when Drusilla is either asleep or too slow to catch him. Full of uneasiness and ticked by constant failure to catch him, she makes up her mind to wait for him all day today. To please the man, she fills the air with the lingering aroma of mouth-watering delicacy, that her nose could almost gobble up the crusts of the pie and tarts.All prepared for him as an apology.Only if he would show up. Lucky for her it's a weekend and Ne
Shock is not enough to define what Maura feels at the moment. As she slowly drives inside, she stares at Neon who seems to have arrived much earlier than usual due to a certain someone. She pulls up her car in the parking lot and with fear turns off her engine and gets out of the car. Neon stands before the house with one arm crossed as the other stretches out to her.She knows too well what he wants as she starts walking towards him with her eyes down and cold sweat dripping down her face, guilt was written all over her as she thinks quickly of what to say. Finally, when she's close enough, her lips separate as she sighs deeply."Listen…" Before she gets the opportunity to speak, Neon holds up his hand, automatically silencing her as she chokes on her words. "The keys." He demands. Like that, she ultimately gives in to his demand as she hands over the car keys. Neon starts to walk away grumpily while she follows closely behind.Upon reaching the door, Neon opens it quickly an
After the night when Neon and Drusilla discuss their so-called plan, Neon can't help but worry about her. If it weren't for the fact that he has work the next morning, he would have stayed home to watch after her.During this short time he's spent with her, he can tell that although shy, Drusilla can be airheaded most times, and in cases when that happens, she tends to be careless and vulnerable to her curiosity. "Sir...?" A lady at the end of the table standing next to a giant screen calls out to him.However, there's no answer and this succeeds in encouraging her to call out to him in another way. She braces herself for it as she tightly hangs on to her tablet. "Mr Neon?" She calls her boss by his name. It isn't until his name is called that he awakens from his trance and looks up. The presenter and everyone else stared blankly at him as they pondered hard on what can make their boss think so much that he shows it. "Hmm?" He questions as he notices the staff avert their gaze a
For a while, the earth stands still as they digest the tone of the single word she uttered.Her face, like a dog ready to pounce, worries the couple. "...." They stare at her, waiting to find out who'll break the thin ice of awkwardness. Suddenly, Neon steps forward with a nervous laugh, overshadowing Drusilla as he covers their view, redirecting their gazes towards him. "Haha, forgive my wife, she's a bit sensitive to family issues, I mean we wouldn't want such a thing for our families right."Within the seconds that he manages to avert their gaze, he holds Drusilla by her shoulder and shakes her to awaken her senses. "Oh… well that's understandable." Sharon declares as she steals a glance from George, who stands guard."If there's anything we can do to help, then please, let us know, my wife and I will be more than willing to help," Neon says and he hands over his card.George, although unhappy about taking help from others, reluctantly accepts Neon's business card with his head
Thanks to Neon's words, Drusilla finds it difficult to fall asleep yet again. She stays up awake all night long and thinks hard about his proposal, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her, besides, she has plans, great plans for that land. Before she knows it, it's 2 am.Her eyes are swollen inside, and she looks haggard and awful. "Just for a little while." She says to herself so she can get a shut-eye. But her tiredness catches up to her faster than she can dream of and a little while, turns into hours. Thud!A strong kick to her foot gets Drusilla jumping from the sofa on which she sleeps. "What the hell are you still doing, sleeping by this time?" An angry Neon asks. Confused, and unable to understand what's going on, she takes a careful look at the things around her. Her eyes automatically become a scanner and she carefully examines what's wrong with her getting a shut-eye.The shoe's on the floor….Papers lying around….The sun is up…..It hits her at once, and h