"She'll love the present, won't she ? Of course she will, why wouldn't she?" Collova asked himself questions while at the exact moment, he answered the same same questions he asked himself. Well, it's understandable, after all, it is the typical nerdy behaviour he always had. He walked slowly as he held a small ,cute cube in his hand ,glaring at it which you couldn't tell if he was admiring its cuteness or just, well, staring. He didn't even watch where he was going. It wasn't a surprise that he bumped into five or six guys along the way to his sister's apartment. Not five or six per say ,but ,well, it's nice to sometimes exaggerate a thing or two to give the extra pinch of salt it deserves. Anyway, he looked ahead and saw a huge building, 'Enigmatic' was its name. It had an elegant outward design which always seemed to attract the philanthropist tourist looking
for a fancy apartment to book. It was well known for it's high quality apartments and high security. It also had this huge banner which light up with a golden sparkle in the night, illuminating the streets around it with bright lighting which might give a passerby the impression that an angel might be descending,so, it did all the more to attract many customers. You must be wondering ,if It attracts that many customers, hasn't it been fully packed yet? Well the answer is simple, the higher the demand the higher the price. An apartment came in at a whooping two million yen semi annually,so ,it will discourage the unworthy ,non extravagant multitude, leaving space for the wealthy few in society. Well, I know you must also be wondering 'why the long story. We don't need the details to some random building. Give us the plot', right. Its funny how I get lost in the storytelling that I sometimes get into some unnecessary details ,but just bear with me for a second I'm just putting y'all on game.So back to the building. It also so happens that his sister, Iris Demilio Denvas ,had a mortgaged apartment in the same building. That's right, Col's sister had enough money to spare on such an expensive apartment. Col stopped and took a deep breath." Relax Collava Denvas , she's your sister ,of course she will appreciate your gift," Collova told himself but an opposing voice inside him thought otherwise " No , she won't, she's too high class to except such a cheap present. You should have thought better than buying such a cheap gift , nerd." Col seemed to agree with the second party because he slid the small cube into the pocket of his cargo pants. After all, it was true , Iris was a successful businesswoman owning a prosperous company which was entrusted to her by their father, Leonardo De Caprio , a man who owned shares in various dealership companies and also owned his own company. As observed from their names they aren't Japanese in origin but were Spanish but moved to Japan to handle the newly started business which took the right turn and became among the top in the whole country. But the question is,if Col came from such a well off family why would he buy such a cheap present. Well , when Col was a kid, he went through some misunderstandings with his family, more so his dad. Col had a certain gift which was not normal to be frank. Col could see things that other people couldn't see. Not ghosts actually, but something else, something special. Some creatures used to approach him in their house. But his parents didn't pay much attention to it assuming that Col talking to himself was maybe him and his imaginary friends having a talk. The assumption wasn't completely out of hand because it was normal for a kid at Col's age to have an imaginary friend like for example me, I had an imaginary friend too but I was sixteen at the age. It's a bit embarrassing but at least am proud I have ever talked to a tadpole. Sorry, forgot again. Many of times his mother would ask him about his so thought imaginary friend,but Col would tell them that he didn't have any friends who were imaginary but his father would think that he was lying. Though it was the truth that he didn't have any imaginary friend, the thought that the unusual creatures he usually talked could be what his parents were asking didn't ring in his mind. Actually, he thought that everyone could see those anomalies not knowing he was the only one. Because his parents didn't seem to believe him he would normally turn to Iris and tell her that she didn't have any imaginary friend but were scary looking monsters. Iris would nod saying 'I believe you' but deep inside her she knew she didn't. Col's gift brought about a lot of quarrels between his mom and his dad where his dad would scold his mother for convincing him to adapt a crazy child like him. At times Col would eavesdrop on their conversation and hear all this. It broke his heart to hear such cruel words from someone who was supposed to be his parents. The observing audience looked at the Demilio family with admiration thinking it was a steadfast household not knowing it was so broken in the inside. Time passed, Col went to kindergarten then to middle school then to high school. Col actually did well in his grades but Iris always seemed to outdo him which made their father view Iris as the future of the family since she was a morally upright, smart and decent girl not forgetting her social charm which was the cherry to the cake. Their mother loved them equally but their father seemed to be one-sided on who he loved and it was obviously noticeable since not once nor twice did their father say that iris would be the heir of all his prosperous businesses. Col didn't plan on inheriting anything from his father so he worked hard to be an independent man , free from his father's influence. Col finished high school went to college pursuing his passion in art. He eventually graduated from his course and found a job in a small corner shop gallery just a few blocks from their house. After he earned his first little salary , he moved out of his old apartment to a new one which he could afford since the last one was being paid by his mother. This marked the begining to a long journey to independence, even though I asked the narrator don't know independence from what actually since he wasn't being refrained by his father from doing anything or something like that but maybe he felt his father's authority somehow covered a part of his life. A few years passed before Col and iris talked but from the look of things, Iris pursued a certain business course in one of the expensive universities and she had already taken authority as the current CEO of the company after their father fell sick to a chronic disease. Not long after their father died succumbing to deteriorated health. After his death, Col most of the time went to visit their mother, who was always lonely having no one to talk to since Iris most of the time was held back in work. The last few moments of their experience together was spent on storytelling and playing cardboard games before she also passed away from old age. Iris moved into the house from her apartment to enjoy some peaceful memories of mom and dad before she moved back to her apartment since it was closer to work. The house was left to a distant uncle who moved in with family. Col also once in a while passed by to say hi since they got along well. Now here they were. The present day Col visiting Iris on her birthday. Iris had requested him to meet up so they could share the occasion together.
...........end of introduction.............