The moment that happened, I was shocked and I must've been like a statue for a few seconds.
Once I came back to reality, Kaley was still hugging me but Olivia who was right behind us was gesturing for me to hug her back.
As best as I could, I gulped before I slowly~ raised my arms and slowly~ wrapped them around her back. After that, I slowly~ raised my right hand a few centimeters as I slowly~ began to pat her back. The scene was just so fucking awkward and Olivia was already facepalming at the sight.
After that, I heard a soft chuckle from Kaley before she let go of me. Once she did, she was looking at me with a bright smile but she turned her gaze away for a short moment before looking back at me again. Seeing that, I instinctively rubbed my nose, and when I glanced at Olivia, both her thumbs were raised up but her face was flushed and she was trembling, close to bursting out laughing.
'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!'
"That was so awkward~! HAHAHAHAHA!!! I CAN'T WATCH ANYMORE!" Olivia suddenly exploded as she pointed at me.
'Dammit!' I felt my ears burning from embarrassment but I saw Kaley looking at me with a slight blush.
"You've changed a lot but you're still the same."
"Huh? I-Is that so? A-Anyway, I'll leave you two here. I'm going to clean up a b-bit too..." I let out an awkward smile but I got a little confused by her statement.
After that, I finally excused myself before I went to my room. I simply grabbed a towel and a change of clothes before I went upstairs. Unlike the first two floors, the 3rd floor was a place for training one's body. Aside from having a plethora of gym equipment, it also had a large shower, and half of the available space was completely open, having two large mirrors facing each other and a huge soft mat covering the flooring.
I went to the shower and then I undressed. After I folded my clothes, I looked at myself in front of the mirror.
I had black straight hair which was the normal length though spiky, but a few strands had grown longer and started to invade my ears and the back of my neck. With that said, my eyes were also black, and let's just say that my gaze could turn from normal, piercing, aloof, or as cold as ice. I had a scar on my left eyebrow and a few isolated scars on my right arm though my arm now had a tattoo sleeve, covering the scars splendidly.
The tattoo was of an eastern dragon that starts from my shoulder and then to my arm but it slightly overlaps on my neck and on my hand.
I could say that I have a toned body but I still got lots more to work on. With that said, I turned on the knob in front of me and steam started to fog the mirrors and the glass partitions. The hot water slowly covered me from head to toe but I just placed my hands on the mirror, staring at myself.
'It's fucking starting, eh?'
I was just looking at my reflection for a few moments before I closed my eyes for a few minutes. I recalled everything that happened this morning and I sighed deeply before I opened my eyes and finished my shower. After that, I dried myself and put on clothes before I went back to my room.
Since I was already wearing simple clothes, I wore a torso holster and I placed two Beretta M9s—which were from my own collection—on each side, adding a few extra mags on each side as well. After that, I wore a jacket to cover them before I went outside my room.
Once I did, I overheard Kaley and Olivia laughing in the bathroom but I couldn't make out the conversation that followed. I just shook my head and went down to give them a little bit of privacy, and I went straight to Aunt Sharon's place to ask to include us in lunch. Luckily enough, she was just preparing the ingredients so there weren't any issues.
"I'll just ask Aya to grab me more potatoes later. Are you going somewhere?"
I looked at my phone before I answered, "I think I can manage to buy a few things…"
"Are you sure? Bring Lois with you. He's been on that computer ever since he woke up."
"Heh, alright. I'll take him with me—"
Lois instantly responded, "B-BUT I'M CHECKING THE NEWS! I—"
Aunt Sharon rolled her eyes, "We can hear the news from the kitchen, go with your cousin, he'll need someone to help carry the bags at least."
"BUT MOM—"
"Do you want me to go with him instead?! You'll have to cook for everyone then! Do you want that? You can barely chop an onion!"
"F-Fine… I-I'll go…"
It didn't take long before the two of us were in my sedan and our destinations were Puregold and Mercury Drug. They were the two closest stores in which I could order a lot of items in bulk or have a lot of options to pick from in regard to medicine. At this point, I'd be spending cash for as long as it would have any value because any second now, it would be worse compared to when the stock market crashed.
