Saturday afternoon Owen was lying in his bed, covering himself with a fluffy and comfy duvet. The autumn was colder even though the sun looked bright in the sky. The wind howled so hard that the window of his flat shook violently.
He got out of a single bed to close the window he had opened an hour ago. It has been his routine to open the window and change the air circulation.
"Damn cold."
He took the mobile phone lying on the study table and called his best friend, Alex.
"You come?"
It didn't take long. Owen heard footsteps approaching the bedroom. Alex suddenly shouted while opening the unlocked bedroom. Owen held his phone and saw Alex walk in carelessly as if he was the owner.
"I'm here!"
Owen took a deep breath at him. He acts up like a five-year-old boy. Sometimes Owen always gets annoyed when dealing with Alex's delinquent behaviour.
"Can you be more gentle to open my door?"
Noah Alexa Felix, Alex has been Owen's best friend since primary school. Both Alex and Owen have always been together. Alex mostly likes to stick with Owen like a leech. Alex was two years older than Owen despite his childish nature. His kind idiot, Alex, always called himself his older brother to Owen.
Owen and Alex were both from Bandung, Indonesia. They were second-year civil engineering students with architecture at the University of Glasgow.
It has been five months since the second week of summer. Tonight, Owen and Alex worked at a bar not far from their flat. The owner of the bar Oran Mor, his name Peter, asked them to work at his place.
Before working with Peter, Owen and Alex sang on the city centre streets twice a week. The results obtained were excellent. They could pocket at least £ 30 to £ 50 sterling in a day.
Peter often saw them on walks in the afternoon. He was impressed by the style of music that Owen and Alex performed, and Peter offered them to perform at his bar.
He will give him about £80 sterling per gig. Alex, who like money most, said yes, significantly louder.
"Yes.. definitely yes, I accepted your offer!"
Bar Oran Mor, there was live music and a ballroom to hold a wedding party. Peter occasionally offers part-time work as a waiter for weddings, outside of Owen's job as a singer.
The sky looked dark. Owen immediately rushed to take a quick shower and got dressed as fast as lightning. While he was getting ready, Alex couldn't stay still. His curiosity checked every cupboard in Owen's bedroom. Whether he's looking for it, and Owen looks, he doesn't care.
Owen just came out of the bathroom was wearing only his boxers. He watched for a moment to Alex was sitting in the study chair, staring at his mobile phone screen in silence.
"What is it?"
Owen asked, a little bit curious, while he opened the wardrobe and chose the outfit he would wear for tonight. He occasionally glanced at Alex, who was still thoughtfully staring at his mobile phone screen.
"Hmm. Nah, I'm just checking my savings."
Alex gave a relaxed response when Owen was busy wearing the outfit.
"Alex, you are a money freak." Owen sneered.
The outfit for tonight's gig was semi-casual. He wore dark blue jeans as bottom, a black long-sleeved cotton top covering the neck, and a black outer blazer.
Their flat was not far from Peter's bar, and it only took 15 minutes on foot. Five minutes had passed in silence with no chatter, and Alex started to act up.
"So, are you still upset?"
Alex provocative Owen sounded irritating to Owen's ears, and he started annoyed. No need to answer Alex's question. Owen walked faster than him to avoid another absurd question.
Every time Alex asks, his questions will level up from those standard questions to those that don't make sense of human logic.
"Can you stop pissing me off? Are you enjoying it?"
"Yes, Indeed!"
Alex answered quickly, without hesitation. Owen thought, the more he acts, the happier he will be, but if Owen is too tolerant of him, then he will be louder.
Owen and Alex arrived at the bar and opened the door. The bell that hung on the sidelines of the door rang to welcome them. Peter, standing near the bartender, stepped up to greet him.
"Hi, are you all right, Pal?"
Owen smiled back to greet and stretched out his right hand for a handshake with Peter.
"Oh, Peter, I'm all right, thanks."
Standing right beside him, Alex gave a broad smile that showed his teeth when he saw the bar owner approaching. After all, Alex has been relatively close to Peter because of money. For Alex, money and dignity are like a couple that can't be separated.
Alex was very good at socialising and building relationships for his personal goals. Sometimes when Alex has free time, he visits Peter at his bar. They will meet while exercising together to keep in touch and gain connections with Peter and the rest of the staff.
After greeting the bar owner, Owen immediately rushed to the staff room. There was a storage locker to put personal stuff; he always used locker number twenty-nine.
There was nothing in particular why Owen used the same vault every time Owen wanted to put it in. It's just that he did it unconsciously. Owen had tried once to put his stuff in a different locker, but he felt it was odd.
Owen thought something was wrong if he put it where he wasn't used. In the end, Owen moved his stuff back to his locker twenty-nine as usual. One of the staff who saw it once asked if he had anxiety. He was used to hearing the same question over and over again.
He just shook his head to sign no, and because of this incident, no one else used locker twenty-nine but himself and it was dubbed Owen's sacred locker.
Well, who else made that weird called, if not Alex, a man with such behaviour. Their friends at work unanimously agreed with Alex about the idea. Tonight's show will start at eight in the evening; Alex will be the first to appear.
He and Alex were singing two songs each, then after that, they would sing together. Owen grabbed his guitar acoustic and sat down on the sofa to check it was in good working order.
"Excited, huh?"
Owen strummed the guitar and didn't notice what Alex had just said. Alex was grinning; he knew Owen had ignored him. As Owen expected, the more he kept quiet, the louder Alex became. Owen took a deep breath and continued to focus on his guitar.
"You're starting horny?"
