Chapter 9 - Date

"Anddddd, done. I've put your number on my phone."

"How long until your nails are done?"

"Probably around one hour. Feel free to stroll somewhere around here first, but please don't walk too far."

*chuckles* "I'm not thirteen anymore, Selena. I will not get lost that easily."

"Yeah-yeah, I know. After my manicure is done, I will call you back, okay?"

Selena then hugs Henry before parting ways to do their own things.

"Now, where do I go?"

Henry asks himself as he walks, unaware of where he should waste his time. There are a lot of interesting places here, but he doesn't know which one he wants to go to first.

After just walking for a few minutes, Henry came up with something.

"Damn, I just remember! I didn't get to give Sera her flower. I should buy one now for her."

Henry recalls that he still didn't give Sera a flower a few years ago. He was kidnapped, after all, it's not like it was his fault.

He then starts searching for a flower shop around the outskirts.

"Is it here? No."

He checks every street.

"How about- no."

He even asks locals.

"I'm sure this is the o- what the fuck. This is a cake shop!" He complained as he entered the shop. They put a lot of flowers on the front windows, and even the shop's name is Green Garden.

But even after an hour of searching, he doesn't find any.

"Is there no way for me to buy flowers around here? I have checked every corner but still didn't find anything."

*riiiing*

"Great, now my time is up. Looks like I need to ask Selena herself where I can find a flower shop." He sarcastically says before answering the phone.

"Hello."

[Henry, my nails are done. You can come back to the nail salon now.]

"Alright. I'm actually kinda far from there right now, so you need to wait for a while."

[Ahhhh, classic Henry is back at it again. Even after I told you not to, you still went and did it.]

"Yeah-yeah. Please wait for me, I will be there as soon as I can."

[Okay, stay safe. Bye.]

"Bye."

Henry then starts walking back to the shop as fast as he can until he comes to an alley.

"Do I use this alley or not? Its looks like a long one at that." Henry says to himself before thinking about it.

'Fuck it, I'm using it.' He then starts walking through the alley. He is kind of late right now, and he doesn't want Selena to wait a long time for him to arrive. He is already halfway through it anyway.

'Looks like I'm worrying for nothing. Even if there is someone, what are they gonna do to me anyway? I'm an ex-"

"Give me all your money!" Someone can be heard yelling from his behind.

'Oooooh, for fucks sake. Just before I finish saying it, I'm already being proven wrong.'

"What do you want?" Henry asks as he puts his hand in the air.

"Are you fucking deaf?! I said give me all your money!!"

"Whoa there, that's not how respectable citizen talks to each other." Henry says with a sarcastic tone.

"Do you think I'm playing around right now? Do you want to be killed?" The mugger then starts getting closer to Henry and lightly pushes their knife on Henry's back.

"If you don't want me to use this knife, give me your wallet!" The mugger tried to threaten him.

"Okay-okay, I understand." He says with a 'terrified' voice.

"But please be careful as you will meet Mikey after this." He added.

"Who the fu- "

*BAM*

"UGGHH!" The mugger yelp.

The mugger's body then slammed directly onto a waste container, letting her knife go after being kicked by Henry.

"My kic- wait, a fucking girl?!" He realizes this after seeing the mugger with his own eyes. He already knew that the mugger was female based on her voice, but he didn't realize that it was a kid trying to mug him.

"Uggh.. You son of a bitch! I'll fucking kill you!"

She then crawls to pick her knife back to attack Henry but fails as Henry kicks the knife as far as he can.

"Uh-uh. No knife for you." He mocks the girl while wagging his finger to look down at her.

"You fucker!" The girl then stands up and charges at him. Looks like she wants to attack him with her own fist.

*THUD*

Henry kicks her to the ground before she reaches him with his leg and steps on her shoulder.

"Nowhere to go now do you?" He smiles at her helplessness.

She is now lying on her back with Henry looking down at her.

"Lets me go, you bastard!" She yells at him as she tries to move his leg forcefully from her.

"Stops that before I stomp on your face." He threatens to do so.

The alley then turns quiet for a while before she decides to open her mouth again.

"What kind of man do th-"

"Shut. the. fuck. up. I can even break your legs if I want to. We are in the alley, remember?" Henry says slowly to make her feel scared.

"..."

Looks like his plan worked out as she doesn't say anything more after hearing him.

"Your name?" Henry starts asking the girl. He wonders why she decides to do this fatherless act while still at a young age.

