"Sir?"
Hearing Larissa's confused, gentle voice, Jerrod turned to look at Larissa and almost immediately his face crumpled with anger, while due to fear, beads of tears were on the verge of falling down his cheeks.
A thought came to his mind as he raised both of his hands toward Larissa.
"She curses me!"
Jerrod is entirely blaming it all on Larissa as he dashes towards Larissa with his hands forward, but when his hand almost touched Larissa's neck, he clenched his fist and hugged her instead.
"What happened, sir?"
Jerrod trembles even more as he feels terrible about himself. He didn't expect that at that moment he was about to strangle Larissa. He thought maybe he really deserves the ghost that keeps following him as his conscience wasn't pure at all. He already knew that Larissa was somewhat causing his nightmares and strange encounters with the ghost, but he knew as well that he could not fully blame it on Larissa.
He can't even speak about his faults before and his problems now.
He thought he was brave enough.
He thought he was tough enough, but now it was clear to him that he was a total coward.
He felt ridiculous as he continued to cry on Larissa's shoulder.
"Sir? Why are you crying? Sir?"
Jerrod paused after hearing Larissa's gentle voice. He then slowly moves away from Larissa and covers his face with his arms.
"I... I...I am sorry. You may think I am insane. I'm sorry."
"What is wrong, sir? Did something hurt you?" Larissa continues to speak softly to Jerrod as if she's dealing with a crying child. She then gently touched Jerrod's arms to place it down. She observed Jerrod's face becoming pale while his eyes were all swollen.
"I'm sorry. I'll just leave. I'm sorry."
Larissa doesn't know what Jerrod keeps apologizing about, but he can't leave a vulnerable man alone like this. She feared Jerrod might do something dangerous to himself.
"No. It's okay, sir. I can listen to you if you want someone to hear about your problem. But if you don't want to, Stay here still. I can make a warm meal for you to calm down."
Jerrod's mouth dropped as he felt warm and comforted by Larissa's gentle voice. He couldn't believe that the person tormenting him would also be the one to comfort him.
"I'm sorry." Jerrod apologized softly again, but then he nodded and followed Larissa back to her apartment. It was only when he entered the apartment that he realized that he had run half naked.
"Ack! I am naked!" He exclaimed as he embraced himself, to which Larissa gave a short chuckle.
"Oh? Sorry. I wasn't laughing at you." Larissa said, even though she was really laughing at Jerrod. She found it cute that Jerrod forgot he was half naked after all the crying he did outside.
"Anyway, sir. I left because I borrowed some clothes from my neighbor downstairs." Larissa explained while she handed the clothes to Jerrod, which he took with a flustered expression.
"T-thank you!" he shouted. He then ran back to the bathroom and dressed himself. After a minute, he slowly came out of the bathroom. He was now wearing the T-shirt and sweatpants that Larissa borrowed. The generous neighbor might be shorter than Jerrod because the pants are way up to his ankle, but the neighbor's body might be similar to Jerrod's because the T-shirt fit Jerrod nicely.
Jerrod then peaked over on the kitchen side of the room and slowly approached Larissa to apologize again. He thought Larissa might think that he might have some sort of mental illness.
"I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry about, sir? Come here, sir. Sit for a while. The food is not ready yet." Larissa pulled a chair for Jerrod to sit in, then continued preparing their dinner.
If only the ghost didn't look like Larissa, Jerrod might have thought she was an angel. His conscience was telling him how terrible a person he was for receiving such good treatment, even if he had planned to harm her just a while ago.
"I-is there something I could help?" he asked while sticking his gaze to the floor.
"Just wait there, sir. I was acting as if I would serve you good food, but I am only reheating the beef steak that my neighbor gave me. I will cook some eggs and fry some bacon. Is this fine for dinner? Sir?" Larissa honestly said.
Her neighbors are actually generous, as they didn't forget to give her food every dinner. But since she is always tired from doing multiple jobs, she usually eats the food in the morning. Larissa was glad that she had someone to share the food that she always warmly received.
"Here we go. Let's enjoy our dinner."
Jerrod thought Larissa would ask a lot about why he was crying and why he was running around half naked, but they dined together silently. The silence was so quiet that it felt like it was deafening him.
"Sir, May I ask you a question?"
Jerrod almost spit out the food in his mouth as Larissa suddenly broke the silence without warning. He gulped down his own saliva first before he could respond to Larissa.
"Of course. You can ask anything."
Jerrod gestured with his hand to make way for Larissa to speak, but at the same time, he was getting nervous about what she might ask him.
"Well, you can ignore my question if you feel uncomfortable, but sir, perhaps are you…"
Jerrod felt like Larissa's way of speaking was being extra slow, but it was only his perspective, as he couldn't help but feel anxious about what the question was.
'Are you lunatic?'
'Are you psycho?'
'Are you taking drugs?'
'Are you a pervert?'
Jerrod tried to think ahead of what Larissa was about to say, which increased his nervousness. He clenched his fist under the table as he nervously wait for her to complete her question.
"Are you broke, sir?"
"What?"
Jerrod blinks his eyes as he doesn't get to where that question came from and asked again.
"What was it?"
"Did you go bankrupt, sir?"