《How to get away with murder》 Chapter 1 - The perfect man At a point it had become tiring. There was no day I would miss hearing that name. ¡°Jamal is so charming¡­,¡± muttered my classmate Tundun, sighing, upon which the other female students around her nodded deeply. Their prying gazes were focused on the guy in discuss, Jamal, who was surrounded by a group of babbling guys. If I had to describe exactly what I felt about Jamal Zaheer in one word, I''d say he was ''extraordinary''. ¡°Don¡¯t you agree Gabriella?¡± ¡°If you say so, then you''re probably right.¡± I said disinterestedly. I wasn''t going to be roped into a pointless discussion fawning over a guy. ¡°Wow, really? that¡¯s a wooden reaction! Are you made of steel? One of the girls said. "Let us not only fall in love, let us live life as if life is our love affair. If there¡¯s a prince charming, fall for him! Isn¡¯t that what it means to be a lady?¡± Tundun said dreamily. The girls, led by Tundun, continued to express overdramatic reactions to my nonchalant answer. I sighed ¡°Well, to be honest I think he''s too perfect.¡± I finally said. He was devishly handsome, tall, sharp featured, well built and intelligent. He had an attractive personality, good sense of clothing and was polished in behavior. A handsome man with an intellectual touch that avoided loose talk, indecency and rudeness. Supplemented by outstanding grades. His pleasing personality made him rather popular. Apparently, he was also good in sports. Jamal Zaheer seemed to be a perfect guy without anything to complain about. ¡°How¡¯s that a bad thing?¡± another course mate asked. ¡°I never said it¡¯s bad. It¡¯s just that I can¡¯t relax around him.¡± I said. ¡°Aah, that¡¯s true. Jamal is a guy beyond our reach after all¡­¡± happily, Tundun interpreted my comment to her comfort. My frank observation was that he was so perfect it was uninteresting and being around him would be suffocating. It could be that my attitude is indeed weird, but I¡¯ve discreetly been maintaining a distance from Jamal because I couldn¡¯t see through him. However, the girls appeared to be really emotionally invested in the popular guy and decided to start discussing rumors about Jamal as if they were gossiping about some star. ¡°But I heard he has a girlfriend in another university?¡± ¡°Amina¡¯, was it? That girl who¡¯s three years older than him?¡± ¡°Eh? I heard he was the lover of a wealthy woman¡­¡± ¡°Aah, so that¡¯s why he drives a nice car?¡± ¡°No kidding! But I heard someone spotted him together with the head of the department, Mrs. Abiola, when they came out of a hotel!¡± There was no need for a metaphor anymore¡ªhe really was a star. I realized once again just how amazing he was. And besides, he may not have been comfortable with that particular prestige. I mean, even I couldn''t bear it and it wasn''t about me. ¡°You all know those are just rumours, right?¡± I said. "There''s literally no evidence to support any of the rumours" A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and energetically. "Gabriella, there''s no smoke without fire burning somewhere, i''m sure there''s an element of truth to what we are saying, you know." Tundun seemed annoyed by my attitude. ¡°Why don¡¯t you just ask him directly?¡± So I challenged them with the question. Teasingly ofcourse. And as anticipated, my proposal was fiercely refused. ¡°As if we could ask him something like that!!¡± I was beginning to get amused, so I spurred them on a little more. ¡°If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?¡± ¡°Wait wait wait!! Gabriella! Don¡¯t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?¡± Tundun rebuked me in a hurry. ¡°Maybe they really are just rumors?¡± I countered. ¡°But maybe it¡¯s all true!¡± someone else said. The other girls nodded in agreement, ¡°knowing Jamal, it''s possible. If it¡¯s him, then it''s very possible!¡± Sure enough Jamal Zaheer stood out in this class. You might conclude that he was unique in persona. He was like the protagonist of a novel. No doubt everyone was under the illusion that he had already seen a world unimaginable to university students; it was hard to believe he was our age given that he lived so maturely. "Too many prefer gentle lies to hard truths." I chuckled. It was quite funny to see. The truth." Tundun sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution" ¡°We don¡¯t really care much for the truth. A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to him and got harshly rejected. If you want to reach out to touch the Sun because its bright and beautiful, you will just get yourself burned instead. I will rather fantasise than be hurt by the truth." Tundun finished as though reciting a beautiful poem. At this point I couldn''t hold my amusement in and already started laughing out loud "Being in the prime of your youth is wonderful, isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Hey, we¡¯re still young! Leave us to our dreams!¡± Apparently I wasn¡¯t supposed to laugh. I eventually stopped ¡°I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.¡± ¡°Aah, you''re such a bore you know, are you really a woman?" Tundun asked. ¡°We can''t all love the same things. You know we all have different tastes" I could already see where this conversation was leading to. ¡°Who is our dear Gabriella fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.¡± The other girls too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, ¡°Tell us! Tell us!¡± ¡°Well, let¡¯s see¡ª¡± I had to frown to keep a blush from creeping on my face. To tell the truth, there was no guy who I could have mentioned specifically, but looking at the situation I didn¡¯t believe these hypersensitivity girls would content themselves with that. ¡°¡ªI think Ola''s cute.¡± I just spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but all of them seemed rather disappointed and made unimpressed faces. ¡°How depressing. It could not become any more typical, could it? You are just so boring and predictable" complained Tundun. ¡°You''re reaching, don''t you think? So you claim that it¡¯s not typical to feel attracted to Jamal?¡± I said. ¡°You''re right in the sense that he ¡¯s also a typical target, but his quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Ola¡¯s! If Ola was Fanta, Jamal would be wine.¡± ¡°Then don¡¯t you agree that Fanta suits us? afterall wine isn''t something just anyone can afford¡± I said. Tundun just rolled her eyes ¡°Stop trying to act smart, you don¡¯t get it. I¡¯m trying to say that there''s like, um, a certain allure about Wine, you know? Like, since it''s not your everyday drink, it seems almost forbidden, like a class above all other drinks¡­are you following me?¡± ¡°Aren''t we saying the same thing? I certainly know what you mean. But I still like Fanta. Don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Um, well, sure, I like Fanta too, but¡­¡± Tundun¡¯s muttered barely audibly. The others too started averting their gazes like they were looking for something. While Jamal was an exceptional guy indeed, Ola was very charming, too ¡ª for an ordinary guy. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it. Feeling like the winner, I said, ¡°Let¡¯s toast with some Fanta, then.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a pretty damn devious girl, you know that?¡± Tundun said bitterly. ¡°Thank you.¡± I sang with a triumphant smile. ¡°I ain¡¯t praising you.¡± Tundun hissed. Tundun was still a little sulky, but I was happy to entertain myself this morning. ¡°¡ªHey, everyone! Get back to your seats! classes are starting!¡± Urged by the abrupt voice, they all turned their turned their attention towards the front door. They acted sensitively because the notification came from the guy they just spoke about. ¡°He¡¯s right. Let''s follow the advice of Mr. Fanta and wait at our seats,¡± said Tundun, whereupon everyone rushed to their respective desks. ¡°Fanta¡­?¡± wondered Fanta himself a.k.a. Ola and tilted his head. ¡°¡­I bet you¡¯ve been talking bad about me or something, haven¡¯t you?¡± Ola, sitting beside me, pursed his lips.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°We were merely talking about beverages.¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s a lie. If a couple of girls gather, they talk about either boys, beauty tips or celebrity stuff,¡± he claimed. This was a misguided view which was relatively unfair. I had to admit though, we were talking about guys or rather a guy in particular. "Are you scared of what we might have been saying about you?" I teased. "No! I mean yes..who wouldn''t be concerned? What if what is being said is totally wrong? I can''t just let it slide." Ola was flustered. Ola always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased him. And once he was worked up, he was like a little animal, a pet ¡ª pretty amusing to watch, really. "Listen, you should always resist the urge to explain yourself¡± I said jokingly. ¡°¡ªI''m not...I''m just...urgh¡± He pushed my peeking head away with his palm: ¡°Go away!¡± ¡°Rejoice, Ola. It seems Gabriella is fond of Fanta!¡± Tundun, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made her seem like she was mocking. ¡°Okay i''m curious now, tell me already, what¡¯s the thing with Fant¡ª¡± Ola swallowed his words mid-sentence. Our Lecturer, Professor Akanji, had entered the classroom. The only sounds in the classroom were Akanji¡¯s weak voice explaining while drawing some symbols on the white board with a marker. Apparently our conversation was still bothering Ola; he kept stealing glances at me. After some minutes had passed, he finally lost patience. He leaned a little towards me and whispered, ¡°What was that about?¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Ola,¡± I answered without removing my eyes from the whiteboard. ¡°¡­don¡¯t be mean~¡± he said. Because I kept silent, he started poking my side with his pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my shirt and stuck into my skin. ¡°Hey, that hurts.¡± I hissed under my breath. ¡°Then don¡¯t ignore me,¡± sulked Ola. ¡°You guys were talking about Jamal, weren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Oh, were we?¡± I feigned. ¡°¡­you always try to slip off like this, Gabriella. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about him¡± ¡°You eavesdropped on us? Why am I not surprised.¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s not it! I only heard Jamal¡¯s name by chance! Because you guys were talking so loudly!¡± Ola said. ¡°Ola" I called for her attention because Professor Akanji had turned towards the class. He sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the whiteboard. After some moments of silence: ¡°¡­Say, Gabriella. You prefer guys like Jamal too, don¡¯t you?¡± whispered Ola while looking down at his notes. I glanced towards the front right. Jamal Zaheer¡ªthe guy in question¡ªstared charismatically at the whiteboard. From the side, his face looked intelligent, giving him a look like an anchor from the news. Sitting in the very middle of the class he made it look like he was the heartbeat of the class, but that wouldn''t be far from the truth. Indeed, he was someone special. Although I personally avoided excessive contact with him, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore him, guys and girls alike. ¡°¡ªNo, not particularly.¡± I said after a while. I''m not one to purposely look for trouble but I became interested in how Ola would react. ¡°Is that so?¡± He made a smile, seeming somehow relieved. ¡°We discussed this allegory: if he were a beverage, Jamal would be wine.¡± ¡ªI wonder, what kind of reaction he will make? ¡°And, by the way, you¡¯d be Fanta.¡± I finished. Beside me I heard the sound of a pen dropping. ¡°Ah yeah?¡± Ola played with the pencil between his fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn¡¯t overlook that moment when his cheeks blushed. After that, Ola¡¯s questioning stopped. His honest reaction was something that calmed my mind. I had only given his name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself. At least at that very moment I felt that I could like Ola. -------------------©\-------------------------------------------------- After the class representatives regular meeting with our level advisor at the end of the month, I watched the male class representative, Jamal, leave in a hurry and I strolled back to our classroom. Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I had no extracurricular activities, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going to my hostel and preparing for my part-time job. When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a notebook on the floor. I immediately realised whom it belonged to. Its front page read ¡°Jamal Zaheer¡±. I briefly remebered I saw him hurrying home. I decided to put it on the desk before leaving. And just as I was about to do that, I noticed a piece of paper that fell out of the notebook. I grasped the paper, thinking nothing of it and picked it up. ¡°¡­hmm...now this is unexpected" It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The caption written on it matched neither the Jamal everyone talked of nor my personal image of him. I put it in my bag. I did so because I thought that it would take quite a while to read all the suspenseful wording. It was quite tempting. No, I didn''t even feel a sliver of remorse at that very moment. This was nothing but genuine curiosity. With what I saw on the paper, I knew, Jamal truly was akin to wine, I was already getting intoxicated from a whiff of him. In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly. ¡°Alright, what kind of secret of our demigod really hiding¡­?¡± Let''s find out. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- It was past 9 p.m. when I returned home after finishing my work at the restaurant. I had quickly forgotten about the piece of paper I acquired in the afternoon due to the stress that came with work. You see, I loved observing and analysing people, you could even say it''s an hobby of mine, I even enjoyed working at the restaurant for that sole reason. You would meet all kinds of people, behaviours and attitudes. You won''t be able to help but try and understand what makes them tick. An old woman who always took the same seat and orders two meals but doesn''t eat any. A teenager of barely adult age who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more. It always made me excited. In reality though, I was no different from Tundun and the others. I, too, was just an ordinary 20 year old . I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies. I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school. With my body still warm I dove into my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the title. ¡°How to get away with murder¡± It reminded me of a series I''ve watched before with the same title. Perhaps, he was a fan too, hopefully not. The rumors about his glamorous love life seemed to have no end, but his reputation remained completely unquestionable. He was by no means a person fit for the term "murder." It could have been this possibility that piqued my interest. Contrasts like this have a kind of magic that draws you in ¡ª be it for the better or worse. My eyes quickly scanned over the text, totally immersed in it. True to the title ¡°How to get away with murder¡±, it introduced different ways of killing someone, that would not be traced back to the murderer. I noticed that parts of the text had been crossed and corrected, indicating that the plan had been revised several times. I could almost feel the presence of the person who had wrote down those very complicated words. So to say, it has had something vibrant about it. I found something that all the murder methods had in common while reading through. The most important priority obviously was to remove the target without dirtying one''s own hands. ¡°¡­is he really practicing to become a mystery author?¡± These seemed like the tricks made for a mystery novel. They were written rather clumsily though, and far from being flawless. To present an example: there was one way of killing titled ¡°The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder plan¡±. It simply said "It takes 20 minutes to reach the high way, there''s a traffic light every two hundred meters, call the driver and distract the driver with a piece of shocking news. Make them lose concentration" It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like ¡°Put some hindrance on the road?¡± and "Call at the red traffic light" were very sparsely added. I mused about what I just read. The plan didn''t really seem possible or rather you''ll need a lot of luck to pull it off. Although the chances of finding out who caused the accident was low, I didn¡¯t think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see he tried, but this was a very weak plan if he was to really kill someone. I dropped the murder plan on my study table.. My disappointment was much, because I had high hopes. The plan''s all too idiotic contents had killed my curiosity. ¡°¡­no, hold on a sec.¡± A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again. Who was the owner of this ¡°Murder plan¡±? It was Jamal Zaheer What if, purely hypothetically, he had written this because he seriously wanted to kill someone¡­? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once. Jamal had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent ¡°Jamal¡± who was adored by everyone! And he had edited such an immature murder plan over and over. ¡°¡­now, aren¡¯t we cute?¡± If this assumption turned out to be accurate, I would be a huge fan of his. It set my imagination in motion.I began to wonder about all sorts of issues, like the person he wanted to kill, his possible motive and his unseen character. I kept pondering until I eventually fell asleep. I went to school the next morning later than I would have usually done. Most of my classmates were already present by the time I entered the classroom. Needless to say, Jamal was among them as well. As I walked to my seat I glanced at him secretly. He seemed to be searching for something.This seemed like like a perfectly natural behavior to some, at least. Not to me though. ¡°Good morning, Jamal.¡± I greeted him as always. He stopped what he was doing, tilted his head and flashed his signature charming smile. ¡°Good morning, Gabriella.¡± Our talk should have normally ended right there. We just knew each other well enough to trade greetings. But I didn¡¯t want to let it end there. ¡°Are you looking for something?¡± I said trying to provoke him to slip up. My curiosity was vexing me, for I knew that he might be searching for the ¡°Murder plan¡±. I looked at him closely, not wanting to miss the slightest hint. ¡°No, I am just sorting my books.¡± He said with his smile left unchanged. What a letdown I thought. "Carry on" I said, trying not to show my dissapointment. ¡°But¡­,¡± he suddenly called me from behind, ¡°why did you think I was searching for something?¡± I was desperate not to break into a broad smile. He fell for my trap, I was getting giddy from excitement. ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s no particular reason,¡± I turned around towards him, playing dumb. ¡°But let me return that question: why do you ask? I decided to probe lightly. ¡°I had no particular reason, either.¡± He said still smiling. ¡°I see.¡± This will be hard I thought. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I knew I had to take my time with this. Keep my cards close to my chest. ¡°But if¡­,¡± I began, ¡°if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Gabriella? I don¡¯t remember you being this gentle?¡± Jamal smiled even wider. ¡°I¡¯m gentler than you believe, that¡¯s for sure.¡± I retorted. ¡°Is that so?. I¡¯ll be sure to remember that then.¡± ¡°Of course the primary motivation would be getting a guy of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though.¡± I pushed. Jamal laughed. ¡°Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Gabriella, should I ever be troubled.¡± The way he looked was suspicious to me, but it may have just been my wishful thinking, though. Our conversation ended because one of our lecturers, had appeared in the classroom. My mood that day was very good. I found it a good experience because I had discovered how entertaining and amusing it was to chat with Jamal. It felt like a game of chess. Well, though, it was just me cherishing the excitement that my own fantasies created. I knew he was hiding something...something the rest of the class didn''t and he wasn''t sure if I knew. The day quickly went by and the next day came by fast as well, and it couldn''t come any sooner because the first thing I heard when I got to class... ¡°Hey, Gabriella! Have you heard?" It was Ola. He seemed to be in tears. I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Jamal was nowhere in sight. I was confused but it wasn''t long before the answer came.. ¡°Can¡¯t say I have.¡± I answered. Of course I had no idea what he was talking about. ¡°Someone from Jamal''s family is dead.¡± I felt my heartbeat accelerate. Beating so fast, It was almost audible. ¡°Who?¡± I asked. I was scared to know the truth but I was also excited in a weird way. ¡°His mum, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Jamal has my fullest sympathies¡­,¡± answered Ola with a sad face. ¡° I feel sorry for him. To lose one¡¯s mother at this age, that¡¯s¡­¡± Unlike her normal everyday behavior, Tundun also had an anguished disposition. ¡°¡­Indeed. Let¡¯s all support him.¡± I felt bad for him but I also didn''t feel as sad as I should be because of what I knew about him. Jamal Zaheer, traffic accident, death¡ªthese keywords led me straight to the murder plan. Things are just getting interesting. Chapter 2 - Death and all its friends Classes went on as it would, today was no different from other days. It would take a world wide pandemic to actually stop classes in this parts. There was a bit of solemnity in the air. Everyone must have been feeling sympathetic to Jamal''s situation and even if they weren''t they would have to act with empathy so as to not give the impression that they were inconsiderate and uncaring. Not me though. My mind was racing. I couldn''t even concentrate in class. I had the urge to browse my phone for information but I knew I had to be mindful of the lecturer in class. I would have asked Ola or Tundun for more information but I generally disliked getting second hand information. I decided to put off my excitement till after class. I didn''t have anything after, so ill have enough time to savour my findings. As soon as the class ended, I rushed out to the school library. I hardly used the library for schorlarly purposes, I only went there whenever I needed to get away from my class mates. I found a sit far away from everyone else, brought out a book from my school bag as well as my phone. I immediately searched the web for our towns local newspaper website and checked the latest news. It was there. An article, albeit a short one. I began to worry if it would contain the detailed information I really wanted. However, as I read on, my heartbeat became faster. In the text I found some of the keywords I was looking for. ¡°¡­on her way to work on a mountain pass¡­¡± ¡°¡­a sharp curve with poor sight distance¡­¡± ¡°¡­there have been casualties before¡­¡± ¡°¡­too much speed due to the slope¡­¡± As I pictured the crash with that thought in mind, I could not help feeling a chill run down my spine. My mind immediately went to the Murder plan in the book I brought out. I reread it again. I was ecstatic. Jamal had really executed his murder plan! I closed the tab. The article would have been far more lengthy if the police had not thought it was an accident. If they knew what I knew...if they had the hard evidence like I did, then the news of the incident might perhaps be covered on far more newpapers, maybe a national one at that. Think of it, the school idol, a well behaved rich kid who could have anything he wanted is convicted for killing is mother. That should surely make the national news. A smile crept unto my face. Was there something I got terribly wrong? At first glance the plan looked childish, like an unpredictable tactic relying on several flimsy aspects. And yet, perhaps he could execute this plan precisely because of those flaws? Who could suspect the existence of such a plan? Who would even link the two seperate incidents together? And from what I just read, the police believed it was a road accident. All evidences pointed to it. Even my classmates were convinced too. They all had sympathy for Jamal, who lost his mother. I bet even Jamal wouldn''t have believed it would have worked. Neither would I, if not for the plan I accidentally stumbled upon. Jamal''s objective was his mother¡ª someone who was always near to him and who gave him countless chances to kill her. It may be a coarse saying, but you may say, "even a bad shot hits the target, given enough attempts." Jamal had definitely not expected to pull it off as quickly and efficiently as possible. He just wanted to kill her, sooner or later. That is how he felt about it, I guess. His main goal was to not be caught. The plan was executed in such a way that he could continue his normal life after he did it. The results made this evident in that case. Jamal had done it- "The Perfect murder" My imagination was certainly running wild. I was overthinking things as usual but I didn''t mind. This was what got me excited. I could not hide my true nature from myself. I checked the time and saw I had fifteen minutes to my next class, thus I got up, packed my things and headed back. My level Advisor entered the class moments after I did. He spoke about Jamal and the passing of his mother. His mother was to be buried this evening as per customs. ¡°Moreover, the class officers are required to come along to the funeral as the representatives of the class.¡± Right when our level advisor was about to leave: Ola raised his hand, ¡°The male class officer is Jamal himself.¡± ¡°Aah, you¡¯re right. Well then, Ola, may I ask you?¡± ¡°Ah, yes.¡± Ola said. ¡°The other one was you, Gabriella, right? I expect you to be there.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± I nodded calmly and secretly grinned to myself. It was exactly what I''d wanted. I hadn''t even dreamed I would have the opportunity to officially attend this funeral like this. In fact, after reading the article in the library, I thought about how I might be able to go to the funeral, because I wanted to get more information about Jamal. I had felt the ceremonies would be out of reach, apparently not. ¡°Only the two of you?! That¡¯s not fair!¡± Tundun squealed immediately our level advisor left the class. ¡°You only have yourself to blame. Who was the one responsible for nominating me for class officer again?¡± I asked rolling my eyes. Just this once I was grateful for that irresponsible personality of her, though. ¡°Huh? I can''t remember. I¡¯m a woman who doesn¡¯t look back at times gone past.¡± Tundun said sheepishly. "Tundun, you don''t really look like someone that feels for Jamal, you''re being tactless" Ola said with a frown o his face.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "What? I think you are misunderstanding me. We all show emotions differently, I want to be able to attend the funeral to show love and concern" Tundun shot back. "Argh! That doesn''t seem so, you have ulterior motives" Ola said as though he was dissapointed but not surprised. ¡°No, idiot! I would never have ulterior motives! I simply wish to soothe Jamal in these hard times,¡± she objected instantly, ¡°Well, but sure, I would not be averse to him falling in love with me in the process, heh!¡± she said dreamily. ¡°You really are a tactless, Tundun¡± Ola seemed completely dumbfounded. I spoke up "doesn''t that make it an ulterior motive, Tundun?" ¡°Ahaa, I see! You never stop learning, do you?¡± Tundun evaded my remark with feigned ignorance. There¡¯s no cure for her. I shook my head. ¡°¡­I hope you don¡¯t have an ulterior motive too, Gabriella?¡± Ola said. He realized that Tundun was beyond hope and set me as his new target. ¡°Of course not. I am going to the funeral ceremony because I¡¯m a class officer, not because I wish for it myself,¡± I put on a powerless smile. ¡°Also, I don¡¯t like the gloomy air at funerals. To be honest, I would rather not go.¡± I said. ¡°Right? I knew you weren¡¯t like Tundun!¡± Ola flashed a brilliant smile as if he himself had been praised. "What?! This is not fair? Tundun said. "What''s not fair?" Ola asked wigh a raised brow. "I sense favouritism! Your attitude towards Gabriella and I are completely different! If we were in America, I would take you to court, right now" Tundun said. "But we''re not in America and you can''t do anything about it. Besides your behaviour is vastly different from Gabriella''s." Ola said matter-of-factly. Though I was of a very different sort, I still had an ulterior motive. I loved funerals, to say the truth. Especially because you could take a look at all kinds of people. I was looking forward to the funeral with the same emotions as going to my favorite artist''s concert. Ola and I were driven to the funeral home in level advisor''s car after finishing the third class. I was able to gather some information about Jamal''s family life from him during the trip. His family consisted of his two parents and himself, their only child. This was actually quite surprising to me because his mature behavior had led me to believe that he¡¯d have someone to look after, such as a younger sibling, typical of firstborn children. Apparently his mother had been the head of a construction design company, her own company. When we arrived at the home and went through the formalities at the entrance, we proceeded to the hall marked with a "Jamal" sign read. The dim, wide room was packed with people in mourning clothes. We sat down in the seats that had been prepared for common visitors. My eyes scanned for Jamal and found him sitting where relatives had come together. He consoled a man who bowed his head beside him, supporting him. Looking at the man closely, I could immediately tell that he was Jamal''s father. The resemblance was striking. That''s who Jamal got his looks from. Now though he looked weak and vulnerable, making him look like a star actor from a sad scene in a film. I was, however, surprised at how composed Jamal apparently was. Indeed. I was almost unsure of who the father and who the son was. "I feel really sorry for Jamal. He''s a strong guy" Ola said from beside me. I looked at him and found he was really affected by the funeral environment. ¡°Come on, don''t cry,¡± I said as I produced a handkerchief. ¡°I''m not going to cry" Ola pushed my hand away in annoyance. "Just look at how he¡¯s keeping calm though he¡¯s bound to be sad in reality! If it was me, I wouldn¡¯t be able to¡­¡± he finished in a whisper. But I was reluctant to agree with him that Jamal was saddened about his mother¡¯s death. If my suspicions were right, then Jamal wouldn''t be sad but instead this funeral will serve as an event to celebrate his success. I could hear whispers from every direction that had been lowered in respect of the solemn mood that accompanied the funeral homes. I decided to listen attentively to that chatter as a combined means of gathering information and killing time. I focused on the conversation of two women that were meekly talking in the row right before me. I would have loved to jot it down! Their chatter was interrupted midways. I would have preferred to listen a little longer. The solemn atmosphere put my mind at rest and thus created the perfect environment for indulging my thoughts. I chose to replay the conversation I had just heard and place the details in order: His mother''s reputation was extremely good. They had first spoken about her looks, which was not too surprising given she was the mother of Jamal. A look at the picture in the room showed that she looked like some sort of model, and made me understand why she was famous with them. Then, they continued with her company¡¯s and her family¡¯s economic situation. While it was a S.M.E., the business went smoothly and their private living standard was quite high as well. Apparently, their home had been newly built two years ago, with a complex design as one would expect from the director of a construction design business. They had spoken about his family themselves, lastly. Both father and mother were fairly friendly with their neighbors, and on good terms. They also spoke about Jamal himself. About how he wasn''t the typical spoiled rich kid. An handsome guy, well behaved and performing well in school. Now I understood why Jamal was studying civil engineering in school. He was propped to take over from his mother when he came of age. I breathed in the silent air of the hall. Pulling myself together, I decided to give myself over to the tranquil mood of the room again. It was a promising funeral, after all! It would be a waste not to take advantage of the occasion and spy on some human relationships. No need to rush things. The longer this game of ours lasted, the better. Sooner the ceremony came to an end and the relatives of the deceased, Jamal among them, left the hall temporarily. The three of us decided that we would wait for his return so that we could at least exchange a few words with him. "I know it might seem insensitive to say this right now but there''s something about death that is comforting. The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now" our level advisor said. He continued "It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know" We were silent. "Your time is limited, so don''t waste it living someone else''s life. Don''t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people''s thinking. Don''t let the noise of other''s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, leave good memories behind, because afer you leave this world, that''s all you leave your family and friends with" he finished. "Life¡¯s interesting because there¡¯s a limit to it. The thrill of not knowing when it ends is what gives you the awareness of being alive" I mused aloud. At first glance it might seem contradictory that death, the antithesis of life, highlights the value of life, but it actually makes sense. I even conceived the idea that most things in the world might work in a similar way. At that very moment, enthralled by the risky murder plan¡ªI was most definitely living. We greeted Jamal when he came back to the hall. Level advisor first expressed his deepest sympathy before assuring him: ¡°Don¡¯t be concerned about school. Take your time and return when you¡¯re comfortable.