Seven hours ago, on campus, in the cafeteria, Livia and her friends sat down and put their meals on the dining table.
"I didn't expect this, you're late, Livia. How did it happen?"
"Well, maybe because I was too focused on studying last night for the test later, so I overslept. And as a result, I was late."
"Wow, you are so diligent, Livia."
Livia lied, she was late not because she studied last night, but because there was someone in her house that she had been looking for all this time. Even so, her friends believed that Livia did the study last night.
Livia is famous because she always gets a branch at her campus, making the whole campus know who she is. She is even generous to other people. She is a popular woman in her college. She is a prospective doctor, who is currently still in the learning stage.
Moreover, thanks to her father, her intelligence, kindness, and beauty, Livia was seen as the woman that men were most coveted. Many men had a crush on her, even though they only looked at Livia once.
However, behind her graceful figure, she possessed a very frightening martial art. She learned self-defense knowing that she had to protect herself from criminal acts. She learned self-defense because she almost died. Therefore, she is also seen as a perfect woman, having anything in this world.
Even so, she doesn't have a vehicle, just like her friends.
"I already told you, you just buy a car, Livia. If you have a car, you don't need to take public transportation anymore. You're not late again like today."
"No, I don't need that," Livia replied effortlessly.
"Ah..." Her friend gave up on suggesting Livia buy a car. She had suggested it to Livia since they were in high school, but Livia still refused as if she didn't need it.
Her friend, whose name was Clara, knew that Livia would answer like that. Clara knew that the reason Livia didn't buy the car was that she didn't have a driver. Livia will not want to drag or have a car if no one is driving the car. Her father taught her that.
Her father taught that women were not fit to drive cars, that men were perfect for that. Livia took her father's words as her benchmark for not owning a car or other vehicles.
Livia and her family members could even buy an expensive car, but Livia wouldn't do that if she was the one driving the car. She is a woman, while her father says that a man is suitable to be a driver, that's why she doesn't have a car to take her to campus.
"Besides, I'm only late today," Livia said.
"Yeah, that's right. But... your opinion will change later. They won't come after you anymore. Do you want it?"
"Sure, I will. That's better, right? They seem to lack the kingdom, always chasing after me. Though they should be able to take their time to study."
"Yeah, that's right, because you are the perfect woman."
Anyone who saw Livia would surely love to see her beauty. Clara knows that even she also likes Livia's beauty even though she is also a woman. She wasn't jealous but tried to realize Livia that a lot of guys liked her and continued to chase after her. So she wasn't jealous at all.
"By the way, Tamy… What are you doing?" Clara asked Tamy who was pouring a black liquid from a glass bottle into a cup.
"Oh... I'm making coffee," Tamy replied but without turning to Clara, focused on pouring the black liquid into the cup.
That's coffee. Tamy concocted coffee from the laboratory equipment she had brought with her. She took it to the cafeteria, making it look like a chemist. Even though she only made coffee from those tools.
"You have to get rid of that habit, Tamy!" Clara said. "But you just have to buy it."
"No, I don't like that. It has no art."
"Ah... it's up to you."
Clara, who has wavy hair and ideal height, can only sigh. She has strange friends. Even so, she loves her friends who have been with her since high school.
"It seems that my adrenaline has increased."
Hearing Livia suddenly says that Clara and Tamy were immediately shocked and immediately looked at her.
"Why?"
Livia was lost in thought. She even stopped eating for a moment just to think about the incident at her house, when Daylon came to surprise her. Plus, she remembered the words of her lecturer during the first student hour, which discussed adrenaline. This made her think that her adrenaline had increased.
Adrenaline is a stress hormone that produces feelings of power as strong as drugs. Increased adrenaline can cause a person to feel great. A person with adrenaline rushing through his body has a lot of energy, doesn't need much sleep, and tends to feel very excited about life in general.
Many professionals who enjoy the high-stress demands of their profession can become addicted to stress—indeed, they are addicted to their adrenaline rush. Executives climbing the corporate ladder, prosecutors fighting courtrooms, and doctors in emergency rooms dealing with one major trauma after another have all reported addictions to adrenaline.
In Livia's case this time, she always imagined that her adrenaline flow increased with time. She thought about how she would see Daylon again, what she needed to say to him, and how she should thank him. Her adrenaline increases so that her stress hormones made her think mighty. She imagined an incident that had yet to happen, just as Daylon had done all the time—guessing about the future in their minds.
And in the end, she found out what she had to do for her future when she had returned home. She was going to run away from him, hiding somewhere. She was like that because she was afraid to meet Daylon.
For the first time, she had feelings of fear of other people. Yet all this time, she was able to overcome it. She was terrified to meet Daylon, let alone look him in the face. She has shame, shame like women in general.
In the 1920s, Dr. Walter Cannon, a physiologist, was the first to describe what he called the "fight or flight response" as part of the stress reaction. Many people regard him as a pioneer of stress research.
In May 1936, Dr. Cannon wrote an article entitled "The Role of Emotion in Disease", which was published by the Annals of Internal Medicine. He said that when a person sees himself under extreme attack, fear in response to that perception will cause the most important physiological changes in the body. Great fear produces a signal that the body needs to defend itself or run away.
That's what Livia experienced. She has only two choices, defend herself or run away from Daylon.
The hormones in her body stimulated her mind and made her think that running away was the best option. If she turned out to have to defend herself, she would get into trouble—that wasn't a very nice way to say thank you.
"Are you scared, Livia?" Tamy asked, looking at Livia's trembling body.
