~~The Beginning~~

It was 8:30 in the evening and the sun had already disappeared behind the mountains. The street lights had been flickered on an hour ago and innumerable houses and buildings were lit up by different sorts of lights —allowing the citizens to continue with their busy lives.

Jay, a girl of 18 years tried to do the same when suddenly her cell starts ringing. She was hunched down on her small study table — in the process of completing her school work.

Without looking up from her notebook, Jay felt along the table through the pile of books and papers and rescued her cell with her free hand. "et ipse mortuus est." She murmured as she wrote it down on the paper.

When the phone continued to ring, she sighed and then looked up at the caller ID to see an unfamiliar number. Rolling her eyes, she pressed the declined button and then threw her cell back onto the pile.

She ignored it when it rung again and again, but when it rung the sixth time, she rubbed her forehead with her free hand, annoyed. She could no longer concertante. Tossing away her pen in a random direction, she angrily answered the call. "Yes?!"

A guy answered from the other side. "E-Evening miss." He stuttered at first, as if he wasn't expecting Jay to pick up his call but then a second later he continued to talk confidently. "This is Louis from the Pizza Hut. Is this Mrs. Hernandez?"

"No! This isn't Mrs. Hernandez! This an old lady who's cat just died!" Jay half yelled. "So let me mourn in peace!" And with that she hung up the call.

After tossing away her cell to the side, Jay pulled her Latin language book and a notebook towards her while pushing away the other books that were scattered on the table. Everything was ready for her to go back to her work except for the part where she couldn't find her pen.

"Ugh!" She smacked her forehead, remembering that she had threw it away in anger. Getting up from her chair, she looked around for her pen when on a reflex, she whipped her head was towards the table when she heard her cell ringing again.

Frowning, Jay shook her head and decided to ignore it, again. She bent down and pulled up the bed sheets only to find her pen laying not too far away.

Sighing, she reached her hand and grabbed hold of the pen when suddenly her cell started ringing again.

Without thinking straight, Jay angrily threw her pen towards the table with so much force that when it hit the plastic lamp that sat on the side — the lamp wobbled over and crashed into the stacked pile of books which now came crashing down on the floor with Jay's cell between them.

Her cell continued to ring as it now laid a feet away from where Jay was sitting. Squeezing the bridge of her nose, Jay tried to calm herself down.

After taking a few deep breaths, she answered the call. "Cut it out, will ya?"

"I apologize for disturbing you but I am just doing my duty here." It was the same guy. "So can you--!"

"Don't you think that your prank call has gone too far?" Jay asked, frowning. She remembered hearing distant shushing voices from the other side, the moment she had first answered the call.

"Eh? Sorry but I don't--!"

Before the guy could complete his sentence, Jay hung up the call and then took out the battery from her cell. "Good riddance."

/Meanwhile on the other side/

"Dude! She hung up again!" Laughed the guy, with the cell phone as he looked over his shoulder, towards the others at the back. He was sitting in front of three other guys, his back facing them.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Call her again." Said the guy with the short brown hair and dull blue eyes.

"Do you even think that she is going to pick our call after all this?" Asked the one who laid down on the cold floor, beside the brown haired guy.

"Well, let's hope so cause if she doesn't then Leo will have to pay the price." Smirked the other, who sat on a chair.

The guy with the cell phone, Leo, frowned, "Not fair! Why do I get to be punished when it was all your idea?"

"You're the one who took up the bet." Yawned Mark as he got up into a sitting position. "Right, Henry?"

"That's right." Mumbled Henry as he fetched for his vibrating phone from his pocket. After sparing it a bored glance, he tossed it back inside.

Leo sighed, regretting taking the role as the guy sitting on the chair got up to his feet and walked towards him. "Don't worry, we'll have mercy on you." He smiled, patting Leo on the shoulder.

Leo rolled his eyes and then typed down the number again. "How could you guys be so cruel? Especially you Ryan! I thought that you were on my side but I guess I was wrong."

"Stop complaining like a little girl and suck it up like a man!" They all shouted at the same time.

Rolling his eyes again, he moved the phone to his ear. "Hey." Mark nudged Leo with his feet. "Put it on speaker."

Leo looked over his shoulder and mouthed him. 'Wait.'

But not a minute later did Leo bolt up to his feet and toss the phone towards Mark who caught it on a reflex. He then ran towards the opened window before turning towards the other three and saluting with two fingers. "I hate to leave but adios!" And like that he jumped out of the window, leaving the boys speechless for about a few seconds before a dark grin appeared on their faces.