¡± ¡°Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. However, I have it in mind to attend school normally from the day after tomorrow because I think it will help me to distract myself.¡± Jamal smiled weakly. ¡°¡­I am a little anxious about leaving my father alone at home, as he has been hit especially hard, but his siblings and my mother''s siblings both assured me that they will be supporting him for a while.¡± He said. Jamal seemed exhausted. From the looks of it, he hadn¡¯t been sleeping properly. But while knowing it was pretty tactless, I couldn¡¯t help being under the impression that his face, now accentuated by his mourning dress, looked even more sensual than at school. ¡°I see. At any rate, be sure not to over-strain yourself and feel free to consult me anytime.¡± our level advisor patted him on the shoulder. ¡°Thank you for coming as well, Ola and Gabriella¡± Jamal thanked. ¡°Everyone in the class is worried about you.¡± Ola said. ¡°I feel blessed.¡± Jamal smiled. Jamal didn¡¯t hesitate to embrace us. ¡°Thank you all. I¡¯m very happy that you all are so worried about me¡­I think you can consider yourself happy if you have someone that worries about you.¡± The gentle and fragile guy at that moment did not look in the least like someone who would plan a murder to me. Chapter 3 - Confession of a murderer Two days later, when Jamal Zaheer returned to school, students from other departments came to our department in crowds to catch a glimpse of him. They expressed their condolences one after the other, showing nothing but expressions of pity. Tundun''s voice could be heard from the human ring that had formed around the center of the room. "Life Without You is like a leafless fall, a snowless winter, and a flowerless spring. It is like running in the dark with no way to know where we are going...Jamal please don''t be sad, come and light up our class with your presence" Oh how I would love to see her stumble in the dark and get stuck in a gutter. She had always been overly dramatic. ¡°You''re quite the poet, aren¡¯t you Tudun? Thank you for worrying about me.¡± Jamal said with a smile. And he began hugging every one of them. Strange as it seemed, it was as though he was the one comforting them and not the other way around. I looked from my desk with part amusement, part annoyance. Most people wouldn''t be able to behave as he did. At least I wouldn¡¯t have been able to. After all, I was already annoyed and I was only watching. Jamal, however, treated each of them with utmost politeness, not having the slightest frown¡ª no, not even laughing. I came to understand once again why he was so famous. As soon as the stream of students broke off, Jamal stood up and for some reason, with a smile on his face, moved towards me. "Now this is a surprise. It''s pretty unusual for you to approach me spontaneously." I said ¡°But you came to my mother¡¯s funeral, didn¡¯t you? I wanted to say thanks.¡± he sat down on Ola¡¯s empty chair and smiled cheerfully at me. ¡°So, thanks for coming, Gabriella.¡± "No, it''s nothing that deserves your gratitude. I attended only as a class representative. I said. ¡°But it is. I was somehow relieved at seeing you being as laid-back as usual. I don''t really want peiple to feel pity for me but it can''t be helped, so im glad you are acting in a different manner. It''s refreshing¡± Jamal smiled. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry for being such a cold-hearted girl. I was worried about you in my own way, though, you know? Too bad you didn¡¯t notice,¡± I said and shrugged uncomfortably, whereupon Jamal laughed cheerfully: ¡°I don¡¯t think of you like that!¡± he said. ¡°Have things settled down at home?¡± I asked. ¡°There are still a lot of things that need to be taken care of, but for the time being, yes.¡± He said. ¡°It must be hard for you at home. I can''t really imagine what you could be going through, and I don''t think from the reception you got today, it would be easy for you, here in school as well. School must have its troublesome aspects too, for someone as popular as you.¡± I said. ¡°I am very grateful that everyone is so worried about me.¡± Jamal reiterated. ¡°It¡¯s nice when others feel concerned about you, indeed, but there are limits that have to be respected, right? Aren¡¯t those fanatic fans of yours a bother? Especially Tundun. Or Tundun.¡± I laid emphasis on Tundun because she definitely created an unnecessary scene this morning. ¡°I¡¯m actually quite fond of that cute side of girls. Feelings from the heart are usually very pure, I can''t have anything against that¡± Jamal said. I tried to find out his true thoughts by agitating him, but Jamal''s smile remained unchanged like an iron wall. ¡°Your mature behavior is remarkable.¡± I said rather baffled. ¡°I am happy that you view me like that, Gabriella.¡± He accepted even my rather baffled words with a happy tone. ¡°¡ªGabriella,¡± Jamal said my name all of a sudden, ¡°do you remember your promise?¡± ¡°¡­Promise?¡± I repeated unconsciously. Trying to remember when I ever did that. I don¡¯t remember ever making a promise to him. ¡°If I¡¯m troubled¡ª¡± Jamal started. ¡°¡ªAh, I see.¡± I said under my breath. In the midst of him reminding me, I recalled a certain conversation I had with him one morning.
¡°But if¡­,¡± I began, ¡°if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the matter, Gabriella? I don¡¯t remember you being this gentle?¡± Jamal smiled even wider. ¡°I¡¯m gentler than you believe, that¡¯s for sure.¡± I retorted. ¡°Is that so?. I¡¯ll be sure to remember that then.¡±
¡°Right, that promise.¡± I said in suspicion. ¡°Yeah, I did promise. Ask for anything that you want, as long as I can help with it." It was a seed I had sowed myself, but deep in my heart I hoped that he would not have a bothersome request. I knew how guys could be. I hope I haven''t dug myself a ditch to fall into. ¡°It is something I would rather not talk about in the classroom,¡± explained Jamal with a subdued voice so faint that no one else other than me could hear him. The next instant, I was tense from tip to toe. ¡°¡­I¡¯ll be waiting for you in the library after school,¡± He whispered and left the classroom elegantly, striding like the king of the world. The palm of my hand was drenched in sweat. Apparently, I was more tense than I had thought. His suspicious attitude had instantly reminded me of the murder plan. I felt intrigue rising in me, and I had hoped to eventually hit the root of this matter. But I was also shocked at the same time because no one, obviously including Jamal, would have known that the murder plan was in my hands, but my tension was indication that my fear about the whole affair actually exceeded my curiosity. ¡°What if Jamal knows that I have his murder plan¡­?¡± I thought to myself, picturing an unhappy scenario. He just finished burying his mother, an indication of the success of his plan, but since I had the plan with me, then I was definitely an unsafe element in the whole sceme of things. The only two things that were in his way were the murder plan that had gone lost and I, since I knew what was written in it. And as soon as he got rid of these two unsafe elements, he would have conducted the perfect crime and obtain his own ¡°ideal world¡±. ¡­perhaps he was planning on killing me in due time. I mean he already showed that he could eliminate someone without suspicion or even having a hand in the execution. Was I safe? Am I already on a countdown to my death? Is there any meaning to even trying to escape my fate? I gulped and my heartbeat got faster. And then¡ªI laughed. I really didn''t want to die. And I also had to admit it was such a nonsensical idea, but: I was fascinated. I was fascinated about how he was going to track me down.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Where else will I find a sensation like that in my environment? Additionally, the adversary was Jamal Zaheer¡ª I couldn''t have wished anyone better. I was convinced: I have never felt more alive than this moment. It felt like a game to me, only that they weren''t any do overs. You only had one life. And yet I was willing to gamble it. I took a deep breath and stepped into the library. The room was filled with the scent of paper as dry as fallen leaves. It was not a smell I disliked. At other times, I might have started leisurely browsing the library, but not now. Even though I was moving leisurely, my eyes were restlessly searching for Jamal. And before long, I found him. He was sitting further inside at a desk for studying, reading a book with an elegant cover. It was quiet anyway, as classes had already ended and this was a library, but the silence around Jamal was even deeper, as though I had crossed into a different world. Entranced by his majestic beauty, which made it difficult to approach him, I just stood there holding my breath for some time. His eyes closed and opened gently as he blinked, and he occasionally led his hand to the edge of the page and turned smoothly to the next one. His profile looked like the finest art work, but it was definitely not made by man, but a miracle put forth by God. ¡°I would be a rich woman if I could cut out this scene and frame it,¡± I thought. I looked around and I confirmed that nobody was there except for the Liberian at the far entrance busy with God knows what, Jamal and I. I decided to break the silence. ¡°Again, I am sure the last few days have been difficult for you¡ª,¡± I leaned against a book shelf as I addressed him, ¡°¡ªLosing your mother in an accident and all that." Jamal heaved his book, turning slowly to me. ¡°Yeah, to my father in particular. I''ve never seen that down-hearted before". He gave a weak, tired laugh. ¡°How about you?¡± I directed it to him. "I''m sorry, but I still haven''t healed enough to chat about it yet." Jamal shook a depressed mien. ¡°I''m sorry, that was a tactless question.¡± I quickly covered. ¡°Now that I''m here, what is your request?¡± I brought up the main topic after a breath, ¡°You specially called me out to the library for this, so I should think it¡¯s something quite special?¡± I had the murder plan at the back of my mind. ¡°You told me to ask for your help if I am troubled.¡± Jamal said with a smirk. ¡°Yeah.¡± I finished for him. I didn''t like where this was headed. ¡°Exactly. That¡¯s why I would like to get back to your offer, Gabriella.¡± Then he spoke as if humming a tune: ¡°I want you to go out with me.¡± The entirely unexpected words rendered my thoughts void. To be sure I chose to ask, ¡°Where to?¡± but Jamal only bewilderedly replied: ¡°You aren¡¯t funny,¡± and shook his head. "Somehow I feel guilty asking you for your reasons but aren''t you still grieving your mother? I think its absurd that you want to date after losing a loved one." I had to feign calm unlike Jamal; I watched all of his movements with the utmost attention to decipher his thoughts as my imagination ran full speed. ¡°Do you want to say I am not thinking straight?¡± he asked ¡°If you talk in extremes, yes.¡± I answered. ¡°Then you have me wrong! It is mainly because my mother passed away that I felt that I might need someone to love me. Isn''t it cute when you call it ''my heart support''? I''m not as strong hearted as everyone feels" Jamal spoke passionately. That was also a good explanation, but there were still so many points which did not satisfy me. "Why should it be me then? I don''t understand why you''d choose someone like me as a popular guy.'' Jamal chuckled ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were so akward, Gabriella. You do not seem to understand a man''s heart at all when you ask why he confessed." I found his attitude a little irritating. ¡°Yet do not actually understand the heart of a woman either. At least when the starboy of the school asks me to go out with him all of a sudden, I am not so plain as to have no doubts at all. There''s always a downside to attractive offers, isn''t there?" As sweet revenge, I scoffed at him. ¡°Is that so? I was sure that girls never feel bad being confessed to by guys?¡± The absolutism in his tone caused me to forget my words for a second. ¡°Indeed... we''re super straightforward enough to be pleased about it, but the answer is different case entirely." I didn¡¯t want to admit it, but he was right. I unintentionally prided myself on the confession that everyone would envy me for. Was it the difference in our experience points? My chances were awfully worse when it came to love. ''Hmmm'' was all he said. And the library descended into silence, as it should be. ¡°Is there a guy you are fond of, Gabriella?¡± Jamal suddenly asked. ¡°There isn¡¯t.¡± I replied truthfully. Ola''s face came to mind for a split second, but I neither liked him enough to mention him distinctly, nor wanted to give Jamal amunition to use against me. ¡°Is there a guy you are going out with, then?¡± He asked ¡°¡­isn¡¯t the order of questions a bit awry? Usually it would be the other way around, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± I said dismayed. ¡°Is that so? Maybe you are going out with someone you don¡¯t love?¡± he answered with a wondering mien. I finally think I understand why the guys say all the rumors about you can be real." I shrugged over-exaggeratedly. ¡°Those rumors are nothing but that, rumors, and you are not the type of person that is swayed by them, Gabriella¡± ¡°What makes you so sure? Even I watch my step if I hear some bad rumors, you know?¡± I said. I felt like I had taken the upper hand in our littlebspar of words, after being on the defensive from the beginning. Jamal started. ¡°If you want, I can tell you which of them are true and which are not? In return¡ª¡± ¡°¡ªI hope you don¡¯t want to make dating the condition.¡± I finished in a flat tone. ¡°Our chemistry is right!¡± Jamal showed no sign of timidity, instead he even smiled brightly. ¡°As if I¡¯d ever accept such an unfair condition!¡± This time it was me who was taken aback. ¡°¡­I didn¡¯t know you were this kind of guy¡± I said with a slightly raised tone. I felt he had taken the lead again and I was on the defensive once more. He made me dance to his tune from start to finish. All the possible replies I had simulated in advance for this conversation were going to waste one after another. ¡°This is my way of paying respect to you, Gabriella! You are the person I wish to go out with. I think there is no point in showing you only a superficial side.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry about your respect, but haven¡¯t you thought about the possibility that I might refuse?¡± I said, starting to get exasperated. ¡°I am ready to accept some amount of damage in order to obtain what I want. If you are afraid of getting hurt, you won¡¯t obtain what you really desire. Well, revealing a few of my cards does not even count as damage anyway.¡± Jamal said. ¡°Exceptional self-confidence, indeed! No wonder that the girls of our class find it hard to resist you.¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were such an uptight person either. I was rather sure you were the type to let things take their course, Gabriella." Jamal replied. ¡°I¡¯m much more sensible than you may think. And a little contrary, too. And I¡¯m definitely not daring enough to get myself involved in affairs that make no sense to me or that I can''t agree to.¡± I said. Jamal just shook is head. ¡°Aren¡¯t you just averse to doing things you are not interested in?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t deny that! At any rate, if I go out with you, I won¡¯t have my peace any more. I¡¯m simply not leading my life actively enough as to take to attracting attention, that¡¯s all.¡± I said honestly. ¡°It¡¯s a shame that you are so stubborn, Gabriella ¡­,¡± he said and fell silent. We shared a painful silence. Even the shouts of the sports clubs from the grounds seemed loud inside the soundless library and I heard the rustling of his jacket all too clearly when Jamal crossed his arms Jamal''s gaze was listlessly wandering about in the air, hesitating about something. Even such trivial gestures looked like a scene of a movie, sweetening the time until his next words and keeping me from getting bored. Then I saw his lips move calmly. ¡°¡ªif I tell you the reason why I chose you, will you be more open towards my request?¡± I gulped down. In my imagination he got straight to the point and proclaimed that the reason was that I had the murder plan. Such an answer would of course be quite absurd, but since Jamal seemed to be an unpredictable person, I could no longer consider it impossible. On top of that, Jamal''s secret character was brave, determined, and incredibly clever. That was the type of guy coming up to me. I couldn''t help but think that his offer to go out with me was some kind of trap. ¡°¡ªMore than now,¡± I replied, choosing my words carefully. I had hardly finished speaking when he raised one of his brows and smiled mischievously. ¡°Because I like your looks coupled with the fact that you are the only girl I''ve met that doesn''t seem to worship the ground I walk. It would be even better if you weren¡¯t a faultfinder." His reply caught me so flat-footed that I would have liked to fall on the floor, but I contained myself and launched a counterattack. ¡°What a coincidence. I also think you¡¯re not half-bad, save for your personality.¡± ¡°We would make a well-matched couple then, wouldn¡¯t we?¡± Jamal shrugged. ¡°In the sense of awful, sure.¡± I said, imitating him by shrugging too. His constantly playing around with me had completely cooled me down. Suspecting Jamal Zaheet to be a ¡°murderer¡± suddenly felt terribly idiotic and embarrassing. Jamal was certainly a determined and confident man, but I also knew he was definitely not foolish. And if he had conceivably deemed his mother an annoyance, he would have found several other ways to get rid of her without using the "murder" route. In the first place, could someone who had committed murder remain that composed? he was a peculiar guy, but I couldn¡¯t sense even a shred of shadiness or malicious emotion in him. Suddenly¡ª¡ªsomething touched my bangs. I reflexively jumped backward. ¡°¡ªI¡¯m sorry.¡± After taking a look, I noticed that Jamal had stood up from his chair and had stretched his smooth fingers towards me. ¡°Your hair looked so beautiful that I wanted to touch it very badly.¡± Jamal gave me a bewitching smile, beautiful like the light of the sun. ¡ªA shiver ran down my spine. To me, that guy didn¡¯t seem to be from the same world. ¡°Please think about it seriously,¡± Jamsl said and moved toward the exit. While he passed me, his perfume stroked my cheek and left behind a strong scent. Even though I had planned to learn more about him, I now understood Jamal Zaheer even less than before. Then I recalled how Tundun had compared him to wine. Indeed. I had been intoxicated by Jamal Zaheer. Chapter 4 - The Caf茅 "Shall we go then, Gabriella?" I could have sworn the whole class stood still for a few moments. My mind started racing. I knew where this was headed and I didn''t want a part of it. Everyone had abandoned whatever they were busy with and were staring at us, motionless. Ola was the first to recover after a few seconds. "...eh? Jamal? Are you tagging along with Gabriella? Why? Eeh?" Ola''s perplexity made him look like a child surprised that his mum didn''t hug him after she came back from work. "I decided to pay a visit to the caf¨¦ Gabriella''s works because I learned it''s quite nice there. And, as you know, I''ve been very busy lately, so I was a little tired and was thinking about relaxing there while enjoying a cup of tea." Jamal said. Jamal was obviously taking into consideration that we were being watched by our classmates. "Is that true, Gabriella?" I had already expected that I would be the next target to be questioned. "It is." I said, barely stopping a frown from creeping on my face. So I somehow managed not to reveal my dissatisfaction. "Maybe I should join you..." Ola said Upon hearing his murmur, I nearly freaked out. Jamal alone was already causing enough trouble¡ª I couldn''t do both at once. "Your club activities aren''t waiting for you?" I asked. Ola was in the faculty''s football club. He was gifted with strength in his legs that didn''t suit his slim body and was a talented player from what I heard from others. "I-I''ll skip!" He said. "Don''t. Didn''t you say only recently that you were on the brink of becoming a regular player? It would be foolish to skip your club activities during such an important period." I pressed. Ola''s pressed his lips into a line and grumbled with a frown. "Let''s go together some other time, Ola. I will memorize where the caf¨¦ is for you, today. Okay?" Jamal said patronisingly. Jamal admonished him gently like a caring big brother, whereupon Ola obediently nodded, "Okay." That solves one problem. Now its time to get rid of the other one. "It''s only only you who''s coming, right? I''d have to deny if the whole class were to come along, because it would just cause the caf¨¦ trouble." I indicated to Jamal that only if he cleared the requirement would I give my agreement. "Don''t worry, our classmates are so kind, they would never cause anyone trouble," he ensured with his signature smile, "See you tomorrow, everyone." They would have jumped at that chance for sure. Dissatisfaction showed on their faces. I dared not look at Tundun or any of the girls that normally surrounds her. I didn''t really care though. I just had one more obstacle to remove. This guy. Jamal walked with light steps towards the front gate. "What are you up to?" I asked without hiding my bad mood. Jamal turned around with amusement on his face "I am so curious about the caf¨¦ you work at," he said, without hiding his good mood. "Answer me! You should know that I don''t like standing out." I said irritated. "Which is why I tried to prevent a commotion, didn''t I?" He countered. "That doesn''t change the fact that we attracted attention." I said glumly. "Well, tough luck." Jamal said. "And whose fault is that...?" I was irritated by his out-and-out undaunted behavior. "Who told you that I work at a caf¨¦ anyway?" I asked. It was well-known that I work part-time somewhere, but I hadn''t told anyone at school that I was working at a caf¨¦. "What are you after?" I asked. "What do you think I am, Gabriella? It is not strange at all to desire to learn more about the person in my heart, is it? This is what you call a romantic''s heart." He said passionately. "You claim to be a romantic? Laughable. Let me assert this for you: you are nowhere near as harmless as that." I pointed at him. "You know, looking so mature can be a real bother at such times. I am still just a young guy, I should be in my reckless phase. Besides, I have only recently lost my mother, so I think you ought to be gentler to me, Gabriella," pouted Jamal. I was surprised that he could make such childish expressions, too. But that was as far as it went. Of course I felt sorry for him, but in the end it was still none of my business. "See you tomorrow." I accelerated my pace and put some distance between Jamal and I. "Where are you going? There''s the back gate." "Unlike you, I commute by bus not by cab. If you can keep up with my speed, I shall take the special trouble and guide you to the caf¨¦?" I was deliberately cold. I couldn''t be bothered to adjust to others. And I cared even less to have someone enter my territory without authorization. "Hmmm" was all I heard from him. I was happy he was considering the stress. Afterall, we will have to que and wait for an available cab or bus at the park. It wasn''t something he was probably used to. "I''m coming back, I wont take long" he said making to leave. "Take all the time in the world" I said happy that he was no longer on my neck. I moved to join an already long cue. It''ll be another twenty minutes before I would get a bus, by my estimations. Barely five minutes passed before a nice white car drove into the park and stopped a few paces from me. The passenger window slid down to shown that arrogant pricks face. "Get in" he said I ignored him. Then he horned. But I persisted in ignoring him. He continued horning, the people around started glancing at the car and I, wondering what our problem was. They probably assumed its one of these working class guys going after university girls. I felt a bit embarrassed. "...what are you thinking?" I finally said. I could hardly hide my surprise, there were rumours about Jamal having a car. Supposedly, he got it as a gift from one of his elderly lovers. I didn''t want to enter his car. It felt like he was always a step ahead. Predicting my every move. "It''s obvious enough isn''t it? I want to drop you at the cafe." Jamal said. "When did I say I''d let you?" I said. "Don''t worry. Its bettet this way." He said "That wasn''t the question." I said. He horned again and smiled. People were starting to voice out complaints. I felt pressured, then finally walked towards the car and entered. The car began to move out of the park. I almost lost all my annoyance when I entered his car. The air conditioning was on full blast and music was playing on a low volume, i recognised it as Eminem''s song cleaning out my closet. If one admired the outside appearance of the car, they will be shocked by the inside. It was exquisite. He was smiling and singing along to the song played, and then I was suddenly reminded why I hated him. I was annoyed. As he showed no restraint I decided on saying my piece without restraint as well. "Jamal, look, I admit that I should be gentler to you as you''ve just lost your mother. However, I don''t feel like dancing to your tune like the others, not in the least. Not everyone is considerate towards you, keep that in mind. At least now that I know your true nature, I might still feel sympathy but I am certainly not favorable towards you," I rebuked him. "Mmm! That''s how my Gabriella has to be," Jamal nodded strongly, making a somewhat contented face. "I love this unashamed attitude." My words had achieved the exact opposite effect. Wanting to put him off, I accidentally attracted him all the more. Seeing my loss for words, he showed me his occasional big-brother-like smile. "Won''t you give me a chance? I have realized by now that my confession yesterday was overhasty! Just like you don''t know how I really am, I don''t know you well yet, either. I think it is necessary for both of us to deepen our mutual understanding. It''s not too late to make a decision after coming to know each other better, right?" His opinion was fair enough. But when I looked back at what had happened so far, I didn''t feel like believing his words blindly. I peeked into Jamal''s eyes. What was he thinking? He did not avoid my glance in the slightest. It was I who gave in at last. I released him from my gaze "You''re right I guess" I said, drained. He was wearing me down. "Thank you" he said. "Dont thank me, keep your eyes on the road, I dont want to die" I said. "Seatbelt" I heard his cheerful voice. I obliged. And faced my window. "Promise me that you won''t do anything that would bring me into focus anymore like today." I said without looking at him. "I''ll do my best." He said. "No, not just your best, promise it." I pressed. He only smiled. After a few turns on the road, we stopped at a red light. I finally asked him. "How do you onow the direction to my workplace? Have you been stalking me?" He chuckled. "What if I had?" "Well I''ll have you know that that is a crime" I said finally getting him to admit.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "Well too bad then" he said as the lights turned green. "I''d have love to go to jail for your sake" he laughed. "Im serious here" I said finally turning to face him. "I don''t appreciate being followed" "Calm down Tiger" he laughed again. "All I had to do was find out where you worked and to my suprise I had been there before, once with my mum, she met a client there, many years ago" Completely unable to complain any more to the guy, I just answered: "...Lucky you." I was in a car with the schools idol. This was one of those sweet moments that are worthy of being called a memory of adolescence. I, in the midst of this period of life, was probably supposed to pride myself on such an event that anyone would envy me for. Well, this only lasted for the short while during which I forgot about his troublesome personality and the murder plan. I had accepted Jamal''s request. The reason was simple: I was interested in him. Apart from that, call it a property of mine or just a preference: I enjoyed these thrilling conversations with him. I changed into my waiter uniform in the staff room. After checking my appearance in front of the mirror, just to be sure, I headed to the kitchen. The instant I entered the kitchen, my nose was tickled by the aromatic fragrance of tea¡ªa smell I was fond of. The reason I had chosen to work in this British-style "Elizabeth" caf¨¦ was, as a matter of fact, because here was served the best tea nearby, no soft drinks. My colleagues hugged me when they spotted me. "Mister Odulaja?"I was addressing a man busy with a meal. With a warm smile the sturdy spectacular addressee turned around. I continued, "Today I ''d be in charge of waiting for the tables but can I change to the kitchen staff?" "What''s the matter?" He said. "I''m afraid that''s a personal one, but today a classmate of mine came, to tell the truth." "Eh? Why would you want to change your post then?" He asked. "I prefer not to be watched by them while I''m working, they have a propensity to annoy me and I need to keep it professional" I said. He was itching to see me work but I didnt want to give him that joy. I wanted him to be bored all evening. But I knew having my way wouldn''t be so easy. Behind the manager, there was someone who responded dramatically to my words. "Hey, Gabriella! Is it a guy or a gal?" asked a man who was clothed like a pastry cook and was putting some fruit on a parfait right beside me. "If it''s a girl I''ll switch with you. As long as she''s my type, of course!" The whole staff grimaced as if they had taken bitter medicine when they realized that Emmanuel''s bad habit had appeared again. Emmanuel was the oldest face among the people at Elizabeth, most of us were in our early twenties but he looked to be mid thirties at least. According to him, he was still in university, but looking at how he behaved more important than the manager on some days¡ªno, make that "everyday"¡ªhe gave me the impression of being older than that. "Sorry to let you down, Emma: it''s a guy" i said. "Hmph. Ok, I''m just as intrigued by the fact you brought a guy along." Sooner he finished the confectionery he was working and pushed it to one of the other workers to deliver it, before turning to face me. "Who is it? Come on, spill it." He turned and looked into the shop over the counter as he was chewing a chocolate piece in his mouth. The other members of staff also didn''t miss the chance and searched the caf¨¦ from behind him. I was hoping someone would remonstrate with them about their snoopy behavior, but even the one who was in the position to do so¡ªthe shop manager¡ªwas peeking with a face gleaming with curiosity. Giving up, I admitted: "It''s him," and pointed at Jamal who had taken a seat at the window and was sitting there like an unworldly, gentleman. A cheer arose among the staff; the positive reaction of the guys was so blatant that I would have felt like an idiot if I had claimed that I had expected it. "Damn! Way too good for you, Gabriella, that''s for sure!" Emmanuel was apparently irritated with something and slapped my shoulder. "You always act as if you didn''t care two figs about love, but you do your thing in the background, huh, you sneaking lech!" Apparently, he mistook Jamal and I for lovers. "...Emma and his new girlfriend haven''t been getting along lately, you know," the manager whispered into my ear. "So it''s only a matter of time until they split up, I suppose?" "...Probably," he nodded after backing off again. "Mhh!? Ibukun? Gotten all lovestruck or what?!" Emma suddenly said. "I-I haven''t! I''m not lovestruck or anything!" Ibukun quickly replied. "Then you better get back to work!" Emma said. Today''s sacrifice was Ibukun. At times when he didn''t get along with his girlfriend or when they broke up with one, his mood would take a free fall. "Mister Odulaja, I''m off waiting the tables." Now that the cat was out of the bag, I preferred to handle the situation by myself than allow anyone else further ruin my evening for me. Ill rather be out here than in there with them. "O-Okay, good luck." Mr. Odulaja said. Discretion is the better part of valor