A difficult life

The village didn't have many places that one could call homes. It wasn't like the city where there would be large apartment buildings and such. Which was why currently for Chris, he was living in a single bedroom attached to one of the larger houses in the village.

The room he was in was small, and the only thing that could fit really in it was a bed and a fan to stop the small room from getting too hot since there was only a small window from the inside. It seemed that the owners of the place used to use the room as a toilet but had it converted so Chris could live there.

Lying down on his thin mattress, it was midway. Even though the room was cramped, Chris was the type of person who could relax anywhere but for today something just felt off.

'Is it happening again?' Chris thought as he started to think of what happened to Mai in the shopping mall. 'Whenever I get close to someone, things like this always seem to happen. At least she wasn't hurt for now, but who knows what could happen. That's why it's better for me to just stay away, what was I thinking.'

Still, Chris thought that talking to Simon, Shirley and even the bus ride into the city was the most fun he had in a while. It made him forget about his current life. Even now through the thin walls he could hear the owners of the house arguing, and it always seemed to be over the same thing: money.

In a way, the owners were family and at the same time not for Chris. They were his distant aunt and uncle who he hardly knew until he was forced to move here. They onwend one of the biggest houses in the village, and on the surface, to everyone's eyes they were wealthy entrepreneurs, but the reality was different.

They were crippled with debt trying to support their failing business, and were to stubborn to admit it, only piling on more debt.

'Can, I really keep living like this?' Chirs started to think. 'Don't I deserve to be happy too?' He started to clench his fist, as he imagined joyous days. 'And there's that other problem as well.'

In the end, the auguring from his uncle and Auntie had gotten too much, and he decided to leave, heading outside.

'What do I do now?' He thought, standing in the driveway, which was mostly pebbled and there was even a gated entrance. In a way, Chirs couldn't believe that his aunt and uncle wouldn't just downsize the house to solve most of their problems. Why did facewhat people thought of one another matter so much to people, he never understood.

Outside the gate on the road, a group of three men pulled up in long black cars. They stood out for a village like this, since everyone just rode small vehicles, and the people who came out from the cars definitely didn't suit the place at all. Each one of them was wearing black suits, and sunglasses.

The thing was, it wasn't the first time he had seen these people either. The one stood in the middle, had a distinctive scar on his chin. While the other two around him would often change, this man always came to visit his aunt and uncle once in a while.

As the gate opened allowing them to be let in, Chris walked past tempting to ignore them, but for the first time, Chris had been stopped by the man, as he stood in front of his path.

"Hey, I see you here all the time and I like the look in your eyes." The man said, he then pulled out what looked like a business card from the inside of his suit, and handed it over to Chris. "If you ever think about leaving this boring place, and need some work, then give me a call."

Chris nodded back at the man.

"Thank you." He said before leaving.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who these guys were, or why they were visiting so often, and maybe people would think Chris was a bad person for ignoring the situation his uncle and Auntie were in, but what could he do?

If his uncle and auntie couldn't change themselves, then no matter what he did, it wouldn't change anything.

'Maybe in the future I might think a little differently.' Chis thought.

Seeing those men had soured his mood a little and he wanted to think of anything that could take his mind off things, and the only thing that kept popping up, was Mai.

'I guess I should pay her visit and see if she's okay. There's a chance someone could still be trying to do something to her as well.' Chris thought, as he walked off and headed towards Mai's house.

'Wait, where does she live?'

——

A knock was heard at the door, and answering was Mai's mother. She thought it would be the neighbours dropping by to have a chat and some tea, but what she didn't expect was to see a gorgeous young tall man staring back at her.

"Oh my, umm what can I do for you?" Mai's mother said , blushing and trying to fix her hair. She was a widow who had loved her husband, but of course she would want to look her best in front of such a person.

"I'm sorry, I think this might be the fifth time I've got the wrong house, but you don't happen to know if Mai is here do you? I'm a classmate in her class." Chris asked.

'Now I know why she's been so happy these days, how did my daughter manage to catch such a good looking young man, Think of how beautiful the grand kids will be. Their kids would be models if they got his geans.' Straight away Mai's mothers eyes lit up, and she had decided there and then she would do anything in her power to help Chris and her daughter get together.

"You must have come because you heard she was sick as well, don't mind me, she is just upstairs, please go ahead." Mai said, letting Chris walk up the stairs.

While walking up the stairs, she couldn't help but take a glance at the boy's good looks one more time.

'You go for it Mai!' Her mother cheered, looking back at the door though, she noticed another pair of shoes, and that's when she realised that Mai wasn't the only one in the room at the moment.

When Chris finally arrived up the stairs, he started to slowly open the door.