"What can I say? This place look a little..."
"Suspicious?"
Jaxon agreed and leaned into the windshield to get a better view of the back of a three-story high building. "Yeah..." He then looked at the electronic screen in the dashboard to check the current location. They used the road Ares suggested, and the place was indeed correct.
As he leaned in once more, he noticed a curtain shut in one of the windows. Before he could tell that to Eirene, the backdoor opened and came out a middle-aged man. When the man spotted the black vehicle the two were in, he approached and knocked on the tinted window of the driver's seat.
Although Jaxon was cautious, he was also curious. The man was clearly dressed like a bartender, and judging from his demeanour, he guessed the man was informed of the situation.
"Hello." Jaxon greeted the man from the two-third open window with his usual smile.
The man greeted back professionally. "Hello. Welcome to Bar Darker Side. I'm the manager, Dennis Williams. I've been informed and ordered by young master Derose to usher you in."
Jaxon quickly looked at the rearview mirror, holding a silent conversation, with the woman in the back through the eyes.
Dennis waited for the two to get out, but neither got out. When he finally realised that the two didn't know his employer's son, he internally face-palmed himself and chuckled awkwardly. "Apologies. Young master Derose is a very close friend of young master Queen."
"Oh." Jaxon nodded his head in understanding and without saying anything, he began rolling up the windows, leaving the perplexed bar manager outside.
Dennis didn't need to knock on the window again to know what was going on.
Just as he was about to repeat the action, the car door behind the driver's seat opened, and from there, a woman stepped out. Her outfit was all black, reminding one of a jaguar. She carried a yellow flowery bag in her arm that didn't go along with her aura.
He frowned ever so lightly at the bag and when he raised his eyes to greet her, his soul basically departed from his body. And that was how the poor bar manager, Dennis became the target of her greeting glare.
To anyone who knew the actress, Eirene was simply giving a greeting with her eyes, but to others, it was a death glare.
The actress was the most intimidating person, more than his own boss and his wife, he had ever met.
Swallowing hard a couple of times, Dennis forced out a smile and lowered his eyes in submission. "Welcome..." and waited for Jaxon to come out. "One of our employees will move the car into a safer place."
"Okay then. Thanks." Jaxon gave the man the keys to the expensive car and followed the man into the bar from the backdoor the manager came out of.
Dennis led the two without a single word to a private booth on the second floor and knocked twice. But before he could knock for the third time, the door swung open and popped out was a boy like a poodle.
"Hi!" The boy greeted excitedly, specifically at the woman.
"Hello." Jaxon greeted him back. The boy kind of reminded him of Ares.
"Welcome!" The boy gestured to the inside. "Ares hasn't arrived yet though."
Speaking of the devil... Eirene's phone dinged, and she immediately took a look. [If you have arrived, I'm sorry. I'm leaving the university right now. I will be there in about fifteen minutes]
[No worries]
[Actually, my friend's family owns the bar. They know that you are coming, so I believe they are there... to welcome you]
[Then the one in front of me must be one of your friends]
In just a second after the message was read, everyone could hear a phone ringing nonstop.
When the three checked inside the black and purple-themed room, there sat three people and one of them picked up the phone and put it on speaker.
"Karson, tell me you did not scare Ms Queen!!" Ares's voice screamed out of the device and Karson pushed his phone away from him.
"I didn't." He told the other side. "Eric did."
From the other end of a line was a sad wine followed by a sigh of regret. "Ahh... Why did I listen to your suggestion?"
Karson laughed, "What's done is done. Do you know she's right in front of me?"
Seemed like everything paused for the boy. "Oh no..."
"Hm, hm. See you in fifteen!" Karson hung up the phone and stood up. He then gave a hand out to the guests. "I'm Karson DeRose. Very close friend of Ares. Nice to meet you."
----
Eirene sipped on her rose tea and unnoticeably checked the time on her watch. It had only been ten minutes since Ares had called his friend, and yet she was already impatient and agitated.
She looked up and saw her manager talking about the alligator encounter he had at his young age with the boys. By now she had memorised their names. Next to Jaxon was black-haired easy-going Karson. Followed by a poodle-like bundle of excitement, Eric. Right beside Eric sat Omal, the boy with a well-maintained model figure asking for more details in the story. And last but not least, quiet but low-key hooked, Orion sat next to her.