"Hunting time, boys." Ryan announced, cracking his knuckles. "Get to your bikes!"

After jumping off the window, from the forth floor, Leo had easily managed to land on his feet but didn't didn't stop to celebrate nor to catch his breath as he knew well that this little action might lead him to his misfortune. He didn't dare to look back and continued to sprint towards the parking lot, towards his bike.

Relief washed over him as soon as he caught a glance of his love. Grabbing hold of the handles, Leo swung his leg over the bike, before bringing the motor to life with a swift move. Upon feeling the satisfied hum of the roaring engine, the blackhead's lips curled into a grin and he wasted no time to zoom into the dark and cold night.

/While on the other side/

"Jay." A women's voice called. "Dinner is ready."

"Hai!" Said Jay, while looking over her shoulder. Closing her books, she sighed while leaning back in her chair. Her shoulders had gone stiff from all that writing. Stretching her arms, she got up to her feet and then walked towards the kitchen, mentally reminding herself to do an overview of her work once before bed.

Jay was welcomed by a gentle smile just as she stepped in and she returned one back to the old lady with cute mittens.

Despite being a forty year old, the woman with short curly grey hair and brown eyes along, still no doubt looked as beautiful and elegant as ever, especially with her newly emerged winkles beside her eyes. But Jay wasn't planning to admit all that in front of woman who raised her.

Walking over to her, Jay then placed a kiss on her cheek, loving how the older lightened up at a common gesture. "Smells great, as usual." She compliment, turning towards the small table, in the middle of the kitchen that held two types of different dishes; Chicken curry and French rice.

"I thought of making your favorite dishes since you've been working too hard nowadays." Said the older as Jay grabbed the plates from the cabinet before placing them down on the table.

She then turned to grab the water jug from the fridge when a thought occurred to her. "Hey, old hag, where's Jimmy? Is he still at his friends place?"

Upon not receiving a response, Jay glanced over only to give out a little chuckle when a blank expression came her way and knew right away that she had forgotten to pick him up... again. 

"Ya Ajumma, don't worry, I'll go pick him up right now." Jay claimed, placing down the jug. She walked out to head towards her small room while the older followed. "Sorry Jay. I keep forgetting about picking him up."

"Don't worry." The younger assured, collecting her phone along with it's battery before connecting them together. "Oh! Does that mean that you admit that you're going old?" She smirked, earning a flying shoe aimed at her but she dodged it easily. "You've improved a lot compared to the first time I threw my shoe towards you." She mocked.

Jay threw out her tongue playfully before switching on her phone and grabbing the ear plugs along with a scarf. She walked towards the main entrance to slip into her sneakers before ordering gently. "Don't wait for us, start eating."

Locking the door behind her, Jay headed towards stairs and then towards the street. She shivered when cold wind danced around her as soon as she stepped outside causing her to pull the scarf tighter around her neck.

I bet it's gonna snow soon.

She thought, jogging over to the salon that was only a few blocks away. Wasting no time to push open the door and step inside, Jay immediately was greeted by a rough voice. "Welcome."

There stood a man with shaving cream spread all around his lips, his dark hair covering his grey eyes — making Jay realize that she had interrupted Mr. Albert in the middle of him saving off his beard.

"Oh, it's just you Jay. I thought that you were another customer." He sighed in relief making her wondering how on earth could he see her through his long stands of hair.

"Forgot to shave?" She asked, chuckling as she walked further into the room. The man no doubt looked like a hobo which was really a rare sight for her and she wouldn't have recognized him if he didn't speak up.

"Yeah. Tom accidentally forgot to put the phone on charge after playing on it for hours." He slightly shook his head, before turning towards one of the mirrors pasted on the walls and grabbing the shave from the shelf underneath the mirror.

"He's still upset about yesterday?"

"Was but no longer is. After spending time with Jimmy, he's been as happy as a kid getting his favorite toy on Christmas." He smiled to himself, "Anyway don't let my babbling keep ya. The kids are upstairs, hopefully not destroying my house."

"As always, you ask for the impossible."

Earning a chuckle in response, Jay then walked towards the staircase and past Mr. Albert. As she climbed, she made sure to count the number of the stairs in Latin, hoping to improve it as she was as worst as a 3 year old who was learning how to speak.

