An Offer to Accept or Not

Today is Sunday, Aya's favorite day for her to play online games, after working hard on her homework last night, she planned to stay the whole day at her apartment. During her play, Aya learned from other players about the review making contest of 'UnderWorld', most trending topic of the town. Curious, she searched it and become interested to join. That afternoon she watched the anime 'The Slayer', it took her one to two hours to finish the whole episodes, then she wrote her review about it.

Next morning, while waiting for Herbert at school, she reviewed and edit her entry, upon his arrival he checked what she was doing,

"Are you joining that contest?" he asked. She nodded, "Then do you intend to use your real name?" he questioned, she paused and turned to him. "I'm just asking, he might discover that you are going to join that kind of contest..." he commented.

"You're maybe right... Then I'll use my codename RareHeart instead," she decided, by doing this nobody will guess that it was her. Other than Herbert, nobody else know that 'RareHeart' is her alias in online world.

After confirming her submission of her entry for the contest, Aya and Herbert headed to their advance subject; Statistics. They take up this to lessen their major subjects next year. Macky arrived at the same class together with Stephen whom he asked to accompany him since the latter has to wait for his professor to submit his own homework. Unlike Aya, Macky have different reason for taking up this class for this semester, he intentionally dropped this subject last year due to the professor who always picking on him.

All attention is now on Stephen and Macky but ignoring it nonetheless as they sit at the back of the classroom. Aya observing them quietly when Stephen lifted his head and looked at her direction, their eyes met, she quickly turned away while he remained staring at her. His expression lighten up when he remembered who she is.

Students started to gathered outside their room, they want to see Stephen up close,

"He is really that popular, isn't he?" asked Aya.

"Yeah, he was handsome and genius, how he would not be famous?" replied Herbert, "But unfortunately because of his online business, he had no time for girls. Some said that he enrolled on home study program, so they can only see him if he come here to submit his assignments which happens once in a while, like today."

Unknown to her, Stephen sometimes glance at her while thinking what her real name is. Lost in his own thought, he didn't noticed that Macky was calling him a few times already.

"Bro..." he tried to get his attention by tapping his shoulder, Stephen looked at him. "Are you okay? What are you smiling at?" whispered Macky,

"Nothing," he said as he averted his eyes on his notes and turned his lips into thin line like he usually do. He didn't anticipated that by seeing the same girl again, who always made his heart beat crazily, he'll be dazed and unfocused to his surroundings. This kind of emotion is new to him because most of the time he can control what he feels and that is being cold and serious. She made him smile uncontrollably as if his lips have mind of its own.

The class ended, Stephen called Dave after the latter messaged him,

"Bro we have already received a few entries," informed Dave "Here's the early bird, RareHeart..." his eyes widen and he immediately looked around for Aya, he needed to confirm something but she was already gone. His mind were focused on that name that he failed to hear the other names of the participants.

After Stephen got home, he logged into his account on Underworld site to check the entries but he choose to read first the review submitted by RareHeart. A satisfied look appeared on his face after reading it, he was quite impressed on her review, it has the content that they were looking for. He sent a copies to others and as he expected they were also amazed by her work. "Dave announce the deadline tomorrow, soon we will end the contest," his instruction over the phone.

Fascinated by the name 'RareHeart', he really wants to know if this participant is the same person he saw last time. Remembering the girl who have the same name though he knew that it might be just her alias or a codename. People nowadays tend to used other names online, instead of their real names. Even Stephen and his friends used codename in Fenrir, he was known as Alpha Genesis, Dave as Beta Debonair, Ivan's alias is Gamma Spiral Spear and as for Macky it is Delta GreyLock.

Being both genius and hacker, he have the intelligence and ability to access any kind of data or information. Interested to know more about the person behind the codename RareHeart, he checked her email thoroughly but soon he discovered that it was just created recently and has no enough information, even the name used were also 'Rare' as first name and 'Heart' as last name. The only thing that he thinks valid is her birthday but again it is just his assumption. It wasn't even connected to any form of social media accounts or device, it seems that the user sent her entry by using a dummy email through website. With this, there is no way for him to acquire any data about the said participant. He concluded that to avoid being hack, RareHeart never use her personal email at first to transact online. A cleverness that piqued his interest and this also proved that she was knowledgeable in computer technology which is common for a Computer Science student.