It was a few minutes past 10:00 AM and Lois was flipping through the radio channels. He already knew about what happened from Oscar—and after confirming it with me—but there was a mix of worry and excitement on his face. Looking around, we noticed that the police cars and ambulances that were driving back and forth increased significantly. It was alarming, to say the least, but there was still no official report of the real incident.
With that said, we first stopped by Mercury Drug to buy medical supplies and a few more items we could lay our eyes on.
Lois turned to me while holding a pushcart, "What are we getting again?"
"I'll head to the medicine counter and I'll buy whatever vitamins, supplements, and other OTC drugs that they have available. You head to the aisles and take care of the hygiene products and other food items available. Grab tissues, deodorants, wipes, baby powder, napkins—"
"Wait, n-napkins?! As in what the girls use?! Eww! What the fuck, bro?! Can you do that ins—"
I suddenly jabbed his stomach as I let out a menacing smile, "Yeah, napkins. Sanitary napkins. Also, tampons, panty liners, razors, band-aids, bandages, lotion, sunblock, and also the one for repelling insects. Buy. Fucking. Everything."
Lois' face was red as a tomato but he exhaled sharply before trying to barter with me, "Alright! I'll fucking do it! B-But let me grab some things for myself too! You're paying, right?!"
I rolled my eyes as I shook my head, "Yeah, yeah. Of course, I will—"
"Great!" Lois did a 180 as he disappeared to the aisles.
After that, I went to the medicine counter and requested a lot of each type of what was available either for fevers, colds, sore throats, etc. I even bought a lot of eye drops, lip balms, and different vitamin supplements that they had on display. However, some of the medicine they had on hand needed a prescription so I wouldn't be able to get my hands on those.
How I wish I made a fake prescription before going here so I would've been able to clear out their shelves.
Since it would be suspicious to suddenly come back with different kinds of prescriptions named after me, I decided to just buy more of what I could get away with. However, the lady stationed at the counter and some of the staff present were eyeing me suspiciously. One of them even thought I was playing a prank and tried to make sure I could pay for all the items I was requesting.
Well, showing them my cards and the cash in my wallet was enough to shoo them off but the lady in front tried to pry in a little more. To be fair, doing what I'm doing wasn't illegal, it was just completely out of place and unnatural on any given day.
"E-Excuse me, sir… If you don't mind… Can I ask what are you gonna do with all of this stuff?"
"Hmm? Oh! Ahaha… I'm paying for it, right? What's the matter?"
"It's just… you know… it's just a little bit—"
"Well, I'm in charge of this stuff because my friends and I are planning a huge trip around the country. We're planning a very~ long vacation and I don't want to be underprepared. It'll span a couple of months or so since we're planning to take our sweet time visiting each hotspot. If it goes well, we might continue our trip abroad."
"Oh? Really? That… That sounds nice actually. Where are you going first?"
"Well…" I replied with the common tourist destinations and I was easily off the hook. The lady at the counter even became interested and her notion of me trying to hoard medicine was completely gone.
However, as we were chatting casually, a box behind the counter caught my eye.
I didn't even notice that I was staring at it for a while and the lady at the counter followed my line of sight. But once her eyes landed on the same box, a smile slowly formed on her face and she turned to me with a different expression, even leaning on the counter and casually adjusting her hair.
"Well, that thing… you shouldn't forget about that… Who knows? You might even need some before going on your trip… Looking at you, you might need a lot of it though…" the lady lightly chuckled as she continued to twirl her hair.
'What?! Is she—'
Confronted with something like this right off the bat, I started to panic. Her lustful and confident eyes that were staring straight at me weren't helping, but since I wanted to maintain this air of confidence around me, I stuttered before I blurted out a random number.
"G-Give me f-five…"
Tasked failed successfully.
'CONFIDENCE MY ASS!'
The lady at the counter lightly chuckled, "Really? Just five? I thought you'd be… away… for a while? Or… are you planning to use those five later? Hmm?"
My mind was already in shambles and I blurted out, "B-Boxes..."
"W-What? Say that again?"
"Give me f-five... b-boxes…" I said with a tremble in my lip.
"Wow," she mouthed as her eyebrows rose.