As she reached the tenth stair, her train of thoughts suddenly came to a halt when she hear Mr. Albert shout out something in Latin. Frowning, she tried to understand what he was trying to say until she realised that she had pronounced the ten number in Latin, wrongly.

"Gratias ago!" Jay shouted back, trying to show-off one of the three words that she had managed to learn within a few days.

Her attention was diverted again from the opposite direction when she heard the sound of running footsteps getting louder and turned she around to see Jimmy running towards her. "Move or Run!" He shouted as he got closer, already descending the number of stairs she had climbed.

Jay didn't have time to ask what he meant but she understood immediately when she caught Tom with a water gun and water ballon standing on top of the stairs.

Without wasting another second, she whipped around and started following the previous boy's actions.

Upon leaping off the last few stairs, Jay turned towards the attacker's father, laughing. "Run, Mr. Albert! Run!" Jay cried out, successfully attracting Mr. Albert's attention as he averted his gaze from the mirror, now freshly shaved, to read the situation. His gaze automatically fell upon his son as Jay came to hide behind him and felt his eyes widen when he noticed his index finger moving towards the trigger.

\~\~\~\~Leo's POV\~\~\~\~

The door of the well known salon creaked upon my push, allowing me to step inside and catch a hold of the scene before me. Four figures were running around, all in different directions, presumably playing tag as my presence hadn't snapped them out of it.

Mr. Albert and his son were the first ones to get recognised by me whilst the auburn haired girl and the brown haired kid were foreign.

I presume that they didn't hear us coming in cause they still seemed to be busy in playing catch which no doubt seemed fun. But before I could join in, Ryan, being the party-pooper, decided to clear his throat loud enough to catch the older two's attention.

\~\~ Jay's POV \~\~

I immediately stopped on my tracks when I heard someone clearing their throat and turned to see four guys, about the same age, standing in the door way, looking straight at us.

How comforting.

Just as I rushed to fix myself up, I caught Mr. Albert do the same, from the corner of my eye while the kids continued to run around.

Wanting glance up at the guys again to see if they are still staring, i lifted my face just as Jim came crashing into me, making me stumble a bit. "Wa!" I yelped, moving my hands frantically to help myself regain balance on one left and just as I succeeded, something cold and wet suddenly splashed all over me, after a soft pop sound leaving me baffled just as a few gasping sounds echoed around me.

\~\~ No one's POV\~\~

"Tom!" Shouted Mr. Albert angrily, making the boy jump at the sudden harshness. "S-Sorry." He stuttered as tears began to brim his eyes. Soon a waterfall had begun. "I-I am.... s-sorry. I-I..."

"N-No, don't cry! Don't cry Tom." Jay rushed towards the sobbing boy who couldn't choke out the words. "It's okay. It's okay."

"Are you okay, Jay?" Mr. Albert asked, wanting to make sure the girl was okay before he could comfort his son. She looked over her shoulder towards him as he walked over and then nodded, smiling. "I'm alright."

"I'll go get you a towel." Mr. Albert, turned to leave but he stopped when Jay grabbed his wrist. 'Customers' she mounted him.

Mr. Albert stood there thinking for a few seconds and then he finally realized that he had customers. Whipping his head towards the four boys, he apologized and then called them in.

Jay got up to her feet with Tom in her arms, bouncing him as his cries slowly died down. Her gaze unconsciously followed all four guys as they slowly made their way towards Mr. Albert.

She noticed them glancing towards her from time to time but she paid no extra thought to it.  She then turned her gaze towards Mr. Albert, when he cleared his throat. "There is an extra blue T-Shirt behind that door. Why don't you go and change into it before you catch a cold." Said Mr. Albert, motioning towards the door, in the corner as he slowly lifted Tom, into his arms.

Jay opened her mouth to refuse him kindly but she stopped when she saw him tapping a finger towards his chest. It took her five seconds to realize what he was talking about.

Immediately turning her gaze down to her chest, Jay saw that her shirt was all soaked up and that her bra was clearly seen though her shirt.

Gasping, she whipped her hands towards her chest, covering it as much as possible. Her gaze whipped towards the guys to see if they were looking which they were rather shamelessly. But upon realising they were caught red handed on the spot, two of them had immediately looked away while the remaining two stood their ground for a few more seconds before acting like they were simply checking out the salon — one giving her a bored look while the other shooting her a grin.

Humiliation wasn't the only word that could describe what Jay felt at this exact moment.

Although many emotions rushed through her mind, among them there was one that she was certain of. And that was;

'furorem'

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