-- A few days later --
THIRD PERSON'S POV
"OK, I understand, but I have to complete an assignment and-"
"Darling, I do not care, and you aren't going anywhere before King shows up, only he is going to decide whether he wants to eat tonight."
"But-"
"And you may leave afterwards." Rose huffs in frustration.
"Can't you just call or leave a text asking if he's going to eat?"
"No, he is not a friend,"
"And how can you even think of such bullshit!" The manager shakes his head in disapproval and leaves to go back to his shelf.
Rose looks up involuntarily in irritation.
ROSE'S POV
I'm starting to get frustrated with this hectic schedule. I've been here since the morning, and I'm leading back in my classes plus I didn't get the chance to talk to Malika. I hope she's not thinking that I backed out.
Millie texted me about the English assignment to be submitted tomorrow and there's no way I can make it by the deadline. King has been out since noon, and the manager is not letting me go home.
I look at the clock, it's eleven, when will I go home? And when will I complete that damn assignment?
Where the hell is he?
THIRD PERSON'S POV
"P-Please, please, for-forgive me, King, I w- wasn't in my mind, pl-please Ki-"
"Take his tongue out, I'm done listening to his hollow apologies." King raises his arm while showing off an am-not-interested expression.
"NO- NO, KING, NO-" A painful screech echoed in the room as one of King's men did what he ordered, without blinking. The fire of blood splashes all over the floor from his mouth.
He yells again and tears run down his face; wanting to wrap his hands around his mouth, he squeals again because his hands are tied up already.
"Silent," King yells and suddenly everything in the room stops working, all the noise, all the screams, everything.
King adds more whiskey to the empty glass and takes a sip out of it.
"Now, how much greens have you got for betraying me, Ron?" He asks the second man tied up just beside the man who just lost his important muscle.
"Ki-i-ing, I-I-I- am-"
"Don't even think of repeating this same mistake as Sedan did,"
"Answer what I asked."
Ron peed himself, not daring to even move his head, he speaks in an extremely low voice,
"$20,000"
King smiles and takes a deep breath of joy. He turns his head to the third man tied up, and looks at him with the most wicked expression.
"$30,000"
"Oh, you got the highest, why?"
"I-I, King, I-"
"Don't stutter if you want your tongue in place." King cuts him off before drinking the whiskey.
"Because," He gulps, every muscle in his body is shaking to its core.
"I was the one who stole all the records of drugs you exported illegally."
"Whom did you sell it?"
"I don't know." Rage fumes inside him as he hears what he said, he smashes the bottle containing the precious drink and walks to him with the broken glass.
Without thinking anything, he raises his hand to drive the glass straight through his heart but stops as another sadistic idea crosses his mind.
He smiles at him,
"Tell me, to whom you've sold it?" He asks while caressing his left cheek with the edge of the glass. Rodin tries to depart his face away from the scraping thing, but King doesn't take another second before holding his face.
"Tell. Me. Rodin."
"King, I r-really don't know, I-" Before letting him finish his word, he drives the glass edge from the top of Rodin's cheekbone,
Rodin screams and yells at the top of his lungs that he doesn't know to whom the record has been sold, but it felt like King's ears stopped working.
"STOP IT, PL- AHHH!!" King puts more pressure on his dimple.
"ONLY SEDAN KNOWS ABOUT IT!" He cries and struggles while speaking.
"What?" He turns his head to the man without words.
He sighs and furiously makes way for the glass till the end of his jaw.
Looking up in frustration, he walks back to his chair and pours more whiskey.
"Untie him." He commands.
"Write it down," He speaks right after one of his men unties Sedan.
But things don't go as planned.
** Two hours later, in the mansion**
"Wake up, lady. You're not here to sleep, King's here." The Manager pokes Rose's head with the spatula, who is sleeping on the couch lying outside the kitchen.
Rose opens her eyes and yawns; she blinks a few times staring at the wall and turns her head towards him.
"Go and ask if he wants anything to eat?"
"Isn't that your job?" She replies while yawning again and resting her head on the back of the couch.
"LADY!" He spats while carelessly poking her head again,
"What!?"
"You can't disobey me and don't sleep." He whisper-yells. Rose glares at him before getting up.
"Where is he?"
"In his bedroom."
Rose walks towards his room and places a harsh knock on reaching.
"What?"
"Do you want to eat something?" She asks through the door.
"I want ice cream. Chocolate." She nods and heads back to the kitchen.
She takes a beautiful ice cream glass from the shelf and puts the chocolate ice cream in it. After adding a little amount of melted chocolate over it, just for the sake of beautifying it, she heads back to his room.
She places a knock and swipes in right away. King is sitting in his chair, doing nothing else than staring at the girl with ice cream.
Rose places the plate on the table and turns to leave,
"Did I ask you to leave?"
"No," She turns around to face him with a blank expression.
"Then why were you leaving?"
"Because that's what I'm supposed to do." She replies plainly, she's probably still in sleep.
"Oh," King thinks to himself for a while.
He stands up and wobbles but quickly grips the edge of the table.
Rose doesn't take time to figure out that he is drunk.
"Well, then at least help me, I want to sit on my bed without falling anywhere."
She rolls her eyes as this seems to be the most uninteresting thing to her. She has her assignment pending, it's not a joke!
She walks toward him, he raises his arm to snake around her shoulders, but she holds his forearm before and tightens her grip around it.
"King, you aren't that tipsy." She speaks before breaking the eye contact, and looks across the room, at the bed.
"Please keep your gaze straight." She speaks again. He clears his throat and turns his head to the bed.
They walk slowly, King catches glances at her while her gaze is glued on the bed.
Upon reaching the bed, Rose carefully helps him sit while making sure her grip is strong around his broad shoulders. She looks at him and finds him already staring at her.
She reflexively runs her hands through his messy hair, to fix them. The action surprised her and King as well. She shakes her head mentally before turning around and getting the ice cream from the table. And all that time, King was busy staring at her. It's not like she is the only moving thing around him right now, he can't take his eyes off her because she seems too tempting to look anywhere else.
She shoves the plate to him and turns to leave but King firmly holds her hand, not letting her leave, again.
She jolts but conceals the reaction quickly, she immediately turns to him with an expression of a question mark.
"Can you feed me?"
"What?" Her eyes poke out slightly.
"My hands are shaking, I don't wanna ruin my shirt." He replies.
Rose sighs internally, if anything is going on in her mind right now is the English assignment.
He leaves her hand and Rose notices that his hands are actually shaking.
Fighting internally, she concludes by feeding him quickly, heading back home, and completing the work.
She sits beside him and ties her hair into a bun before taking the plate out of his hand.
She shoves the spoon filled with ice cream into his mouth. Seems in a hurry.
"How are your days going?"
"Fine, King." She replies while feeding him. Though that doesn't seem true.
No one speaks for a long while. Rose tries to avoid looking at his face as much as possible while he, on the other hand, is busy studying her features.
"Can you make that Lasagna again?"
"You liked that?" He meets her brightened eyes as she instantly looks up at him.
"Yes, it reminded me of my mom's cooking. Slightly uncooked vegetables but not too much that it'd make it obvious." He replies and waits blankly for her reply.
"Oh," Leaves her mouth.
"So, would you make it for me again?"
"Yes, of course." He smiles. She couldn't help but take notice of how beautiful he looked on smiling.
"Can I ask you something?" She accumulates some courage before speaking.
"Yeah?" He speaks casually.
Rose pauses before asking,
"Where are your parents?"
Silence engulfs both of them, while his stare intensifies.