Needless to say, Matt wasn't very pleased. But he wasn't extremely infuriated either. "How happy you look right now," he said quietly as he looked at John walking away with two kids. The unpleasant expression on Matt's face morphed into a sinister smile, "It's a pity that such happiness is so very fragile."
Both Evan and Grace turned their heads at the same time and noticed his smile. Matt only smiled brighter when they made eye contact.
"What's so fragile? And dude, the hell are you scheming again?" one of Matt's buddies asked in an exasperated tone, "Don't forget what we came here for."
Matt chuckled and said, "Of course."
John and the kids reached the ticketbooth for the ferris wheel. "Stay here. I'll go get tickets for us."
"Okay," the two said obediently and sat at the bench as John went to get the tickets,
Both Grace and Evan were thinking that Matt was someone who might've, no, had certainly, hurt John. They had noticed the pained look behind the rage in John's eyes when that man had mentioned his parents.
Even if that man hadn't hurt John before, he had done so now, right in front of them. Evan and Grace both had a similar serious look on their faces.
"That man," Evan started, "what do you think we should do with him?"
"It's truly a pity we aren't old enough to do what I want to do right now," Grace answered. "Tie him up and beat him till he wants to die?" Evan asked.
"Of course. But it isn't lawful to do that." After a pause she added, "What a pity."
"What's a pity? The fact that beating people isn't legal, or that we're not big or strong enough to do that?" Evan asked playfully. Although he looked very nonchalant, what he said next wasn't nonchalant at all, "But yeah, I agree. It's such a pity. I also want to beat him up."
"By the way, if we were the main characters in a novel, wouldn't that make him one of those cannon fodder villains that don't even get named?" Evan's point made Grace frown, "Firstly, we're not main character material. Secondly, that man doesn't seem to be a brainless person, although he was seriously annoying."
"How do you know we're not main character material?" Evan scowled. Grace didn't answer his question, but said, "That man looked like he was plotting something."
Evan wasn't happy that his question got deflected, but he knew this topic was of a bigger importance, "How do we keep an eye on him? I don't think he'll appreciate a brat following him." Thinking of how those buff gangsters might beat him up, Evan shuddered. "What are people like that doing here anyway?"
"I know, right?" said Grace, "They don't seem like they're up to any good."
"What are the two of you up to?" John asked as he saw the two kids discuss something seriously. Although he had asked in a nonchalant tone, he wasn't as calm as he appeared to be. If the kids started being wary of him because of something that b*stard said, he would feel…
'How would I feel?' He wasn't certain, but he could tell he wouldn't be very happy about it.
Both Grace and Evan subconsciously tensed when they heard him. Seeing that made the corners of John's lips pull down.
"Let's ride the ferris wheel," he said as he reached for the kids' hands, but stopped midway, as if he was afraid to scare them. Before he could pull back, his hands were grasped by the kids.
"Let's go!" said the two at the same time. Seeing that made John smile, "Yes, let's go."
When they got on the ferris wheel, Grace said, "Earlier, we'd been talking about how that Matt guy seemed to be up to something."
"Yeah, you should've seen his sinister smile. It was the kind of smile you only see on villains in a movie," said Evan.
"…Is that so?" John hadn't seen that, but he could imagine it. 'If it's that guy, it's certainly possible,' he thought as he looked at how they were going farther and farther away from the ground.
Both Evan and Grace were glued to the windows, as if they were afraid of missing even the slightest detail. "You see that guy anywhere?" whispered Grace. "Not yet," Evan whispered back.
John heard their whispers and chuckled. 'How adorable,' he thought.
"You both don't need to worry about him. I've handled him before, and I can do so again," he said in an attempt to ease the two kids, but it seemed to have backfired.
"One can never be too careful." "You should never underestimate the enemy."
Grace and Evan said at the same time. John stared at them, and smiled. He was very amused.
The kids didn't seem to be pleased with how he didn't take them seriously and pouted. John stroked their heads to appease them and said, "I meant what I had said earlier. You both don't need to be afraid of him so long as I'm here."
The two kids looked at him doubtfully. "That Matt guy was buff, and so were his buddies," Evan said quietly, "Any of those guys seemed to be strong enough to take you out in one hit." "Yes," Grace concurred.
Those words made John's ego take a serious hit. "Isn't that a bit much?" he asked sullenly.
"In fact, it's on the nose."
"It's right on."
The two kids said in succession.
John didn't want to bother with the two kids anymore and gazed out the window. Their compartment reached the highest point when,
"Huh?"
It suddenly stopped. Not only that, the other rides in the amusement park stopped too.