after all. The kitchen resounded with the cries of the poor girl who had become the prey of the beast transferring aggression. The mood of this British-style caf¨¦ was supported by appropriate antique tables and chairs. The various well-chosen decorations were apparently selected by the manager''s British wife. Elizabeth, the name of the caf¨¦ was taken from his wife''s first name. When I came to take her order, Jamal scrutinized me from head to toe. "Your outfit really suits you" I thanked him casually with a smile, "Thanks," and added, "and a caf¨¦ goes well with you." Jamal smiled back at me and replied "Thank you." I was quite honest. A gentleman in a caf¨¦ always makes for a good picture. "The staff are quite lively, aren''t they?" He moved his gaze towards the kitchen. I placed a glass of water and a wet towel on the table. "But it looks fun."he added. "I wonder about that; some even start crying once in a while. At any rate, I have confidence in our tea. And none of our dishes are half bad." "I see. I would like a cup of that good tea then. And please add your recommended confectionery to the order." He said. "Then how about our recommended blend plus the owner''s hand-made apple pie?" I asked. Jamal nodded, I bowed respectfully and said "Certainly." I forwarded the order to the kitchen staff. "You sure are an unfriendly lady." Emma was there making a frown instead of food. "You think so? Actually I am trying to be more amiable when I attend guests, though." I said. "When does that happen? To me, there''s no difference. Seriously, what does he like about a girl like you?" He raised his eyebrow and critically analysed Jamal "I forgot to mention, but he is not my boyfriend." "He isn''t?" Emma asked. "No. Just a classmate." I said. "Then tell me what a beauty and mere classmate wants from you." "It''s not me, it''s the caf¨¦. Apparently he is a fan of caf¨¦s." Since there was no merit at all in telling him the truth, I just made something up. "That''s all? Boring." "Yet again, it''s almost amusing you are so self-centered. I''m completely convinced you''d be irritated even if he''d been my lover." "It''s amusing because I''m honest! To begin with, I think there must be something wrong with those that are delighted about other people''s happiness. Every one of them is either a hypocrite or just scheming something." He said. "A lovely opinion loaded with prejudice, I have to say." I said. I felt compelled to ask him, who by his own judgment was "honest" and everybody else''s "erratic". "Emma, may I ask you something?" "Mh? What is it?" Emma asked. "What do you think of someone who is not mourning a recent loss?" I asked. "Sounds fishy to me," he answered quick as a shot. "Losses are called that because they make you sad, right? If you don''t get sad, then you can''t call it a losses." "I see," this time I actually put my agreement into words. I darted a sidelong glance at Jamal Tired of waiting or simply interested in the decor of the caf¨¦, he looked around the shop. Apparently, he liked the white ceramic pet rabbit and black glass bird set; he got up and closely examined it. Who would have thought in this caf¨¦ that he was just an unsuspecting man who only recently lost his mother? I reckoned nobody. One will never see intense feelings boiling in him. He ''d still look cool and mature. I didn''t know if he was deliberately suppressing his emotions or just wasn''t the kind of person to express them, but he didn''t look sad to me at all. Of course, it wasn''t unthinkable that he just didn''t want to unsettle the people around him and was thus desperately hiding his sadness. Or that might actually be the normal reaction of a guy after such a mishap. After all, the deceased wouldn''t return, and mourning forever can''t be called very healthy either. However those are just hypothetical. Is it really possible to cope in such a short time with one''s feelings? Especially when that''s sorrow? I recalled Emma''s words. Indeed. It seemed fishy. The dessert was able to satisfy Jamal''s tastes. "It''s delicious," he praised while happily finishing up her coffee and apple pie without leaving anything over. I headed to his table to clear up. "Has everything been to your liking?" I asked, whereupon Jamal darted a discontented glance at me. "Are you telling me to leave?" "I see you are quick on the uptake." I said. "I really like this caf¨¦." he flashed a smile as if he would start to hum any moment. "Aha. Pleased to hear that. But don''t forget that there are lots of different caf¨¦s in the world. You ought to try them out as well." I said. "I really like this caf¨¦," repeated Jamal with exactly the same smile and exactly the same words. "I see sometimes you aren''t quick on the uptake," I mostly repeated myself as well. Unexpectedly Jamal got up and walked further into the cafe, apparently in the direction of the kitchen. When I followed in amazement, he gave the workers a pleasant greeting and smiled like a blooming flower. "Pleased to meet you." It was obvious at one glance that his cheery introduction flustered the staff. Apparently most of them were very enthusiastic about him, young ladies. Ok, except for an unimpressed Emma. "I am Jamal Zaheer, a classmate of Gabriella''s," he introduced himself with polite manners. "Ah, yes, Gabriella told us," answered the manager respectfully despite being way older than him. "I have to say this is such an adorable little caf¨¦." "Thank you very much!" The manager blushed slightly, moved by his radiant smile. "I am so jealous of everyone¡ª" The staff looked at him in surprise. A guy, who seemed to have anything one could be jealous of, was jealous of them. "¡ªBecause you have the privilege to work at such a wonderful caf¨¦." Jamal looked plainly stunning, set aflame in the twilight. Although that was probably due to the backlight from the sunset. In that very moment, everyone was fascinated by his exceptional aura. "I can''t even imagine what bliss it would be to work at such a wonderful place." Being the person in this room that had the most resistance against his, I smiled wryly at his star-like attitude. I also found that he had gone over the top with that exorbitant exaggeration. However, the manager''s next words erased the smile on my lips. "...um, Jamal, you said?" "Yes." "Would you like to work here?" The manager asked. "Mister Odulaja!!!" I couldn''t keep silent. I wanted to keep him from committing a grave mistake. Faust, you are bargaining with Mephistopheles! However, someone seized my shoulder and held me back. The smell of chocolate was in the air. "Just watch," Emma said with a mischievous smile. Here we had another devil. "Err, actually, there is a vacant post at the moment. And since you are Gabriella''s classmate, we don''t have to worry about your background. So, if you''d like, we would gladly welcome you, Jamal." The other staff members nodded their heads in agreement, too. It was just like group hypnosis. They must have been mesmerized by the devil and lost their minds. "I am really happy about your offer, but... can you really make do with me? To tell you the truth, I have never worked anywhere before," answered Jamal hesitatingly after wavering for a short while. "No no, don''t worry! Everyone has to begin somewhere. Besides, I''m positive that you, as someone with outstanding manners, are suited for this kind of business!" Sure, his acceptance among the customers would be outstanding! They can only see his superficial side after all. "I''ll gladly accept your offer then if you have so much confidence in me," replied Jamal with a bright smile. "But I''ll rather my pay goes to Gabriella, my father wouldn''t want me to be working so soon after... will that be okay?" Jamal asked while looking towards me. I simply looked away. Everyone took that as a yes. Everyone warmly welcomed him with a smile too. I was the only one who made a sour face while feeling horribly excluded from that blessing circle. Because I knew better. I knew that a confident and ambitious man lurked under his surface, revealing only an outstanding character charming guy who was loved by all. To make matters worse, Jamal was well aware of his own charm and attractiveness. And I had just learned that he also understood how to use it effectively. "Why are women just so weak against pretty guys?" whispered Emma into my ear after he had pulled me by the shoulder, the counter between us. "A good question. After all, the girls in this caf¨¦ are all ''weak'' against you as well," I answered casually. "It feels just wrong when you''re giving compliments. But it''s no bad feeling. Let me pet your head as a reward." Emma''s palm approached my head, but I refused gloomily. "I''m not in the mood. Please don''t confuse me any further." "No need to be reserved! If you want, I may even give you one piece of my chocolate?" Emma said. "Are you okay with it? Aren''t you against the employment of Jamal?" I asked. "You want me to object, don''t you?" He raised an eyebrow. "Well, only your objection would be able to put an end to this welcoming mood." I said knowing fully well that he had enough power to stop Jamal''s employment. "Can''t be bothered. There''s no reason to object." He said dismissively. "Why?" I was desperate. "Because it''s damn funny to see you protest so blatantly when you usually act so cold!!" Emma cackled. "...you do realize how awful your personality is?" I said. "You''re worse off than I am, right? If my intuition doesn''t fail me, Jamal isn''t the type of man a helpless girl like you could handle." "Doesn''t bother me. I don''t plan on making a move on him" i said. "You may think so, but what about him? It''s quite obvious" he said. "Yeah yeah. Looking forward to the next few days." I said gloomily. Without caring about my strong rebuff, Emma waved his hand and toddled back into the kitchen. It felt like it was just a matter of time until he would get wind of ''odd'' relationship. I told myself that I had to make sure Jamal wouldn''t say any unnecessary things to Emma. "I work here now." The guy in question, Jamal, approached me merrily in spite of all the headaches he was causing me. "It''s still not too late. Won''t you think it over again?" My reply was cold, but my heart was colder. "Thank you for worrying about me. But since the manager was so kind to offer me this position, I will try my best!" He said, full of confidence. "I''m not worrying. I am bothered." I turned away. "I am looking forward to working with you, colleague." Jamal''s smile hadn''t cracked even once. Emma had mentioned that I was not someone who could handle him. I found myself right in the course of experiencing just how spot-on he was. The next morning in the classroom. All of a sudden, Jamal came to my desk and said with a smile as warm as sunbeams shining through the leaves of a tree and a voice as soft as a gentle summer breeze to Ola "I have been employed at the caf¨¦ Gabriella works at." Time stopped in the noisy classroom once again. At least Ola did. All eyes fell on me. I could tell what was going on through their minds. I had stolen their idol from them. I felt sick. I was never going to enjoy my classes again. Chapter 5 - Persuasion I had to admit it: Jamal was indeed a perfect guy. Naturally it was me who had been assigned to mentor him, being in the same class and all. I was quite aggrieved at first about that tedious role, but I soon discovered that teaching someone who is good at understanding things is very enjoyable. Just two weeks had passed after Jamal started working at Elizabeth, but he was already in a position to do any work related to waiting for the tables on his own, such as listening to costumers, taking orders and running the register. He may have far exceeded everyone else in this caf¨¦ in terms of managing the customers. In addition, the sales were also on the rise thanks to the female customers who would come just to enjoy him in a waiter uniform. The manager and the other employees were quite impressed with his abilities, but since I knew him from school, it was no surprise to me. However, what was a surprise was that Jamal and Emma were on extremely good terms. If they had been like cat and dog, I would have understood it, but in fact you might also tell they turned out to be a perfect fit. "I was convinced you wouldn''t like his type of person," I addressed Emma. "It''s the opposite. Men like Jamal can''t stand me." Emma flashed the kind of smile you would expect of the leader of some wicked organization that schemes to conquer the world. "Why is that?" I asked. "Magicians don''t like audience that sees through their tricks. And you see, the tricks don''t work on me." Indeed, Emma''s intuition was queerly sharp. He continued "There''s this gal in university who''s quite popular with the guys because of such tricks. Well, once I was kinda pissed off by her attitude¡ªokay, my mood had hit the rocks during that period in general¡ªbut anyway, I cut her down to size in front of all the others. And when I was finished with her, she wept and wept... such a pain." "My condolences." I said flatly. "Right? She always runs away right when she spots me ever since. As if I was the bad one!" He finished. I just rolled my eyes and went to work. At the staff room after closing time. "I would like you to see me home," requested Jamal after changing into his normal clothes. "See you home...?" I repeated warily like a parrot. "You see, I always feel someone''s gaze on me on the way from the caf¨¦ to the bus station..." He had stopped bringing his car around since I refused to be entering it. So he resorted to taking the bus with me or walking. He gave a shiver. "Aren''t you just being paranoid?" I wanted to say at first, but I reconsidered because it was quite possible in his case. After all, he was no doubt eye-catching and rich. Instead, I suggested, "Then you should consult the police rather than me." "Weak, Gabriella! That''s weak! Come on, be a good friend and escort him!" Emma, who had apparently followed our exchange, thumped a table close to him. The staff nearby turned around, surprised, to see what was going on. "I don''t mean to brag, but I don''t have confidence in my strength. I am a lady, even if he gets attacked by a stalker, the best I can do is get beaten up myself." I said. "You aren''t bragging at all! And if you''re a lady, you ought to bravely fight all the same, even if you have to put your neck on the line! or why are you all clamouring for equality?" Emma shouted fiercely. "I''m under the impression that you would make a better bodyguard than me, Emma." I said flatly. "Moron! I''m a rich young man too, you know? I also need to be protected." He claimed I shrugged exaggeratedly and took a look at the faces of the rest of the staff. They could only answer my gaze with lopsided smiles because they feared him, but their real thoughts were bound to be the same as mine. "Very funny, indeed." I said. "Heh, does your face look like you wanna complain? Gabriella?" Emma drew closer with glaring eyes. "Bro Emma let it be. If Gabriella refuses so adamantly, there is nothing that can be done about it. I will try my best to get home alone...," Jamal sighed and plodded towards the entrance. The very moment before he closed the door¡ª"..................haah..."¡ªhe let out a deep sigh that resounded through the whole staffroom. All gazes focused on me at once, each of which was reproachful. A close friend can become a close enemy, indeed. "See him off, Gabriella," said the manager at last, siding with Jamal like the others. "You normally come together, so that shouldn''t be a problem" Bolstered by this, the entire staff began to condemn me. I was harassed from all sides. Outnumbered and made out to be the bad person. "Fine, fine, I''ve got it already! I''ll go see him home, okay?" I groaned and jumped out of the uncomfortable staffroom to run after Jamal. To my surprise, I caught up with him immediately after leaving the caf¨¦. Jamal was leaning against a pole in front of the shop, waiting below a street light like the king of the night. "I knew you would come." He saw me and grinned like a flower in bloom ¡ª revealing to me that my action wasn''t at all unexpected. To calm my burning emotions I stared up into the night sky. Tonight the crescent moon kissed my face. "You''re just not nice" I said. "What do you mean?" He asked. "What are you scheming?" I said "That''s not nice, you know? As the son of a high profile family, I am very frightened to walk alone at night, you know?" He said. "Then why didn''t you bring your car or have your father pick you up, or ask someone else among the staff see you off, or contact the police?" I asked. "As always, you seem to have no idea of how the heart works. I wanted you to see me home." He laughed as though he was humming and linked his arm in mine. "Shampoo?" he wondered out loud. "I can perceive a sweet fragrance of flowers from you" "Let''s go." Was all I said From my experiences so far I had learned that once Jamal had taken the lead one could not get free so easily, but it was also a fact that I certainly had no submissive nature, only unwillingly accepting his lead. "I won''t run away, so please stop this," I begged him with a sigh mixed in, and finally shook him off. "Too bad. And we had finally created such a nice mood." Jamal was sullen, but his steps remained light. I let out a loud sigh. It may go without saying, but my steps were heavy. We got on a bus heading out of the town and passed through four stations while getting a good shake. When we alighted at our destination, we were in a residential zone in the outskirts. "I live over there. A few minutes'' walk from here." Jamal pointed at a hill. I saw immediately that we would have a hard time climbing, looking at all the slopes and stairs that could be seen there. The sight alone had me dispirited. "Don''t frown like that. Going out with me means coming up this way all the time, you know?" Jamal said. "My sympathies to your girlfriend." I said. "Don''t worry. You''ll get used to it in no time." Jamal walked off without caring about my sagging spirits. "Look, the stars are beautiful tonight," he said, sounding easy-going. Since I didn''t want to turn around after coming so far, I followed him reluctantly. It was a tranquil residential area and rather "classy". The streets were lit with comparatively short gaps, but it was still eerily dark around us. I had to admit that the shivering he had shown earlier might have been more than mere acting. As expected, I was completely drained by the time we came to a stop. Jamal, accustomed as he was, showed no indication of strain, making him appear more irritating than ever to me. "Here we are," proclaimed Jamal and stood before the entrance. It was a large white building. The term "mansion" might be appropriate. Since his mother had been the head of a construction design company, it was a rather fancy design, constructed with tetrahedrons systematically put together, giving it an overall geometric feel. I would have nodded in comprehension if someone had told me it was the house of a physicist. There was no light inside, so his father was apparently absent. While I was curiously looking up at the house, Jamal tugged at my sleeve. "Now that you''re here, why don''t you come in?" His proposal was most suspicious and virtually crying out to be doubted. I knew it would be a pain if anyone got wind of this visit. If, on top of that, the guys at school learned that no one else had been in the house at the time, the rumors that might emerge from it exceeded my imagination. Especially in Tundun''s case... I didn''t even want to think about it. By now I was sure everything had been an act of his to make me enter his house. It would certainly rub me the wrong way if his plan succeeded. "Good idea. I''m pretty thirsty; can I come in for a drink?" Nonetheless, I accepted his offer because it was a very rare opportunity. While as a matter of fact I had suspended doubting her because of a lack of progress, I had not stopped at all. In my view the doubt related to the murder plan was still burning. I had originally expected major developments from aligning with him and learning more about him, but all of my attempts remained futile. The more I came to contact him, the less I understood his true nature. I had no idea how to differentiate between his serious comments and his jokes. To put it another way, he was as slick as a catfish. Hence, I had come to the conclusion that it might be better to approach his father, From what I had seen of him at the funeral, he was not as complicated a person as Jamal It shouldn''t be necessary to probe Jamal himself to find out about his relationship with his mother. I followed Jamal into the house. Not a sound was to be heard inside. While taking off my shoes at the entrance, I asked: "What time is your father coming back?" "Do you have a soft spot for older men?" teased Jamal with a laugh. "At least more than for you," I answered¡ªwith an earnest face as a test. "Now that''s a shock, even if it is meant as a joke." Jamal shook his head while taking out some slippers for us. It seemed that I had taken the lead. "My father has gone out and will be back late. Today is your chance!" He said mischievously. "...just what sort of chance would that be, I wonder?" I pushed his head away, since he had come closer to peek at my face.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. And the lead went back to Jamal. "I only wanted to introduce myself to him since I''m here." I said. "Oh, that pleases me to hear. Did you finally warm up to me?" Jamal inquired. "I don''t know how you took my words, but let me assure you that you''re wrong." I said as I followed him into the living room. "I''ll bring something to drink. Make yourself comfortable on the sofa." Jamal disappeared into the neighboring room, turning on the light there. Half of a well-equipped system kitchen entered my view. I let my gaze sweep through the living room. Like the outside, the residence of the Zaheer''s looked quite respectable from the inside: there was a leather sofa with an amber luster and a queerly shaped glass table which even an amateur could identify as a designer table. Furthermore, I found a terrifyingly large LCD TV and luxurious hi-fi equipment. The rumors were true: they were quite a wealthy family. To my disappointment however, there was nothing special apart from that, like an object that would have served me as a clue for Jamal''s relationship with his mother. Well, it was only natural that nothing too peculiar was placed in the living room where a lot of people went in and out. Unfortunately, though, I didn''t have any pretext that would have allowed me to look through the other rooms, either. I couldn''t help feeling that I had forfeited the rare chance of getting into his house. I was still reeling in disappointment when Jamal came back with a tray of drinks. "I hope you are fine with red wine?" He asked "Perfectly." I said. Remembering a certain conversation. I intended to leave after emptying my cup. There was no use in staying for too long. However, Jamal had apparently read my intentions: "Make yourself at home! It''s only Saturday tomorrow, so there''s no need to hurry, right?" "Are you out of your mind? I''m a lady, you know?" I said. "That only supports my argument! A lady should never leave an anxious guy behind alone." He said. "But this is your own home." I said. "Do you believe stalkers care about such obstacles?" He said. "How should I know how a stalker thinks? In the first place, that story sounds quite fishy to me anyway." I said. "Too bad," Jamal sighed slightly. "You sure don''t let me have my way, Gabriella." He said "That''s my line. You lead me by the nose all the time!" I objected promptly. I was naturally unable to just accept it that my opponent forestalled me in saying what had constantly been on my mind. A moment later, he whispered in a voice that was too loud to be a monologue: "...I wonder if I should consult bro Emma about Gabriella..." I almost spat out my red wine "...is that a threat?" I stared with hostile eyes at Jamal. "It''s unavoidable. I simply wish to receive a piece of good advice from an older man like bro Emma. There''s nothing strange about it, is there?" Jamal covered half of his face under a cushion as if to block my gaze. "Consulting Emma about love problems is like asking the devil the way to heaven." I sighed. "That was a good one." Jamal laughed. "It''s no laughing matter. It''s a most serious matter of life and death!" I almost got a headache just by imagining a merry Emma teasing me. I would surely have to say farewell to my busy yet peaceful work life, because he would be asking me about Jamal non-stop. "I would not mind our colleagues at the caf¨¦ knowing about us. I don''t like having secrets." He said. "YOU don''t mind, but I do" Jamal may have been used to being the center of attention, but I was not. Just the thought of capturing everyone''s attention gave me the shivers. A comfortable role as a spectator suited me best. Everyone has their own qualities. "To be frank, I would love to openly attempt winning you over." Jamal said. "After all, you seem to be good at getting all the others on your side, right?" I said with a full load of sarcasm. "An inborn virtue of mine?" countered Jamal without trouble. "You don''t say. You are a schemer, an actor and, if we get to the heart of it, just plain wicked. It''s just that everyone is being deceived by your handsome looks and don''t notice your deadly thorns." I spat. "You think I am handsome? I am on cloud nine!" He beamed a smile. "Where have the ''deadly thorns'' gone?" I said exasperated. "Paying regard to things that aren''t true goes against my principles." Judging from his serious mien, he did not in the least mean to be joking. Most likely he was even scandalized, in fact. But strangely enough, I also realized that a guy as "eye-catching" as him might actually need such nerves of steel. "Would you like another cup?" smiled Jamal, holding the bottle. "Are you trying to get me drunk?" I asked "Are you insinuating I want to take advantage of you?" "Yes, that''s exactly what I''m insinuating" i said "I''m hurt by your accusation, let''s imagine I even try to take advantage of you, what''s stopping you from reporting me and ruining my life?" He asked. "Maybe you have a means of silencing me" my mind went to the murder plan. He just laughed. "The caf¨¨ knows you followed me home, there''s nothing I can donto harm you without consequence" he said. I just kept silence. Thirty minutes later. "Your dad is pretty late," I addressed Jamal, who was sitting opposite me. "Yes, he said she would be." "When is he going to be back then?" I asked. "Hm... sometime around ten, I suppose?" He answered. "That makes thirty minutes from now, huh." I was starting to feel uncomfortable sharing the same time and room, just the two of us, but I was willing to bear with another half an hour and lay back in the sofa. Jamal murmured, "Well, twenty-four hours from now, to be exact." I bolted upright on the sofa and stared at him. He was leisurely browsing through his phone.. "What does that mean?" I asked "He has gone on a company outing and will be back tomorrow." Jamal answered me. "¡ªYou deceived me?" I was surprised myself by how deep my tone was. "I honestly told you he would be late." Jamal said matter-of-factly "How''s that honest!? I''m leaving," I declared , standing up and heading towards the entrance. Most of the irritation was at myself for readily taking his bait. Suddenly, he embraced me from the back. "...please, don''t leave" he pleaded. The unusual fragility he was showing me was more than enough to activate my womanly instincts¡ªeven if it was a deliberate action of his. But my rationality cooled down the overwhelming reality and kept me from making the wrong decision. "Your charm doesn''t work on me! Besides, that''s not fair. I have not accepted going out with you." I said, still locked in his embrace. Two teenagers alone under one roof ¡ª an alluring setting. Being a girl in her prime, I was naturally interested in what would happen in such a situation, all the more if the guy in question was Jamal Zaheer. He slowly let go and I turned to face him "Im sure you don''t mind if it''s me." He whispered. As expected, he tried to capture me with inviting eyes and sweet words. Had I met Jamal Zaheer under any other circumstances, I would have stood no chance against his seduction. "I feel honored, but I have no such intentions!" However, unlike the Gabriella in that hypothetical world, the real one bore up against him. Because, much more than I was hoping for an alluring development, I was scared. It was wariness that sustained my rationality. What was Jamal scheming? It was then that I felt that I had caught a glimpse of the true intention behind his request to date him. Perhaps, Jamal didn''t have in mind to get rid of me, but to get me under his control? He was well aware of his own attractiveness and knew how to use it effectively. I had been able to observe that fact more than enough lately. So, perhaps he was trying to make me his faithful puppet of sorts? He could be sure that I would not leak his secret in that case, couldn''t he? Of course, provided that he really had noticed that I knew of and had the murder plan. Either way, I had to get out of there as fast as possible. Even if my assumptions were true and confirmed by Jamal at that, it was only a matter of time until I would give in to him. Because his words may have been lies, but his attractiveness was a fact. As things stood, I was going to fall victim to his venom. I knew for sure that as soon as that happened, the poison would spread slowly but surely and paralyze my will to resist. I shook him off and hurried towards the entrance, but Jamal rushed after me in the same breath. Again, he clung to me from behind, restraining me. His warmth, his entrancing fragrance blended into a charm deluding the senses and attacking me from behind. "...It does not matter what you feel for me..." His soft breath touched the nape of my neck. I knew that I had to escape, but I couldn''t move a muscle. He gently pushed me into the sofa, leaning against me. The light behind Jamal created a mystic contrast on his face. He placed his head on my shoulder and put his hands lightly on my chest¡ªas if to feel my heartbeat. A moment later, he nibbled the defenseless nape of my neck. The soft sensation of his lips caused my shoulders to jump. I had never experienced such an impulse before, it was similar to tickling but still different. My body was about to run out of control. In an attempt to push him away, I slid my hands between us and thrust towards the ceiling. Unwilling to be separated, he resisted and twisted his body. Letting my instincts take over, I swapped places and sat astride him. Right now¡ª¡ª¡ªJamal Zaheer was under my control. That feeling of elation was far beyond normal. Even I, the cool thinker by principle, would have loved screaming as my feelings told me. While frantically suppressing the urge to rush, I however, I was suddenly stricken by a shock that made my heart skip a beat. I had noticed my unusual reaction. "¡ªYou''re trembling." He noticed. I blinked a few times with eyes that had lost focus. "...you are" He repeated. I was unaware of it myself, but I was trembling all over. Feelings of guilt that I had pushed aside as my rationality had gone out of the window suddenly sprung up in me like water. "...we really shouldn''t be doing this. Let''s stop," I stated while raising my body. I was frightened, plain and simple. Frightened of shouldering something that could not be amended. He was still lying on the sofa, looking up at me with wondering eyes. Behind his rumpled clothes, I could see skin. I averted my gaze automatically. No words. I cast him off and stood up as if to retreat. I moved to another chair, leaving two chairs between us. Far enough to stop any suspicious movement but close enough to hear ourselves. When was the last time I had become this agitated? I couldn''t remember. Thank you very much for this valuable experience, Jamal. I ran my hand through my hair. "Why are you always so... so reckless!" I spoke up "I am surprised myself." He said smugly. "Don''t act so unconcerned!" I shot back. "Someone once said that men in love can go to any extent; there might be more truth to it than I thought. After all I do feel capable of anything right now," he nodded approvingly. "Please, don''t only think about yourself..." I let out a grand sigh. "In the first place, what happened to the rumors about you? Haven''t you gone out with numerous ladies so far?" It''s not like I believed him offhandedly. A guy like Jamal should have gone out with countless girls in his life. Wasn''t she just playing with me? "...I don''t want to tell you," he averted his gaze to the side. "You can''t say that after dragging me in like that, can you? I have the right to know." "I don''t care." He said "Don''t be such a child." I chastised "I bet you see me as some kind of player" he said, now sounding queerly like a precocious little girl. Where did the bewitching guy that seduced me go? "Fine! I won''t ask anymore if you don''t want to tell me." I thought there was no use questioning him in that thickheaded state. "...Do you really want me to tell you?" He asked "...Which is it now!" Good heavens. As always he was hard to read. Jamal took a deep breath and made up his mind. "I''ll be honest. I have gone out with several girls before." "As I thought." I commented. "Hey, that''s not nice, you know. Let me assure you: I may have gone out with various girls but I never gave out my heart to them. Honestly." "You want me to buy that?" I