Hooked
Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Lu Ke? Mom and dad are going out? Is there anything you want?" a woman asked as she knocked on a door.
On the other side of the door, the room was completely dark except for the dim light coming from a computer. Slouching in front of the computer, a skinny, young teen man, with a scruffy beard, messy black hair, and dark rings around his eyes, scrolled through a dating website with boredom in addition to a hint of depression. Empty cup noodles laid messily beside the computer monitor along with some take out bags.
Hearing the voice outside, the young man blankly stared at the mess nearby. After a bit of thought, he replied with a holler, "No, mum. I'm fine."
The woman's voice went silent for a bit before sighing, "Okay, honey. If there's anything, remember to call your mom and dad."
Tap. Tap. Tap. Click.
With that, the woman left, returning the young man to his silent world.
Ding!
A notification sound echoed from somewhere under the computer desk. Lu Ke shivered for a bit before he slowly got down to the ground and fumbled around. After a while, he found his iPhone. Glancing at the new incoming message, the young man trembled as his eyes diluted.
"Yo, little sh*t, why weren't you at school today? Don't think you can hide after graduating. You better come tomorrow and pay your protection fee or we will come find you~"
"Why aren't you responding little sh*t? Do you want us to turn you into broken stick the next time we meet?"
Lu Ke man opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Eventually, he closed his mouth as if recognizing reality and accepting his fate in despair. His eyes dimmed as he dropped the phone back onto the ground. Sitting on the ground, the young man buried his head into his bruised knees and sobbed softly.
Ding!
Hearing a notification sound, the young man's body stiffened for a while before he slowly looked up with dull eyes. Glancing at the dark phone, Lu Ke tilted his head in confusion. He then turned his gaze to the computer screen and noticed a message on the dating site.
He rubbed the tears off his confused eyes as he crawled over to his seat. Noting the female name Alice on the title bar of the message, Lu Ke clicked on the chat message with trembling hands.
"Hai there~ I found your profile pic to be pretty cute and you seem to be my type. Maybe we can meet up to get to know each other?"
Lu Ke gave himself a hard pinch to test if he was seeing things. Feeling dull pain that he was used to on his legs, Lu Ke then raised his hand and gave himself a hard slap on the face. Feeling the pain, Lu Ke then glanced at the message again.
"I-It's real ..." Lu Ke muttered with a trembling voice as he reached his hands out to respond with excitement.
Lines of words were typed and erased over and over again as Lu Ke couldn't decide on what to say. In the end, he only sent back a word, "Okay."
Seeing the message being sent, Lu Ke slammed his face down onto the table as he cursed himself, "Idiot, idiot, why are you such an idiot?!"
Ding~
Lu Ke bolted up in surprise to see that there was a response.
"Haii~ I'm glad you are interested~ Feel free to check out my profile, and if you feel that I'm cute, then come meet me at XXX apartment room 444. I'll be waiting~"
Lu Ke's heart pounded as he read the message. His hands trembled in excitement as he slowly clicked his way to the girl's profile. Once the page loaded, Lu Ke's heart skipped a beat when he saw the profile picture of a cute tan-skin girl. Her short black, bob hairstyle seemed to enhance her cuteness.
Lu Ke's dull eyes brightened up with desire and longing, but after a while, his eyes dimmed once more. Reading the message over and over again, Lu Ke shrunk into his shell as he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "It must be a prank right? There is no way a girl as cute as this would be interested in me."
Lu Ke lost himself in depression for a while, but he was awakened by a notification sound.
Ding~
Glancing up, Lu Ke read another message in the chat box, "Sooo ... are you coming? If not, then I will take it that you aren't interested in me. :("
Lu Ke sat up straight with his eyes wide opened in excitement, "Maybe ... just maybe it's real?"
Lu Ke then trembling typed a response, "I will come tomorrow afternoon."
"Okay~ I look forward to meeting you~"
Seeing the response, Lu Ke bolted up in excitement as he paced around his dark room anxiously. Turning on the lights to his bedroom for the first time in a long time, he then spent the night choosing a suitable outfit and rolling around on his bed sleeplessly.
The following morning, Lu Ke got dressed before he glanced at himself in the mirror.