Alex's teasing got higher while Owen only glanced at Alex as he gave his vulgar joke. Not long after, someone knocked on the door. The man was Brian, one of the bar staff; Brian asked Alex to get ready.
Owen and Alex prepared to head backstage, exiting the staff room and were carrying their guitars together. A slender woman bumped into Owen just as they were out of the room. Alex looked at Brian and nodded his head, indicating they were ready.
"Argh.. sorry."
The lady picks up the bag, and the pink notebook falls on the floor. Alex, who saw it, tried to help, but Owen refused and told Alex to go first.
"Go. I will help this lady!"
Owen whispered and asked him to go first because Alex had to show up to be singing backstage, and Owen quickly helped the lady.
"Thank you."
The lady thanked Owen which, he only responded with a slight nod. The lady passed Owen and went to the restroom.
"What a cool guy!"
Owen was still glaring at the lady who had just passed him. The lady had dark brown eyes and black hair; it looked pretty. He began to interest her and kept an eye on her until she disappeared.
"She looks beautiful, hmm."
Owen muttered as he walked backstage to see Alex, who had been performing for five minutes. The song Alex was singing was Mine of Mine by Zayn Malik. Owen watched Alex perform on stage, but suddenly his eyes began searching for the whereabouts of the lady he had just met from backstage.
After looking for her figure, Owen found her black hair. He quickly found her, who caught his eye. There is no need to look for her because of the colour and hairstyle that attract attention.
Owen was watching her from afar, guessed her figure, he thought that lady looked like an Asian, but Owen wasn't sure whether she was from the same country as him or not. It didn't occur to him that she could be from Indonesia. Owen thought she might be from Thailand.
Alex stood up and bowed his head regarding the audience that night. He smirked at the sight of the lady. Instead of watching Alex perform, he enjoyed watching the beautiful her more. Owen heard the audience's applause. He was indicating that Alex finished his performance very well.
When it was Owen's turn to show up, he took a deep breath and stretched his arms forward to provide a sense of calm and relieve tension.
Tonight Owen's heart was beating faster, and he looked very nervous, which was unusual because tonight was different from the previous nights. Owen was more nervous because she would be watching him, thought Owen.
Owen walked to the centre of the stage and saw her sitting from the stands. Owen's eyes continued to lock, looking at the woman's figure alone. Tonight Owen will perform a song by Adele and Aerosmith.
The first song he brought was When We Were Young, sung by Adele. In addition, the performance will continue with a song from Aerosmith entitled I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.
During the show, Owen's eyes were always on the woman. He sat not far from the stage. Owen's feelings that night tickled him and left the audience swept away by the sounds and textures Owen conveyed when he sang.
The first time Owen had such a strange feeling for women. He never cared about the women who always tried to approach him.
All women's faces were the same; nothing was memorable for him. The women would try to seduce him at any cost, which irritated Owen. Nevertheless, it's a different story if he talks about his little sister.
In the past, when Owen and Alex started working with Peter. Owen's classmate, Debbie, met him at work when they were both performing. At that time, Owen had just finished performing first. Debbie went to meet him in the bar staff's break room. Alex and the rest of the team greeted her, and they chatted lightly, laughed and joked with each other. Outsiders weren't allowed to enter the staff room. However, the staff ignored the girl's presence.
They thought she was a friend of Owen and Alex who wanted to watch them perform on stage. Nevertheless, Owen ignored her. He just seemed busy with his guitar, as usual. Debbie looked disappointed and moved to sit on the same sofa as Owen and sat beside him.
Debbie was wearing revealing clothes. It was summer with temperatures was reaching 25 degrees celsius. She was wearing only tight jeans and a thin tank top embroidered with white flowers that accentuated her cleavage. Her breasts were about to pop out of her shirt.
She got closer to him and purposely placed her big breasts on Owen's arms. Owen felt something soft and supple against his bare arm. Owen was wearing only a white short-sleeved shirt with the National Geography logo.
Owen grinned in annoyance which made him even more annoyed. The actions of his classmate hurt Owen's self-esteem as a dignified man. Owen suddenly thought of his cute youngest sister, Oliver.
He couldn't imagine if his sister, whom he loved, would do such a despicable act like this in the future. The clothes she wears are fascinating for anyone who sees it, both men and women. In addition, her beauty was stunning.
"Could you get away! you're very annoying!"
Owen angrily nagged directly at her. Alex and the rest of the staff looked at each other as the atmosphere became awkward instantly. No one dared to start a conversation to break this awkwardness. Owen was one of those types of men who would be rude to anyone who upsets him, male or female if constantly bullied.
Debbie looked surprised by Owen's rude attitude. She knew that Owen always looked cold even though he seemed friendly to everyone. Nevertheless, at that time, she saw the figure of Owen, who looked scary. His gaze was much more complicated and did not have the friendly face that Owen usually showed.
Alex and the other employees immediately understood well with the look Owen gave. That was a gaze that showed contempt for the girl. Meanwhile, Owen refocused on his guitar and did not care about the atmosphere around him. It was the worst day ever for that woman. She couldn't repay the insult Owen had shown him. He just left the room with an embarrassed and very pitiful face.
"I saw her cry." Said Brian standing near the exit door.
"Owen, isn't that too much?"
Ask the employee again. Owen was indeed younger than him, but his attitude was unexpected. Alex, who understands his best friend's nature, just stood there looking worried about Owen's actions just now. Even Alex, who was very close to him, sometimes didn't dare to continue to bother him. That's what happens when you start worrying a sleeping lion, thought Alex.