The Brilliant Ways to Make You Stay

In his room, Lim was staring at Miya through his CCTV monitor. He zoomed in on the screen to closely view Miya's expression. As Lim saw Miya was smiling, he smiled.

His gut feeling told him that Miya might be trustworthy, "I think she is the best person for this job. She is good at cooking and cleaning. On top of that, she doesn't mind working with tools," Lim was smiling at his flashback seeing Miya try to handle the bursting pipe. 

"SIGH… She's a girl, but she insisted on fixing the plumbing by herself. I think I need someone like her."

Once Lim decided to keep Miya by his side, he drew something on his tablet while mumbling, "Yes! This will be enough to make her come back and stay with me," Lim was smiling, overproud of his idea.

Magic happened!

A big chain appeared!

The chain moved like a snake lingering on the gate's handle, sealing it up. It kept moving around, locking not only the gate but also Miya's abandoned bag that had pinched on the gate when she just come.

***

At the time Miya reached the gate, she was shocked to see that big chain, "WHAT! What is that? Wait— Am I the last person to enter this house? See?! My bag is still hanging on there, sandwiched perfectly by that majestic gate. Is the gate really that expensive so it has an automatic chain feature? Waaaahh... Unbelievable!"

Miya inspected the chain closely without even dare to touch that gate as if there was a warning board of 'YOU BREAK IT! YOU BUY IT!' which was usually could be found at the glassware store.

Suddenly, Miya noticed something that frustrated her, she was sinking to the ground, "Does this mean... I have to take another 40 minutes to walk back to that weird man only to get the key? And another 40 minutes walking back to go out again, unlocking the chain? And back to give back the key, and back again to finally go out of this house? Wait... If I give back the key, who will lock this gate at the end? Oh God, how does everything actually work in this house?!"

Miya was pointing her finger to the moon, releasing her anger to Lim, she screamed, "If you badly want me to go out of your sight, at least you have to open your door to kick me out! ARGGHHHH!!!!!"

***

In his room, Lim chuckled because his plan had worked. Afterward, he got another brilliant idea. Lim was dwelling on his magical drawing tablet. He was about to bring out other things into reality.

Meantime, Miya didn't notice whatever magical thing happened around her for it was out of her sight. It's too dark. The only lamps that turned on were about 10 meters from her. Out of that range were automatically turned off since there was no motion triggering its sensor to turn it on.

Just about 15 meters from her, on the sidewalk, there was a bicycle that appeared in an awkward position. Then suddenly, it disappeared in the blink of an eye, appeared again in another awkward position, disappeared, appeared, disappeared, and finally appeared in a less suspicious position which was lying on the sideroad.

At that time, Lim was so confused about how to create a magical matter became less suspicious in other people's eyes. He was afraid if people found out that he had such a magic item, his life could be in danger for the umpteenth of time.

"I think, the bicycle has to be covered by a pile of leaves to create a natural sense of an abandoned bicycle. Previously, she has walked on this road. If suddenly there is a bicycle, she will find it strange, since she didn't see it when she passed by before."

Lim was about to draw, copy, and paste thousands of normal leaves to cover up that bicycle, but Miya was heading over there.

Getting panic for not having enough time, Lim changed his strategy. He drew something big. Big enough to cover all over the bicycle, and fast enough to make sure that the magical process was unseen by Miya.

***

Miya's footsteps triggered the sensor of the solar lamp around her to turn on one by one. At the moment the lamp light shone on the bike that lying on the side road, the bike was fully covered by something Lim had just drawn. But, instead of having a normal impression of an abandoned bicycle, it looked even weirder.

"Is that a blanket?" Miya was pulling out the weird big thing that covered up the bicycle, but she was amazed, "WOW! Is this a gigantic lotus leaf? It's three times bigger than me. SIGH…What kind of person using a leaf to cover their vehicle? Is he the last prehistoric being or something? He talked rubbish about how rich he was that he was so afraid of being robbed. To tell the truth, I didn't see another vehicle he had except this bicycle. Rich? Rich my foot! Yeaaa… You're so rich, I couldn't even afford your weirdo, Sir!" She expressed her wrath on Lim by constantly nagging to the void while getting the bicycle ready to be used.

***

As Miya paddled the bicycle back to Lim's house, Lim was in trouble.

Lim got a notification on his magical drawing tablet which was:

"DEAR USER 3, 1000 DEAD PIXELS DETECTED. GET READY FOR THE IMPACT!"

Apparently, Lim was used to this kind of warning. He went out of his secret room inside his workspace that was inside the library inside his bedroom, heading to the kitchen. He took out seven boxes full of medicine, two boxes of medical equipment, a list of emergency numbers, and his cell phone. Then he put all of that on the table in front of him.

As he sat in his wheelchair, he looked around and noticed a chandelier hanging above him. He examined every corner of his house and realized that if the house were to collapse, it would be difficult for him to escape. He decided that he needed to go to a safer place, like the porch or the yard, where he would have a better chance of getting out in case of an emergency.

In a rush, Lim was picking up some essential medicine, medical equipment, and some things he might need, then put all of that on his lap. He was about to go to the porch when suddenly he felt like he was being squeezed. His chest was so tight, he couldn't breathe properly. His breath went shorter, shorter, and shorter.

At that time, the bell rang.

Miya was standing before the door, waiting for the weird owner of the house to appear. 

Didn't have any clues about what Lim was going through, Miya rehearsed nagging to the door, "Hey, you! If you wanna drive me away, you have to open your gate! You just need to press the button if that has that automatic feature, or at least give me the key? Is it that hard? Why you keep making me went in and out like a snot?"

She stopped to think, "A snot? Wait… Does it make me look even more pathetic? Just delete the part about snot. Hmnn... Should I swolen my pride a little bit and ask him to pay me a sum amount of money for cooking and fixing his plumbing? At least I can pay for rent with that…"

While Miya was busy thinking about the best strategy to have a profitable goodbye, Lim was suffering.

His hands were wet.

He was too dizzy to move, even to talk.

His short breath blocked his voice to be heard, "Help— Please— Help—"

He couldn't bear the pain any longer.

GUBRAAK!!!!!

He fell hard to the floor, unconscious.