"No ... I can't go like this," Lu Ke muttered as he opened his door and went to the bathroom to groom himself.
Brushing his teeth and freshening his breathe, Lu Ke took a shower to clean himself thoroughly. The beard was shaved to reveal his young, handsome face. The hair was trimmed and combed. Seeing his new self, Lu Ke practice putting on his best smile before he headed out.
"Eh? Lu Ke?!" a woman glancing out of the nearby kitchen widened her eyes in shock.
Hearing her cry, a middle aged man sitting on the sofa in the living room glanced over and dropped his phone to the ground with mouth wide opened in shock.
"Dad, mum, I'm going out to meet a friend," Lu Ke hollered before dashing out of the apartment.
Glancing at each other silently, Lu Ke's mother couldn't help but ask her husband with a giggle, "Honey, he looks like that doesn't he?"
The middle-aged man replied with a gruff chuckle, "It seems he is finally growing up. Let him be."
Exiting the apartment building, the blinding sunlight caused Lu Ke to pause and block his eyes for a while. Glancing at the familiar yet unfamiliar environment, Lu Ke took a deep breathe to calm himself before he stepped out.
Unlocking his bike, Lu Ke hopped on and biked off to his destination. Avoiding a couple of places intentionally out of caution, Lu Ke eventually made it to an gloomy, old street. He finally parked his bike in front of an old apartment building as he glanced at his phone's map to make sure he was at the right place.
"She lives here?" Lu Ke muttered with a tinge of anxiety as he glanced at the gloomy building, "If she's alone here, it's dangerous!"
Already worrying about his future girlfriend, Lu Ke locked his bike before he tidied himself a bit. He then bravely stepped into the apartment building.
As the elevator door opened to the fourth floor, Lu Ke glanced at the silent, gloomy hallway. His heart couldn't help but tense up, but when he thought about how Alice was waiting for him, he still bravely stepped out.
It wasn't long until he found apartment room 444. Taking a deep breathe as his heart pounded, Lu Ke raised his hand and knocked on the door nervously.
"Coming~" a cheery female voice sounded from inside.
Click! Lu Ke tensed up with both anxiety and anticipation as he watched the door open. As he saw the young lady who matched the profile picture, his eyes widened as his heart pounded hard.
Badump! Badump! Badump!
Lu Ke tried to open his mouth to say something smart, but he seemed to have lost his voice as his face flushed red.
"Hehehe~ Why are you just standing there, do you not want to come in?" Alice asked in a teasing voice.
Lu Ke shook his head to escape his trance as he followed Alice in with excitement. With only Alice in his eyes, he didn't even notice that the automatically closed behind him.
"Have a seat, do you want anything to drink? Will a glass of water do?" Alice asked in a cute voice.
Not noticing the suspicious stains on the furnishing, Lu Ke sat down on the old sofa obediently as he stuttered a reply, "T-That's fine."
Alice went to the kitchen, grabbed a glass, and filled it with tap water from the sink. She then brought it over and handed it to Lu Ke, "Here you go."
Lu Ke nervously took the glass from Alice's hand while awkwardly avoiding her hand. He then took a sip to calm himself down as Alice asked with a giggle, "Is it good?"
Lu Ke nodded strongly as he replied, "A-Anything will taste good as long as it's from you."
Alice giggled charmingly as she heard this while her eyes glanced at the air beside her in mirth, "Well then, let's do some introductions of ourselves shall we? I'm Alice, how about you?"
Lu Ke nodded as he introduced himself like a machine, "I'm Lu Ke. I was born on ... graduated from ..."
As Lu Ke spoke on and on, his anxiety gradually calmed down. He was about to throw out some flirty lines he learned online, but his stomach grumbled. A drop of sweat rolled down Lu Ke's face as he paused his speech. He couldn't help but complain internally, "Why now?!"
Seeing his pause, Alice had a playful look in her eyes as she asked, "Hmm? Lu Ke, why did you stop? Is something wrong?"
Lu Ke secretly gritted his teeth and held it in as he replied, "N-No, nothing is wrong. I-I just got lost in thought while observing your beauty."