said. "They were all good and kind people and really loved me." Jamal continued. "...Good for you..." i said "But every time something felt off. In some way I knew that none of them were my destined partner," He told me with slightly downcast eyes, wallowing in reminiscences. "Then why me?" I asked. "Because you seemed different from the others! In the beginning it was just a baseless intuition, of course. At first I wanted to go out with you without thinking too deeply, as I used to do with the other girls . Because getting someone to date me is simple." He said. "That sure doesn''t sound like something someone my age would say. Come on, how old are you really?" Jamal found my apathetic attitude funny, it seemed. He chuckled with great amusement. "But I had not dreamed that you would reject me." He said finally. "So sorry for not living up to your expectations." I rolled my eyes. "No, by no means! Thanks to that, I gained a sudden burst of enthusiasm. So the result is absolutely fine!" He laughed "...That''s how life goes, I guess. Never the way you want it to." Jamal''s triumphant joy had the opposite effect on my mood. He made me remember that whatever I did to him always ended up backfiring on me. "Indeed... I wonder why things never work out the way you want them in life." This time it was me who couldn''t help laughing, seeing him say that with a solemn mien. "If you of all people don''t get your way, us commoners are stumped." The worries of someone who had everything seemed incredibly ridiculous to me. "You are all just overestimating me, really." He said. "But you deserve to be overestimated, from a neutral point of view." I replied "Why is it that I cannot make you mine, then?" He squinted at my eyes as if to peek into my heart. "...Who knows? It''s a riddle even to me," I answered vaguely, looking away. For obvious reasons I could have never told him that it''s because the murder plan was on my mind. "Witch" he called me. "Call me whatever you like." I said "But I like you anyway, Gabriella, even if you are cruel and mean to me," laughed Jamal while rubbing his chin. It was a gorgeous demeanor. "How can I explain it...? It is just so enjoyable to talk with you." He carefully chose his words, which made me realize that he was trying her utmost to convey his feelings precisely. "You could say that we are... trying to outdo each other? Our conversations feel so exciting and enjoyable to me because they''re unpredictable. I just can''t talk enough with you." His words silenced me, and caused me to stare at him. I was struck by surprise that he was of the same mind as me. Strong sympathy can change ridiculously easily into a sense of closeness. Indeed, at that very instant, Jamal Zaheer became a special guy to me. "When I imagined how stimulating every day would become if I went out with you, I realized that you had to be my destined partner. So I did not really need to hesitate. You are the one I deemed destined for me" he said. To make matters worse, he looked even more attractive now that I had become conscious of him. I''ve heard subjectivity incorporates a function that applies a filter to the brain that makes you interpret things in your favor. "I didn''t know you were so bold." I said referring to earlier on. "And I wish I didn''t know that you were so sharp tongued." He said I shrugged extensively for show. Of course, I was not at all composed. It was quite the contrary: I was disturbed. You could say that I had a hard time dealing with the radical change in my feelings. I had previously regarded any situation objectively with the utmost effort in order to bear up against Jamal and his staggering presence. Otherwise I would have fallen victim to his charm like everyone else. However, now that subjectivity had mixed into my view, I couldn''t remain calm anymore. My awakened instincts told me to savor the defenseless fruit before my eyes. "I''m leaving." This time I seriously had to leave or I would end up loathing myself. "Do you really want to?" I heard Jamal''s voice behind me when I was walking towards the living room door. "Want what?" I asked "¡ªTo go. I know you stay alone in an hostel, no one will miss you if you don''t go home" I felt the urge to turn around, but I chose to remain on course. He would have surely shown me a devilish smile that very much met my preference and ruined my newly gained determination. "Please forget what happened today. I wasn''t myself." "I don''t want to," he declared. "It''s in both our interests." I said "It''s a valuable memory of the ''destined partner'' I finally found." "I''m stunned that you can use that phrase so carelessly. Say that again in ten years." I said, still not looking back. "I am not using the word carelessly. Didn''t you know that everyone is searching for their ''destined partner'' from the moment they are born?" "Well, my sympathies for all the trouble." I said With that parting shot I opened the door. In that instant, I heard footsteps rushing towards me resounding on the flooring. "Are you really leaving me?" ...No use using such lonely words. "Of course." "Okay let me drive you home. Its not safe for a lady at this time" ...No use using such pleading words. "Well, I''ll be fine and I just want to get as faraway from you and as fast as possible, a walk will clear my head." I said. "You really are hard to deal with, Gabriella," he said, sighing. I spontaneously turned around and glared at him. "You''re the last person I want to hear that from!" Jamal laughed heartily at seeing my unwilling attitude. "Goodbye." I turned and stepped out. "Be seeing you." Even though I intentionally stomped on the floor to express my bad temper, I happened to see his sad and weak wave goodbye. It would be a lie to say that I didn''t feel anything while closing the front door. Chapter 6 - Philosophy At the beginning of the week, our classroom. Jamal greeted me with a warm smile on seeing me, "Good morning." I quickly responded, "Good morning," after hesitating for a few seconds, and walked briskly to my seat. I didn''t want to look like a coward, but neither did I feel like arguing with him early on a Monday morning. If possible I wanted to put some distance between us and not see his face for a while. Because looking at his face would remind me of that Friday night that had become a dark memory I wanted to bury as fast as possible. Yet Jamal is a guy who at these times is oblivious to your concerns. "Gabriella, your collar is awry, "he happily pointed out, and immediately stood before me as if it had been his place for a hundred years. He then fixed my collar with his elegant fingers." His neck was beneath my eyes. For a moment I shut them tightly, as though I were brushing off my wandering reflections. My collar was absolutely not awry. "When are you visiting me next?" whispered Jamal. He just wanted to bring Saturday''s business up again. "As brilliant as you are, after spending such a night you should be able to foresee if someone will ever come to your place again." I whispered with venom. As far as he was concerned, "I am free next week on Saturday evening. My father should be late on that day, too, because of a meeting of the association," He couldn''t have been more nonchalant. "Do you even think I''d say ''Yes''?" I grimaced. "Do you even think I''d want to hear ''No''?" He smiled "It looks like I need to be straightforward with you as you seem to get annoying when things don''t go the way you expect." I approached until we were nose to nose, and declared point-blank: "You won''t see me there a second time!" To top off my remark, I flashed a Jamal-like smile. "You needn''t be embarrassed." However, the originator''s smile was uninterrupted. "From time to time you really behave idiotically, you know?" I said. "Whereas you are always mealy-mouthed, right?" He spoke back. Composed. Others looking on must have seen best friends, smiling at each other from that close distance but I felt we were like two tigers about to bite our heads off. "Aren''t Jamal and Gabriella kinda like... newly-weds...?" And so some voiced unhappy, ill-informed comments with discontented expressions. Ola had made the newly-wed remark. I didn''t know what a baby blow fish looked like, but I figured it must be somewhat like Ola just then, scowling at me with her chin on his desk and blowing up his cheeks like a balloon. Ola really was a peculiar guy. I reckoned there weren''t many people that were that adorable when in an ill temper. While I was happily observing the guy with a sidelong glance, Jamal said embarrassedly, "Did you hear that? Like newly-weds!" "A bad joke indeed." If by any chance Jamal had blushed with at least one cheek, so to speak, I might have reconsidered and I might have admitted his cute sides. Unfortunately though, Jamal Zaheer couldn''t be understood that easily. The next moment, his eyes changed to slits. The devil hath ascended to earth. In my eyes I could see a black pointed tail growing from him. "Welcome home, darling. Would you like to take a bath? Or would you rather like... me?" Then he giggled amusedly. To the others that didn''t know his real nature, he must have looked like the purest guy who had successfully played a little prank. "...a bad joke indeed." I said face palming. But to me it was a nightmare in many senses. One of them being that there was that one girl that couldn''t keep quiet when the topic revolved around Jamal Zaheer. "Hey! Gabriella!" There she stood, Tundun, with a grimace resembling the doorkeeper of hell. "Of course it''s the bath, right? You naturally go for the bath, right?" Much to my chagrin, she was followed by a regiment of guys who were eager to support her "Say it!" "If you do not choose the bath... you know what happens then, right?" The group exchanged glances and then simultaneously cracked a friendly smile. They were disgusting. "Well, as a woman it''s clear what I take¡ª" It was up to me to choose, so what? Tundun and the others had no say about it. "¡ªas a woman one must take the meal, right?" But I didn''t like trouble. "A wise choice, Gabriella" Tundun said. "I''m so happy you understand what I mean, Tundun." "Then let''s go over there and hear what you have to tell us, shall we?" Tundun beckoned. "...There are no words to express my current feelings appropriately." I felt tired already, and the day just started. This marked the start of a lot of wasted time, during which I was going to be questioned whether I dated Jamal and during which I would have to assure them over and over that that was not the case. Good grief, they hadn''t a clue. They could only act that frivolously because they didn''t know about the murder plan. And without an inkling of my troubles, Jamal waved his hand cheerfully. "Goodbye, darling!" Therefore I gave him an appropriate answer. "I''ll be late tonight, honey." Annoyance drove me to it. I am sure that a blanket of grief must have enveloped me as I was led away like a low-grade employee who must obey his boss. ¡ªAt the time, I had already noticed that an usually noisy classmate of mine, Ola, had been silent the whole time. But I had no time to worry about her because I had my hands full dealing with Jamal, Tundun and the rest. Well, it''s hard to say if dealing with him then would have changed what happened after school. The next day. It had been raining continuously since morning. My feelings towards him were swaying in an unsure state. Too impure to be called love, yet too strong to be called interest. It was the first time in my life that I was overcome by emotions. But if this was the price I had to pay for my autonomous mode of life, I was ready to accept and deal with that discomfort. Of course, it was no doubt the murder plan that put a brake on my feelings. I am most definitely not averse to mysterious guys, but even I feel a tiny bit uneasy when it comes to endorsing a secret that exceeds the bounds of good sense. Murder being one example thereof. It is not easy to accept a person who may have killed someone. Not only because of ethical reasons, but also because one rebels instinctually, fearing that one might become the next target. In any event, in fact there was a break-out solution. It was simple actually: I just had to go ask him directly whether or not he had killed anyone. If he answered "No", I could dismiss my exaggerated ideas with a sneer, send the crumpled murder plan flying to the burnable trash and obtain an everyday life that was just a bit better than the status quo: a thrilling one including Jamal Zaheer. Wasn''t that sufficient to justify the venture? Asking for more would be greedy. There''s always a straw that breaks the camel''s back. However, what if the answer were "Yes, I have killed someone"? I gave thought to the fact that the content of the murder plan was in line with the cause of his mother''s death. Anyone, even without a tendency to fantasize like me, should, provided these two facts, come to the conclusion that the murder plan was written with the objective of killing his mother. Moreover, it is completely natural to consider the author of the plan as the murderer as a consequence. I dropped my gaze to my shoulder. Before my eyes and nose, there was a lock of black hair painting an elegant curve. As if riding a roller coaster, a water drop slid along that smooth hair just to eventually arrive at its end and jump into the dark gray air. I lost a little heart when I associated my own fate with the last moments of that water drop. Probably noticing my gaze, "Mh?" He inclined his head slightly while wearing that caring brother-like smile of his. "I''m drawing a little nearer. Otherwise I''ll get wet." He happily snuggled up to me as though we were a couple. Devil that he was, he must have been enjoying frustrating me. But there was nothing I could do about it. It was raining and mine was the only umbrella, narrowing my options to one. Thus the distance between us was shorter than usual. I suspected, however, that he was hiding a collapsible one in his bag. I couldn''t believe that a forward thinker like him would forget his umbrella. We had ended that day''s work and were walking toward the nearby station. Seeing him to the bus station after work had been a regular task of mine since the day he told us of his potential stalker. After that night, Jamal had told me, "I felt really safe when I was seen home by you. If it''s not a bother, would you mind accompanying me all the time?". It was weird because one would naturally assume it should be the guy that would escort a lady to safety and not the other way around. Naturally, I had immediately refused, "No, because it is," but sadly we had been in the staffroom just then, which had instead gained me the bother of turning the whole staff, led by Emma, against me: "Come on, do it!" I had not escaped without begging off with, "Please, let''s compromise with seeing him to the station!" It was truly incomprehensible. However, life sometimes takes an unexpected turn. To my great joy, the way to the station was ideal for talking privately with her. I waited for the moment the traffic light turned red. "When I watched the news yesterday, I started wondering¡ª," I began, "¡ªwhy do people kill?" Actually, I hadn''t watched the news the day before. But well, there was bound to have been at least one murder, considering the current state of society. "Oh, you''re quite the philosopher today, aren''t you? I like your contemplative face!" he said in a voice that was strangely wet, as if not only his hair but also his voice had been hit by the rain. "Is it because of the rain? One always gets into a somewhat sentimental mood when it is raining, don''t you agree? It gets you in the mood to read books you usually wouldn''t." "Indeed, if I am acting unusual today, then it might really be because of the rain." His words gave me the hunch that I hadn''t chosen the day by chance, but because of the bad weather. "Anyway, would you mind sharing your thoughts?" Our background music was composed of the rain drops lapping against my umbrella, the watery sound of tires on the asphalt and the blood circulating through my veins. "Well¡ª" Jamal brushed away the black hair that had stuck to his forehead, releasing a nice scent. "¡ªBecause they feel like it, perhaps." His voice was indifferent. "...Because they feel like it? That''s all? Do you claim that that''s reason enough to kill someone?" I was offended by his obviously negligent answer.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "That''s not it." He said. "What do you mean? Unless you elaborate some, a mere mortal like me can''t comprehend your genius, I''m afraid." I said dryly. "Oh don''t be angry. I''m not joking, really. I do think so!" He shrugged his shoulders slightly upon noticing my sidelong glare at him. "You see, I think that in most cases the problem could actually be solved without resorting to murder, for example if it''s a grudge or a fatal tangle of jealousy. Of course there are exceptions like life insurance murder." The cars stopped, allowing people to cross the road. A swarm of umbrellas was set in motion, leaving behind only the pink umbrella under which we stood. "Don''t you think that there are numerous ways of taking revenge or venting a grudge which are more effective than killing?" I had trouble thinking of one, but I had no trouble assuming that Jamal knew of some. "Every murderer has to atone appropriately for his misdeeds, be it through the law or social sanctions. There is the saying ''Live by the sword, die by the sword''. I think that applies to murder as well. Thus it is a foolish and careless method and nothing more in my opinion. There are probably many ways to call it, ''fury'' or ''impulse'' for instance, but it sums up to a matter of mood¡ªa matter of ''feeling like it''¡ªfor me," he said, then added, "I consider all irrational actions as a matter of mood." "As you say, murder might indeed be a nonsensical conduct." I concurred with his opinion. I was even moved. But that was probably also the reason that queerly comfortable moment seemed a bit off-kilter to me. At first glance, his well-reasoned speech made him seem like an upright model student. However, upon further thought, he was only really talking about the means of reaching a goal. Put in a nutshell, he had only argued about the effectiveness of murder as a method. Didn''t that mean that he was not absolutely disapproving of murder? "But as you admitted yourself, there are exceptions, right?" From my diagonal angle, I could not see all of his face. Only his mouth was barely in view. "...For example?" And that mouth of his was smiling. There we stood together under a round, small umbrella, surrounded by a massive wall of rain and night. Even though the town was filled with all kinds of sounds, painted in various colors and packed with people, I felt somewhat separated from everything, as if we were alone in an elevator at midnight. "For example, if you were able to kill completely unnoticed." The cause of that phenomenon was simply me: I had locked out the world. At that moment, Zaheer Jamal was the totality of my world. "Could you be a little more specific? Your twisted thoughts are too complicated for an honest person like me to understand, I''m afraid." He affected a shrug, teasing me. "I am talking of the perfect crime, as a third party in the know would call it if a premeditated murder was deemed an accident by all the world, rather than the crime it is." When I was done with my explanation, Jamal answered, giving his full concentration. "¡ªIndeed, we need to draw a line between unplanned murder and a perfect crime, which you can certainly not commit just by feeling like it. You have to keep a cool head and be rational if you aim for perfection." The focus of our discussion was fully and solely on utility and efficiency¡ªethics and morals were not under discussion. "But our country''s police are respected worldwide, aren''t they? I hear scientific crime detection is making rapid progress, too, compared to the past. Isn''t the perfect crime impossible in fact?" He smiled as if to imply that it was all just a pipe dream. It was then that I finally found a possible reason for the awkward feeling I had sensed earlier: Our conversation was clearly too unromantic for two youths clinging together in the midst of the street under one umbrella. And yet there I was, absorbed in it, which was most likely because that''s the kind of person I am. The death or life of someone unrelated is of no concern to me. At most I would be curious about the death of such a person. No, my only response would be curiosity. I was very well aware of my slightly unconventional sense. But what about him? Would the renowned, upright Zaheer Jamal really allow such an immoral conversation? For someone as tolerant and ever-smiling as her, talking about it with me without showing the faintest displeasure should have been no problem, even if she had to hide her disfavor. However, it didn''t look like that to me. How so? Well, because I felt that, just like me, he¡ªenjoyed immoral topics to the fullest. "Okay, but then as a purely hypothetical question¡ª" I carefully touched the left pocket of my shirt from above. Inside it was a four-times folded scrap of paper. "¡ªwhat would you do if there was a plan that made the perfect crime possible?" I always carried the murder plan around with me. The next moment, he gave a smile that reminded me of the sound of a bell. "A good question. Indeed, I might consider murder as a means of achieving an objective if I were able to commit the perfect crime. But in my case," he said with a mischievous, crescent moon smile very much to my liking, "I would never base such a conduct on a written plan that might remain as proof later on. It would be ridiculous if a plan that makes the perfect crime possible caused it to fail. I think a plan should only and entirely be in one''s head." He pondered for a few moments, humming, and then added, "...if you ask me and think simply about it, it doesn''t matter whether it is planned or just a product of coincidences. After all, it''s a perfect crime if no one notices your willful action, right?" Something unfolded before my eyes that exceeded my expectations. It almost went so far that I suspected I was dreaming while awake. "It is entirely the result that determines whether a crime is perfect or not. However perfect a plan is, it''s over as soon as someone else takes note. Put the other way, however ''flimsy'' a plan is, it is a perfect crime as long as no one takes note." Suddenly, I noticed that I was shivering. "But don''t you agree that mistakes are inherent if a human takes part? Humans are imperfect, after all. It''s the imperfect human that makes the mistake in the very end. So, eventually I think it is the executor who holds the final key." Not because I was cold. Not because the weather was getting dreadful. Not because he scared me. "To sum up my thoughts, the most important condition for a perfect crime is neither a perfect plan nor a perfect execution, but a perfect human¡ª" I was probably trembling with excitement. Because I seemed to be extremely agitated. He chuckled. "Laughable, isn''t it? That''s just another impracticable theory on paper; perfect humans do not exist after all. Well, of course the ones who are to investigate the crime are human, too, so there are mistakes on that side as well. But still I think that a perfect crime is infeasible unless you come upon a remarkable succession of coincidences." SoICantHaveKilledMyMotherRightGabriella? Perhaps my warped personality was just playing with me, but I couldn''t help thinking that that was what he proclaimed. I shook my head strongly. "Highly doubtful." I turned towards him and looked into his cold eyes. "Why?" He asked, giving a moon-like smile again, while reflecting me on his retina. "You lied. You claimed there were no perfect humans in the world¡ªbut I know of at least one in my vicinity." He didn''t ask "Who?" but only nodded briefly, "I see." ...he got me there. That way it was only funnier! It was all Jamal''s fault that I was more talkative than usual and felt my heart throb with excitement. Why were the thrilling conversations with him so amusing? Perhaps I was simply drawing pleasure from talking about immoral topics¡ªbut what if the other party hadn''t been him? Would it have been just as enjoyable? On the one hand, I tended to be annoyed by his behavior, but on the other hand, there seemed to be some anticipation of associating with his deep within my heart. So did it even matter what we would talk about? By associating with him, wasn''t I just seeking a thrill that hadn''t existed in my previous everyday life because of the murder plan? Wasn''t that the reason why I¡ªunconsciously¡ªkept on walking a tightrope without getting to the point? Wasn''t I afraid of awaking and being drawn back to the boring reality if I confronted him with the murder plan? There was no sense of justice in my actions. There was only interest, curiosity and the desire to learn more about him. So all I wanted might have been a link to the fascinating person named Jamal Zaheer. However, at the same time I also wanted to make sure whether he really had used the murder plan to kill her mother. I contradicted myself. ¡ªYes. I was about to make the next step towards him. I was craving knowledge of a face of his that no one knew. The cars started moving again. The rain still showed no sign of weakening and hit the asphalt in a steady rhythm. The crush of people heading towards the station, however, had become sparse as the temperature dropped in town. I recovered my breath silently so that he wouldn''t notice my growing excitement. Then I slowly led my fingers through between my buttons, reaching into my inside pocket. ¡ªI had made up my mind. I intended to ask her directly about the murder plan. But then, all of a sudden, Jamal embraced me from the front. I was caught with my fingers still in my pocket, unable to take them out. "...I''m cold," murmured Jamal along with a white sigh before I could raise my voice in surprise. His upward-glance was watery, his black hair soaked, but he had grown cold indeed. It was my mistake to have him talk that long in a wet state, but neither was I crazy nor so experienced in love matters as to hug a guy with all the eyes of the town upon us just because of that. I put my hands on his shoulders, wanting to release myself from his embrace, but he immediately shook his head, stubbornly saying, "No!" and hugged me even stronger. It was then that I felt a vibration at Jamal''s chest which were pressed against me. "...what a shame for the good mood." While making a regretful face, he took his mobile phone out of his chest pocket. It was quite ticklish when he operated it at zero distance. I slid my hand out of my jacket and tucked it into a pocket of my trousers. My excitement was entirely spoiled by that intrusive phone call. "...Yes, Zaheer speaking." His expression became earnest promptly after he had begun the conversation. "...my father? No, I haven''t heard of anything. He was at home when I left for school this morning." As they exchanged words, his expression got darker and darker. I couldn''t perceive what the caller was saying, but it was obviously not good news. "...Yes. I understand. I''ll return. Yes. If I find out something I will immediately give you a call." He cut the connection and let out a tired sigh. "What''s the matter?" I asked. He gazed at me with watery eyes for a few seconds, hesitating. "...my father was absent without notice from the gym he owns at" he replied at last, "He would never do that. Thus, someone of the staff was worrying about him and gave me a call." "Maybe he''s sick?" I voiced a cheap word of consolation. "I wonder... he told me that he has tried calling our home number several times. Of course, he tried his mobile as well. But it didn''t connect, so he called me, his son since I might know something..." I let out a sigh. Somehow I sensed that nothing but trouble was waiting for me. "Let''s hurry home." I grabbed his cold hand firmly and walked towards the station, pulling him behind me. "...eh?" I heard his confused voice from diagonally behind. "Seems like you''re in for some trouble, so I won''t stop you any longer and go home," I said quickly. "¡ªSaying that would have suited me better, I guess... But seeing you make such a face, how should I leave you to your own devices? Besides, I don''t even want to think about Emma''s reaction if I left you at this point." To my plain remark, he replied: "This warped side of your personality is so lovely." I heard his pleased voice from diagonally behind. Thinking that he was teasing me, I promptly searched for a nice objection. However, when he whispered, "...Thanks," at my ear and I felt his freezing fingers that held firmly to me, I became unable to complain. Not a soul was to be seen in the dark and cold residential area. The ceaseless rain falling upon us conjured up a sense of isolation in me, notwithstanding that Jamal was by my side. We hurried up the long, steep stairs, at which end thathouse awaited us¡ªwith its very unique geometrical design that made it stand out from the rest of the rich neighborhood. Jamal had tried countless times calling his home phone and her father''s mobile phone on the way, but the only voice he got to hear was the response of the network provider. Because of pressing restlessness, I suspect, I heard none of his easygoing remarks anymore by the time we reached our destination. Pathetic though it was, I found myself unable to find the right words to console him. I followed Jamal through the entrance. There was an absolute silence inside. The end of the long corridor blended with the darkness. The dire situation made it seem to me as if we had lost our way into an eerie haunt of devils. When I took off my loafers at the entrance, he said, "...you''ll catch cold. Wait a moment, I''ll get you a towel." While swiftly proceeding through the dark corridor, Jamal confidently flipped several switches on the wall, filling the house gradually with light. I slowly walked through the lit corridor to the living room, where I started to wait for him. I gazed at the arrangement which had remained unchanged from last time, and as it had then, the tranquility made my ears sensitive. Thinking back, we were alone that night. So this time we were probably alone, too. No one else was here. That''s what my intuition told me the moment I had made my first step into the building. Well, of course it was possible that her father had collapsed somewhere in the house, but judging from what Jamal said when he returned, "When I went to fetch the towel, I also peeked into several rooms, but I didn''t find him. He might not be here...," his father was absent. "I just hope he hasn''t been involved in some accident..." I smiled at the pondering Jamal. "But maybe it''s not such a big deal and he just didn''t feel like going to work because of all the rain today, you know." I said. "You mean he simply ditched work?" He asked. "That''s unlike him, he takes his gyming exercise religiously." "Well, I, for one, often seriously consider escaping from school or work and going out somewhere nice." I found my own remark laughable. "I hope so." He said. But thanks to his aughing faintly, I was spared from self-loathing. "Perhaps there''s a message for you somewhere? A note or something that says where he is and what he''s doing?" I suggested. "You''re right. I''ll take a look." Jamal nodded cheerfully at my suggestion. Apparently, he had regained her usual composure. I unobtrusively followed Jamal into the kitchen. As much as I felt bad about taking advantage of his worries about his father''s safety, I certainly did not intend to miss out on a chance to openly search his home. An elegant system kitchen with a yellow theme filled my view. While Jamal was inspecting the kitchen, I looked around without anything better to do and took one of his mother''s cookbooks to flick through it. I didn''t actually hope to find a message. Would be nice if there was one. Personally, I hoped much more to find something related to the murder plan. For example¡ªa bit of new information about the plan. I was aware that I was being indiscreet. However, in all honesty I was fond of that kind of mood. I was enjoying a thrill comparable to detective work or exploring a cave for a treasure. "It looks like there is nothing here. Maybe in his room...?" said Jamal gloomily and left the kitchen, wordlessly followed by me. He opened one of the doors alongside the corridor. The instant the door went open, I could smell the overly sweet scent of perfume. The walls were covered with white wallpaper, a curtain decorated with lace, a dressing table against the wall and a dresser that was laden with countless makeup goods. It was obviously the room of his father. "You get on well with your father, don''t you?" I asked. "Yes, certainly not badly." He said. On the nightstand by the bed, which had a flower pattern, there were several picture frames, each of which depicted Jamal and his father. "Did your parents sleep separately?" There was only one bed in the room - a bed for one person only. "I have always thought this way was natural, but is it more common that spouses sleep in one room, after all? Well, it probably is. Perhaps they did so because both of them had to work, and I guess it was more convenient this way due to those circumstances." He said. "At my place, both the parents sleep together, whether peacefully or not I couldn''t say, in a king-size bed. But judging from the ''I woke up in the middle of the night because you kept stealing my blanket'', which I often hear my mother shout in the early morning, I guess they get on