Surprisingly, she didn't find herself being uncomfortable with many males in a small space. Maybe that was related to how they were some age gap between them. She didn't feel oppressed or suffocating, which would have happened in a normal case. Ares effect was taking the place...
Just as the boys clapped over the climactic ending of one on one fistfight with the alligator, they could hear somebody stomping on the floor as they walked into the corridor.
The room was supposed to be soundproof and also it worked the same way for the corridor as the carpet and the walls were made to absorb sound. The person must have been angry or had supernatural abilities to create such sounds.
A knock came on the door of the pin-drop silent room.
"Yes?" Eric asked carefully. If it was someone suspicious, they wouldn't have made it past all the security and bartender, so he suspected it might not be harmful.
The person on the other side didn't reply, and instead, the knob turned. A split second before the figure was visible, Karson stood up and tried to push the door back. "NO!"
Nonetheless, his attempts were useless.
"Hello, boys." There stood the angry fiance of Orion, Estella Snowdon, looking like a real-life titan from Attack on Titan.
-----
"...Why do I feel like kneeling?"
"E-Estella?"
Even though Orion called out, the girl still stared at her idol, Eirene Queen's side profile.
"I'm not kidding. I've got no regrets in this world now. I'm ready to go to hell." She continued and sighed at the beauty as if she was in a museum and the actress was an art piece. "You are truly a work of the finest art on this earth."
Eirene replied, "Thank you." And looked away. She wasn't expecting to meet her fan and much less wasn't used to being complimented so straightforwardly. This was something she was weak to.
Seeing the actress's reaction, Estella smirked like a middle-aged man who got to see a young woman's cleavage.
What Ginger Daylight had been saying was true. There was a way for the queen to blush, and it was quite easy. No wonder the younger actress did to her every time she had an opportunity.
Omal told Estella, "I didn't know you were a fan."
The girl turned to him and said, "You just didn't know me enough. Orion and Karson knew," Her happy mood vanished in the next second. "And that's why they didn't let me meet her!"
Karson shouted, "Because I knew you'd do something crazy!"
"Have I? I haven't, right? So what's the problem?" Estella asked back with the same energy.
Her fiance shook his head, "You talking about the afterlife is already crazy, Estella."
"This describes how much you are new to this world. Well, welcome to the chaotic but loyal fandom of Eirene Queen." Estella spread her arms. "We nyxies are the most open-minded welcoming fandom out here. Any questions?"
Karson raised his hand.
"Shut up, Karson. I'm not asking to you."
He frowned, "I haven't even said anything..."
Estella placed a finger over her lips, "You are making noise, Karson."
The boy was about to retort when Jaxon stepped in and kindly asked, "Hey... Can you tell me... what made you a nyxie, Estella?"
Instantly, Estella's annoyed expression was replaced with a dreamy one. "It all happened four years ago when this dumb-dumb," She knocked on Orion's head irritatedly yet adoringly. "Tried to dump me because he thought he was unworthy."
"I was so annoyed that I went straight to my boxing lesson and did a two-hour session, but that didn't lift my mood. So when I reached home, I wanted to do something that took my mind off of it. I scrolled through my laptop and watched random videos when I remembered my friend talking about this movie that was so sad that she got over her breakup right after. The movie's name was Rude Nxde."
"And so I watched it... Honestly, it was the best decision I made." Estella took a big breath and closed her eyes. "Frankly, the plot wasn't much, but the casting and acting were spots on." She then faced the actress's side profile again. "It was as if you went through what the main character, Natalie Hunter, went through. Your acting was so good that I thought I was Natalie and was in the story. And since that they, I became a nyxie."
Estella waited for the actress or the manager to make a comment, but there was silence. Eirene had wide eyes with her pupils dilated as she stared blankly. Jaxon was also frozen on the spot with a smile plastered on his face. She thought the actress was speechless after all the compliments.
The woman stood up after some time. "That was lovely... I'm going to the washroom." And spoke without eye-contacting anyone and left. She was shy.
Seconds later, Jaxon followed.
"Rude Nxde... I'd say that's a pretty catchy and sensual name." Karson commented instead.
"I agree." Eric nodded.
Orion asked, "What's the movie about?"
Estella leaned into the table in the middle, and everyone gathered. When all the heads were tightly closed, she whispered, "Well, I can't really say it out loud, but it was about the main character finding a new way of living after being r*ped by her fiance..."