Outside Joy's sweet shop, the kids run and the hollows hide, the aurums walk and the broken sigh. Cerise and Jean share a smoothie, silently staring at the spot Janoir used to seat in and he'd almost tumble over from laughing.
"I miss Janoir."
It hasn't even been a full day since Janoir was seemingly abducted from work, and Cerise wasn't able to do anything due to his family issuing an emergency leave for him.
"One time, the two of us went together to Amors and he snorted a full cup of coffee through his nose after failing to get the barista's number." Cerise sadly grins at the memory, Jean chuckles, sipping on their drink as he observes the man at the counter. Joy hasn't been managing the shop since the day Louejone came out of the backroom.
"One thing I love about Janoir is that he never fails to lighten up a place. When we first met, he was auditioning," Jean pulls at Cerise's hands and opens up her palm, drawing wind toward them and forming transparent figures on top of her palm. Cerise gasps, looks around the sweet shop and finds themselves to be the only customers.
"I was viewing his portfolio and he had all kinds of poses and when I say all kinds I mean it. He hung upside down from the ceiling and danced, managed to get a laugh from the director himself." The figures reenact the scene Jean is saying and Cerise's attention pans to the director, her father.
"I need to visit him…" Cerise spaces out, thinking of what to bring to her father. "Will you come with?" She asks, Jean nods.
The wind howls strongly outside and Cerise thinks it's Jean's doing until a red light starts flowing in through the windows and immediately disappears. They hear a chopper fly by and Cerise runs outside. There in the sky, the chopper was stamped with a large letter D, indicating the Dellancy family's brand.
"That's Janoir's family." Cerise furrows her brows and presses her hand on Jean's chest as she looks up at him. "Explain please." They begin walking and it isn't long until Jean starts dropping all the details about Janoir's life.
He's the third son, hidden from the media by his family. He grew with a caretaker and away from the main house. Jean doesn't know the reason behind this but he knows Janoir is thankful for it, remembering that Janoir has called the manor a 'hell-hole'. He studied at local schools and chose to be a model when he was scouted while going home from school one day. His entire family is born as aurums, he, unlike his brothers and sister were aurums with powerful abilities and graduated from famously-known universities.
"How miserable." Cerise comments, letting go of Jean's hand as she unlocks her apartment. Sal still hasn't made any contact with her and she's beginning to worry.
Cerise and Jean travel to the director's house, discussing about Janoir and a few other things along the way. They arrive and Cerise is immediately greeted with a familiar a dog hollow as she arrives. "Line!" Line, as she just found out was living with their father. Line stops in her tracks, glowering at Cerise in suspicion. "You can see me?"
Cerise freezes up and lets out a small "oh right" before explaining to Line what has happened in the past month. In the elevator Jean stays silent, watching Cerise interact with her so-called sister. They arrive at the top floor, and there, by the window was the director.
Time flies, Cerise finds herself signing a contract by the end of the day. A contract stating that Cerise was to take his position in the next year even if unprepared, due to his worsened situation, sickness not getting any better. Unbeknownst to her, Line was watching them with a dark look. Jean looks back and catches her glaring daggers at Cerise. Line leaves the room in an instant.
"Will you be okay?" Cerise asks her father, her hand clasped with his. Yubin gives her a reassuring smile and leads them outside and makes sure they get back to Cerise's home safe and sound.
The following day came a bit too fast, having slept less than four hours due to anxiety, Cerise images out the plan she and Jean had talked about yesterday. She trails after Jean into the living room, hugs him from behind and mumbles a good morning.
After a fiasco of Jean pouring juice and spilling all its contents on the poor girl, they head out for the Dellancy manor. Tension rising in Cerise's throat as they near the big gates.
"Do you have a schedule?" The guard asks and Cerise thinks they're fucked. Jean peeks from beside Cerise and the guard panics and lets them in.
"What did you do?" Cerise looks at Jean questionably, shrugging in response.
The walk towards the main house was absolutely detested by both of them. Cerise can feel Jean getting irritated at the fairies flying all over the place yet he still makes sure to give them a smile. Wouldn't risk getting cursed.
The garden was typically grand, a pool decorating the open area and gardeners making sure to give them death glares as Cerise trips and accidentally steps on the grass.
Jean keeps his poise, knocking on the golden doors of the main house. Greets them is a maid who leads them the office. As they're walking, they inspect the place. Rich, old wood acting as pillars with extremely abstract paintings hung on walls. They pass what looks like a library and Cerise can't ignore the fact that they have a whole shelf dedicated to Joy-i that's seemingly untouched. But then again, it's not like she hasn't bought a luxurious black sedan last week and dropped the keys through a manhole.
Cerise shoos the irrelevant thoughts away and begins to nervously play with her hands as she feels themselves nearing Janoir's father's office.
"We've arrived." Cerise feels deja vu, as if she's heard that line somewhere and didn't like the outcome of it.
"State your business." The man was seated in a large chair, in his office stood a silver statue, posing as if ready to hit anyone that dares enter the room.
"I'll get straight to the point," Cerise nearly shook in her boots, Jean supporting her from the side. "We're here to strike a deal."
The Dellancy head had his forehead furrowed, intrigued enough to listen to the deal.
Cerise pulls out an envelope from her bag, opens it and places the documents on the table in front of Mr. Dellancy. "I'm offering you one of the largest branches of Rubylust and you'd become a 5% shareholder of our earnings."
He doesn't even bother flipping the papers. Cerise grimaces inwardly, he doesn't know the hurricane Cerise fled through in books just to be able to form a contract with one of the major assets of Rubylust as an object.
"What do you need in return?"
"Your son," Cerise remembers what she was here for, her fighting spirit not backing down simply because of an intimidating aurum. This wasn't worse than the Louejone situation in any way. "Janoir." She continues and she feels herself fall through a hole as the Dellancy head laughs.
"Guards, escort these people to the exit." Cerise offensively slams her hands on the table and she's pulled back by one of the men in black. "Sir, the male teleported!"
Jean has been moving from room to room inside the manor, trying to find Janoir. At last, he reaches place similar to a jail room. Janoir was on the bed, crying.
"I'm here"
Janoir whips his head around and his tears are wiped away by the sleeves of his jacket.
"How did you-"
"Don't worry Janoir we'll get you out okay?" Jean reassures the taller male who engulfs him in a wide hug and nearly has both of them tumbling to the ground. It's not long before the guards catch him and Jean and Cerise are kicked out. It won't be long, they promised to get him out, maybe not now but someday they will...