well." I said. He flashed a warm smile while listening to me. "You have fantastic parents." Therefore, I just answered expressionlessly, "They''re normal." "I don''t want to stay too long in a man''s room," I said and left the room quickly to wait in the corridor. I was merely annoyed by the overly-strong perfume. I asked Jamal , who was searching the area around the dressing table in the meanwhile: "Where is your mother''s room?" I can''t say I had no ulterior motive. "You can find it just on the opposite side." He said, still searching around. Neither can I deny that this was a pretext to explore her house on my own. "We should probably search separately. I''ll look through the room of your mother." But it''s also true that I wanted to do a good deed, much as it didn''t suit me, and help him out at least a little after seeing her behaving with such maturity. "That would be a great help. But her room might be a little dusty. It has been left untouched since his passing...," said Jamal apologetically. "I don''t mind," I replied and headed towards the door opposite. My first impression was that it looked like a library. All of the books that covered one wall of the room dealt with construction, which I noticed when I fixed my eyes on their spines. On the shiny silver desk was a large pile of books and a desktop PC. Both sides of the desk were equipped with a cordless telephone each. I figured that this room served as both his library and working area. As Jamal had warned me, my steps left behind footprints outlined in dust on the floor. There was also a lot of dust on the window frames. I stopped. I had registered a sound. According to Jamal , that room was supposed to be untouched. But still a subtle sound resembling the buzz of a mosquito reached my ears. It was the sound of a small fan. I stood before the silver desk. The PC seemed to be turned on, though in sleep mode. I pressed a random key. "¡ªJamal ." The instant I saw the display, I called his name. He then came from the neighboring room and, squinting one eye, asked, "Mm?". "This," I said, pointing at the screen. Indeed, his father had left a note with a message. "That''s...," he muttered, surprised, and kept silent, staring at the screen, as though time had frozen. The only sounds in the room was the rain hitting the window and the regular buzzing of the computer fan. At the time, I could do nothing but watch his beautiful yet so sorrowful face from the side. His mother''s name was typed in the "notepad" on the screen, it started with; ?I''m sorry? On that day, I didn''t get home until past four at night in a police car. Chapter 7 - The Detective When I went to school that morning, fighting with my drowsiness, Jamal was nowhere to be seen in the classroom. Of course there was nobody in the class who hadn''t noticed his absence. Ola had been peeking at me since I walked in, probably eager to question me about Jamal. While sighing in my mind, I helped him calm down by asking warmly, "Don''t you want to ask me about Jamal?" "...Aah, that''s what you''re talking about...," sighed Ola in blatant relief. "Yeah, right, why is he absent today?" Ola, sitting at his desk right next to mine, cocked his head to and fro. "Beats me. But maybe he caught a cold in the rain yesterday?" I replied ambiguously. Neither Jamal nor the police had forbidden me to talk about the disappearance of his father , but I didn''t intend to tell my classmates anything in relation to that matter. I was being considerate of Jamal. I was perfectly aware that it didn''t suit my character to sympathize with him, but I couldn''t help it because I had seen him in a horribly disheartened state, much worse than I could have ever imagined of him. Besides, if I told anyone about his father , I was bound to be grilled by the others about how I knew. Just by picturing what would head my way if my classmates, especially Tundun and Ola, got wind of my visit to his home, I felt signs of a headache. This kind of self-protection was also included in the rather ambiguous answer I gave him. I was tired from the all-nighter I had pulled and from overusing my brains; the least I wanted was any more trouble. "Maybe I should visit Jamal?" I sighed and asked with a reproving look, "...what about your club?" "Um..." Ola looked up at me like a puppy assessing its master''s mood. "Don''t even think about skipping," I warned him. "...Right, I knew you''d say that..." Ola collapsed on his desk. "If so, then don''t take it into your head in the first place!" I said. "But I''m worried!"Ola purged his lips, still lying prostrate on his desk. "I merely said it might be a cold. We don''t know for sure. You can give his a short call if he doesn''t come tomorrow either." As bothersome as it was, it seemed that I had no choice but to contact Jamal and inform him of the cold he had caught. Jeez, it''s not easy to tell lies. But my exhaustion was relieved a little by the heartwarming sight of Ola docilely nodding with his soft cheek placed on his desk. "Mm, okay." The time at school went by more peacefully than usual. Jamal''s absence from the classroom was the cause, which also explained why Tundun and her colleagues were quieter than usual. It had been quite a while since I last had my peace. Jamal had taken a special position in my life since the day I had picked up that note. Of course, I am talking of a different kind of "special" than the others. I, only I, knew about his secret¡ªthe murder plan. I had been watching his with caution and with the plan at the back of my mind. I had socialized with his with the utmost care because I suspected he had killed his father. As a consequence, I had never had much peace with his around me. However, those days were drawing to a close, it seemed. I touched my left breast pocket. "...I guess soon it''s goodbye to you as well." I was surprised by the gloomy mutter that escaped my mouth so naturally. Apparently, the days that revolved around nothing but Jamal and the murder plan had been dearer to me than I had thought. That was probably the reason for the slight loneliness I was feeling at returning to my previous, peaceful everyday life. In regards to the various happenings concerning the murder recipe, I had come to a conclusion. Jamal has not killed anyone. I knew of no one as intelligent and stubborn as him, though measuring someone of such singularity with normal common sense might be starting from a false premise. However, in my eyes he had been just a normal guy who behaved like a caring brother at the his father''s funeral, and when he stood stone-still before the screen showing his father''s last words, or what I supposed them to be anyway. Hadn''t he said himself that murder was a "foolish and careless method"? As clever as he was ¡ª cleverer than anyone else I knew in fact ¡ª he would have never ¡ª under no circumstances ¡ª relied on murder. At least I couldn''t explain to myself why he would have done it. In the end, I could not view him as someone who would kill. On went the days without Jamal. The first day remained peaceful. On the second day, however, there was already a commotion in the class; everyone feared for Jamal''s safety. As expected, their attention was immediately directed at me because I worked at the same caf¨¦. As planned, I played dumb. And then what happened? Assumptions brought forth assumptions, which eventually turned into rumors. Thus, Jamal''s name was omnipresent at school on the third day. He is in hospital because his cold worsened. He has been kidnapped and is kept confinement. He is in the middle of filming a movie at Hollywood. A princess fell in love with him at first sight and took him to her country to marry him. Such absurd rumors were all over the place. I could only laugh dryly. Whether he was here or not, he was always in the center of attention. Once more I was shown just how much the guy stood out. On the fourth day, however, some rumors came in circulation that weren''t funny at all. Jamal is helping the police with their search by contacting friends and acquaintances of his father and by heading to places where he expects his father to go. Exerting himself to the utmost, even limiting his sleep as much as possible. The origin of that rumor turned out to be a student who had someone in the police department in his family. The message spread epidemically. Underpinned by further sources that confirmed his father''s disappearance, the rumor had become fact on the next Monday. Then, after one week had passed. the long-lasting rain stopped, giving way to a cloudless blue sky. In the early morning of that day, his father was found at last. But as a decedent. He was found on the slope of a hill that was a stone''s throw from the high-class residential area. On its top, there was a little park which had a view of the entire town. The park was surrounded by a cliff and therefore bounded by a fence, which was, however, old and low enough that an adult could easily climb over it. Where he had been found implied that he had fallen from that park. The reasons given for his late discovery were that he hadn''t reached the foot of the slope and that he had been concealed by the wildly blooming azaleas that covered the entire side of the hill. According to the officer who went to confirm the find, she had never seen such a beautiful corpse. The appearance of his father , decorated by purple flowers, compared to a framed western painting, she stated. She had found herself forgetting that it was a corpse for several moments, probably bemused by the smell of the blooming azaleas. Imagining that scene made me shiver. I would have loved to witness that moment. The news of his father''s death spread out at school as a wave of surprise and settled down as great pity for the poor guy Zaheer Jamal who had lost yet another close relative. I had a normal amount of pity for Jamal, he also had my condolences about what happened to his father . However, unlike everyone else I wasn''t surprised. I had expected the casualty. Why? Because I had come to the conclusion that his father had used the murder plan to kill his mother. There were two reasons. Firstly, his family environment. At the funeral I heard that father, mother and son had all been amiable and kept on good terms with their neighbors. Moreover, the misery his father was going through came across extremely well when he was crying before her photograph. I had imagined the zaheer''s as a harmonious family with a harmonious relationship between husband and wife. When I saw his father''s bedroom, however, I couldn''t help but entertain doubts. The fact that Jamal wasn''t concerned about his parents sleeping separately implied that they weren''t quite the harmonious family. But in the first place, it was generally doubtful, a married couple could be called harmonious while having separate bedrooms. Grounded on that fact, I framed the hypothesis that their relationship was exactly the opposite of what was generally understood and actually bad. The fact that his mother was nowhere to be seen in any photograph in his father''s room was yet another clue that strengthened my hypothesis. Secondly, and decisively, the author of the murder plan. I had been wondering since the very beginning: Why name it a "plan"? But while I didn''t use the word "plan" very frequently, I figured that a gym instructor at a gym would make quite regular use of it compared to his Architect wife and student, son. It was a stretch but my instincts told me I was correct. When I went to Jamal''s home because his father had gone missing, I secretly snarfed a bit of evidence. Namely a handwritten memo that contained additional explanations to some workout plans. The content was irrelevant. What was important was that it had been handwritten by his father . I compared the murder plan with the memo and they looked exactly the same. The handwriting made it evident that they had been written by the same person. In other words, the secret behind the incidents around the murder plan was most likely something along the lines of: The father , who was on bad terms with the mother , wrote and executed the murder plan, making his wife the victim of an accident, but was unable to bear the sin and thus ended his own life. In that case, there was no need to pity his father. He got what he deserved, coldly speaking. there was no particular emotion in my heart with the exception of a slight cling to the cat-and-mouse game that had ended now. The murder plan lost its lustre. My delusions around it had come to a close with the death of his father . I supposed that it would end up as a memento deep in one of my drawers and never see the light of day again. Of course, these were all just assumptions of mine. I didn''t deny that there were several missing pieces which were merely complemented by my own imagination. But I thought that a normal high school student couldn''t come any closer to the truth. Above all, I was satisfied with the solution I had worked out. Therefore, I didn''t intend to get Jamal''s confirmation. One day I might ask him about this incident, but not now, I wanted to use this moment to revel in relief. In relief that he hadn''t killed anyone. Luckily or not, these tranquil days didn''t last long. What brought the change were the words of a police detective whom I had come to know at a recent event. My first encounter with his goes back to the night When Jamal''s father went missing¡ª ¡ªImmediately after I had discovered the message on the screen, I called the police and informed them for Jamal, who was standing still in shock. After thirty minutes during which there was a silence except for the ticking of the clock and the rain, a police car arrived. A uniformed man and a tall, suited man alighted. "Ah, yes, yes. I see, I see. Yeah, ''could be a suicide note!" uttered the tall policeman casually. He had introduced himself as Mr. Ijapa. I had once experienced the questioning of the police in the past. It was a shoplifting incident in the neighborhood that had happened a few years ago. That time, two police detectives had payed us a visit. Rather than posing questions, they had chiefly just warned us of the shoplifter who was still on the run. Those detectives had both been quite nonchalant and had worn the normal blue and black uniform, which made them look like office workers. Their atmosphere, however, was clearly different from ordinary citizens. the sharp glances they had flashed from time to time were quite intimidating. I had understood very well that this was the "authority" of a policeman who was always exposed to utmost danger. Incidentally, I learned in the news afterward that the shoplifter had been arrested in the midst of questioning. Forward in time, the man named Ijapa didn''t match my idea of a detective. His looks suggested that he was in his late twenties. Well, judging by the power relationship between him and the younger police officer, he might have been a little older. Wearing casual clothes, Mr. Ijapa seemed much more like a gaudy gigolo than a detective. As his frivolous look implied, he chattered constantly, and thus was classified as the kind of human I "disliked" most. "Oh, now you''re a cute one. Are you in the show biz? No? You should enter! You''d beat them all in cuteness! No, no, I mean it! By the way, how old are you, Jamal? Twenty? U-huh... How many sisters do you have? Older ones, mind you. Oh, you don''t have any? Not a single one? Really? So you''re an only child. What a pity. It''s truly a pity. Ah, but right! I bet your mom''s hot as well, and still young, right? I see! As I thought! Hey, heard him? We''ve gotta find that man!" Ijapa kept talking, paying no attention to the police officer on the other sofa who was visibly bashful. I hadn''t liked Ijapa from the word go, but after just a few minutes I "hated" him. His lack of consideration towards Jamal was not even the main problem. I mean, didn''t he belong to the police? Was that the appropriate attitude towards a downhearted guy whose father had just gone missing? Ijapa was an incomprehensible and downright disagreeable man. The young police officer asked us two, three questions about the incident in place of his superior, such as "Did your father seem bothered by something?" and "Do you know where he might have gone?" Jamal cast down his long eyelash with a sigh and shook his black hair left and right, "I have no idea." In a thoughtfully calm voice, the young officer told him, "I''m afraid to say that it is possible that your father has gone missing due to suicide. We will do everything in our power to find him, but please be prepared for the worst case."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Instead of a reply Jamal only nodded weakly. His sparse movements and taciturnity gave his a cold yet beautiful touch, almost like a well-crafted doll. As endlessly tactless as it was, I daydreamed of toying freely with his dollish, fragile, slender nape and his crimson lips that contrasted so beautifully with his pale skin. I had already noticed at the funeral of his mother that Jamal would give off a special tranquil mood akin to the moon at midnight when sorrowful, the look of which could never grow stale for me. Unable to answer any of the questions and forced to listen to the lengthy speeches of that frivolous man, I was bored and pained, but thanks to a cup of coffee in one hand and the opportunity to fully enjoy the "moon", I managed to have a somewhat worthwhile time. After a while had passed like that, Ijapa suddenly asked me, "By the way, you are...?" I told his my name, concealing my wariness. "Okay, Gabriella, we''ll give you a ride home. It''s already past one in the morning; there''s no line you could take anymore, right?" offered Ijapa. Jamal, right next to me, gave me an emphatic and requesting glance. I wavered at first, but then I came to a decision and bowed before Ijapa, "Please." When I left, he whispered reproachfully into my ear, "I didn''t want to be alone tonight," and grabbed my shirt weakly. I feigned ignorance and carefully shook off his fingers. Of course I didn''t feel comfortable leaving him all alone. Of course, my presence wouldn''t have changed anything about the situation, but at least I would have been able to be by his side as someone to talk to. It would have definitely been worth it if that had let him forget his grief a little, even if it was just some cheap pity from me. However, I couldn''t bring myself to fire the curiosity of Ijapa, who was grinning at Jamal and me. To my surprise, Ijapa followed suit When I sat down on one of the backseats. Noticing my astonished look, he laughed, "Ah, ''just wanted to have a quick chat with you." Somehow, I sensed the authority of a detective in his laugh. During the ride from Jamal''s home to mine, Ijapa and I kept on talking. Eighty percent was his words, though. "You''re Jamal''s girlfriend, aren''t you? Eh? You''re not? But didn''t you go visit him? Listen up, a girl doesn''t normally enter the house of a guy at such a late hour unless she''s his girlfriend. Aah, workmates, huh. And classmates too. Uh-huh, uh-huh, so there''s nothing going on between you. Right? Don''t you agree? hey, look ahead while you''re driving! Well, it was me that addressed you, though! heh!" joked Ijapa while involving the young police officer who was at the wheel. "Anyway, this is my phone number, my new buddy. Don''t hesitate to call; it''s my business phone. What I mean by that? Oh, I just wanted to make clear that I''m ''straight''. I may not look like it, but I can''t get enough ladies! Mh? I do look like it? People say that to me all the time for some reason. Huh? That''s not what you wanted to know? Aah, don''t hold back because talking helps the investigation. When we''re looking for someone we''re grateful for any information we can get. You never know what could be the decisive clue; even if it seems like nothing to you. You might deny that you''re dating Jamal, but from what I''ve seen and heard from him, I''m pretty sure you''re quite close. So should you remember or find out something concerning Jamal or his father , give me a call." Afterward, Ijapa called me on a regular basis. It might go without saying, but each and every one of those calls was quite long. Of course, I was extremely annoyed by his long chats and I still disliked him. What made me play his dialog partner, however, was the idea that I might just as well take advantage of his since he tried to do so with me. In return for telling his all I knew, I wormed the current state of the investigation out of him. That exchange was pretty unbalanced to the disadvantage of Ijapa, though, because the information I gave his was obvious and widely-known without exception. The question arises, whether he babbled the current state because of his inborn chatter nature or because he considered it minor enough to leak. At any rate, I always had interest in his calls, whatever the subject. In spite of my personal opinion of Ijapa, I was intrigued with the peculiar job of a detective, and his stories suited my hobby of imagining stuff rather well. At last the matter settled down and Zaheer Jamal was about to return to school and to work. On the day before, however, a certain male customer appeared at Elizabeth right before closing time. "Ah, now I see why you haven''t shown interest in guys, Gabriella," said Emma with his fingers on his chin, staring at a slender, suited man who had taken a seat at a table. Completing the image, that gigolo-like man was cheerfully waving towards the kitchen ¡ª to me. "I''ll deliberately refrain from asking what exactly you were imagining, but allow me to assure you that you are wrong." "What is he then? A friend? That would be quite the old friend for you." "No, he is a policeman." I said. "That guy? No matter how you look at it, that''s a gigolo if you ask me," he said and became even more doubtful. "So, what misdeed have you committed? Sure, I''ve always thought you''d wander from the path some day, but¡ª" Emma said "Emma" I cut him off. "What is it, criminal?" He answered. "I think I need to have a good talk with you one of these days." I said. "Am I wrong?" Emma asked. "You are. I had dealings with him, he''s called Mr. Ijapa by the way, during the investigation of Jamal''s father." "I see...," he said while furrowing his brow and put a piece of almond chocolate into his mouth. Probably he was sympathizing with Jamal. Now that I think about it, he had been rather quiet during the time Jamal wasn''t there. Well, the same applies to the manager and Ibukun. Apparently, Jamal had become an indispensable part of the staff by now. "So? Why would that detective Ijapa come to meet you?" He asked. "I have no idea! I want to know that myself." I said. "You should seriously give some more thought to who you hang out with." "Indeed..." I definitely didn''t want to get a sermon from him, but to my chagrin he was absolutely right. When I brought the ordered tea to Ijapa, who naturally had no clue of my uneasiness, a torrent of words sprang up. "Have you nothing better to do than lurk here?" "As if! I don''t even get round to going on dates! Ah, but I won''t tell you whether there is a girl I can date, youngster." "I couldn''t care less." "You never change, huh," he sneered and took a sip of his tea. "Wow!" he smiled happily to himself. "I wish there was a peaceful day once in a while. But even in a small town like this there''s always something happening. Thanks to that, business is unfortunately thriving. 24/7." Ijapa pulled a funny face and held both his hands before him. "Then shouldn''t you stop loafing around here all the more?" I asked, upon which he put on a bitter mien. "Do you even have a heart? We policemen are human too, you know? Don''t be so rough with us!" he darted me a reproachful look, "One or two cups shouldn''t be too much to ask for," he led his cup of tea to his mouth. My question was not meant sarcastically. I had asked because I really wondered. Now that the case of Jamal''s father was solved, he should have no reason to see me. As a matter of fact, we hadn''t spoken since his father had been found. I had told him that Elizabeth''s tea was delicious, but it was more than unlikely that he came here today of all days just for the coffee. Then, as if directly answering my doubts, Ijapa added, "You''re free in a few moments, right? Do you have some time for me afterwards? Wanna go to a restaurant at the station for a chat? I''ll even treat you to something! But let me warn you: it''s not a date. Don''t get that wrong!" Now I understood. It was no coincidence that he came shortly before closing time; he wanted something from me. I nodded, "Sure." I had not the slightest idea what he wanted from me, but as I didn''t loath the conversations with this unconventional detective, I had no reason to refuse either. After work I went to the specified restaurant at the station, where Ijapa promptly discovered me and waved at me. Since it was a weekend, the shop was crowded with all sorts of people, young and old. The moment I sat down opposite him, Ijapa held out the menu card to me. "Choose whatever you like." "Okay, what''s the most expensive item?" I mused out loud. Pleased with my answer, he laughed heartedly, "I like that heedless side of yours." "By the way, so what do you want from me?" I asked while flipping through the menu with my finger tips. "I was wondering if you could answer me some questions about Jamal." He said. Before I knew it, I found myself staring at him. "Don''t scowl at me like that! It''s not like I want to steal him from you." "It''s a riddle to me what you mean by that." I said. "I''ll have a smoke," he said while putting a cigarette into his mouth. He adeptly lighted it with a lighter that had the name of some bar printed on it. "...Why?" Doubts towards his started to arise in me. "Mmm... do you mind it if I can''t give you any detailed reasons?" He asked. "If it''s a personal request, I might bring myself to answer you..." Was there anyone in this restaurant that recognized that he was a police detective? "Well, Jamal''s a pretty little boy, so I can''t say that no personal interest is included, but basically it''s work-related." He winked "Duty of confidentiality?" I asked. "Pretty much, yeah. You know, I have to be careful in my position. So don''t be offended if I''m a little unclear." Ijapa grinned at me. When he smiled like that, his eyes always got even sharper than they usually were. That probably happened without his awareness, though. He exuded a kind of authority, whose contrast with his smiling mouth gave me the shivers. That might have been the sovereignty of someone who was always exposed to utmost danger. No matter what he looked like, Ijapa was no doubt a policeman. "...are you doubting Jamal?" The instant I asked, he wrinkled his brow strongly and took a deep drag. "...you ask me that straight-out? Being sharp is one thing, but it''s a shell of a combination if you''ve also got some guts. Gabriella, interested in joining the police some day? You would make a good detective." "I''m horrible at sports, so I''ll decline with thanks." "Uh-huh. Well, at least don''t become a criminal then! If a lady like you sides with them, we policemen are going to have a hard time," he joked and stopped a waitress by raising his hand. "Have something," he urged, so I ordered the most expensive-looking item on the menu: chocolate cake and ice cream. After confirming the order, the waitress disappeared into the kitchen. "To get right to the point, I think that in this incident¡ªthere is a possibility of murder," stated Ijapa without any concern. "...wasn''t that supposed to be secret?" I asked. "For appearance''s sake, you know. I did fulfill my duty as a policeman, but now it''s at my own discretion," he pressed the cigarette against the ashtray, "I never planned on being quiet about it. I haven''t known you very long, but I know that you''re a clever girl. You would have found out anyway." He said. "You have a fairly high opinion of me, don''t you?" I said, avoiding his gaze. Ijapa, grinning slightly, seemed pleased with my suspicious look. "But it''s not idle talk; I''m honest about it. Of course it''s also true that I do have an ulterior motive of sorts, specifically that I would like to have you on my side." On hearing the word "ulterior motive", I immediately recalled our first encounter several days ago. "Ah, ''just wanted to have a quick chat," he had said at the time. "During the search, you know, I''ve been nosing around here and there and I arrived at the conclusion that no one is closer to Jamal than you at the moment. So I thought you''d be my man if I wanted to know something about him." It had been a riddle to me: why had Ijapa sought a conversation with me? Why had he given me detailed information about the progress of the search? Now that I thought about it, Ijapa had never been interested in Jamal''s father only. From day one he also wanted information about Jamal himself from me. If my guess was right, then from the beginning, Ijapa had... "¡ªyou''ve been suspecting that Jamal might have killed his father all along, haven''t you?" I asked calmly. Instead of answering, Ijapa took a gulp of water from his glass. The waitress then brought my cake and icecream. I accepted it, whereas Ijapa ordered another cup of tea. There were many customers in the wide restaurant, but ours was the most outrageous topic for sure. I found myself enjoying that odd situation a little. After confirming with a sidelong glance that the waitress had gone, Ijapa finally spoke again, "In the police you have to take any possibility into consideration in any case. So yeah, strictly speaking that potentiality had to be considered since the start." It was an affirmation, but an unusually passive one¡ªprobably because of the sensitivity of the matter. But it wasn''t a denial, either. Just then, the slumbering murder plan awoke in my mind. Did the police perhaps know about it and therefore doubt Jamal? I noticed I had a dry mouth. I seemed to be tense. "It''s not fair to compare them, but the tea at your place was on a completely different level," said Ijapa with a sour expression after taking a sip of his coffee. The window at the corner of my vision showed a bored university student. Fortunately, I was good at making a poker face. "...What would be his motive?" his motive was the most unclear point if one was to doubt Jamal. He had no reason to kill his father . At least, I couldn''t think of one. This was another crucial reason why I concluded that he was innocent. My question was based on curiosity about what the police had in their hands, but Ijapa only said bluntly, "No clue. It''s quite a mystery, isn''t it? I mean, he wasn''t on bad terms with his parents or something... it''s the reason why I asked for your help, so yeah, pretty much beats me." From the looks of it, he really had no idea. What made his doubt Jamal, then? Did that mean that they did know about the plan, after all? Or had they obtained some kind of proof I didn''t know of? Ijapa smiled broadly at me When I suddenly kept silent, "Now, don''t brood too much about it! It''s really just a possibility. Dotting the i''s and crossing the t''s is my job, you know. So, no offense!" "None taken," I pulled myself together with a smile, "...I was just wondering why you doubt Jamal even though he has no motive." Maintaining a smile, I moistened my throat with some icecream. The question was how well Ijapa knew Jamal. Ijapa maintained his smile, too, and said in a confident voice, "It''s not normal to lose two family members in such a short time, now is it?" I couldn''t keep myself from agreeing "I see." "I clearly smell a rat there. therefore, I have no choice but to take some sort of action, because I''m a member of the police, you know. If it turns out to be just an unhappy coincidence, our work ends right there. So, to sum up, I''m confirming that at the moment!" I nodded once again, "I see." I was surprised. No, "bewildered" would be more accurate. My doubts about Jamal were supposed to be cleared. However, Ijapa''s argument made perfect sense to me. "...have you confronted Jamal with that matter?" "Of course," replied Ijapa like a shot, "But that seriously falls under the duty of confidentiality, so I can''t give you any details. You can easily find out by asking him directly, though. At any rate, it''s really no big deal. After all, there''s nothing to doubt him for, apart from it being unusual to lose both parents in such a short time." I wasn''t taking him at his word, but I was quite sure that the police appeared to have no definite evidence. "Now, don''t pick on me like that! It''s true that the police are civil servants, so the pressure on us has been really harsh recently, as you say. We can''t make a big deal out of it without irrefutable proof." He raised his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug, like an American. "Now, why don''t you tell me what you really want from me?" I said. "Oh? Have you noticed? Not bad, Gabriella" he whistled skillfully without using his fingers. I, too, hadn''t known him very long, but I was well aware of his slyness. I was convinced that he hadn''t told me everything yet. Suddenly, Ijapa leaned forward, "That''s where you come into play! I want you to cooperate with me." I sneered daringly. By thinking over our conversation in my head, I finally started to grasp his intention. "...if someone unrelated to the police observed Jamal, it would cause no trouble. Plus, the more intimate that observer is with him, the better. That''s why you chose me, right?" "Seems we speak the same language," said Ijapa contentedly and tilted his tea cup. "Besides, you like this kind of work, don''t you?" "I want