Main street, Holy Orphanage
Rola woke up refreshed in the morning. She saw the sunlight seep through the foggy windows, a peculiar sight for Rola since she had always woken up before sunrise.
But today was different. She no longer slept in a cold and damp room that was right beside a raging club who blasted band music all night long.
This place was nothing like that, this is the place she grew up in. She looked to the side and saw her fellow orphans, her siblings, as she called them.
"Rola, wake up your siblings. It's breakfast time!" shouted a wonderful woman. A smile broke out on Rola's face hearing that nostalgic voice.
Rola lightly tapped her siblings and woke them up. They wouldn't budge, so she had to wait for a few minutes until they were awake. Then, she went directly to the dining room.
She expected to see children there who were still partially asleep, begging to start prayers so they could eat.
But even when she entered the dining room, she didn't hear a peep. It was strangely quiet, too quiet. Her heart started to sink as she lightly heard the sound of conflict just outside the dining room.
"Ow! Stop it!" a woman screamed as she was thrown to the wall.
Rola quickly ran towards her, worry filled her face. "Theresa!"
Theresa was the foster mother of this orphanage, taking care of every single one of them without help from anyone. How could someone disrespect her like this?!
She saw this woman slide to the floor after hitting her back on the wall. Her eyes were closed.
Theresa wasn't responding to her words. The worst situation popped up in Rola's mind, but thankfully, she still felt a pulse on her wrist.
"If you just told me where he was, you wouldn't have forced me to lightly push you," a man with a scar across his face said with a devious smile.
"Berk!" shouted Rola. She wanted to destroy his face with glass shards, but she stopped herself. Giving in to his provocation would only worsen the situation.
Despite that, Rola was only moments away from abandoning all reasoning and faced Berk head on. Thankfully, someone else with much more strength attacked Berk.
Ybarra, with his muscular body, tackled Berk to the ground. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Although Ybarra can be argued to be physically stronger than Berk, experience and skill can easily overcome that.
Berk slightly moved to the side and used his leg to trip the raging Ybarra, easily using Ybarra's own force to tackle him down.
Ybarra's face landed on the floor, with Berk's leg pinning him down and preventing him from recovering. The other orphans also wanted to attack Berk, but seeing Ybarra be outskilled in class made them hesitate.
"Hey, you pretty girl," Berk said, pointing at Rola. "Do you know a kid named Caesar? He's about this tall, annoying smile, and owes me a lot of Joy."
Rola pursed her lips. She started to hate Caesar seeing that all of her problems always seemed to be caused because of him. He angers everyone he meets, enemies and allies alike.
"No, and even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you."
Berk, still pinning down Ybarra with all of his weight, laughed at Rola.
"Fine, don't tell me. Instead, help me find this old woman's hidden stash of money."
Rola's heart sank. She didn't know about Theresa's hidden money, but she knew that it was a bad thing that Berk knew about it.
"Can you believe this woman? She has been saving up hundreds of thousands of Parou to try and move out of this orphanage. I can't blame her, though. I would also want to abandon you."
Mitre couldn't take it anymore and punched Berk. He knew this wouldn't hit, but he still had to stop him from disrespecting Theresa.
"You shut your mouth!" he said as his punch missed Berk's head.
Berk didn't even have to move his head as Mitre was too emotional for his punch to be focused. With one swift punch to the chin, he knocked out Mitre to the ground.
"You won't touch her money," Rola uttered, with streaks of red filling her eyes. She was only moments away from losing her patience.
"No one can stop me," Berk uttered with a whisper. But even so, Rola felt chills running down her spine. Her time in the underground dealings have sharpened her sense of danger.
Rola looked at Theresa, her wrinkly eyelids closed and lines of stress on her forehead. She looked at the malnourished children hiding in their rooms, afraid of Berk. She had to make a decision.
"Take my money instead," Rola relented.
"Rola. But we only need a few more to buy a house!" Ybarra shouted.
Berk looked at Rola and he couldn't help but laugh. "HAHAHAHA!"
The daughter takes after her mother. Just like Theresa, it seemed that even Rola was saving up money to move the orphanage to somewhere better. This was the reason why Rola was in debt. She borrowed money from the Capo gang.
