IN THE CAGE

30. BORED TRICKS

...FAWN...

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Wearing a red training shirt with shorts on my knees, I sat opposite Haru. A piece of monopolistic paper unraveled between us. Toy money, cards and plastic pawns and dice were strewn across the floor, side by side with a plate of chocolate biscuits and two glasses of strawberry syrup.

Today again, I who was still confined to the main house of the Hunter family was unable to do anything but seek entertainment so as not to go crazy. The entertainment was one of them was to play this stupid game with Haru. Haru who fortunately is the best boy this house has. He is the light, the only man with a high morality and is very kind.

Haru brought this monopoly toy from his house. I suspect, this toy belongs to his sister. Haru said, in order not to get bored, I should play with him. A few days ago too, Haru brought me a box of cards.

I thought he was concerned about my mental state, so he tried hard so I wouldn't get bored and screamed like crazy. Oh, yeah.js right. I'm almost crazy here. There is no comfort at all when your days are just filled with waking, sleeping, eating, dumbstruck, and if Ace is showing up his psychopath.

No physical torture was given, but if locked up for a long time, my mentality was tormented. I wonder, how can anyone go to jail for years and come out under normal circumstances?

"Are you getting bored?" Haru asked.

"Sooner or later you will get bored" I said. "This place is worse than prison."

"I don't think it's so bad here" Haru said. It was natural for him to think so. He's not in my position. Haru comes and goes to this room only if Felix is busy taking care of Miss Margot.

"At least, Haru. You know, sort of gardening, clothes melaundry, libraries, and cooking jobs. Here, I have no activity other than this.., yes." I stared at the monopoly paper on the table. Am I a kid? Why did I spend half my day just playing?

I usually work more in my free days. Practice shooting, sharpen my martial skills, chat with other bodyguards or at its simplest, watching Miss Indira do her daily activities. I am a normal human being, not a bird in a cage. For God's sake, my brain is boiling in annoyance.

"You have to get yourself used to this situation, Fawn. After all, it's the only way you can survive here."

"Huh, yeah. Survive, right? Who knows when I'll survive here." Ace shows no sign he'll kill me soon. Plus lately he's been acting weird, I don't know when he's gonna play games with me!

"Bos Ace really likes you, Fawn. Ever since your presence here, Ace's boss has stopped ordering women from the outside. It was a surprising change, you must have been amazing."

"What do you mean amazing, Haru?" What does Haru mean I'm better than the whores out there? Motherfucker! I'm ready to break Haru's neck if she's to the point of insulting me like that.

"E-eh, i. There seems to be a misunderstanding...." Haru seemed to understand the meaning of straying from his own words. He took his seat and shook his hand in panic. "My point is.., your existence here made a change to Ace's boss. I'm just thinking about your personality, seriously. I have no other intention."

"Ace doesn't care about my personality." I commented, my near-exploding emotions subsided a little because of Haru's frightened face. This guy knows how to make people sympathize with him. God fucking.

I leaned against the back of the sofa and hugged my knees. "Ace that sadistic fucker. I don't know what made him kill me yet."

"As I said, Fawn. Boss Ace likes you."

"Likes me, huh? Like to make me suffer?"

"It's not like that. I thought, maybe more in a romantic direction?"

"Ro-what?" My words were immediately interrupted, replaced by overwhelming astonishment. A romance? Did I hear a romantic word come out of Haru's mouth? Oh, this innocent man. "There's no way Ace likes me romantically. Are you crazy?"

Haru's chances of going crazy outweigh Ace's chances of liking me literally.

That psychopathic bastard has no heart to love anyone else. He was rude, willing to win by himself, coercive, evil and arrogant. Such a man is impossible to fall in love with. Especially if the person who is the object of his love is a person like me. A bodyguard from the village with minimal education and only enough wealth to buy fried foods. It was a crisp joke. It's embarrassing to say. Ace would probably vomit blood if he heard Haru's naive assumption.

Ace is very arrogant, it is impossible to like a woman who is not in line with him.

"From your expression, you don't believe what I'm saying, do you?" Haru was charging at me with her eyes tapering offended. "Do you think my words are wrong?"

"Do you feel right?"

"Yes." Yeah." Haru showed no hesitation, and her such attitude provoked a mocking grin blooming on my face.

"Falling in love is not impossible, Fawn. Moreover, you guys have been together for how many weeks? A month? If you continue to spend time together, knowing each other's advantages and disadvantages, it's not impossible that you become fascinated with Ace's boss."

"You're very wise.What romance novel have you read recently? Share with..."

Not that I don't listen, I just don't care about that shit.

"Who is in love with whom?" a voice came interrupting my and Haru's conversation. I who was sitting on the sofa tilted my head and looked at a man who was leaning against the wall near the sofa. He came alone.

"Mr Jem? What are you doing here?" Haru stood up to say hello. I don't give a shit.

"I was with Margot earlier, but she forgot something and told me to come in here first."

"O-oh." Haru seems a bit disinclined to let Jem in. But since Margot's name was already mentioned, how else.

I noticed Jem breezing towards the single sofa. He sat there picking up a chocolate biscuit from the plate. "Monopoly? Attractively. Is this your entertainment here?"

I thought Jem was talking to me, so inevitably I responded with a nod.

"It's boring, playing chess is more exciting than this."

"I don't know how to play chess" I said. "I don't know how to strategize to take others down."

"Does that mean personal?" Jem smiled, and the smile felt a bit fake. I intentionally offended him, considering he was the mastermind of Miss Indira's abduction. He's the reason why I'm locked up here!

"Of course."

"Bemain is strategically not solely to bring down others, Fawn." Jem picks up the dice on the table and spins them. "Strategic and calculative in doing anything is the way that needs to be done to achieve victory."

Like I care about you!

"You may not know about it because you're just a subordinate. Your job is like a pawn on a chessboard. You're just one of the many soldiers who need to be sacrificed."

"Oh.., he's no one's pawn now." miss Margot came and connected Jem's words. I looked at his face in search of the trail of blows Ace left behind, but nil. Maybe Ace didn't hit him hard enough. Shit, I'm worried about something unnecessary.

"I don't know about it," Jem smiled as he looked at me. "Everybody is basically a pawn, you just need to know how to play it. If he's useless, you just need to get rid of him."

Is this bastard threatening my existence?

His ambiguous speech and his eyes full of mysterious expressions made my body goosebumps stiff.

"He's Ace's favorite toy now. You can't get rid of him. I once tried to get rid of it and it ended up being slapped, you know." Miss Margot sat next to me with her eyes sparkling with jokes.

"She must be very valuable in Ace's eyes." said Jem accompanied by a witty glance at me.

"I don't know about precious, but Fawn is adorable. I'll make it my toy if Ace gets tired of it. You know, after all, he can't get out of here alive."

"How do I get Ace bored of me?" Upset already being the object of invisible conversation here, I decided to join the voice. Jem and Miss Margot paid attention to me with a pair of sparkling eyes.

"Do you want to be my toy, Fawn?"

"No," I said for a moment. I want to be free.

"So you want to die?" Jem makes his own conclusions that make more sense. I didn't answer Jem's words and just stared at Miss Margot.

"If you want Ace to get bored of you, then you have to do this..."

Attraction popped into my head for a moment. The desire to escape Ace's grip and be free of him. I will do whatever will lead me to freedom.

"What's that?"

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