As soon as that happened, I almost banged my head on the counter as I saw her turn around to fulfill my request. She quickly took the one on display but I felt a horrible churn in my gut once she started to check the other boxes behind it. She came back to me with a single box but what happened next was possibly in the top 10 of the most terrified I got.
The lady placed her hand on the mic on the counter and she said loud enough for everyone to hear:
[Can we get four more boxes of Trust Condoms at the front, please? I repeat, can we get four more boxes of Trust Condoms at the front, please? Thank you.]
As soon as she said that, every staff member and customer looked at me. I could feel their eyes piercing my back and I could surmise what was going through their heads. Even the guard at the front was losing his mind and he started to cheer and clap slowly while nodding his head several times.
Furthermore, I saw Lois sprawled on the floor, clutching his stomach while dying of laughter. Tears were coming out of his eyes and he was red from laughing hard.
At this moment, I was now stuck in a 'casual' staredown with the lady at the counter. She chuckled as she started to compute my total but the left side of my lip was twitching nonstop. I just sighed as I accepted a huge fat L this morning but when she showed me the receipt after I paid with my card, a slip of paper was present with her number on it.
I figured that she just played a 'little' prank but she was still open for business. However, I just smiled as I took the paper as a courtesy.
'Not gonna happen.'
Once she handed me the items I bought, she smiled at me one last time before I turned around with complete embarrassment. I couldn't even make eye contact with the other customers for a good second so I just gave Lois my card so he could pay for the items he had on him.
In this place, the area for paying for the items you bought from the medicine counter was different from the other items they had on display in the aisles.
He had to wait in a separate line so it would take a bit of time. I gathered too much heat inside that store so I decided to cool down and walk outside.
However, as soon as I walked outside the store, the guard patted me on the back and continued cheering for me. I had no choice but to enter my car and roll the windows up as I waited for Lois to finish.
After an embarrassing encounter at Mercury Drug, Lois and I drove to the next location. However, he was still laughing his ass off as we drove to Puregold's parking area so I brake-checked him and he almost hit his head on the dashboard.
"What the fuck, bro?!"
"That is what happens when you don't wear your seatbelt!"
"You fucking asshole!"
"I'm just looking out for you!"
"S-Shut up!"
The car was already full of supplies but the good thing with Puregold was that they could deliver the items you bought if you order enough items from them.
We stepped out of my car and we went straight to their customer help desk. There were a few more people in front of me, either complaining about something stupid or returning an item that was way past the warranty. I was looking around and nothing seemed to be out of place. It seemed like the news still hadn't gotten here and no one was panic buying or trying to steal groceries.
My turn eventually came and I asked for the list of all the items they have available.
The much demure lady at the counter printed a list and handed it to me, "Here you go, sir."
"Thank you. I could have the items delivered to my house, right? I'm gonna buy quite a lot and I'm sure that it wouldn't fit in my car."
"Oh, yes we do. Actually, we have two delivery trucks and they could deliver it to your place for free. What items do you have in mind, sir?"
"That's great. I would like to place 50 orders of dried beans that are in those plastic 6-gallon buckets but please give me five different kinds so there will be a bit of variety. Also, I'd like 20 sacks of oatmeal... wait— It isn't written here so are they the ones ready-to-eat where you just put hot water in, or is it the one where you cook it for a while?"
"We have both of them, sir. What would you like? I'm sorry, I mislabeled that one…" she answered quickly but she got concerned when her list wasn't perfect.
"That's okay, no worries. Oh, give me the ready-to-eat ones then. I'll also have 40 boxes of canned baked beans, 20 boxes of canned spaghetti, 20 sacks of dried dog food, and 50 boxes of canned dog food but kindly have them in a variety too. Right, would you please add 50 boxes of your Bees Home Natural Honey too?"
"Of course, sir. What else do you have in mind?"
"Hmm~ give me 30 boxes of Kopiko Black Coffee, Kopiko White Coffee, and Ricoa Choco. Also, add 10 boxes each of the canned evaporated and condensed milk that you have. Also..." I said item after item and the lady listed them splendidly.
There were some items not on the list because they didn't have enough of them so I asked Lois to bring out several carts to haul different kinds of food items like protein bars, sweets, chocolates, etc.
I was looking at how the lady worked and it made me fall into deep contemplation.
'Should I invite her?'