But now, Rola was offering to give this money to Berk. Everything that they did while working for the Capo gang will be for nothing. They would have to start from scratch.
Berk walked towards Rola and lifted her chin. He smiled.
"You should have said that in the first place. You need punishment!"
Berk slapped Rola across the face, leaving a red mark on her cheeks. Rola didn't react. She kept her head up, looking directly in Berk's eyes.
Berk frowned. He doesn't like the look on her face. He slapped her again using the back of his hand. Her cheeks were now beyond red, with a few scratches that bled a few drops of blood.
Rola's heart was still. She didn't waver and kept her courageous look–she would never give Berk the satisfaction of fearing him.
Berk frowned even further, with his face distorting into one of extreme anger. No one will ever disrespect him again, he always made sure of that.
Berk moved his hands towards Rola's chest, with malicious intent. He made sure that she could see his hands moving. He wanted her to see that she could do nothing about what would happen.
And if she still didn't break, then it would be more advantageous for Berk. There were still some things that he could escalate and will truly break her spirit, just like everyone who disrespected him.
Rola's eyes wavered for a second, but she steeled herself. This is nothing, she thought. She will endure this, she thought. But somehow, her eyes started to water and her defenses started to fall.
Just as Berk's hands were about to touch her breasts, someone spoke up.
"If it isn't Berk. It has been a while, hasn't it?"
Berk stopped what he was doing and looked to the side where an annoying man with an annoying smile was leaning against a doorway.
"Caesar…"
Rola looked up. She never would have thought that Caesar, of all people, would come at this time and save her from humiliation. Deep in her heart, a ray of hope lit up.
"You finally showed your face. I thought you were afraid to see me."
"Who wouldn't, with that ugly face of yours."
Caesar's quip almost popped a vein in Berk's forehead.
"You haven't forgotten about our agreement, have you?"
This was the very first agreement Caesar had made when he first produced pure Joy. They agreed that in 7 days, Caesar would give Berk 5 kilograms of Joy for him to sell with a 50-50 split. Today was the fourth day, still 3 days away from the promised time.
"Things have changed. Give me all your Joy now,"
Caesar frowned. "Our agreement was 3 days from now."
"Your product was too good. My client wants more, and he wants it now. Surely you have produced at least 3 kilograms by now."
Caesar smiled and nodded his head in affirmation. This was a bluff since he only had 300 grams right now. His automatons were still busy creating more Joy as of this moment, but it will take the whole day.
"Good, give it all to me."
"I don't have it all on me. I only have 300 grams right here," Caesar said as he pulled out a bag of pure Joy.
As soon as Berk saw it, his eyes almost went wide. Through these past 4 days, he couldn't help but think of the sensation he felt when he consumed pure Joy–the smell, the intoxicating ecstasy, and everything else.
It was hell for him, waiting this long until he could have a taste again.
"Good, good. Give it to me."
Caesar quickly took back the bag before Berk could get his hands on it.
"Beg."
Berk at first didn't believe what he had just heard. Did he just say 'beg?'
"You bastard. Don't test your luck. Now, give me the bag."
Caesar put the bag behind his back. "No, beg."
Blood pooled in Berk's head, heating him up with anger. Once again, this kid was disrespecting him like he was nothing. Just seeing Caesar's smug smile made him crazy livid.
Berk lunged at Caesar and tried to snatch the bag away from his hands. I am much faster than him, Berk thought. Stealing Caesar's bag of Joy would be as easy as stealing from a baby, he thought.
Just as when his hands touched the bag, he suddenly saw his vision turn to the side.
Huh?
A burning sensation filled his cheeks, and before he could process what happened, he saw Caesar's open hands slap him across the face.
Berk's body fell back, holding his cheeks in confusion. He didn't even react when Caesar came in again and slapped him multiple times.
Each slap resounded through the orphanage. Berk's face was puffed up with blood oozing from his cheeks. But this physical pain wasn't the worst, it was the humiliation that broke Berk.
Caesar looked down at him as if he was nothing more than an ant. He was stone cold, delivering the blows with ease but with strength.
Caesar bent down and grabbed Berk by his hair and whispered,
"Don't ever touch what's mine."