"That's my office." Ezra pointed to the second floor of a building. "You can wait there." His finger shifted to the coffee shop downstairs. "The owner is my boss." Then he pulled a membership card from his wallet.
Damar leaned forward, studying the two-story building from inside the car. The upper floor housed Booklist Publishing, while the lower floor was Kopi Teras.
"Order whatever food or drinks you want. It's up to you." Ezra held out the membership card.
Damar obediently took it.
"Just put it under Ezra's name and tell them to add it to my bill. Got it?"
Damar nodded.
The two of them got out of the car. Ezra handed Damar his car keys.
"You're not afraid I'll drive off with your car?"
"Go ahead. I'll just buy a new one."
Damar gave a hollow laugh. Rich kids like Ezra could so casually say they would just buy a new one, without knowing how hard people like Damar had to struggle just to survive.
"What do you do for work?" Damar asked, feeling he needed to know his employer's background.
"I'm an illustrator. If you want the details, look me up online. See you at lunch." Ezra slung his bag over his shoulder and headed toward the staircase beside the building.
Damar surveyed his surroundings. A new place, a new atmosphere, and a new job. Carrying out his employer's orders, he stepped into Kopi Teras.
A corner of the shop caught his attention—a small library where customers could read books while enjoying their coffee. At least he could stand waiting here until lunchtime.
Damar looked for something light to read. The last time he had read a book seemed to be back when he was in high school, about twelve years ago. Unwilling to tackle anything heavy, he settled on an action comic.
After taking several volumes, he ordered food and a drink at the register and handed over Ezra's membership card. The barista, dressed in a brown shirt, scanned the card and looked at Damar.
"Is this your member card?"
"It's under Ezra's name. He said to put it on his bill."
Yovi—the barista's name, displayed on the name tag pinned to his chest—then wrote Ezra's name in the ledger.
Damar took the card back and looked for an empty table near the glass wall before the barista could start asking questions. From here, he could keep a clear eye on the surrounding area.
His job was to protect Ezra from danger and make sure the area around him was safe.
A short while later, a server came over with Damar's order.
"That office upstairs," Damar interrupted as the server set down his toast, "Booklist. What kind of office is it?"
"A publishing company."
Damar nodded in understanding. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," the server replied with a friendly smile.
Damar opened his comic as soon as the server left.
"So he's a publishing illustrator," he muttered. "Why doesn't he just work for his family's company?" he wondered, then returned his focus to reading.
After an hour of reading several chapters of the manuscript, Ezra began rough-sketching in his drawing book. His pencil strokes danced quickly across the paper, bringing to life the characters spinning around in his head. Besides working at Booklist Publishing, he also had a side hobby that took up quite a bit of his time.
About seven months earlier, Ezra had casually uploaded his work to one of Webtoon's platforms. Who would have thought that little experiment would lead to him becoming an official comic artist there?
Every week, he had to upload a new episode and often stayed up late to finish the story panels. Several times, he had even been forced to take a hiatus because of his health or a pileup of work from Booklist.
"You should probably pick one," Farel suggested as the three of them ate lunch. "Choose whichever one pays better."
Ezra tore off a piece of his smashed fried chicken and popped it into his mouth as he thought. "I like both of them. I'm torn. It's like being asked to choose between marriage and a career."
"Then get married," Farel quipped, dipping fried tofu into the sambal.
"My prince hasn't arrived yet," Ezra complained jokingly.
"By the way," Gading finally joined in after being quiet until then. "Who's that guy? Your new crush?" His eyes darted toward Damar, who was eating alone at a table not far from them.
"I already introduced him earlier. His name's Damar," Ezra said around a mouthful of tempeh.
"Where'd you find him?" Farel narrowed his eyes, curious.
"He saved me when I was kidnapped yesterday. My hero."
"Find out whether he's straight first. If he is, there's no point flirting with him," Farel said, shaking his head.
Ezra took another bite of his food without much reaction. That morning, he had sent Gading and Farel a message saying he had survived the kidnapping, but he hadn't expected his two friends to immediately storm his workplace and catch him with Damar at Kopi Teras.
"Instead of finding out whether he's straight, you should find out about his background first," Gading suggested quietly. "If you want, I can ask Tomi for help. Looks can be deceiving, but a detective can give us real evidence."
Ezra didn't respond right away.
"His appearance at the scene was way too sudden. Coincidence, or was it intentional?" Gading whispered seriously.
Ezra fell silent.
"There's nothing wrong with being cautious, Zra. The world isn't safe these days. The people closest to us are actually the ones most likely to hurt us. Sorry, I don't mean to scare you, but you were just kidnapped, and the danger isn't gone yet. I'm not accusing him of anything, but the way he suddenly showed up is suspicious. Still... I hope my suspicions are wrong."
Ezra shifted his gaze to Damar's table, which was now empty. Should he be suspicious of the man he had already come to trust as his lifesaver?