"Mei.. Mei Ling."

"You are Chinese?"

"Yes, dumbass. Does my face looks like Erusean to you?" Mei tries to diss him, but Henry just ignores it and keeps on asking questions.

"Age?"

"I will be 18 in 3 months."

"Where are your family?"

"Dead."

"So that's why.."

"Why what?" She asks Henry. What the fuck is her family got something to do with this, she thought.

"Nothing.. Any siblings?"

"Didn't exist."

"Hmmm, let's say that you are successful in robbing me, which you are not. What are you going to do with the money?" He asks her.

"Are we doing an intervi-"

"Just answer the damn question." Henry says as he puts more pressure on his leg.

"Ow-ow-ow, probably to buy food. Cant, you see- that I'm homeless right now?"

"..." Henry turns quiet after hearing her.

"Can you please stop stepping on me? It's starting to hurt." She asks him.

Henry, hearing her request, starts letting go of his foot. Mei then puts herself into a sitting position after being released.

"Do you never try to get a real job? You know, before doing this fatherless activity?" Henry asks.

"Do you really think I never try that? I have multiple times asked for a job around here, even for washing plates but I never get accepted."

"Damn.." Henry sympathized with her a little bit.

"Where do you live?" He added.

"I don't know, besides that trash bin, maybe?" She sarcastically replies as she points to the waste container she just got slammed onto by Henry.

After thinking about it for a while, Henry decides to pull out cash from his wallet.

"Here, use it to eat. Not drugs."

Mei looks at the money before slowly extending her hand to reach it.

"Thanks.."

"I will find you a job after this. If I found one I will be back here. Remember to be around this area because if I don't find you, I'll just cancel it."

"Okay.." She says softly.

"Can you stand?"

"Yeah.." She answers him as she starts trying to stand up.

"All right, I will go now. Just remembered that if you ever try to do this again, the next person may not be as kind as me."

She just nods.

Henry then starts making his way again to Selena's nail salon, leaving Mei alone in the alley. After a few minutes, he finally gets there.

"What took you so long?" Selena asks.

"There is some kind of problems I ran into while getting here."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Nah, it is not to that extent. By the way, Selena, where can I buy some flowers around here?" Henry starts asking the real question.

"Is it for Sera?" Selena asks as she nudges Henry softly with her elbow.

"Yeah.." Henry hearing Selena's spot-on guess starts blushing.

Selena seeing that, started smiling at him. Looks like there is still something that doesn't change in him even after joining the military.

"There is a nice flower shop that I know in the city. How about it?"

"Perfect. What are we still waiting for? Let's go there!" Henry says with excitement in his voice.

They then start getting into the cars to continue their date in the city.

There, they visit a lot of places that had just opened after Henry went missing. They bought a lot of things and went to many areas as a 'couple'. Well, if you want to woo a girl, you have to make sure to woo her mother first, so Henry just went along with it.

At the end of the day, Henry is holding many bags in both hands. Henry had planned to buy a lot of things before he came here, but 80 percent of the stuff he is holding right now is from Selena.

Before they return home, Selena brings Henry to the flower shop she talked about earlier. When they get there, Henry goes inside alone while Selena waits outside, waiting for him to choose a flower for Sera.

Inside, Henry starts browsing for a flower he wanted to buy.

'Should I get one for her?' He thought to himself whether to buy one for Selena or not.

After thinking about it for a while, he finally makes a decision.

'Yeah, I probably should. She has accompanied me here, after all. I should give her something in return.'

He then picks a flower for Selena and goes to the cashier.

After paying for the flower, he returned back to Selena with one of the flowers on his back to surprise her.

"Have you finished choosing?"

"Yeah, and here. I have bought one for my beloved 'girlfriend' too." He says as he reveals the flower to her.

When Selena sees the flower, Henry can see her face taken aback by his surprise.

"Whaaaaat?! Thank you, Henry! It's been a long time since I've got one!"

She says as she hugs Henry. She really appreciates the gift Henry gets for her.

"How did you know that orchids are my favorite? I never tell you before this, right?" She asks him. If she recalls correctly, she never tells anyone except Morgan about her favorite flower.

"Yeah, but your living room is filled with these. It's not hard for me to connect the pieces together." He says with a grin on his face.

After they are done talking together, they start making their way to the car. While walking, Henry can see Selena looking very happy while holding the flower he just gifts to her. He can't wait to give the flower to Sera after this.