[@RuthLangOfficial: I just heard about the jam that happened. It's good that you're okay. The netizens are all commending you for your actions. Nice job!]
[@JuneVerrier: It's a little thing.]
June sighed as he stared at his stupid answer. In fact, he didn't want to speak with this woman anymore. He didn't have any idea why she was starting to give more attention to him when she was going out with Reed. Well, if she wanted to start something, June was not interested.
At that sudden drop in his mood, Lantis only laughed. "Should I cut in?"
"What are you going to cut in with? This is nothing." June pocketed his phone again. "If I don't sound interested in talking to her, she will stop. I can be as boring as a bathroom tile if I want to be."
"Though, bathroom tiles are interesting enough to come in as expensive decors." Lantis hummed as he took a sip of his bottled tea, making the actor roll his eyes at the demon. It got so uncomfortable that June even took out his phone from his pocket again and placed it on the table. He heard the actor say: "You have your own phone, right? Can I play on that?"
"I have nothing in it." Still, the demon took out the phone he had for show. He really didn't need it, but it was optimal for the cover. He handed it over to June and watched him fiddle with it like it was his own phone, to begin with.
June then started looking over games he could download to kill time, but he just resorted to watching a movie over a streaming platform. Of course, he didn't care if Lantis would be charged for the subscription. After all, if Lantis wouldn't use this high-end phone, he would every time he could. It might as well be his second phone.
…
At a condominium unit…
Prudence only smiled at the short answer she got from June. She didn't expect him to be so enthusiastic, as she knew the man to be overly cautious with some things—she was one of them. She then deleted the messages from her DM list. Prudence then turned in the direction of the door when it opened.
With a smile, she looked over at Alexander, who was only drying his hair with a towel. He didn't even bother to put anything on. "Alex, you shouldn't be too eager to show off every time. What am I going to do if I got used to it?"
"Got used to what?" He went to mount the bed where she was and sat next to her. He fished for her phone in her hands. "You better not try talking to Verrier. Who do you think he is? Someone better than me? Hmph, he doesn't belong to our level, Ruth. Let him go."
"I wonder." She chuckled before lying down on the bed with him, letting him have his way with her.
However, it just only lasted for a few hours. Prudence pulled on the blanket and took a deep breath. She fished her phone from the pile of clothes on the floor. After unlocking the phone with her pinky, she opened the camera app.
With her hand raking her fingers through her hair, she dropped the blanket and began taking photos with the sleeping man. After a few erroneous shots and perfectly exposing ones, Prudence felt satisfied. She then uploaded the good photos on a strange app. The logo was of a red horned sphere.
"I should keep on farming points using this guy for now. Without the upgrades, I can't charm June yet." Prudence murmured to herself as she scrolled to the leaderboards.
However, instead of the account with the most point, what was displayed was rankings of people that were the most desired. Most male celebrities were on it, including Alexander Reed. Along with their name and rank were profiles and the number of photos of them taken and sent to the app.
She swiped to the side to find the ranking of the rarest among the most desired ones. June's name was in the first place, next to a big zero count. Prudence then clicked on it and stared at the rising value it had. At midnight, the points given to anyone uploading photos of June Verrier grew from twenty-thousand to twenty-five. All the bonuses also grew along with it.
Prudence pursed her lips. "I will claim this for sure. The more popular he becomes, the bigger the points. The more points I rake in, the more I can redeem. Hmm, the auction is going to be in a few more months. I will have that pink diamond for myself."
…
The sun had shone down on the big city, and almost everyone was racing to get to work. However, a woman had leisurely gotten off a taxicab in front of the hospital. She paid for the fare and left to get to the reception. With an intoxicating smile, even the guard and the other male staff were pausing to listen to her. Her face was bony and thin, her jaw sharp; however, there was something very clear in her eyes.
After confirming matters with the receptionist, she made her way to the elevator. She rode it to the fourth floor, where the cheapest private recovery wards were. Even if it was strange for June to pay for such a thing, she figured that Pete was too rabid to be left in the company of other patients.
Freya pushed the door open, even if she could hear whispers from inside. When she poked her head inside, she found Lantis trying to wake up June. However, the actor was only hogging the coat placed on him and muttering complaints about waking up too early.
"It's okay, Lantis. He should rest. He's been working so hard." The mother sat on the stool allotted for visitors and noticed how Pete was restrained to the bed. Her smile dampened, but she decided to pull on her lips as she combed her fingers through his hair. "I'm so happy Pete's bruises are not that bad. Most of them had already vanished."
"His will to live must be too strong to be extinguished." Lantis lied with a chuckle. He knew very well that Pete was already giving up on his life. He just figured no one would save their mother from that goon without him. Whether June was still alive or not didn't make any difference.
Freya knew the same things that Lantis had gotten from observing Pete. She didn't comment on the truth, and she even offered a smile to Pete. "Yes, my sweet Jupiter is a fighter."
As if having his real name called had triggered something within in. Pete began to stir in his sleep. When he heard a gasp in the voice of his mother, Pete already knew that he was up for another picture of a nightmare. He opened his eyes and saw the sweet smile of his mother, but he noticed how her eyes were rather different today—they had never been so clear. He even frowned first thing.
"Mom, why are you smiling like that? Is Simon finally dead?"