"N-No, but it's just, my adrenaline is going up," She replied, trying not to show her fear.
"Isn't it the same?" Clara said, trying to explain. "If the adrenaline goes up, doesn't that mean you're scared? The hormones in your body don't work in a balanced way, which makes your hormones stress. You're stressed because you're scared. Your adrenaline is rising because you're scared, Livia."
"Y-Yeah, I know that," Livia replied, still trying to stay calm. "But, I still want to think it's my adrenaline rush, not that I'm freaking out right now."
"..."
Livia didn't want to deny that she was scared, even though her body had already responded. She had to know that her friends realized that she was scared.
"That's enough. By the way, why are you scared, Livia?" Clara asked.
"I told you, I'm not scared. Don't you understand, Clara!?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not scared, Livia. So, what gets your adrenaline going?" Clara couldn't help but agree to that instead of seeing Livia angry at her.
"In my house..."
"Your house? What is it?"
"There's a man in my house."
"...Aren't there many men in your house? Some of the servants in your house are men, right? And… your father and brother are also men."
"No, that's not what I meant."
"So what?"
"In my house, there is a man..."
"…Yeah, there's a man. I understand. So, what kind of man is that?" Clara asked with a straight face.
Livia explains that she was saved by a man a year ago. She told her friends about the incident, even though they had learned about it from her father.
"That man is now inside my house."
"What?"
Clara was shocked, and even got up and slammed the dining table. She made the mood of the people in the cafeteria turn to her and made Tamy's glasses fall into the glass bottle.
"Oh no... my glasses." Tamy quickly took her glasses, cleaned them with her clothes, and put them back on. "Clara, you have to be careful!"
"Oh, sorry, Tamy. I was surprised to hear what Livia said. Sorry, sorry."
Clara apologized to people for causing a stir. She sat back down after doing that and took a breath to calm her down. Then, she asked Livia about what she just said.
"That man is in your house? What for?"
"He became a coach as well as for my brother."
"Andre?"
"Yes, Andre. He was hired by my father to teach Andre to be the best, not the greatest."
"So that's the reason why you're freaking out—no, your adrenaline is going up?"
"Yeah, like that."
After much thought, Clara came up with the best solution for Livia.
"You have to hide from him."
That's not the best solution. Clara shouldn't have suggested that. However, for some reason, Livia agreed with that.
"That's what I think now."
They agree with each other. Livia had to either escape or hide from Daylon.
"Instead of running away, wouldn't it be better if you thanked him and returned the favor for saving you that time?" Tamy gives advice.
"But…" Livia hesitated to answer.
"No, you still have to hide from him, Livia," Clara responded. "You know, maybe he came to your house on purpose because he knows that you live there. He must be after you so you can repay him for saving you. He must have had bad thoughts. Therefore, you must hide from him. Okay?"
"Maybe you're right. He suddenly came and ignored me. Even though at that time, I already thanked him."
"That's the man. Men are like that. He must know that you feel you should thank him again. Because of that, it seems like he doesn't care about you. Men are like that. He must know that you feel like you should thank him again, which is why he acts like he doesn't care about you. If you thank him again, he will do something bad to you. Ugh, that's very understandable."
"You're right, Clara. So far, many men have approached me just because I'm beautiful. Most of them are only after my property and body."
"That's right. You better stay away from him. I have a suggestion."
"What's that?"
"How about you stay at my house?"
"No," Tamy responded. "You'd better go home. Andre must be waiting for you to come home."
Tamy knew Andre's attitude towards Livia. She often goes to Livia's house, seeing Livia and Andre care about each other. She was sure that if Livia didn't come home, Andre would be lonely. Therefore, she responded like that, rejecting Clara's suggestion.
"Ah, you're right, Tamy. I can't leave Andre alone at home."
"No, in your house there are so many servants. Andre won't be alone at home," Clara responded in a low tone and flat gaze.
"Thanks for the advice, Clara, Tamy." Livia smiled in front of her friends, but for some reason the people who were far away from them were happy.
"Beautiful..."
And in the end, after Livia came home, after Andre told her about how Daylon taught him, and after Livia told her that Daylon was the man who had saved her, Livia decided to hide.
"Where do you want to go, Miss? Dinner will be ready soon." Sylvia asked, seeing Livia running.
"If someone is looking for me, you just pretend you don't know! I want to go to the library room," Livia answered running.
"Okay, Miss."
Arriving at the library room, Livia took a book and read it. But even so, her heart and mind improved. She again experienced a surge of adrenaline. She was frightened again.
What's this? Why is my heart beating so fast like this? Why is my adrenaline rising again?
She read the book with an unsettled mind. She couldn't read the book, couldn't focus on all her thoughts.
Thirty minutes later, she began to realize that she was not calm in this condition. She thought again for a moment.
At that moment, she remembered Tamy's words saying that she should thank him again and return the favor to him. That way, she will feel relieved.
"OK..."
Carrying the book, Livia walked confidently, confidently to meet Daylon who was at the dining table.
When she got there, Daylon saw her then turned to Andre and pointed at her.
"Look, she's here, right?"
"Oh, you're right, Mr. Daylon."
Livia walked over to them while they were eating dinner.
Arriving beside Daylon, she handed him the book she was holding.
"For you. Take it!"
"..."
Daylon was silent, confused by what Livia had given him. He was completely at a loss as to how to respond.
"Thank You."
"Thank you very much."
Daylon was grateful, but Livia was also grateful. They both thanked each other.
What's with her?