In the morning of a new shiny day, in a big city, Glory City.
The sound of door knocking was heard.
Knock knock!
"Jay, are you awake?"
Knock knock!
"Kid, wake up! You did not pay the rent for the month!"
Knock knock!
"Wake your lazy ass! If you don't have money, then get out of the place!"
With a "Creak", a sad voice of a door that no one paid attention maintain it, was opened "energetically".
"Yawn" the one who opened the same sad door.
"Good morning, landlord! Today is Friday, just let Jay have a sound sleep."
'Although, I doubt he can sleep after all of this disturbance.'
A middle-aged woman said, after opening the sad door of her apartment, which was two doors away from Jays' door. Though, she murmured the last sentence.
"Aah Rasha, good morning. Kids these days! They want everything to go easy their way! I remember when I was his age, I was working two shifts to provide for my younger brothers."
"They are not responsible these days, those kids."
The landlord, Lucy, said while huffing.
"Come on; you know how hard he works to pay the rent. His life is hard too. A pity, a polite kid like him, can be the best in his school. But he cannot even afford the tuition fees."
Said Rasha with pity on her face.
Click! Creak!
"Oh. The landlord. Good morning. Oh, And miss Rasha too. Good morning.
Why are you all shouting in the morning?"
Jay, the "lazy" ass kid called by Lucy, the noisy landlord, opened the door and questioned.
He was sleepy, rubbing his eyes and barely able to open them due to the sunlight. He asked innocently at the end with half-opened eyes.
"Good morning, jay."
Rasha said with a friendly smile.
She was a kind, fine woman.
"Hey kid, you did not pay the rent of this month!"
The landlord said with an annoyed expression.
"Rent? What rent? ... oh! rent! How come? I paid the rent in full, more than a week ago."
Jay said, frowning.
"Hey kid, do not spit lies in the morning! I did not take a Dollar from you this month!! And now you claim to have paid me?! Are you planning not to pay and go away with it with such a lame lie?"
The landlord said with high pitched voice, clearly upset.
"I never said I paid it to you, mam! Your son, Juko, came to my house and asked for the rent in your stead. If you doubt me, then you can ask your son. But don't tell me that I am lying, I won't lie for rent. Yawn! Now excuse me, I have work today, so I need to prepare for it."
Jay said, furrowing his brows, as he was displeased and upset that that lady snapped at him before even understanding the situation. He turned around to enter his room.
'I still don't know how can someone name their kid Juko, its clearly a name of a dog. anyway. sigh'
But then he remembered something so he turned around and said to the landlord with a half bow: "Oh right, I am very grateful that you woke me up, I would have been late for work. do you charge money to wake residents up too?"
Then he entered his room and closed the door,
Ignoring the two speechless women.
"T-this rascal!! I cannot believe it. What type of education did this rascal receive?!
Come out here; I am not done with you!!"
The landlord said, angrily.
Rasha patted her shoulder, warily: "why don't you ask Juko maybe he paid the rent?"
"But I did not tell Juko to collect it, and he did not give me the money either!!"
"Just ask him, no harm in asking anyway, it might just be a misunderstanding."
Rasha said amiably.
"Huff! Ok, let's see if he is lying or not!"
The landlord said.
She picked up her phone and called her son, Juko.
Juko is a big framed, 19 years old, young man. The landlord doted on him a lot because he came pretty much later in her life after two failed pregnancies. He was the apple of her eyes; even if he does something wrong, she cannot bring herself to scold him, let alone hit him.
Beeb Beeb Beeb!
"yawn! Hey mom, why are you calling at the- WHAT! It's 8, Mom! Why did you wake me up??"
"Sorry son, but I need your help here."
"What is it, mom?"
"Did you collect the rent of this month from that kid, Jay?"
"Nope, why? Do not tell me that he said he gave it to me?"
"Humph! this kid was lying as I said!!"
"Wait a moment, mom! Are you in front of his door?"
"Yes"
"Wait for a moment. I am coming; I will see if that Jay can lie in my face!"
Click!
Juko closed his phone, annoyed.
' Shit! I forgot that I took the money, aah now I have to think of more lies. Anyway, it will be ok. Sorry, not sorry, kid, but you will be the scapegoat' - Juko thought while smiling.
Oblivious to the future trouble, in Jay's room, Jay was washing his face and brushing his teeth.
He looked at the mirror, seeing his face reflected:
"sigh! it has been four months, and till now, I am still far from my goal.
And this hag is getting even more annoying each day!
Sometimes I consider killing this shameless family and help humanity a little bit in a way, but that would bring more trouble! shoo shoo, I am not a murderer, I am a future hero! Forget it! Let's get ready for the new shitty job."