Stephen meet up with his team to instruct them their tasks regarding the contest. "I have here the top three winners," he started as he distribute a copy of the names of the winners. "Prepare the contract for the grand winner," he told Dave, "Order the items for first runner up, request it to be deliver A.S.A.P., if possible tomorrow morning then next, withdraw 5,000 pesos for the last winner, " he said to Ivan. "Work on announcement for winners, once done, submit it to me before posting it online," he ordered Macky. After that Stephen started to type his personal message for each winners.

Soon Dave declared the end of the contest and he posted the winners' names on their website the next morning including the prizes. Herbert was online when the post was made and he ran all the way from library to canteen to search for Aya. The moment he saw her sitting at the canteen while busy munching on her snack, he wasted no time to approach her. Instantly he sat beside her and threw his things over the table, Aya shrieked. "Herbert!?" she almost jump out from her chair, "What happened?" He tried to calm himself before speaking but he was too excited to wait for his heart beat to slowdown. "Aya I know this might shock you," he said between his breath, "Did something happened?" she is now worried. "Aya... YOU WON THE CONTEST!" he exclaimed, she gaped at him thinking that she might just heard it wrong, "And you didn't just won, you're the grand winner!" he said aloud that made her speechless. She must be dreaming she thought, he knows that she can't believe it so he got his laptop and shows her the recent post on Underworld site. She grabbed it and stared on its screen, her eyes focused on the post to make it sure that she is reading it right and clearly, "I won..." she uttered, "Yes you are!" retorted Herbert. Words can't describe her feelings right now and can't help not to smile widely but her excitement didn't last long when she read what her prize is. "What's wrong?" he noticed the sudden change in her mood, "The price is an exclusive contract to work for Fenrir Inc..." she said. "Don't tell me you didn't read about it?" Herbert was confused, "Yes I did... I just didn't expected to win the grand prize, I am actually after the prize money," her honest answer. It didn't take long for him to realize what her concern is, "Do you think he will agree with that?" he asked, "He already hate me for choosing my major and with our current situation, accepting this, will make him hate me even more," she retorted with sadness in her voice. Obviously she wants that contract, but something hindered her from accepting it. Too much thinking and struggling to decide right now, it gives her a headache thus Aya choose not to log online to any of her social account for the rest of the day to give herself a break. Meanwhile Stephen were checking his email time to time to see if RareHeart reply, he waited until that night but he was somehow surprised not to receive any message from her that day.

Weekend comes, Aya was playing her favorite RPG online game when she come acrossed a discussion on public chat, "Have you seen who won the contest of UnderWorld?" a random player typed. "Yeah, I think his name is Rare... Rare something... RareHeart! that's it!" the other replied. "Wait a minute..." another intervened, "I think we have also a player who have the same name here." Aya immediately logged off from that game after reading their conversation, she recalled that she won the contest and it have been two days since she received the message from the person who's name is Alpha Genesis. It was rude of her for not replying to his email and she realized how stupid she was for forgetting such an important matter. She wanted the offer but at the same time she can't accept it due to some circumstances with the person she cares so much. "I don't want him to be mad at me again but..." she looked back and forth between the email and her wallet that has few peso bills in it, "Not only an opportunity to work for a popular site, I also need money," she sighed. An idea popped into her head, "Why didn't I think of that before?" she exclaimed, excitedly she composed her response. Grinning as she sent the email hoping that Fenrir agreed on her condition. Her email has a feature that will notify her when her message has been opened, it just took a minute when she was notified that the receiver opened her email. "Does it mean he was been waiting for my reply all this time?" she felt embarrassed, for making him wait for too long. Stephen while on the comfort of his living room, read RareHeart's email, he leaned on the sofa while his eyes was closed to rest for a few seconds before replying. "To be honest I didn't expect that you will request for 'that', any reason behind it?" he was curious. "Yes, kind of personal, but I've really interested to join Fenrir, so if you agree with my condition then I will accept your offer," she replied. He liked the way she negotiate and her confidence though she didn't reveal the reason regarding her condition, sooner or later he will find it out, he thought. "No problem with your condition, I'll resend the revised contract two days from now," he decided. Aya gasped when he agreed, "It work!" she happily danced around like crazy and giggled. Fishing out his phone from his pocket, Stephen called Dave, "Revise the contract and include the additional term that I'll send later, " he smiled proudly at her wittiness as he ended the call.