That night, Gionathan drove his car at a speed that nearly made the speedometer lose its mind.
He had to get home immediately. His Mom had already called him repeatedly and threatened to freeze all his credit cards if he dared keep ignoring her order to come home.
That threat went against Gionathan's life philosophy: absolute freedom.
Unfortunately, nothing was more absolute than his Mom's authority.
She was the only woman capable of making Gio submit without ever raising her voice.
Gio pressed harder on the gas pedal. The streets were quiet that night, city lights streaking past on either side like lines of light he didn't have time to recognize.
Until a girl suddenly ran across the road.
“Screeech!”
The brakes shrieked. The tires scraped hard against the asphalt, then stopped just a few centimeters before the girl's body.
The girl immediately crouched down, covering her head with both hands.
Gio instinctively pressed a hand to his chest. His heart was pounding so hard, it felt like it was about to leap out. It was even more intense than his first love—even though Gio's first love had ended before it ever got started.
“I didn't hit somebody's kid, did I?” he muttered, tilting his head back. “She's not dead, right? Damn...”
The girl didn't answer. She was busy checking her head, her face, then her arms and legs, as if searching for any body parts that might have been left under the car.
A few moments later, Gio got out of the car with a sour expression. He shut the door a little harder than necessary, then hurried toward the girl.
“Hey, stupid girl. If you want to kill yourself, don't drag me into it. Go jump off that building over there!” he snapped.
The girl slowly stood up. Instead of looking scared, she stared Gio up and down with an even fiercer glare.
“You're the idiot!” she shot back. “You think this is a racetrack? You can speed however you want? What if you'd hit me? Were you going to take responsibility?”
Gio took a long breath.
“Hey, bitch! Just so you know, you're the one who suddenly ran across the street! Anybody would—”
“Thud!”
Gio's words were cut short. The girl suddenly collapsed and fainted right in front of him.
Within seconds, several people came over. A small crowd formed around Gio's car, complete with accusatory looks that made his head throb.
Gio rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had to get home immediately. His Mom might already be waiting with a new threat. But this girl had really chosen the worst possible time to faint.
“Oh, hey, sir, why are you leaving your girlfriend there?” asked a man who had just arrived.
Gio had just opened his mouth when a middle-aged woman cut in. “Guys these days really don't have any hearts. His girlfriend faints and he just leaves her there.”
Gio's hand moved down to rub his face.
What kind of sin had he committed in a past life to deserve punishment this extreme?
He could have explained that the girl wasn't his girlfriend. He'd known her for less than five minutes. But explaining that would definitely take time, and more and more people were arriving.
Finally, Gio let out a long sigh, then lifted the girl and carried her to the back seat of his car.
He set her down a little roughly, making sure she was lying safely, then shut the door. Without waiting for the crowd to grow any larger, Gio hurried back to the driver's seat and drove off.
Several minutes passed in silence.
Gio glanced in the rearview mirror. The girl was still lying in the back seat without moving an inch.
“Don't even think about it. I'll dump you on the side of the road later.”
Suddenly, the girl burst out laughing.
Gio slammed on the brakes.
He turned around with an expression that was now far more annoyed than before. The girl was already sitting up, wiping the corners of her eyes, which were wet from laughing too hard.
“If you're going to say something mean, just keep it in your head,” she said casually. “It's embarrassing to hear.”
“You damn bitch!” Gio cursed.
“Bitch is a term for an animal. Calling a woman that isn't polite.”
Gio took a long breath. A very long one.
This girl was annoying. Loud. Ungrateful. And worst of all, she didn't seem afraid of him in the slightest.
“Get out!” Gio ordered.
The girl ignored him. She merely stared at Gio with a blank expression, then flashed him a wide smile.
“You'd really make me get out here? I don't even know where this is.”
Gio looked at the road ahead. Then he looked in the rearview mirror. Then he looked back at the road.
He wanted to kick the girl out. He really did.
But for some reason, Gio's concern chose that exact moment to kick in, when he needed it least.
In the end, he started driving again.
The girl smiled in satisfaction from the back seat.
Meanwhile, Gio had no idea that his small decision that night would become the beginning of the biggest chaos of his life—and perhaps the beginning of something far more dangerous than love.