---

"What the hell?"


Gabriella looked up, staring at Ken with an incredulous look.

How could she not be surprised, if when she arrived and sat down at the table she had booked for work, she was treated to a variety of snacks that left her confused.

"I didn't order anything," Gabriella added.


Ken, however, smiled. The man with the long maroon shirt folded into quarter sleeves pulled out the chair in front of Gabriella, then sat down without a word. He raised his face confidently, then looked at all the snacks that filled Gabriella's desk as he said, "This is a gift for you for giving me shelter yesterday."

Because she said it so bluntly and loudly, Gabriella reflexively looked left and right, making sure no one was there to hear their conversation.


Gabriella leaned forward and whispered, "Don't say it so loudly. I don't want the employees here to get the wrong idea about us."

"Us?" Ken's one black eyebrow was raised. He grinned. "Did you mention 'we' for our relationship?"

"Whatever. I'm saying I'm you," Gabriella snapped. "Just don't let anyone know that you were yesterday-"

"Elle, everyone here already knows that I like you." Ken folded his arms across his chest and spread a smile that seemed to make him look more cheerful than usual. Meanwhile, Gabriella slowly backed away with her eyes rounded. She was shocked that Ken had expressed his feelings so openly with such a casual expression. "So take it easy."

"Are you drunk?"

"Not really." Ken pushed the snacks he had placed on the table to Gabriella, then continued, "I don't want Kalandra's future mistress to get hungry while I'm working."

"Dih. No deh," Gabriella said, then pushed the food back to the giver. He nodded and raised both eyebrows, giving her an affirming look. "Thanks a lot but I'm on a diet."

"On a diet? Shall I order a salad? Or shall I make it myself in the kitchen? Special from Chef Ken? How about it, would you like it?"

"Ken, please. If you can't be professional during working hours, I'd rather not work here."

This time Gabriella's words succeeded in making Ken stand still. He who had previously looked confidently into the eyes of his interlocutor, now turned to the cheerful food that seemed to be lying uselessly on the table. He inhaled slowly, then exhaled before finally looking at Gabriella again. "Just accept this. If you don't like me approaching you during work hours, can I approach you outside of work hours?"

The gray bead of Gabriella's favorite contact lens glared sharply.

Making Ken immediately move away while raising both hands up, like a thief caught in the act by the police. "Okay, okay. I'll leave you alone, okay?"

Gabriella's eyes stayed on Ken until he was completely out of sight. She looked at all the snacks on the table and sighed resignedly. "What's wrong with giving out so many snacks." One hand picked up a potato chip with a green wrapper, flipped through it, and then put it back down while shaking her head in disbelief. "What kind of money do people have. I wonder."

---

"Hahahah I swear, bro? That's so bad!" Harry laughed with satisfaction afterward. "Actually, this will be your first record of being rejected by a girl."

Alan lifted his wine glass from the table and chuckled at Ken's annoyed face in his chair. "I told you not to use any bets."

"Just be ready to give me two million, Wa!"

Ken looked at Harry and Alan in turn. He couldn't hide the scowl on his face at the moment. His attempt to get close to Gabriella had failed again. She didn't even touch any of the snacks Ken had bought her, letting the snacks, bread, energy drinks and milk boxes that had cost Ken three hundred thousand in the morning go to waste.

Actually, all the food was not thrown away, Gabriella distributed it to the employees who were working that day. But still, Ken thought that his efforts to get close to Gabriella were useless.

"Is it the third day already? That means there are only four days left."

Alan nodded in agreement with Harry's words, then busily sipped the wine in his shot glass. This was already his third glass, but the man with a sharp nose showed no signs of getting drunk. "Four more days makes one week." He turned his gaze to Ken, then tapped the top of his best friend's shoulder lightly. "Not every girl you like can be easily asked to sleep with, Ken. Especially if she's from a good family."

"I see that Cinderella is pretty, but she doesn't look like a wild child. Don't you think so, Lan?"

"Yes."

"I went to her dorm yesterday and I think she lives alone there, free again," Ken told me. "In New York, it's impossible to find a good girl. The social scene in such a big city is really free. There are only two choices, one, you'll be a slangy but damaged kid, or two, you'll be an outcast with no friends."

The empty glass was then placed on the table. Alan mumbled for a while, before finally saying, "Do you think Gabriella is number one or two?"

Harry looked at Ken as Alan did. He had a curious expression on his face, while Ken considered an answer.

"A girl who lives alone isn't always because she's wild, Wa. She could be deliberately looking for a new place to live that she can call home because she can't find the 'home' she's looking for in her own family." Alan lowered his voice, making him sound wiser than his friends. "I don't think Gabriella is a wild girl who needs to have fun for a while, she's just a girl who's trying to heal the trauma and wounds from her past. The girl you were talking about at the beginning, the one who said she wanted to jump off the mall, that's Gabriella, right?"

Ken gasped, as did Harry who almost spit out the alcohol in his mouth.

"Cinderella wanted to kill herself?!" asked Harry impatiently. He tugged on Ken's shirt sleeve and exclaimed, "Seriously? She really wants to jump off the mall, Ken?"

Slowly but surely, Ken returned Harry's inquisitive gaze. Unlike Alan who seemed very confident in his conjecture, Harry continued to look at Ken with an uncomfortable look on his face.

"So is it true that Cinderella wanted to jump and kill herself?" Harry confirmed again.

Before Ken finally nodded and said, "Yes, harry. It's true. Gabriella did want to kill herself that time."