Jay said, frustratingly.
Before he even turns to do something else, he heard shouting outside.
"JAY, open the door! You did not pay the rent. How dare you say that I collected it from you?! Get out here before I call the cops!"
It was the dog named, Juko.
Jay closed his eyes, trying to be calm and to prevent himself from committing a crime!
After inhaling and exhaling for a couple of times, he opened his eyes and went to open the door.
When he opened the door, he saw a big framed body with spiky red hair who was angry, but he was not alone, more than ten people were spectating the spectacular event.
Jay himself is tall, as he is 181 cm tall while being 16 years old. But he is still shorter than Juko, which speaks a lot about Juko's frame.
When Jay saw the number of people spectating and the tall Juko, he was speechless and started blinking.
'Since when did this floor turn into a circus!'
"I said I paid the money to you, do not tell me you want to deny that.
I gave you 200$ for this month, and you said 'thanks.'"
Jay said, innocently.
"You gave me?? Where is your evidence? You dare accuse me in front of everybody that I steal money from my parents?"
Juko asked with a loud-angry voice.
"I did not say that you steal from your parents. I just said that you took it from me. Now I do not care what did you do with the money, but do not play the role of the wronged son here. And what evidence do you expect? your family takes the money from me without giving signed papers."
Jay said calmly furrowing his brows.
"Oh, so if we go easy on you, you will lash out like this? Everybody here hears that nonsense. Mom, call the police! This type of person should be jailed! I will make sure that you don't get out of there before you pay the rent and compensation for the mental damage you caused to my mother!! If everyone is going to do what you are doing, then we should quit this job!!"
Juko said with a crazed face. He was serious about covering up what he did. That makes people question what he did with the money!
"JUKO, do not bother brother Jay, we all know that brother Jay pays his debts and rents every month. This month is his third month here, so why are you bothering him like that!"
A little girl of 13 years old said, angrily.
She is a friend of Juko, a nice little girl who is good in her studies and very polite.
But she is hot-headed and gets angry rather fast.
"That is true Juko; I do not see why this much ruckus over a month worth rent."
"I don't know either."
"Just let the kid go to his work; he is a good kid who works a lot to live. Let him be."
The neighbors said as they could see that Juko went far with this.
"Humph! Good kid? God knows where he does go until midnights. He might be in a gang or something. So do not speak what you do not know uncle!"
Juko said with a sneer.
"It's ok, everyone."
Jay said, waving his hands.
"I am very grateful for your help, neighbors, but this is not worth your attention. And I want to know what the police will do."
Jay said with a half bow.
Then he turned to Juko and said
"Now I have work to do, so I do not have time to waste with you. Comeback when I return, we will see how we will solve this issue. But you should know, it's not good at all, to miss with me."
Jay said with a sharp gaze.
He locked the room door with his keys then turned around to proceed to his work.
But Juko blocked his path.
"You think you can go like that?"
"Oh, so what? Want to fight? Or maybe even kill me?"
Jay said with a sneer.
"You! If you go, then do not come back again, since we will take your possessions as compensation!"
"Oh? I paid the rent for this month, and I have evidence. Therefore, I want to see what can you do with that, and good luck actually, that might make me a good load of money as compensation."
Jay said as he bypassed Juko and went to the stairs while smiling and thinking:
'Nothing important in the apartment anyway. Hehe, I hope they breach it and take things. I hope they take the T.V, that will bring a bigger compensation.'
"Mom, will brother Jay be ok? Why do they say that he did not pay the rent? Brother jay will not lie for something like this!"
The 13 years old girl said. Her name was Angel.
"Ha-ha, you silly child, you care that much about Jay? It's ok; I do not think it will get bigger than this. But to be honest, they went far with this."
Angel's mother said, she is Rasha, the amiable woman next door.
"Wow, Jay was cool! He was calm in the situation. It seems that Jay has a good temper."
"True, he is only 16 years old, but he can handle this kind of situation."
"I think the landlord went too far with this; it's not worth the ruckus. What a shameless family."
The neighbors were discussing the matter with low voices, after seeing Jay walking down the stairs.
It's not easy to handle a stressful situation with the police being mentioned and the possibility of sleeping in the streets the next day.
"Fuck it! Let's go home, mother. Mom, call dad and tell him about the situation. He should be able to handle that kid and put him in jail!" -
Juko cursed angrily. That kid disregarded him just like that.
'My father is a policeman and a respected one. Let's see what are you going to do, kid!! I promise to put you in jail! Nobody messes with me, JUKO!'