to be spared from trouble," I said and added, "And please don''t arbitrarily decide what I like!" But, truth be told, I actually was interested. "No use shamming," he laughed confidently. He had quickly recognized what kind of person I was. Because I had shown interest in the situation of the investigation? Because I had shown interest in him as a detective? Either way, while I hadn''t hidden it deliberately, I still had to respect his perspicacity. "That''s pretty much the reason why I singled you out." He said. "What, specifically, would you have me do?" I maintained a passive stance. I wanted to wait and see what move he would make next. "No need to be so wary, really! Basically, I just want you to answer my questions about Jamal. I won''t exploit you by sending you around or by making you do demanding stuff. Ah, please eat before the icecream melts. Feel free to order anything afterwards." Ijapa grinned. He clearly intended to exploit me. Naturally I had no appetite, but I still put my fork in the cake. "¡ªTo tell the truth, it''s not by the consensus of the police that I''m here. You could even call it a personal request from me. To be frank, I''m the only one at the station who bears Jamal in mind," he suddenly started talking after watching me eat for a while, "Well, it''s not surprising, because that suicide kind of lacks peculiarity. If you just assume his motive was grief over losing his wife, it makes sense. We even have several statements that confirm that he was depressed since his death," Ijapa put on a self-ironic smile. "But what has to be noted is that his suicide note was written on the computer and not by hand. So it''s physically possible that it was typed in by someone else who wanted to make the incident out to be suicide. But that''s not enough to dig out the case. Keep in mind that many suicide victims don''t leave behind a note at all. For another thing, the only fact that makes Jamal''s doubtable is that he is his son. It''s not like his behavior raised any doubts." I stopped my fork and knife and looked Ijapa straight into the eye, "then I fail to understand why you doubt Jamal all the more. I don''t want to help you as long as you can''t give me a plausible explanation." Since learning about the murder plan had been observing Jamal day in, day out. So what should she, who had only just met Jamal, know that I didn''t know? What trait of Jamal''s should she know, which I, the holder of the murder recipe, didn''t know? Of course, if he really knew a side of his I didn''t know, my stance would change as well. ¡ªBecause that would be something I definitely needed to know. With a neutral expression, Ijapa replied, "Call it a detective''s intuition." "Hah?" I didn''t believe my ears. Noticing my bafflement, he hurriedly added, "Ah, was I too blunt? No, but you see, it''s not easy to explain it with words! Perhaps you could say, something feels ''wrong'' to me?" "A gut feeling, huh...," I murmured, unconvinced, but his following words caught me entirely by surprise. "I mean, Jamal''s perfect, isn''t he ?" My heart beat accelerated rapidly. He had the same impression as I had had many times before. "I''ve experienced this sort of incident quite a few times so far, due to my job and all, and let me tell you: to the people concerned it''s a real shock to lose their parents if they''re about your age. It''s a sudden change of their life! Seriously, that''s just... cruel. Be it an accident or an incident, I still haven''t found out how I should deal with those kids. How hard must it be if they lose both their parents at the same time?" he suddenly put on a severe expression, "Now, how about him? To me, Jamal doesn''t look at all like a desolate Twenty-year-old who has suffered such a loss. In our conversations he comes across just too faultless! his perfections isn''t something that can be explained just by saying he had a good grip on himself or that he was behaving mature. Don''t you agree?" ¡ªhe is so perfect being around his would be suffocating. Come to think of it, that was my initial impression of him. "I even happened to think that he would be fine without his parents. That we had nothing to worry about." Thirsty from talking long in one go, Ijapa did not take his cup of tea but the glass of water right next to it and emptied it. "Sorry for giving you such a baseless reason. But I''m actually quite serious. In our field, it''s not at all rare that a slight gut feeling can lead to the truth of an incident." Looking at Ijapa, who was keeping up an expression full of confidence¡ª "Complicated thoughts about these things are no good. Believe it or not, it''s simple more often than not. Essentially, unusual things happen around someone who is unusual. Isn''t it easy?" ¡ªI thought that the expression "a detective''s intuition" might have been quite appropriate. Apparently, my silence made Ijapa think I was ill-tempered. "Did I offend you? Well, naturally I did. After all, I''m asking you to help me confirm my doubts even though you are very intimate with Jamal. Now that I think of it, isn''t this quite a nasty request?" he said and laughed, "Don''t become like me!" It''s not like I was offended. I was merely deep in thought. I was overwhelmed by a great number of thoughts that came up in my head. ¡ªMost likely, he doesn''t know about the murder plan. That was the only thing I was sure of at the moment. At the same time it was also the most important one. When I collected myself, I found Ijapa looking seriously at me. "Why don''t you think of it the other way round? Just think you''re helping me to prove that he is innocent. You don''t want me to doubt Jamal right?" It slipped out of my mouth: "I sure don''t want that." Those words came from the bottom of my heart. It had been me who had doubted Jamal up to now. The fact that some policeman suddenly appeared and doubted him was repulsive; as if someone was nitpicking about how I played my game. Apparently, Ijapa took my answer as affirmation. "Right!" he nodded happily, "Waitress! I''ll have another cup of tea! And add a glass of water to that!" He drunk up the rest of his nearly empty coffee. Then I talked to Ijapa for a whole hour, telling him details about Jamal. I told him everything I knew, that time also including things like his popularity and competence at work and school. Well, I did keep quiet about things like the confession at the library, but otherwise, for example why he started to work or what happened on that night when his father went missing, I told him everything as detailed as possible. I had arrived at the conclusion that I couldn''t hide anything from that man. since, I considered it more fruitful to earn his trust by not holding back any information. At the end, Ijapa asked me to contact him if I found out anything and told me that he would also contact me if he wanted me to help his with something, then we parted ways. Of course I kept quiet about the murder plan, although it''s not like I hadn''t considered telling him. I was convinced enough of his capability as a detective that I didn''t allow myself to be deceived by his gigolo-like appearance and behavior. If I gave him that vital spark, the murder plan, he would no doubt be able to reach a "deep layer" of this incident which I could never reach on my own. In all objectivity, there would have been no more effective way to fulfill my desire of learning "everything about Jamal" than to tell Ijapa about the murder plan. However, I couldn''t bring myself to do that. Because the murder plan was mine. There was one certain thing I noticed. It was the only and, at the same time, a most important discovery. Indeed ¡ª the murder plan had not at all lost its lustre after all. Chapter 8 - Think like a man No matter how popular a nice person is, even he or she would eventually would draw envy. Naturally, as soon as Jamal appeared at school after his long absence, everyone wanted to be around him. In no time at all, a wall akin to a fortress loomed before him. "Are you okay, Jamal? Aren''t you tired? Don''t hesitate to tell me if there''s anything I can help you with, okay?" "Thank you, Ola. I feel much better now that I have seen your concerns. I really should have brought myself to come to school sooner," he put on a brilliant smile. Jamal then took a look at the surrounding people. "My sincere thanks to everyone else as well. I can''t express how happy I am... that so many of you have worried about me. I am really lucky to have classmates like you!" He closed his eyes softly without breaking his smile as he put his hands together in thanks. Tempted by the deep emotion he was showing, they all put on meek expressions and nodded all together. I almost had to snort upon seeing that Tundun and her guys were among them, too, with earnest faces that couldn''t have suited them less. Originally my classmates probably wanted to be the ones that comforted a disheartened Jamal, but in fact it turned out the opposite. If someone had taken a photograph of that scene and told me it was Jamal comforting his disheartened classmates, I would have believed it. In other words, Jamal could do perfectly without our worthless pity. Only when he was among masses of people like now, his true value surfaced. Though everyone were in the same age group, only he was special and stood out from the others, shining almost like the moon in the darkest night: magnificently and full of elegance. As there was no way to get through the impregnable fortress that was protecting him, I was degraded to a mere "Villager A" who beheld the captivating prince from afar. From time to time, however, our eyes met. I can''t deny that I found myself not incapable of interpreting his demanding gaze as an appeal to rescue him. But for one thing I would have looked stupid if I was wrong, and for another thing it was unreasonable to voluntarily take such a calorie-consuming action for someone like me who does not care two figs about chivalry. Thus, I slipped out of the uncomfortable classroom and brilliantly fulfilled my role as Villager A by silently watching the clouds through the corridor window until homeroom began. Even during breaks the situation didn''t change. It didn''t take me long to realize that I wouldn''t be able to properly talk to him at school for a while, thus I chose to spend my breaks in the quiet corridor, away from the noise. As a reaction to my quick resignation, clever Jamal started to write messages on a quartered report sheet and passed them to me during the breaks because he couldn''t talk to me directly. To prevent the others from noticing, he gave them to me while passing me by without looking at me. He either handed the letters to me or just put them into my pocket. By the time school was over, five of them had come into my possession. I laid them out in the order I had received them, starting with the one I had gotten in the first break. ?Why didn''t you help me?? ?You know my feelings, don''t you?? ?It''s been so long since we could talk.? ?I think I will be in the library during lunch break.? ?I forgot how cold-hearted you are.? He had surely realized that messaging would have done the job. I sensed a kind of unyielding spirit and pride from the fact that he still chose to stick to those messages. By the way, I had indulged myself in a midday nap during that lunch break. Because I would have to deal with him at work after school anyway. Besides, there was still one scrap he had not given me yet, judging from the pattern she used. The "after-school"-message. I had in mind to react after reading that one. As expected, she let a scrap of paper fall on my desk as he passed me by while cheerfully saying goodbye to our classmates. A smile escaped my mouth when I read the hastily written message. It was at last a request I couldn''t reject, so I quickly packed my bag and left the classroom. ?This day tired me. I don''t want to walk. I''ll take you to the caf¨¦ in my car. In return I''ll forgive your behavior today.? As it seemed, it''s not always easy to be in the spotlight. Just watching had annoyed me, so I figured his exhaustion had to be huge. Since I was satisfied by having gotten him to show a sign of weakness, though only in letters, I was willing to answer the prince''s wishes for once and accompany him. When I left the school building with such thoughts, my eyes found a tall man near the front gate. He spotted me immediately and signaled me to come by waving me to him, while "hiding" in the shadow of the gate. I would have preferred to just feign ignorance, but he wasn''t someone that would allow me to ignore him. He would simply pursue me until he had me. I took out my mobile phone, quickly typed in a message and sent it. I informed Jamal that I could not accompany him to the caf¨¦. I didn''t want to involve him in "that matter". Not out of some sparkling heroism to protect him, but because I considered it a private affair. A reply returned a few seconds later. ?I don''t care about you anymore!? What speed, considering the number of letters! I could well imagine him pressing the buttons of his phone with a furious wrath at an imperceptible speed. Even though I felt a little upset as I looked up at the clear blue sky, I had to acknowledge it was my own fault and gave up. After all, it was I who had evaded him that entire day. It''s not like there was a special reason. I simply hadn''t wanted to become one among many. "Ya! Let''s get into my car instead of standing here." Mr. Ijapa was in a good humor as always. "What do you want from me this time?" I responded purposefully in ill-humor. "Do I have to tell you?" He asked "Yes. I have to go to work afterward, so I find myself constrained to refuse if it''s useless talk." "Mh... well, I can surely tell you right now, but it''s some really nasty stuff that shouldn''t be said at the gate of a school. Still wanna know?" he stressed with a heavily wrinkled brow, giving me the pleasure of bathing in the shocked glances of the surrounding students. "...Let''s just go. Come on." I acquiesced tiredly. "Thank you for your ready approval! It''s a pleasure to work with you, Gabriella!" I saw that staying here would only give birth to bad rumors, so I reluctantly followed him out of the gate. Mr. Ijapa''s car, parked near the school in a side alley, was a bright blue pickup car that quite suited his style. "Nice car, huh? He smirked. "Is it okay for a police detective to park on the street?" I rolled my eyes. I didn''t recognize the make of his car, but I very easily recognized the no parking sign right next to the car. "It''s okay because I am a police officer. If I hypothetically get a fine for illegal parking, I can just make good use of my position and cover up the misdemeanor." He laughed. "What a corrupt world." I said dryly. "I wonder who made it like this?" He whistled "Deep inside you should know." I said, staring pointedly at him "Oh, how philosophic. Too deep for me, so hop in already." The unaffected expression he showed as he played dumb suited him perfectly. Since I had to admit that, I had no choice but to give in and take a seat. "¡ªA couple of days ago you explained to me what happened on the day when Jamal''s father went missing, remember? At that restaurant." "Yes." The second I sat down on the passenger seat, Mr. Ijapa began talking in an earnest voice. The authority he emitted made it seem as though the air of the car had been compressed in a split second, sending the previously peaceful mood away far away. "Actually, I''ve hashed and rehashed it in my mind, but there are some points that just won''t make sense to me." Mr. Ijapa brought down the window and lighted a cigarette from his breast pocket. "Take the phone call from her mother''s workplace. If you ask me, that timing was too good. Don''t you think Youko-chan actually made sure that she would get that call when she was together with you?" he blew a stream of smoke out of the window, "Don''t you think it''s strange that the phone rang precisely the moment she clung to you?" The scene of that rainy night''s crossroads¡ªof the colorful umbrellas¡ªrose into my mind. "How would she make them call her at a good timing?" It goes without saying that the timing had caught my attention. However, I did not know how to get someone to make such a convenient call. "He could have left behind his number in their call history right before hugging you, for an example." It was an emergency case. "Considering how pressing the thing was, they may have called him several times already while you were working?" For the gym, their boss was missing without notice and was completely unavailable at that. It''s perfectly thinkable that they would have promptly called back any number in their unaccepted call history, even if it was an unknown one. "However, nobody knew whether he had gotten a call or not. You couldn''t find out just by being at the same place," Mr. Ijapa''s mouth broke into a grin, "Unless you got in close contact by, say, hugging each other." I recalled what I had felt that night; the vibration reaching me via his hug that had been pressed against my body. "...indeed, his mobile phone was set to... silent mode." "That''s exactly what I mean. Well, you also mustn''t forget that we''re dealing with Jamal. It''s also possible that there was no call in the first place. In other words, he pretended. He accted." "Acted?" I repeated like a parrot. "Have you ever heard of the alarm function?" "Of course! Do you think I''m a¡ª" I began, but couldn''t continue because I realized at once what he was getting at. Mr. Ijapa went on, "Phones don''t only vibrate for incoming calls. The alarm functions lately have become really handy; they keep on vibrating until you execute the predefined operation." "Would he really do that?" I asked myself silently with several question marks popping up over my head. However, taking only the point of whether it''s possible or not into consideration, the answer was clear. "You can''t be sure if it''s him, can you?" I couldn''t deny it. I was positive that he could have done it. "Well, we don''t know if he acted or if there really was a call. It''s just that your explanation leaves those possibilities open. But either way, it''s not relevant. Feel free to forget about it. His real intention lies somewhere else, after all." "His real intention...?" Mr. Ijapa kept silent, waiting for my next words; probably because he had noticed that I was pondering. His primary objective that night, which he was even willing to feign a call for, was¡ª "¡ªto lure me to his home?" He snapped his fingers, "Bingo! It makes sense if his goal was to get you to his home. No one would leave someone whose father has just gone missing. Even someone as dry as you wouldn''t. Well, and you did go to his home in the end." I reconsidered that night with the events Mr. Ijapa pointed out in mind. ¡ªIt was as though a crumbled block was reconstructed at a terrific speed. And the newly built block had a completely different shape. While crushing his cigarette in the ashtray, he continued, "I think you got it. He assigned the task of discovering the suicide note to you." A cold shiver ran down my back. If he was right about that, everything that had happened that night had been based on a scenario written by Jamal. "There''s another doubtful aspect apart from that. Recall what happened right when you arrived at his home. If I''m not mistaken the first thing he did was getting you a towel to wipe your wet body," he raised his head and looked at me with a razor-sharp gaze, "That''s not normal, is it? The first action one would normally take isn''t ''getting a towel'' but ''finding that father''!"This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Having come to the conclusion that Jamal had not killed anyone, I was supposed to deny his opinion, regardless of what it consisted of. "Indeed, you do have a point. It also stands true, however, that I could clearly sense that nobody was in the house the moment I stepped into the building. I''d say that Jamal must have been able to perceive the situation much more clearly than I, the outsider, who''d only come for the second time." Nevertheless, I was impressed by everything he pointed out. "You mean that Jamal was able to conclude that his mother wasn''t there even without searching the house?" "Yes," I nodded. "I don''t think so," Mr. Ijapa flashed a masterful grin, "But I''m an adult, experienced in the ways of the world and all, you know, so I just can''t think as straightly as you do." Seeing how he was able to conclude so much just with the little information he had, he deserved his title as a detective. He really was an extremely capable person. He made me understand that once more. I even found myself impatient for more¡ª "The thing may be that his father was already dead when you went there, and he knew it. Thus, he wasn''t eager to search for him. It''s possible to interpret his unnatural behavior in such a way, don''t you agree?" "...So?" My forced voice was a little hoarse. "What are you getting at?" Because I knew exactly what Mr. Ijapa was going to answer. The instant I averted my eyes from him¡ªhis long arm whooshed past my head and his hand landed hard on the the passenger side window. "Was it over your head? Then I''ll be frank with you..." His sharp features were directly before me as he leaned forward. The stench of smoke assaulted my nose. "...that guy, Jamal, has killed his father!" After declaring that, his gaze was drawn towards the front window. Following him, I also directed my eyes there. Ahead of the straight side alley was the main street, bathed in madder red. One could see students on their way home passing by like fishes swimming. There was one person that had gotten separated from the bulk, standing still at the opening of the alley. The silhouette was slightly built and dark. Due to the backlight the sunset produced, I couldn''t make out his face. What I clearly did recognize, however, was that the university guy over there was gazing at us. He wasn''t approaching us, nor was he walking away; just staring in our direction. That shadow had a terrifically strong presence to it despite just standing there without even interacting with us. I delved deep into the seat and quickly urged, "...please get us out of here right now." "Are you sure?" Mr. Ijapa asked with his gaze still on the front window. "Yes," I answered, whereupon he replied with a stressed "Hmmm?" The next moment, he switched once to neutral before quickly shifting gears and backing out of the narrow side alley at a breakneck speed. In no time we arrived at the street opposite the male student. During that I could do nothing but tightly clench my fist. At first Mr. Ijapa said nothing, but when we came upon a red traffic light, he returned to the topic as if he had been waiting for it. "I''m sure I don''t have to explain to you that he fulfills all necessary prerequisites to fake his father''s suicide note, right?" I nodded. That was my limit. I didn''t know what would come out if I opened my mouth. "He''s a bright guy. He knew that authenticity would rise dramatically if the note was discovered by a third party rather than himself. And he chose you for that part. Well, his plan worked out splendidly since you did find it for him." I ground my teeth. "I also think that as a family member he should have had no trouble killing his father. I mean, let''s not even start listing the ways he could have used to take him out! What remained was to go to that forlorn park on the high ground and push him down the cliff." I was clenching my fist so hard it hurt. "Child''s play for him, right?" Don''t talk big like that! You don''t know him as well as I do!¡ªI found myself fighting with the urge to shout out all this. What compelled me that moment was not impatience anymore but raw anger. Hearing someone else talk about him like that irritated me as if having my garden trampled down by strangers. Mr. Ijapa pulled the car onto the sidewalk and smiled, "We''re here." I peeked out and found that he had parked along the main street, near the caf¨¦. I gave him a nod, "Thank you." The next moment he put on his usual frivolous smile and shrugged like an American. "Sorry for startling you. But once in a while I have to show you that I''m still a policeman, a detective, you know," he grinned, but his eyes weren''t at all smiling, "And I don''t want to cause the misunderstanding that you can hide things from me forever." He pulled me closer by my shoulder, "...I would be very thankful if you could soon recall some interesting info, since that would save me some messy work..." His emphatic whisper sent a cold shiver down my spine. I guessed that being threatened with a knife pressed against one''s neck had to be a similar experience. I averted my gaze without replying and discovered the reflection of a person in the window. There was a grim university lady who didn''t move a muscle with the exception of the blinking of her eyes. I noticed that the hand of that student was holding onto her left breast. I felt a familiar touch with my fingers. ¡ªThe murder plan. I had strained my hand without noticing it. It was the one thing I had to protect no matter what. Because the murder plan embodied the only point where I had the upper hand over Mr. Ijapa and was my last trump card against Jamal. Mopping the dim caf¨¦ after closing time. Suddenly, a shadow obstructed the course of my mop. I looked up and found the owner of the shadow standing with legs spread and arms crossed. "Did you have an argument or something?" asked Emma, looking down at me with a deeply wrinkled brow. "Argument? Who? With whom?" I wasn''t playing dumb. I honestly didn''t know. "Are you dumb? You and Jamal of course, who else?" "I really don''t think I''m dumb... but anyway, what gives you that idea?" "It''s pretty damn obvious if anyone looked at you two! You haven''t talked at all lately, have you?" While leaning onto the mop, I thought about it. "...we haven''t?" I remembered next to nothing of today''s work. "Doesn''t surprise me. It was obvious that you were miles away." Now that he mentioned it, I had to admit that in my thoughts I had been "miles away" with Mr. Ijapa indeed. I had been pondering over a way to surpass that man non-stop during work. The more I thought about it, the more I came to think that I had no chance of beating him. "Anyway, leaving that aside since it''s nothing new in your case¡ª" "Objection!" "Overruled!" He had no sympathy. "Let me carry on; this time Jamal''s acting strange as well. It looks like he''s actively avoiding you to me," he thrust out his chin and drew herself up, "So, what have you done to him? Come on, try to explain yourself. At least I''ll hear you out." As usual, he was so stubborn with his opinion that it was refreshing. "Are you unable to think that I might be the victim?" "Yeah. I''m on Jamal''s side whatever happens." "What an unreasonable world!" "Ohh, you only noticed just now?" he answered my lamenting words haughtily, "The world''s unreasonable and unjust wherever you go; otherwise social stratification would not exist in the first place. So why should I bother playing a saint if the world''s very setup is already shit? I live by my own rules." If you ever tried giving the word "self-centered" a form, you would definitely get this man in front of you. "My way of life is simple, isn''t it?" He said happily. Well, it was simple indeed. Her rule was just one: getting his will whatever others say. Nothing more. But I couldn''t imagine just how hard it had to be to pull that "nothing more" through. It''s not something anyone can do. Not everyone is as strong as she is. But he carried on playing his guitar without letting the noise of the world interrupt his concert. There are bound to be some that brand people like him as trouble-makers, as egoists, or even hate them. I agreed insofar that it was a highly justified view. "...indeed. So simple I''m almost jealous." To my chagrin, however, I found myself understanding her very well. I couldn''t help but be amused by such a reckless man who would hold a mike with one hand and show the masses the middle finger with the other. As one of his fans I thought, "One or two like him wouldn''t do any harm to the world." "Okay, you oughta apologize now." He said "To you?" I played dumb. Jamal smiled, amazed. "Idiot. No use apologizing to me, is there. You should apologize to the chit-sorting ''prince'' who''s sneaking peeks at us from over there!" said the "king" in a loud voice. I turned around and discovered Jamal standing at the register where no one had been at the start of our conversation. Our eyes met. "It hath come to my ear that Your Highness wisheth for an apology. Is it true?" I asked in a quite sardonic tone, upon which Jamal dropped his gaze immediately to his hands. "Why should I need an apology? We have not at all had an argument with each other, have we?" he answered while sorting one chit after the other. "His Highness begs to differ, I fear?" I said looking at Emma "Just look, does that look to you like he''s not angry at you? He couldn''t make it more obvious! Now, come on, I''m bothering to act as a go-between for you, so take action and say you''re sorry already." "Don''t worry, bro Emma, I am not angry in the least. But even if we were in the middle of a quarrel and if I wished for an apology from Gabriella, there would be no point if she does not feel any guilt. I would still prefer no apology at all over getting an idle one that is not meant by heart," said Jamal in one breath. "''Don''t worry''? ''Not angry in the least''?" I was irritated by Jamal''s indirect and ironic allusions, "If he wants to say something, he should make himself clear, don''t you agree, Emma?" "Now, look at that, bro Emma. You can''t call it a quarrel if Gabriella is not even aware of what she has done." "I won''t apologize, Emma! Hes just getting worked up all on his own." "Bro Emma, let''s not bother with that blockhead anymore." Suddenly, Emma tousled his hair with both hands and... "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" ...shouted from the top of his lungs. "Hell! Just shut up! You''re getting on my nerves!" The manager and Ibukun cautiously peeked out of the staffroom to check what was going on. "This! Really! Is! A pain!" Emma wound his arm around my head and took me into a neck-hold. He ignored my complaints and proceeded rapidly towards the register while yelling, "Come here!" Upon arriving there, he stretched out his free arm, as could be expected, and took Jamal by the neck in the same manner. We two, constrained at Emma''s side, were forced to face each other from close up whether we wanted or not. I did not want to see Jamal''s face in the least. "You know, I''m really not that patient! I can''t stand such a pain anymore! Forget about the remaining work and just get out!" He yelled down at us, saying things about his temper everybody already knew. "Gabriella!You apologize to Jamal! And Jamal, you forgive her when she does!" He said while scowling at us in turn, "I don''t care about the reason behind this quarrel, but make sure you make up with each other on the way to the bus stop! Then you come to work tomorrow as usual! Got it? That''s an order!" Before I knew it, Jamal and I were exchanging glances, and a moment later sighing as if on cue. "Hey, what about your reply!?" Faced with the overwhelming commands that rained down on us, we exchanged glances once more and had no choice but to nod reluctantly, "...understood." Solely lit by white street lights, we walked along a narrow alley towards the station. We were silent. Jamal must have dropped his car at home before coming for work. Upon entering the way along the main street , our field of vision was filled with gorgeous neon light. The number of people increased in proportion to the illumination, and so did the noise. The headlights of the cars passing us by made us flare up in yellow. Far away a siren was resounding, whereas in the proximity a dog was raising a forceful bark to fight it back. And we were silent. Jamal was the first to give in to the oppressive air. He stopped abruptly. "You have been a little strange lately," he whispered, getting straight to the point, "Is there something bothering you?" "Do I look that way?" I asked back. He tilted his neat chin a bit and asked further, "Perhaps it is related to Mr. Ijapa?" I did not remember having spoken about Mr. Ijapa in hispresence¡ª "I have heard he visited the caf¨¦ when I was absent." ¡ªbut I figured that there were some things he already knew. "According to bro Emma, you two get on well together, just like a couple." What on earth had Emma told him about us? Not that I wanted to know. "That''s none of your business," I spat out bluntly and averted my gaze from him. I didn''t want to talk about Mr. Ijapa with him. "But it is!" I insisted on settling the matter with Mr. Ijapa without his interference. "I say it''s not." Of course I was aware that he had no way of knowing that I didn''t want to drag him in. "I can''t just ignore it!" his eyes suddenly turned serious, "There is nothing about you that''s not important to me." In Jamal''s wide opened and clear eyes I was reflected with an awfully disinterested face. Stop it! Don''t look at me with such eyes! While I was not at all in the position to complain to him for insistently probing into a subject I shunned¡ªI was the one of us who wanted to hide her feelings, after all¡ªI gave in to my displeasure and raised my pace. "I hate insistent men!" It might have still been forgivable if I had been just acting, but unfortunately I had been simply unable to hide my irritation. As a matter of fact, I had been quite taxed recently. I was frustrated because I wasn''t making progress with