"Mom... do you want to see a doctor?" Lucian asked that evening when they were just done having dinner.
"Pardon?" Luce wasn't expecting this question from Lucian out of the blue. "There's no need to be worried about my health, I am perfectly fine. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather, that's all, I'll get better soon." Luce smiled reassuringly at her son and patted him on his head.
"I'll be fine, Lucian."
Lucian trusted his mother, he will believe everything she said even though sometimes it is unbelievable.
But this time, she lied.
Instead of getting better, her condition only gets worse.
"Huh, what a sissy poor kid you are!" One kid laughs loudly as he held a keychain made up of different shades of small paper roses and was glued together, attached to it was a small note with a message that says, "♡My one and only friend♡"
Lucian wipes off the blood on the corners of his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes blank as he says, no, demanded, in a calm but firm voice, "Give it back."
"What?" The kid laughs even more then he glares at Lucian with a devious smirk on his face. "Are you, a good for nothing poor kid, ordering this Young Lord from the Demetriou famiglia!? Hah! What a joke!"
Then the other kids with him also laughs. They were much bigger than Lucian, they seems to be in their first year in high school. Although, Lucian was only a kid, he was actually a year higher than them because of his intelligence.
They are probably jealous of Lucian that's why they often pick up on him.
"I will not repeat myself." Lucian said through gritted teeth, his voice is threatening which makes the older kids broke into series of shivers.
"You... there-there's no use... threatening us... my famiglia can kill you within a snap of my fingers!" The boy who claimed to be the Young Lord from the Demetriou famiglia force himself to speak in a brave tone, however, his stuttering and trembling knees already gave away how he is feeling at that moment.
"Heh!" Lucian smirks. "I'm not even threatening you, but if you feel threatened then..."
"Who said I'm being threatened!?" The boy shouted and slams his foot against Lucian's abdomen.
Lucian fell down because of the impact of his kick, and the other kids went to him and give a series of kicks towards Lucian's body.
"You're all just talk! But in reality, you are just a useless, sissy kid!" And then he tore the paper-made keychain in half.
Seeing the keychain that Aisha made for Lucian before she left without a trace being torn apart, Lucian felt that something within him... snapped.
He could feel something inside his body throb, his heart beating frantically, and then suddenly, he found himself standing in the center of the boys who was bullying him earlier. All of them are bleeding as they clutched their bodies hard and keeps on wailing and groaning in pain.
Seeing this unexpected scene, Lucian almost stumbled as he looks at his trembling hands which was covered in blood.
I... I did this... to them...
Lucian was never the type to fight brutally like this. It was the first time he fought like this, and cause fatal injuries at that too.
However, he didn't feel remorse about it. He thinks they all deserved it.
And beating someone up to the state of being hospitalized, Lucian unexpectedly feels...
Good.
As a punishment though, Lucian was kicked out of the school but instead of feeling bum about it, Lucian was delighted to finally be out of this hell hole. After all, it's been six months since he last saw his mother.
Lucian didn't want to go to the prestigious school that Luce had enrolled him on. Not because of the kids that was making fun of him, or because he was often getting picked up by teachers and tried their best to humiliate him.
But it was because it is a boarding school, and Lucian have to be away from Luce. They were only allowed to go out on holidays.
It was only early in the afternoon that day and Lucian decided to surprise Luce in the bakery while mentally preparing himself for the unlimited time of scolding. But he was shocked to see their bakery's close.
"Huh? Why is it close?" Lucian wondered to himself, and then he hears a voice not far away from him.
"It's closed again!? It's been a month since it was close." One girl in a school uniform whined.
"Well, since it's close again, let's just give up and leave." Her friend says in dismay.
"But I miss the pastries that the owner makes!"
"It's no use, I think this bakery will not open again. I heard the owner was hospitalized a month ago."
"Eh!? But she was always cheerful and...."
Lucian didn't hear what the other girl was saying. All he could think of was his mother was hospitalized. He stayed rooted in his position, and was only snapped back into reality when the girls' voice faded.
"Crap!" He cursed and rushed to find the hospital his mother was staying.
Lucian went to three hospitals before he found his mother was staying in a public hospital that is a couple of hours away from the bakery. He didn't carry any money with him so he ran and walked for hours and when he was finally there, it was dawn and his shoes broke halfway of running so he was barefooted and dirty, he was even mistaken as a loiterer.
"Miss, is there someone whose name is Luce Lumière here?" Lucian asked in a frantic voice as he stood in his toes as he gaze up on the receptionist.
The receptionist scrunched her nose in disgust at the sight of Lucian but she forced herself to smile and told him to wait as she checked the information form.
"Hmmm, yeah, there is. She is in room 304 and..." Lucian didn't wait for her sentence and rushed towards the said room. "Geez, what a dàmn brat."
Lucian easily found the room, and when he was a room away from it, the door to room 304 opens and a doctor exited with a nurse in his back.
"I seriously pity that woman. She needs immediate treatment for her illness but she doesn't have enough money for it." The nurse shook her head in dismay.
"Well, it's the hospital's regulation." The doctor scoffed as he passed by Lucian. "No money then no treatment. Simple as that."
"What will happen to her if she will not get her operation and treatment, Doctor?"
"Then she only has two months at most to live."
"Two... months..." Lucian's body shook as tears flowed out of his eyes. "Only two months..." He sobbed.
He cried for half an hour, not caring of the gazes he was getting. He took his second-hand phone in his pocket and starts dialling the number that that man gave him.
The call rang for three times before it was connected. "It's been so long, brat, I thought you forgo---"
"I'll go with you," Lucian cut him off, his voice are trembling as his grip on the phone tightens. "I'll go with you... but for one condition."
If only Lucian knew what kind of demise that one decision he made will bring, he won't ever make that decision.