Alice giggled as she then replied, "Is that so? Then, you can continue to observe while you still can~"
Although Lu Ke felt that line was a bit weird, he thought he was just imagining things as he focused on enduring his discomfort in the stomach. In this silence, Lu Ke finally had more time to observe Alice. It was then that he noticed that Alice's neck was wrapped by a t-shirt. Although he found it weird, Lu Ke didn't ask as it was only their first time meeting. Asking too much personal things may cause you to step on a landmine.
Although Lu Ke tried hard to hold it in, his face gradually became flushed as he felt it was about to squirt out! Lu Ke then told Alice in a hoarse voice, "I-I need to borrow the bathroom for a bit."
Alice nodded in understanding as she replied with a cheery voice, "Go ahead, the bathroom is right over there. Please enjoy~"
Lu Ke's face scrunched up in pain as he stumbled over to the bathroom. Click. The door to the bathroom was gently shut, and it wasn't long before moans of pain came from within.
Alice giggled as she stared at Pro who was in ghost form next to her, "Hehehe, Master, did Alice do a good job?"
"Yes you did Alice," Pro replied with a gentle smile as he waited for over 30 seconds before he stopped his abilities.
Alice blinked her eyes slyly as she teased, "Why did master torture the boy for so long? Is master jealous?"
Pinching Alice's cute nose, Pro replied with a sneer, "So what if I am? How dare that kid hit on my woman! He deserves the extra punishment! In fact, it's better to have him come back a couple times for extra lessons!"
Alice giggled charmingly as she agreed, "As master wishes."
Hearing the toilet flush, Alice noticed that Lu Ke spent a long time inside the bathroom after that using the sink. She tilted her head as she glanced at Pro who explained, "There's no toilet paper, so he's using the sink."
Glancing at the 30 points harvested from his constipation ability and the extra bundle of 10 points from harvesting Lu Ke's feeling of disgust, Pro can't help but smile happily. The kid must have had a great sense of disgust to gift him with 10 points as even a day of harvest from service workers didn't give Pro a single point from disgust.
After a long time, Lu Ke finally weakly stepped out of the bathroom. As he saw Alice sitting on the sofa staring over with a playful smile, Lu Ke's pale face flushed red in embarrassment. His mouth gawked open as he tried to find a line to get himself out of his situation, but his mind drew a blank.
Alice giggled as she cutely stated, "It seems that you don't feel well today. Maybe, you should go home for a rest."
Lu Ke's face paled as his mind sunk into despair. He felt his heart sink as his hopes shatter. His eyes dimmed as he stared longingly at Alice who seemed to be growing further and further away in his vision.
Seeing this, Alice playfully lit the fire once more as she charmingly said, "Maybe we can schedule another day for a meeting. You will come back for me again right?"
Looking up in shock, Lu Ke's face suddenly lit up in hope as his heart pounded crazily. He stared at Alice with happiness in his eyes as he excitedly replied, "Y-Yes! Of course I will!"
Alice then had a cheery smile as she sent Lu Ke off, "Rest well~ I'll be waiting for your next visit~"
Click! Hearing the door closing behind him, Lu Ke clenched his fists in excitement as he did a little dance in the hallway. After calming down, Lu Ke weakly clutched his stomach once more as he couldn't help but mutter in confusion, "I didn't even eat anything this morning, why did my stomach complain?"
Lu Ke's thoughts spun wildly in his mind as he took the elevator down. As he stepped out of the elevator without paying attention, he bumped into a middle-aged uncle on accident. Bouncing back a little from the bump, Lu Ke glanced towards the jacket that flapped open a bit and saw a knife.
The uncle hurriedly covered it back up as he glared at Lu Ke and warned in a rough voice, "Kid, mind your own business."
Lu Ke froze in place as his mind went blank while watching the elevator door close. Listening to the elevator door creak upwards, Lu Ke counted the time. The elevator finally stopped creaking and Lu Ke matched the time with his perfect memory. To his horror, his deduction told him that the elevator stopped on the fourth floor!
Remembering the cute Alice who said she was waiting for him, Lu Ke's face paled as his mind fell into internal turmoil. A lonely young man stood in front of the closed elevator door as his fear fought against his courage. What decision will he make?