Mr. Ijapa. I was pressured because I was unable to find a way to break that deadlock. I was in constant unrest that he might find out about the murder plan. And most of all, I felt inferior to Jamal. Suddenly, Jamal pulled my arm from behind, "Come here." He drew me to an old bench near a bus stop and made me sit down. Then he trotted off towards a kiosk, a couple of meters away and quickly came back with two bottles in his hands. He put on a smile, "You like ''this'', don''t you?" He thrust a cold and wet Fanta bottleto me. I was so taken aback that I completely forgot about my irritation. ... Jamal really was not to be underestimated. Apparently he had been all ears to our talk in the classroom. "If we get into a quarrel here again even though bro Emma told us to make up, I won''t be able to face him tomorrow." I snatched the bottle away from him, opened it and took a long gulp of the cool orange-colored liquid. "We can consider ourselves lucky to have someone that worries so much about us. Don''t you agree?" The sour but refreshing taste of the orange drink soothed my boisterous feelings effectively. "...It''s as you say. I''m sorry." Jamal sat down next to me. "No, please forgive me." His hair-ends swayed. "I tried being sulky for once," he chuckled with his gaze still dropped, "Because you have been giving me the cold shoulder lately." He brought his face to mine with reproachful eyes. "Please come to my place again sometime. I promise I won''t do anything you don''t like anymore, okay?" He said jokingly and laughed, but I couldn''t help finding a trace of loneliness in his face. I recalled that he was all alone now. Jamal''s house was large; and had to feel even larger without any cohabitants. Various worries crossed my mind. "...but you''ve been quite occupied yourself, too, recently." As a matter of fact, I had gotten my plate much too full with Mr. Ijapa alone to care about Jamal, but I felt a little guilty upon seeing him lonely like that. "Oh yes, because a certain someone did not only refrain from helping me but also ignored me completely, I had no time for recreation at school." "Well, you have my sympathies." "I''m sure you aren''t joking but really mean it like that..." Jamal shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly along with a small sigh. Sure enough, I had decided to give priority to the affair with Mr. Ijapa rather than Jamal''s situation. "At any rate, I''ll try to act normal at the caf¨¦, so please tell Emma something positive, too," I ended our conversation and stood up. "¡ªMr Ijapa and you are like siblings with an age gap," Jamal murmured, "Perhaps it was that, supported by the fact, that made me feel unhappy and left out." I sat down again on the bench and peeked at his seemingly brooding face from the side. "...Mr. Ijapa and I are like siblings, you say? Haven''t you also compared Emma and I in a similar way?" "Yes, I have. Now that you say it, all three of you resemble each other. Of course I don''t mean your looks by that, you understand?" "Care to elaborate?" I was very interested in how I looked in his eyes. "Let me think... I don''t know if it''s the right expression to use, but you three somehow resemble each other in your ''way of life''." "...our way of life, huh." "I''m sorry that I can''t put it clearly." "No, I think I get what you mean." ''Way of life'' was a rather wide term, but if interpreted as something like ''our values'', then I had to admit that theirs and mine weren''t so different. I was sympathizing with them in many regards. Jamal''s opinion was most interesting, which is why I felt inclined to ask more. Especially about Mr. Ijapa. . "Tell me, what do you think about Mr. Ijapa? He''s quite a strange guy, don''t you agree?" Jamal rested his chin on his hand and meaningfully sighed, "He sure is!" "You don''t look pleased," I stated. "I don''t really like him. I don''t feel comfortable when he''s around me because I have to be cautious of his attempts to read my character all the time. So it''s really tiring to be together with him for too long. I wonder if all detectives are like him?" He pulled his shoulders in as if he were attacked by a cold shiver. I haven''t seen him like this very often. If it''s Mr. Ijapa however, anyone would show a similar reaction. That man was not normal. "In comparison I would want to be by your side for hours and hours. I wonder why that is?" He cocked his head and peeked into my face like a little devil. "Don''t ask me," I averted my eyes after deigning him a look, "I don''t know about other detectives, but I''m pretty sure he belongs to a very peculiar category. He constantly leads me by the nose. I''m no match for him." Right. I was at my wit''s end. Maybe he had been too strong an opponent for me from the beginning. "But as a man who resembles him, you should understand him much better than I do," he said, "Right?" Jamal formed his mouth into a crescent moon smile. My heart skipped a beat. "Don''t you think that he cares more than necessary about you and not me because he likes you? It''s normal to feel special about people that seem to understand you," he added. My heart reacted fiercely to each of his words. "That''s a lie. I have no idea what he thinks." "Indeed. From time to time I have no idea what you think, either, Gabriella," he giggled, shaking his head. My mind was blurry¡ªthe trail felt so near and still I couldn''t see it. "What are you getting at? I fail to comprehend what you want to tell me." But I was confident that the trail was somewhere ahead. "Mhh, as I said, you two resemble each other!" Jamal put on a mischievous smile and purred pretentiously. "No, I''ve heard that already." When I gave him an urging look, he shrugged lightly in an uncomfortable manner and finally opened his mouth. My mind cleared up the very moment her words reached my ears. "If you want to know what he thinks, just think about what you would do in his place!" Because we resembled each other. Our trains of thought should resemble as well ¡ª he added with a smile. Without waiting for him to finish speaking, I started thinking. I matched mr. Ijapa''s actions so far with my own thoughts. What would I do? What would I want to do? Ideas started flooding into my head without end. "...sorry. There''s something I have to do," I told him quickly, pressed some money into her hand and ran off home. I rushed through the night town without caring about his yell that caught up with me. I just wanted to be alone. I wanted to be alone and collect my overflowing thoughts. I hadn''t found a clear answer to how I could settle that affair with Mr. Ijapa ¡ª I was going to think about that now ¡ª but I was on the right trail. This matter doesn''t necessarily have to end with a clear result. And it''s not important what the truth behind the incident is. Those were the two things I was sure of. Why? ¡ª Because I thought so. Chapter 9 - The Verdict Every now and then a train crossed the railway bridge. Each time that happened, the white railing I was sitting on started vibrating and an ear-shattering noise filled the entire area. The trains were very old models from the 1960''s. They never operated smoothly and made more noise than they had patronage. I was a fair bit away from the train station at the edge of a big market area, the most popular one close to my school, which I had chosen because there would be passers-by even during the day, and was waiting for the time. Where I stood waiting, was a recently demolished stall area, awaiting renovations and thus didn''t have people frequenting the area. I didn''t want to be interrupted by anyone. At the same time I also needed people to witness incase things got out of hand. Probably due to the sound insulation of the concrete, the sounds of the vicinity seemed extremely far. When I silently held my breath, I was under the impression that I was in an isolated institution far away in no-man''s-land. That might be the reason why I didn''t notice him until he was nearby. On the boundary separating light and darkness, a tall man with the appearance of a gigolo grinned daringly, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. "Quite unexpected to have you call me out. What happened?" His voice resounded from the concrete all around us. "Oh, have you by any chance recalled some good piece of information concerning Jamal?" He flicked the cigarette away, which then traversed a parabola before hitting the ground. "But whew," he began while cracking his neck, "you sure have chosen quite a desolate place. Are you out for a duel with me today or what?" He crushed the cigarette with his caramel-brown shoes. "Weak as I am, I would never feel inclined to a duel," I shook my head, "But I do want to settle things with you." I restfully stood up and fixedly stared at the man a few meters from me. "Im putting an end to it," I smiled. He closed one eye and grinned broadly, "Since you are the host, I''ll let you have your say first." Mr Ijapa leaned on the wall and crossed his arms. "I would like to start not with a statement but with a question." I said. "Oh, sure, sure. As many as you want, no need to be shy with me," he nodded easygoingly. "Why did you become a detective?" I probed. The next moment, he narrowed his eyes full of interest while stroking his chin. "I don''t want to be rude, but you aren''t the type that acts out of a sense of justice." I said. "Well, that was rude. Actually, I''ve taken to answering such questions with ''It''s to protect my community!'' while flashing a cool smile and saluting." Upon seeing my dumbfounded face, he laughed dryly. "Being a detective is what I live for!" he suddenly made a serious face, "I chose a job where it''s work and work throughout the year, all day long, and where I may lose my life due to a slight mistake. Because I''m still a civil servant, people insult me, calling me a tax parasite, useless and all other unspeakable things despite my poor salary. So why did I sign up for such a thankless job? You know, it''s to see all kinds of people and their relationships in all kinds of situations, whether they''re joyous or grieving!" Mr Ijapa stared into the air with an odd light in his eyes, originating from ecstasy. "It''s such a tremulous excitement when their masks crumble! It feels as if I were able to sneak a peek at the true nature of us humans. Bare emotions tell the truth much more eloquently than any justification." When he finished, I couldn''t suppress a sneer anymore. "Oh that''s cruel, Gabriella. Now that I''ve answered seriously for once because you looked so stern! I bet you''re thinking of me as some crazy person now, aren''t you?" I immediately answered his scowl by shaking my head. "By no means. Rather I was relieved to hear so much nonsense. It suits you, you know?" I shrugged "Oho, now that''s an unconventional evaluation." He seemed surprised. "I guess. After all, I am, too, a good-for-nothing like you." I said with a straight face. "I know," this time he sneered, "Since the moment I''ve first seen you." The second I saw his grin, I was convinced: as Jamal had assessed, we really were similar. "So, anything else you want to tell me?" he crossed his arms. "There''s nothing I would need to tell you!" I hissed. "Oh? You acknowledge it just like that? What I''ve said until now about Jamal, I mean?" Mr Ijapa doubtfully raised an eyebrow. "You''re getting me wrong. I''m saying that my opinion hasn''t changed in the first place." I said. "Despite all I told you?" He posed. "Yes, despite all that." I affirmed. "Oh you''re a trip! You''re joking, right? Didn''t you agree quite a lot to my doubts?" He looked serious. "Indeed, I did agree. Insofar that the case could also be viewed in such an interesting light. Thanks to you I could catch a glimpse of how professional detectives deduce things by drawing one logical conclusion upon another. But that''s all. My confidence in Jamal won''t be swayed just by your assumptions." When I smiled, he glared at me for just a split-second. "Those are all just your assumptions. Frankly speaking, they''re just baseless products of your over-creative fantasy." Mr Ijapa stared at me expressionlessly. "Didn''t you say yourself that the rest of the police are treating this case as an accident? In other words, you are suspecting him on a personal basis, right? I don''t know how excellent a detective you are or how high-ranked you are within the police, but that''s what we call a ''grandstand play'', you know?" Since he did not react, I proceeded even further. "As you have told me earlier, too, even in a small town like ours there are incidents every day, so is it not rather suboptimal for an ''official'' to bother with Jamal and me? If you still insist on associating with us, you''ll deserve the labeling as a tax parasite." Of course I had a reason for getting that offensive. "It''s not in the interest of either of us to waste any more time on this. If you recalled what your original job is, I could carefreely return to my peaceful student life as well." I was confident that he had no irrefutable proof. In other words, he had still not arrived at the "murder plan". And without it, it was not possible to reasonably entertain suspicions concerning Jamal. "You''ve done your best. But there are other things you ought to do. So, let''s put an end to this already." There was one more thing that backed me up. No one would blame him for backing out of this case. The police were considering it an accident; nothing hindered Mr Ijapa from letting go. Mr Ijapa had been free to proceed or withdraw from the very beginning. That''s what I figured out. "...you''ve got me there. You''re completely right. Can''t counter that," he pulled a new cigarette from the pocket of his jacket while smiling lopsidedly and put it into his mouth, "To tell the truth, the department chief and the station chief, well, let''s just say the people at the top, are bugging me all the time because they want me to do my work properly. My colleagues have already given up though, since it''s nothing new for them, heh!" A small light flared up in the darkness. Mr Ijapa had lit the cigarette with a lighter advertising some sleazy product. "...Can you figure out why they still let me grandstand?" He blew out a puff of smoke. "It''s because I''m capable!" he claimed confidently, "And do you know what makes me capable?" He tapped on his forehead. "My sharp intuition." The next moment, his loud voice resounded through the entire tunnel. "To get to the point! This excellent and sharp master detective Ijapa says this is fishy! You have to realize that a school brat like you has no say in that whatsoever!" His voice was reflected by the walls, by the ceiling, and rained down heavily on me. I felt as if I had been thrown into a bustling crowd. "The point is! No matter what everyone else says, no matter if he himself denies it, I say he committed murder! So, Jamal Zaheer has killed her father!" he finished, sucked in some smoke and blew it out contentedly. "That''s so unreasonable..." I managed to say, overwhelmed by his attitude. "Unreasonable, indeed. But tell me, does the world work a different way? It doesn''t matter what''s right and what''s not; the stronger one gets his way, right?" A puff of smoke was blown out of his bent mouth. "Because I believed in myself and my intuition, and because I stayed true to myself, I was able to get remarkable results, you know. And because of those results, nobody can object to what I''m doing." He showed a "grin". "So, I''m sorry Gabriella, but I''m gonna do it the way I want¡ª" But it was his peculiar kind of grin that looked dead serious. "¡ªBecause that''s how I''ve chosen to live my life." When I took another glance at his "grin", I came to think that that way of smiling must be the embodiment of his nature. Put crudely, Mr Ijapa was a lunatic in a clown''s disguise. It''s not easy to get by with an uncommon sense put to show. Therefore, he probably adapted to our society by acting frivolous most of the time. That "grin" must have been a remnant of that madness which he could not conceal. "Okay, it''s my turn now," Mr Ijapa crushed his cigarette with his heel. He thrust his hands into the pockets of his tight slacks. "Why are you so eager to defend Jamal?" With a slow and firm pace, he drew closer on his long legs. Step by step, his leather shoes produced a reverberating creak that filled the passage. "Don''t you agree that it must be quite hard to believe so firmly in him without a lot of personal sympathy?" I felt my stomach knot tighter and tighter at the sound of his steadily approaching footsteps. "I''m not deliberately defending him, really! But it''s simply absurd to expect me to believe that a classmate of mine is a killer. Isn''t it normal that I can''t, and don''t want to, believe your doubts?" "Yeah, completely normal," he admitted casually. That was, however, only a preface to what was to come. "But come on, in spite of everything I''m still a detective, if I may say so myself. It''s not absurd in any way if you were a little more doubtful of her, right? I mean, hey, the police are suspecting her, so there might be something to it! I think it wouldn''t do you any harm if you agreed a little more with me, you know, admitting that I have some points that make him suspicious. There''s no need be so dismissive about it, is there? Well, that''s the opinion of an experienced detective who has witnessed all kinds of incidents, anyway. Now, what do you say?" said the experienced speaker Mr Ijapa in a torrent of words with a peculiar intonation, giving the atmosphere around us his own touch.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. "...I''m a cross-grained person, you know. I''m also a little contrary on top of that. Therefore, I don''t want to simply nod to something that doesn''t make perfect sense to me!" As a natural consequence, my hands became sweaty and my voice became tense. "I guess so. It''s already an established fact within me that you''re that type of person." I registered that his smile seemed very content. "But while you sure are a cross-grained lad, Gabriella, you are not an idiot, and you don''t lack common sense either. So I can''t understand why you are so understanding to him. With that personality of yours, shouldn''t you rather search for Jamal''s flaws the more perfect he is? At least the Gabriella I know is someone who doesn''t believe anything he hasn''t seen with his own eyes." It''s agreeable if you are understood because the other party shows interest in yourself by doing so. If it''s interest from a capable person like Mr Ijapa on top of that, it can''t be a bad feeling. However, I couldn''t help feeling uncomfortable, for his assessment was just too spot-on. That nasty feeling of having my whole body closely scrutinized, from tip to toe, gave me a chill. Before I knew it, Mr Ijapa was standing right before me. "In short, you know, I''ve already concluded that your unconditional support of Jamal is due to special feelings towards him. And well, because you love him so much that whether he''s guilty or not, you just don''t care. You''re like, ''I shall believe in him even when the rest of the world turns against us!'', you see. Oh how great is the power of love. Whoa there, don''t look at me like that! I''m not messing with you here. Actually, I quite like that way of thinking. No, make that ''I love it''!" What a talkative man. It''s not like I was dumbfounded; I was taking my hat off to him. I wondered if there was even a single person who didn''t talk after being targeted by him. "You are gifted with a superb imagination indeed." I said. "Well, it''s a job that requires a good imagination." He said. A smile was on his mouth, a truly amused one. "But there''s one more. One more possibility why you could be protecting Mr Zaheer," his smile disappeared. "Namely, if you have certain proof that Jamal has not killed anyone." My consciousness was immediately drawn to the murder plan. "So... do you?" He stared at me. "By no means." "Too bad," he replied not regretfully in the least. While my whole body was becoming stiff, he continued. In a most casual tone. "By the way, I''ve been wondering¡ªwhat''s in that left breast pocket?" My right hand reflexively grabbed at my left breast pocket. Mr Ijapa reacted on the spot. He quickly pulled his hands out of his pockets as if drawing a sword and grabbed my chest the very next moment. After he had taken a large step towards me, my field of vision made a sudden turn. I felt a blow on my back the next instant which then turned into pain that flashed through my entire body. The fierce pain caused me to heave one deep groan. My head started spinning and I became unable to move. However, despite the dull pain, I could hardly breath and couldn''t even groan anymore. It all happened so fast I had no clue what had just occurred to me. By now I assume that he had thrown me down on the hard ground by using some technique. "I''m quite the feminist, you know, I don''t want to be rough to the ladies. But on the other hand, I''m pretty much merciless towards guys!" he said casually as he sat astride me. I found it hard to breathe "Ugh..what...do you...mean?" I scowled. "Interpret it however you like my lady" he said. "...Ugh...you will get into trouble for this," I managed to squeeze out and scowled at him. "No worries, no worries! As long as no one gets wind of it I''m safe!" He didn''t care in the least. "Well, shall we take a look at what you''re hiding there in that inside pocket?" I firmly grabbed my jacket with both my hands. "Oh? From your stubborn resistance I gather that there''s really something in there that is related to Jamal?" I shouldn''t have averted my eyes when he came peeking deep into them. "Ha! Bull''s eye? My intuition sure is something! It''s getting fun!" he laughed with an odd light in his eyes. Mr Ijapa tried to break my grip, which I, still stuck below him, frantically warded off with all my might. "Whoa, whoa. You don''t know when to give up!" Mr Ijapa scratched his head in a baffled way. "Hah, there''s no way around this," he then muttered. "Believe it or not, but I was in school once, too. Back then I was actually quite the naughty boy, you know?" He suddenly started talking of his past for some reason. "And well, the place naughty boys like us used to select for deepening our friendship with our fists was, oh surprise, desolate or abandoned places like this one! Maybe you get now why I asked you right in the beginning if you wanted to have a duel with me." I failed to see what he was getting at, which was exactly what unsettled me. "Can you guess why we usually selected somewhere under construction or abandoned?" That moment, the ground started shaking slightly. I felt with my back that apparently a train was coming our way. "The reason is¡ªscreams get drowned out in isolation faraway from where people can hear or perhaps the noise of passing old trains." As he revealed that fact, a thunderous sound burst through the air, killing all other sounds. "...you''re joking... right?" My words of shock were naturally drowned out as well. The rattling of the train passing by above us shook my body. No, perhaps I was just trembling myself. I felt the cold sensation of metal on my forehead. Still utterly confused, I looked at what was in front of my eyes with a fixed gaze. In his stretched out arm Mr Ijapa was holding a black object. The cylindrical tip of that hard, black object was put on my forehead. As soon as the thundering noise receded, giving way to the normal sounds, the man expressionlessly said, "If timed properly, that noise can even drown out a gunshot." I gulped down without knowing. ...no way. He may have a tendency to lunacy, but he wouldn''t possibly pull that trigger. This is bound to be a foolish performance to threaten me. That''s what my mind told me anyway. My hair, however, stuck to my forehead. My heart was pounding and my breath was running wild. In contrast to my logical thinking, my body was so tense that I couldn''t even blink. "Now let go." I put all the power I still had into my fingers. "That''s the spirit. Good boy." My arms, however, were shaken off easily. Unfortunately, there had not been enough power left in me to resist him. Mr Ijapa skillfully undid the first two buttons with one hand and slid that hand into my inside pocket. When he pulled it out again, he was holding a small folded scrap of paper between his fingers. "...a scrap of paper, huh. What will I find on here, I wonder?" He concluded that I had entirely lost the will to resist and removed the handgun from my forehead, and unfolded the sheet with both his hands. Mr Ijapa skimmed through it with a serious mien. As he was still sitting on me, I couldn''t move while he was reading the letter, thus I was forced to keep on looking at the concrete ceiling, which was not exactly interesting. "Oh time! Go by!" I wished silently. "Let me confirm one thing... who has written this ''plan''?" He thrust out the sheet before my eyes. "I don''t know," I hissed and looked away. "...So my hunch didn''t fail me," he said with a convinced tone. "Judging by your reaction, you have written this, huh." I kept silent. "At the very first glance I thought that the letters looked very, you know, ''boyish'', so I did consider the possibility! But I mean, what''s written there just doesn''t match the image I have of you, you know? You and this, huh... What did your face look like when you wrote it? Oh, please don''t tell me you wrote it with that serious face of yours!" It was probably the serious face I had maintained that caused him to suddenly embrace his stomach and start trembling with tears in his eyes. He chuckled as the intensity of his tremble increased like the speed of plane that was rolling on a runway. And then, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He burst into a grand laughter. The plane had just soared into the sky. His guffawing resounded through the tunnel. Laughter rained down on me from all sides with no mercy. I experienced the humiliation of being made a fool by a great mass. "...aah, stop it, aah, I''m dying! I''m dying laughing! Aah, I haven''t laughed like this in ages... I think for a while I''m gonna break out into a laughter just by recalling this," he said while still laughing with groans mixed in. "Aaa... I have to admit that that contrast got even me by surprise. Now that was something new. Never thought that you, our grouchy Gabriella , would write such an oh-so-sweet letter that would startle even the purest girl in love..." Again, he was unable to suppress it and laughed out loud. The title on the sheet he had thrust in front of me was¡ª ¡ª"Love plan" The "Love plan" contained all kinds of flirt phrases and methods to win over a guy''s heart. Words so sickeningly sweet that they didn''t even lose to the taste of pancakes accidentally covered with a bottle of maple syrup, filled the whole page without leaving any gaps. If you write such a dangerous thing with your very own hands, with all your wit can offer, during an entire long night, then your life cannot be assured anymore. Even if you survived it, you would be scarred for life with a horrendous trauma. An actual survivor states that living became hard just a few minutes after starting to write. At last, satisfied with laughing, Mr Ijapa asked me with a meek expression, "So? Do you want me to retire from the case now because of this?" "It would be very much appreciated." I said. He grabbed my head with his hands and leaned over me. My dark field of vision became even darker. "There''s no way I could retire at such a half-baked state!" he declared from straight above with forceful eyes. "But that''s," I began and put on a confident smile. "That''s only your view as a detective, right?" "...What do you mean?" A question mark appeared above him. Therefore, I grinned while answering his question. "Right now you look extremely fulfilled!" He could say what he wanted, but his eyes were sparkling like the eyes of a kid that had just arrived at an amusement park. To me Mr Ijapa looked as though he was bursting with amusement. "Haven''t you had enough fun by now?" Mr Ijapa pondered over my words while stroking his chin. He hadn''t denied it when I said that it was not a sense of justice that made him choose the job as a detective. What he had asserted, however, was that he wanted to enjoy humans and their relationships. In short, Mr Ijapa himself didn''t care much if Jamal had killed her mother or not. Though finding out the truth was surely part of that hobby of his, it was by no means his personal goal. So I thought about what his goal really was. The conclusion I came to was this: From the moment I had realized that we resembled each other, I had felt that such an end was inevitable. "...oh well, you got me!" Mr Ijapa spun his gun around his finger and stowed it away in the holster that was hidden under his jacket. "My loss was decided the instant I laughed. After laughing badly like that I can''t claim that I wasn''t amused anymore." When he stood up, he reached out his hand to me. I took it. "Okay! I''ll drop the case." He then pulled me up onto my feet. "...Thank you." Words of appreciation automatically slipped out of my mouth. Apparently, I happened to be relieved. Considering that we were similar, it wasn''t hard to comprehend the principle of his actions, but I had no prospects of victory in terms of persuading him, an experienced speaker, into dropping the case. As a matter of fact, my first attempt had been beaten down by his overwhelming pressure. Since the odds had been against me, I had prepared the "Love plan" as a trump card. The main reason I had written it was to create unforeseeability. To surprise Mr Ijapa with something that he would definitely not expect me to ever write. And finally, to take the wind out of his sails with that unforeseeability. My vigorous resistance had not been played at all; I had wanted to keep my trump card for last, yes, I had even wanted to take it to the grave. What I can say now is that I probably would have failed if I hadn''t taken the bullet. "Oh well, it was about time anyway, " Mr Ijapa said while wiping off the dust on his uniform with one hand. "Keep in mind that to the bigwigs this case is only a trifling incident that wouldn''t even get into the news. Organizations, not only the police, have a tendency to avoid using time, money and workforce for trivial things, you know. After all, they wouldn''t gain much for solving an incident no one cares about." "Quite business-like, isn''t it?" I followed his example and dusted off my uniform with both my hands. "Indeed. If you think of it like that, maybe I''m actually something like an office worker," he nodded full of agreement. "Well, the point is that even I can''t always keep running after every small incident, no matter how much everyone accepts it implicitly! I mean, come on, I''m capable, right? They want me on the big cases!" He then folded the recipe and unaffectedly put it into the pocket of his suit. "Hey, don''t just stow that away in your pocket!" I hurriedly stopped him. "Mh? What do you mean? That''s mine, isn''t it?" He looked at me as though I had just asked a stupid question. "No, it''s mine. Please return it to me." I pleaded. "No chance." "But there''s no point if you have it, is there?" I asked. "It''s the treasure I dug up this time. It''s an irreplaceable memento of you. I''m going to reread this plan from time to time and remember you and the happy days we spent together." "That''s a lie. You''re definitely going to make a fool of me!" I shouted "Oh? I''m busted." He said. I could not help sighing, seeing he was as undaunted as always. "Come on, isn''t that quite a good deal? For just a mere scrap of paper I''ll withdraw from this case! Now if that''s not some outstanding treatment!" He said. "It''s not a physical problem, but a very psychological one." I was embarrassed. "Well, you should be able to take some scars as a lady." Mr Ijapa put on a wry smile as he lit on a cigarette. "...even I think once in a while, you know, that I''ve got a bothersome personality. But we can''t just change our hobbies or our values, right?" I found myself agreeing with the musing Mr Ijapa before me. "They say it''s possible to select one''s way of life, but I think that''s just a flowery lie. At least I could not choose another one. Choosing another way of life means throwing away all you''ve done so far and becoming a new self, don''t you agree? I like myself the way I am now. So I have no choice but to stick to my current principles!" Then he showed the grin that truly suited him. "An acquaintance of mine said something similar. Something along the lines of the world''s very setup being ''shit'', so one should live by one''s own rules." My mind went to Emma. "Oho. We would surely get on well." "Yes, indeed. I don''t know about him, but you would surely like him." "So it''s a man?" "Yes." "Woho, definitely introduce me to him one of these days." "If I find some time." "By the way..." "Yes?" "¡ªWhat was it really? What have you been hiding?" I was unable to answer him right away. Mr Ijapa had assured me he''d drop this case. And he was surely not someone who broke promises. But still I just couldn''t bring myself to let anyone else know about the murder plan. However, Mr Ijapa suddenly tousled my hair with his sinewy hand. "Sorry. Forget that. That question was ''thoughtless'' as you would call it, right?" He blew some smoke toward the asphalt. The railway started to creak, causing the entire area to vibrate, and erased all other sounds around us. During the time that allowed no other sounds, Mr Ijapa made himself at home and enjoyed his cigarette, whereas I had my gaze fixed on the far away blue sky as if enjoying a nightly read. At last, the train passed by and took its thunderous sound with it. "Good luck, Gabriella . It was a short time with you, but I really enjoyed it!" That was the first thing I heard again. "I too... relatively enjoyed those days." "Relatively?! Oh boy...," he said and leisurely walked towards the exit, his shoes squeaking. I silently gazed at his back as he waved his hand extravagantly. "...Ah, let me correct one thing at the end." The footsteps stopped near the entrance of the passage. "Satisfied, my ass! Just so you know! I am not at all satisfied! I wanted to play much more with you and Jamal" He resembled a brat that didn''t want his summer holidays to end so much that I had to laugh, "Oh boy...!" "Goodbye." "Yes!" It was not farewell forever, but we weren''t going to see each other for quite a while. We may live in the same town, but there wouldn''t be many occasions to meet each other. Our separate ways had merely happened to cross by chance this time. That was the relationship between us, between Mr Ijapa and me, two persons of different ages and positions. "Right! I almost forgot¡ª" He quickly turned around and skillfully squinted one eye. "Actually, I fancy women and men all the same!" "......eh?" He gave me a wave with his flat hand, "Byeee!" and disappeared into the light, leaving me behind dumbfounded. "...''Bi''? Don''t mess with me!" I was sure it had to be another special bad joke of his and that he was having his fun with me. "How stupid," I shook my head. I frantically tried to make myself believe that it was a joke, but I just couldn''t do anything about the goosebumps I had gotten all over. Geez, Mr Ijapa remained a good-for-nothing to the bitter end. I had never met such a good-for-nothing in my entire life. There can''t be many absurd people like him in the world. I figured that I may not meet someone like him again. Therefore, it was a relatively regrettable farewell for me. After raising my hand once, I turned around and walked towards the exit on the opposite side. By the time I left the area, my mind was occupied with only him and no one else. Chapter 10 - Jamal Zaheer, the imperfect man It was night. I called him. ¡ª I want to speak to you. I made an appointment to meet him alone. Since it was going to take some time, the meeting was set to Saturday after work. He suggested we meet at her home, but I rejected. I had no good memories there. Hence, he suggested a park on a hill. It was the park where his father had fallen. I responded right away. ¡ª Got it. Of course I was wary because he chose that park of all places, but my interest in the view from there won. Come to think of it, he was not in the least surprised by my sudden request. He even accepted it readily. I guess he had expected that day to come. No, that wasn''t quite right. He had been waiting for it with anticipation. That''s what his cheerful voice sounded like¡ªas if talking about a date. It was a moonlit night. A golden moon hung in the sky, reigning over the stars like their king, and lit the earth with light so strong one almost forgot what time it was. The park was situated a few minutes'' walk past Jamal''s home. By the time the viridian green fence of the park came into view, my breath was so wild and faint that I expected to faint at any moment. I checked the time on my watch. It was just past eleven, which was reasonable because I had returned home once, taken a shower and put on a change of clothes. Well, I had wanted to go to the park right after finishing work, but Jamal had stopped me. He insisted on a neat appearance for our first date. Leaving aside the essential fact that this wasn''t a date, I had accepted his suggestion. And it had been the right thing to do. I had needed some time to draw a line between me and my everyday life. I reached the entrance of the park. It was nothing special; just a small space with some trees and playground equipment sparsely scattered about. The only object that stood out was a white wooden clock tower near the cliff. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Fresh air filled my lungs. I slowly exhaled, checked my left breast pocket for the last time, and entered the park. "¡ªI was about to get tired of waiting." I squinted my eyes in the direction of the voice. "But I ought to be thankful that you came properly, right?" When I grasped his figure with my eyes, I couldn''t help but hold my breath. A plain black Jamal was sitting on the top of the red jungle-gym. "Wearing all white truly suits you, Gabriella" I was indeed clad all in white. Jamal chuckled "But that is exactly what I expected, so I matched my clothes to yours and dressed myself all in black." Hee wore a black jacket and trouser with a white shirt under his jacket. "Shall we start our date, then?" Jamal crossed his legs and leaned on his elbow, his head slightly tilted. It was a dreamlike scene. I quickly shook my head to rid it of the impression. "...the day after you asked me to go out with you, you said that it was necessary for both of us to deepen our mutual understanding, right?" I began "Yes," he nodded. "You also said that it was fine for me to make a decision after we had come to know each other better, right?" "Yes," he squinted an eye. "Unfortunately, I still don''t understand you very well. We''re still quite far from a date." "What exactly do you want to know from me then?" He asked softly. ¡ª"Everything," I almost answered. But judging by his confident smile, there was only one thing to say. "You killed him, didn''t you?" The next moment, he leaped from the top of the jungle-gym into the dark blue sky. "What am I going to hear from you now?" "Well, you could call it," I pretended to ponder and continued with my usual poker face, "the solution of the riddle called Jamal." Unperturbed, Jamal kept smiling like always. "I see, that seems much more interesting than a date." But that''s how I wanted him to be; my worthy adversary. At one time I had come to the conclusion that Jamal had not killed anyone because I was sure that he wouldn''t do something that foolish. However, the situation had made a sudden turn with the appearance of a man of outstanding perspicacity. It didn''t take long until my theory was negated due to several doubtful aspects and contradictions brought to light by mr Ijapa one after another. In a sense, it had been inevitable for my doubts to be revived, considering how well I knew him and that the murder plan was in my hands. One might ask why I had concluded that he was absolutely innocent in the first place. It is true that I had had several clues that suggested that his father was guilty, like the fact that the murder plan had been written by him. However, at the same time I had also been aware that those clues did not necessarily prove Jamal''s innocence. I myself had been the decisive factor in my belief of his innocence. Only now I realized that I had probably strongly wished that he wasn''t a murderer back then. One could say that my imagination was steered that way because I didn''t want to lose the person I was so interested in. In other words, what made him innocent had been my own desire. I sat down on a railing, while he got on a blue swing. I started explaining to him one reason after another why I doubted him. The suspiciously well-timed call from the gym, the fact that his mobile phone had been set to silent mode, his unnatural behavior when getting me a towel instead of starting the search for his mother, and the fact that the suicide note was written not by hand but on the computer. Furthermore, I told him about my hypothesis that he had wanted to make me the finder of that suicide note. Jamal quietly listened to my explanation and nodded once in a while without denying or acknowledging anything. When at last he had heard me out, he let his gaze wander in the night sky, seeming deep in thought, before he asked with certainty, "Did you borrow those theories from that detective?" I nodded. As he had guessed, most of my arguments had appeared in the conversations with mr Ijapa. "But I agree with them, so you can think of them as my own opinion." Jamal put on a surprised expression. "That''s the sort of thing you spoke about in my absence?" He scowled at me and pursed his lips slightly. "How mean! Do both of you doubt me?" "No," I shook my head. "Mr. Ijapa has nothing to do with it anymore. I''m the only one doubting you." He gasped in admiration, "It is really surprising that the detective stopped doubting me despite seeming so tenacious. What magic did you use, Gabriella?" "It''s all thanks to the hint you gave me," I beat around the bush and saved myself from mentioning the "Love plan". ''If you want to know what he thinks, just think about what you would do in his case!'' As a matter of fact, if not for those words, I probably would have still been at a loss for what to do about Mr Ijapa. "Oh, did I happen to be a help?" smiled Jamal. His soft glance resembled a gentle brother''s who rejoiced over one of his little sister''s accomplishments. Which caused me to let out a deep, heavy sigh. "...I see... so he did give me a hint," I thought to myself. Considering how he had immediately realized that I was borrowing Ijapa''s words, he had probably been perfectly aware of mr. Ijapa and me doubting him all along. With that in mind, he seemed like a truly cunning actor, reconsidering the evening when we were thrown out by Emma; his blatantly offensive attitude towards me hadn''t been normal at all, and the way he had brought up Mr. Ijapa had been rather unnatural as well. I stopped counting, but as it seemed, he had been playing with me again. I had to admit it: he was a much better actor than I. Because I was keeping quiet, he tilted his head slightly, "Mh?" There had been no creaks in his smile from beginning to end. Despite me having labeled him a "murderer". His smile was something like a trademark. In the mind of everyone else, Jamal was probably depicted as an ever-smiling holy man. That was, however, not the Jamal I wanted to see. Right now I was brooding over how I might freeze that smile of his. My fingers automatically groped for my left breast pocket. "...right, there''s something I want to give you." There was no way around using ''it'' after all. I slid my hand into my jacket. What I produced was a four times folded scrap of paper. "What''s this?" Jamal asked while snatching it away from me. I watched Jamal look down at the unfolded sheet. With his gaze still cast down, he whispered, "...I am happy about anything you give me, but this is not exactly a thoughtful present." "I can''t help it: it''s not a present, after all. I''m merely returning something to its owner," I didn''t avert my gaze from him, "It''s yours, isn''t it?" I stared him in the eyes, not daring to breath or even blink. It''s fair to say that I had protected this solely for this very moment. By no means I wanted to miss his reaction to it. He raised his head with a smile shaped like a crescent moon. "Yes, it is!" He admitted surprisingly readily. "Then let''s now talk about this¡ª''murder plan''." This was the trump card I had successfully protected from mr. Ijapa. He laughed dryly, "So there is no way around it after all, is there? Well, of course you would never miss out on such an ''intriguing subject'', right?" At first glance, Jamal was the same as always. "Truth to be told, I would rather not, but I might be able to answer your expectations if that is your wish. But in return, promise me¡ª" But I asked myself: did he realize the slight change that had come over him? "¡ªthat you won''t hate me. Okay?" He was smiling as usual, but her eyes were serious. I was observing a side of Jamal that nobody knew. It felt as though I had come a step closer to her. Of course, though, I was not at all satisfied with just that. I wanted to see more of his unknown side. But no need to rush things; there was more than enough time until sunrise. "...You knew it all along, right?" "What?" "That the murder plan had come into my hands." I had always had a hunch. After all, he had suddenly asked me to go out with him even though we had not spoken to each other much, save for greetings. He had approached me shortly after I had obtained the murder plan. But it was only now that I was convinced. His poor reaction proved that he was not surprised at all. Jamal raised and lowered his brow multiple times in hesitation. "I had noticed, yes," he nodded calmly at last. "Do you remember what happened in the classroom the morning after I lost the plan?" I recalled the morning in question to mind as he told me.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "That morning you addressed me, Gabriella. Much to my surprise. Therefore, I thought about the reason for that. It didn''t take long until I found the answer." "...So I dug my own grave, huh," I covered my face with my palms in embarrassment. What a fool I had been for revealing myself! I had been unable to suppress my curiosity and addressed him that morning, but indeed, it was not normal for me to do so with our relationship at the time. I shook my head fiercely to get rid of stray thoughts, took a deep breath and continued as composedly as I could manage. "...When I first obtained the murder recipe," I proceeded with the subject as if to bury the mistake I had committed, "I thought that you had written it. I didn''t even doubt that the owner was equivalent to the author. The word ''plan'', however, has been bothering me since then." Only my voice resounded throughout the moonlit park. "But when I learned that your father was a teacher at a gym instructor, I realized that the word ''plan'' was probably very common to him, work out plan, diet plan and the likes¡ªand sure enough, your father had written it. A handwritten note of his, which I presumed to borrow from your home, matched the handwriting of the plan." "You never fail to live up to my expectations, Gabriella," he interjected and closed his mouth again. A meaningful statement, to be sure, but no denial of what I had said. "Anyway, for that matter I want to ask why your father''s plan was in your possession?" I leaned a little forward to sneak a peek at his expression. "It was shortly after I started school when I found his plan purely by chance¡ª" It was calm and musing. "¡ªI realized right away who my father meant to kill." "Your mother." "Yes. By the way, this is not the only murder plan; there are more of them. Perhaps, there are even some I haven''t found yet." "...I didn''t expect that." I was intrigued to read those as well. "I think my father didn''t realize that I knew about those plans until the very end. I kept it a secret from him." "What were your thoughts about it? What did you intend to do after you had obtained the plans?" "Well..." While gazing vacantly in the air, he brushed away his hair beside the ear with his finger. Probably, he was searching for the right words. "...when I first read the plan, I was surprised that he also had such an ''ugly'' face." I found myself staring at him. "I knew him as a woman who would always pay attention to his appearance and behavior." "...that''s quite hard to imagine from the impression I got from him during the funeral ceremony." The howling image of his broken father soothed by a black-dressed Jamal flashed up in my mind. I was disturbed by how my fragile image of him crumbled to dust. "I do not know what you imagined him to have been like, but you should not forget whose father he was," Jamal put on a smile appropriate to adorn the cover of a fashion magazine, "He was my father." Like son, like father? No, the proper order would be "Like father, like son"? Either way, the moment I thought about it in that way, it was surprisingly easy to have a new image of him. By analogy, the same must have applied to his mother as well. Jamal was at a loss for words. Of course he was. A few moments before, he had stated that he could have never imagined his father writing something like that. "If hypothetically that plan worked out favorably, wouldn''t it indeed look like a ''mishap''?" "That is an amusing alternative way of thinking about it," he nodded in a impressed tone. I continued, "I know of one incident that virtually proves my hypothesis¡ª" "¡ªthe accident of my father, right?" He answered before I could finish. "...you admit it?" I was a little startled at his unexpected reaction. "What is there to deny? It is only natural that one would harbor doubts about that accident even having read the plan only once." He shook the sheet beside his head, holding it with his fingertips. I finally noticed what it was that might have been bothering me about him. "Until I found the plan, I had no idea that my father had a such an impetuous side. I suppose that his motive was jealousy ¡ª even though my parents didn''t care about each other ¡ª because my mother apparently had a mistress. Yes, she was a lesbian. She probably only married him to keep up appearances. Maybe he just couldn''t accept it that she had a partner other than him. In that sense, men might generally be more jealous than women. You should be careful too, Gabriella." I raised an eyebrow at his suggestion. He probably thought that was a good joke. Even though it was about his father, about his family, I sensed a kind of distance in him indifferent tone. As if he wasn''t concerned. As if he was talking about some rumors from the neighborhood. My conviction deepened. "I can''t help but see you as the murderer of your parents," I said frankly, whereupon Jamal sneered at me. "Even though I have no reason?" He cocked her head while maintaining his smile. "It''s not like I''m paying no heed to your motive. I''m very interested actually. But if I look at it from a perspective that solely deals with whether it''s possible or not ¡ª I have long since come to the conclusion that you could do it." Jamal narrowed his eyes to a crescent moon-like form for a second. "You have already admitted that what''s written in the murder recipe rather closely resembles the traffic accident of your mother. Now, if it was not an unlucky accident but a willfully committed incident, it couldn''t possibly be carried out by someone who hadn''t read the plan, right?" Jamal put his chin on his hand and probed me with his gaze. "Or, put the other way round, it could only be carried out by someone who has read the plan, right?" I closed my eyes and took a breath. "I know of exactly three persons who read the recipe before the accident of your mother occurred. Firstly, the author of the plan, your father. Secondly, I, of course, because I obtained it by chance, and finally¡ª" I pointed at the report sheet he held in his hand. "¡ªthe person who lost the recipe¡ªYou." Jamal remained wordless. "I am convinced that you could have carried out such a plan, no matter how cheap and unrefined it was." He broke his silence and motionlessness with a whisper. "...do you know how I am feeling?" "If I were able to understand your feelings so easily, I wouldn''t be dancing to your tune all the time." I said bitterly. "I am really moved right now. I feel so much love from you because you understand me so much, though you are probably going to say I am wrong, with your usual cold tone." "You''re wrong." I fulfilled his request with an extra large topping of coldness. He really made no sense to me. Even though I had accused him of murder, he smiled without change, neither provoked nor alarmed. His unaffected behavior almost made me think that he might not be hiding anything after all. Was it absolute self-confidence that loomed behind that composure of his? Was he confident to ward off any accusations I could throw at him? This isn''t enough. Unless I delve deeper and break her shell from the inside, I will never see what I seek. "...something has been bothering me almost from the beginning," I began, "Aren''t you entirely too objective toward your own parents? You''re as calm as if you were talking about complete strangers." Jamal put on a slightly doubtful expression. "Do you think so? I''m twenty and not of the age to be dependent on my parents anymore, am I not? Isn''t the distance between parents and young adult quite similar in other households?" I immediately objected strongly, "No, it isn''t." Jamal sealed his mouth and scowled at me. "Oh come on, there''s clearly something strange. I mean, your father was drawing up a plan to kill your mother! If you''re a family, you''d normally try to stop him, wouldn''t you?" I said Jamal widened his eyes for an instant. "Do you know why my first question was about your actions after finding the plan? It''s because I hoped you would say that you wanted to discourage him. But you only voiced your thoughts on the contents of the plan¡ª" He opened his mouth slightly, wanting to say something. "¡ªdid you even once think about stopping him?" The helpless expression Jamal showed that moment was a clearer answer than any words could have been. "While you had a rather blank relationship with your parents without doubt, strangely enough there are no indications that you were on bad terms with them either." Reconsidering the many reactions I had gotten from Jamal in the past, I found that he was notunconcerned about the loss of his "community", known as family. After losing his parents, he had seemed very fragile from time to time. I was convinced that he had by no means wished to lose his family. "You found them uninteresting, didn''t you?" That''s what I thus concluded. If I was forced to talk about something that didn''t interest me, I assume that I would speak with a certain distance as well. "...rather than saying that I had no interest, it would be appropriate to say that there was no need for us to be interested in each other," he muttered. "I didn''t hate my parents, you know? Honestly. It is just that the Zaheer family was built around the idea of individualism. It was an unwritten rule that we stayed out of each others'' business. In fact, it was only because of that rule that we were able to remain a harmonious family." As if reminiscing, Jamal narrowed his eyes slightly. "I was already able to do anything on my own when I was still young. My father, too, would have had no problems living without my mother. As for her, she merely sustained the budget to fulfill her role as the breadwinner of the house, but she didn''t interfere in the household itself. Whether you believe it or not, when I was young I thought of her only as a kindhearted aunty who gave us money." His smile bent in self-deprecation. "Just as you noted, I did not think about stopping my father." With a powerless smile, he cast his eyes down. "I was able to accept the murder plan without problems because I assumed that my father had his own thoughts and his own life. But I suppose that I should have stopped him, just like you said." He clenched his fist. "If I had been raised in a different kind of family, I might have acted differently." Jamal raised his face. "But you know," he said with a vacant voice, "That''s the way I have been brought up since the moment I was born." His eyes were breathtakingly clear. There was not a particle of regret in his honest and majestic appearance. In my opinion, Jamal was strong. But at the same time he was just as lonely. During that moment of sublimity, he was ephemeral like a mirage, setting butterflies in my stomach aflutter. "Weren''t you lonely?" He promptly answered my question with a shake of his head. "Not at all," he smiled. Relying on no one seemed like a lonely life to me. He himself, however, claimed he had not been. "Even now?" I posed my denied question once more. "Are you still not lonely even now that your parents have passed away?" I found that to be an awfully desolate way of life. Maybe I was just seeing things, but Jamal seemed lonely to me as he sat there wordlessly. The next moment he put on a slightly awkward smile and looked up at the night sky. The moon reflected in his eyes gave them a golden shine. When he returned his gaze to me, he declared, "I am not lonely¡ª" The teasing attitude he usually had toward me was absent. "¡ªbecause you are here for me now, Gabriella." I saw that neither in his eyes nor on his lips was a smile. He was entirely serious. This was the memorable moment in which I finally succeeded in freezing his smile. The clock tower was about to strike twelve. He had no strong motive to kill his parents. At least, I could find none. Furthermore, my view that Jamal was not a guy that would do something as foolish as murder had already become an unshakable fact for me. And yet his parents were no more. I whispered, "...I don''t know how to describe this feeling." Which words would be appropriate? I stood up from the railing because I couldn''t sit still anymore and strolled into the park on my own, leaving him behind. While ordering my thoughts, I walked slowly and deliberately felt the earth under my feet with each step. My legs led me unconsciously towards the cliff with a good view over the town. At last I reached the boundary between park and cliff. The boundary was marked by a rusty, viridian green fence a little higher than my waist. I bent over it and looked down. I figured that it wouldn''t take much to fall over it and down the steep slope. I rested my crossed arms and my chin on the fence, which caused the entire fence bordering the park to bend towards one side a little. I looked down at the town. The town filled my field of vision with all its shining lights. It was far from the stunning skyline of a metropolis at night, but I was still deeply moved when considering my hometown. Despite its small size, there was always something going on. That night, too, there must have been a red pick up driven by that man somewhere down there. Was the chocolate-addict still up? The faces of various people I knew crossed my mind like a slideshow. "Isn''t it captivating? This is what I meant to show you, Gabriella" The person who flashed up last and by far most vividly was in sync with the person who was beholding the town right by my side. A chilly gust ruffled his hair. He hugged himself because of the coldness. "You''re quite daring, aren''t you?" I scowled at him from below. "Was it because you are confident that you can trick the police? Or is it because you are belittling me?" "Wrong on both counts!" he shook his hair smoothly. "I just know more than anyone else that I am innocent." He was composed. "Let us do a little test... if there was an incident that most clearly implied murder and I told you it was just an accident that happened because of a chain of unfortunate coincidences, would you believe me?" The hair that fell down from right above swayed in a nightly breeze and tickled the tip of my nose. "...of course not!" Because Jamal maintained perfect composure, I hesitated for a moment. "Right? You don''t believe me anyway, so I just let you do whatever you want." The next moment, he formed a soft smile, accompanied by dancing feathers in my imagination. "But please remember that there is only one truth for me." Can someone who laughs so purely be a liar? I honestly did not know. "Besides, you are the one I chose. So there should be nothing strange about respecting your decision, even if it differs from the answer I would wish for." "Chose?" I repeated suspiciously. The sound was different from the "destined one" sort of "chose" that he had used before. I estimated the nuance to be something along the lines of "entrusted". "There is one thing you have gotten wrong, Gabriella" "What do you mean?" I said, confused "It is not at all a coincidence that you have the murder plan." ".........eh?" I raised a voice of surprise. "Please recall the day when you found the murder plan." It was still vividly in my mind. It had happened after school. I had found the murder plan in his notebook, which he had dropped on the ground. He suddenly laughed. "I am a very capable person, if I say so myself, am I not? Do you think that someone like me¡ª" The face he showed me then was going to remain clear in my memory for a long time. His face looked staggeringly cruel and yet so beautiful. "¡ªwould lose something as important as the murder plan?" No way. Such a mistake was unthinkable if it was for him, for he was the only absolutely perfect human in the world I knew of. On that day back then I had participated in a meeting ¡ª the regular meeting of the class officers. The female class officer of our class was me. So, who was the male one? It was the person before my very eyes. Now that I think about it, he hurried back to the classroom right after the meeting had finished. I figure that he did that in order to buy time, so he could make sure the murder plan would fall into my hands "by chance". How could I overlook such a basic thing? That he had been searching for the recipe the following morning was most likely just an act to make me believe he had lost it "by chance", too. It looked like I had been dancing to his tune since the very beginning. That humiliating fact numbed my limbs and even brought terror upon me. Not a groan could be heard from me in this shocked state. Jamal got off me while giggling. "There is not one thing that didn''t work out the way I wanted. There is not one thing that I couldn''t have obtained if I wanted. My wishes define how matters settle." Normally, those statements would have been extremely haughty, but they sounded like logical facts when it was Jamal speaking. "But don''t you think that such a life is incredibly boring and listless? Is there a point in leading such a life?" He continued. "You cannot be excited about a present when you already know what is inside," he slouched his shoulders slightly. "Nevertheless, I did not decide against being the Jamal everyone desired, because it is simple to play the model student and it did not feel bad to live up to their expectations." I simply stared at him. "Do you want to know why I entrusted you with the recipe, Gabriella?" It was already an almost annoyingly definite fact to me that when he put on such a scheming expression, the answer could not be any good. "It is because just like me you looked more detached with your life than anyone else I have ever met!" he said as if he had found something dear. I averted my gaze. Bullseye. As he had guessed, I had always lamented over how boring the world seemed to me. My imagination used to be my haven to heal me from the boredom of my daily life. I picked up the murder plan and stood up. "You exceeded all my expectations. Talking with you turned out to be exciting, Gabriella. Every day became thrilling as soon as you entered my life. My heart throbbed more than in anyone else''s company. I realized right away that you were my ''destined one''. Thus, it was easy to become crazy about you." Then everything had gone according to his plan and I, as foolish as I had been, readily took the compelling bait, the murder plan. With heavy steps I walked back to the fence as if drawn to it. By the sound of his steps I noticed that he hurried after me. "...Ah!" The fence creaked. He had strongly gripped it and was looking down the black clear space right at my side, leaning over. He quickly realized that there was nothing he could do about it anymore, straightened up again and turned to me. "...won''t you regret that?" My right arm was fully stretched out over the fence. A white paper plane was drawing circles in the air as it slowly descended into the bottomless darkness. The plane was probably going to get caught somewhere on the cliff, be exposed to weather for months and finally return to dust. "It''s okay. There''s no need for it anymore." In short, he had been seeking for some kind of thrill for his boring daily life as well. In this sense, our interests had complemented each other without my knowledge. However, the thing is that I unfortunately came up with another interpretation. ¡ªIt happened to me that he may have been overwhelmed by the murder plan. He was shaken. The discovery of the murder plan, and a completely unexpected side of his father along with it, disturbed him more than he could have imagined. Subconsciously he kept looking for a way to do something about that state of things and in the end entrusted me, whom he had found after long searching, with the murder plan. That signal was not strong enough to be called an SOS. Probably, he merely wanted to share the information. Maybe he just wanted someone to know. The burden was indeed a bit too heavy to carry alone. Maybe I was simply reading too much into it, but I couldn''t do anything about it, since that was the impression I got. My vexation was cleared away in a split second. The thought that Jamal Zaheer, the only person that could pride himself on being perfect, was shaken like a helpless guy and relied on me caused my heart to beat faster than ever. Now aren''t we lovely, it throbbed. My gaze fell on the number that was indicated on the clock tower behind him. "Already past midnight?" I said in a whisper. "Let''s go" Jamal said smiling at the clock. He moved to hold my hand. My eyes must have been wide open when I turned them to the slide that was lit by the silver moonlight. I suddenly realized why he chose this location and wore all black. We looked like bride and bridegroom at a private wedding ¨¤ deux in front of a church. Imprinting is a really dreadful phenomenon: I noticed that the clock tower looked like part of a church. If the bride had held a bouquet, it would have been a wedding ceremony no matter the way you looked at it. "...Mm, I''m not lonely after all." He whispered with a smile. I looked at him. The unraveled mystery of Jamal Zaheer. I thought of how it all started and I knew immediately that there was no day I¡¯d miss hearing that name. He wasn''t perfect afterall.