" Click...., click", another shot was. taken , a ginger haired boy snuggled against his car seat as if trying to hide himself from anyone's eyes, and then after making sure he was nit seen, he checked if he had taken a clear shot of Denver, apparently he was near Denvers resturant. Coco, an eighteen year old college student who Daniel was paying to spy on Denver and Rhea, he occasionally took photos and sent it to Daniel , they were mostly plain , his day to day activities was his resturant, the apartment and that was all , he never got a closer angle neither did he have the guts so he could never know what was going on inside , he sighed helplessly as he sent the twentieth photo to Daniel , the pay was good but it was boring doing the same thing almost everyday , he wondered what Danoel needed the photos for , at first he had thought that Daniel was infatuated with Denver but with the way he acted, you could easily tell that he was wrong.
It was already evening and Coco didn't know when he had dozed off on the car untill a soft knock broke him from his mild trance , he groggily opened his eyes , obviously still tired but the person he saw at his window ....his soul almost left his body , it was Denver , Coco broke into cold sweats, what was he doing here?, did he know he had been secretly stalking him or what?, he looked non challant, almost exhausted, he raised his hand up and gestured for him to roll down his window , Coco still remained frozen, should he roll it down , he didn't look like he knew him , so he should do his role by not acting suspicious , his hands trembled slightly as he rolled down his window , not daring to make eye contact , " yes....what can I do for you?", he asked careful not to stammer , while he tried to use his other hand to tucked away his phone between his seat without Denver noticing , Denver leaned onto the window , " your car is parked here illegally, didn't you see the sign?", Coco peeked from his window, and there it was , a sign he had barely noticed , " I...", " if you don't move it out , it may be towed or you would pay a fine.....", sounding stern that was it , that was all, he didnt know he was stalking him, That lingering fear in his chest disappeared as he smiled warmly, " thank you...., I will do just that ", he was relieved.
" Hmm....", Denver nodded in satisfaction before he turned to leave but then....he was at the car once again, Coco barely noticed his presence , " ah...and...", Coco turned finally noticing his presence, " is there anything else you....", " if you want to take a picture of someone , make sure it is from right angle , in that way you will get a clearer shot", he sounded amused and cold at the same time, as if teasing him , like he had known all along, he suddenly felt the cold sweats break through his skin and the icking feeling of fear crept in and he suddenly craved for that boredom that he had suddenly lost.
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His pensive hazel eyes made him look intimidating and Coco was nervous and he kept staring at the boba tea infront of him , what was even scarier was how calm he was , " go ahead and drink up ..., if the ice completely melts , it won't be rally pleasant to drink", he said softly , was it some kind of coaxing mechanism before he faced the police , this only made him more scared but he should stand his ground, if he saw he was scared he could take advantage of that , he cleared his throat, he should just wrap things up and bury this ,he should lie his way theough all this , it's not like he has any evidence against him or anything to report hin , " listen man.....I was just....I was just in my car , I got sleepy and took a short nap.....I didn't....", " do you want to eat anything , we still have some left overs , I will just warm it up for you", Denver said with a gentle smile , he was calm, unusually calm and before he knew it, Denver stood up and was heading to the kitchen, what was he playing at , " the places you roaming around have cameras..., so obviously you have been caught in them ", a hint of amusement laced in his voice.
Coco froze, how didn't he know that , that means he had known all along that somebody had been watching him , this was clear evidence and he could easily charge him, how could he be so careless, what was he going to do , he should ring away now , if he is found out he will have to go back to that house after everything he had been through, he couldn't go back, he attempted to stand up but then...a steamy plate of pasta was infront of him,startling him , " eat up.....", he said simply , even in this dire situation , Coco couldn't deny that the food smelled so good , and strangely enough , he surprisingly had an appetite , he looked away not wanting to be tempted.
Denver sighed as he leaned back on his chair and folded his arms , " I....I'm not hungry...", Coco stammered which he knew he wasn't suppose to do, he just showed his fear and hesitation , this was an enemies territory, he was trying to lure him out with food , he wouldn't, but at that moment...his stomach growled , and everywhere suddenly felt too quiet and akward, Denver bent his head low trying to stifle in a laugh while Coco face reddened with embarrassment as he looked down. " Hmm..., if you are not hungry.....", Denver stretched out his arm and grabbed the edge of the plate and for a moment, Coco looked alarmed, " I guess I will just take it as...", before he could complete his sentence and pull the plate away , Coco held onto it , it was obvious he had not intended to, he had done it before he had even thought of it and with his widened eyes and slight agaped mouth you could easily tell that he was shocked by his own action, the pkate stayed still , unmoving, neither wanting to let go and from a typical distance it looked like two people who were fighting over food. Denver smiled warmly before finally letting go of the plate, Coco ifted his didn't expect that Denver would actually let go of the plate, he looked at Denver as he tried to cook up an excuse but it was obvious that he couldn't think of anything as he sighed deeply lik3 a sign of surrender as he took the fork and ate like a starved animal , Denver chuckled softly, " eat slowly if not you will choke.....", but Coco didn't listen as he scarfed down his food , it was so good, he had never tasted anything like this.
As he ate, Denver noticed that when Coco had lifted up his hand to eat , his sleeve was slightly lifted up and there was a visible scar on his wrist, a knife scar, he looked at the young boy who was eating , there was also a light scar at the side of his forehead , it was quite unnoticeable unless you were close enough that you could actually see it, it was obvious what it was , " abuse.....?", he muttered as soon as those words left his mouth , Coco froze , spaghetti strands dangling and his mouth smeared with sauce as he slowly looked up at Denver ,a nd that look in his ues was different from all the others he had seen, the others he had met , through their eyes you could easily tell what they were thinking , but his...you couldn't just tell, it wasn't easy to read so you could not tell what he was thinking, he had temporarily let his guard down , he needed to leave, he stood up quickly, what was he even doing, he had fallen into his trap.
Denver knew that it was nit his concern , it wasn't his business but when he saw him , he was reminded of Rgea, if he had done something in the past, would things have been different?, would she have stayed?, though she didn't have scars , that hollow piece of her covered up with an illusion , he saw it in this boy , the scars was a hollow piece of what he had been through , " are you just leaving...", Coco paused at his feet as soon as he heard Denver speak, " shouldn't you at least wash your plate after eating ....?", Denver said as he stood up and took the plate, a loow screeching sound from the chair scraping against the smooth floor, Coco turned back and saw Denver already walking away with his plate in his hand , he didn't ask anything,, he was sure that Denver had seen the sace , he heard him say that word , what about the fact that he had been caught stalking him, Denver turned around , " shouldn't you come?...", what was this feeling, why was he so nice ma why did he want to follow him?, before Coco knew it he slowly nodded , he didn't know whether he purposely ignored it or he was just being nice , either way, he knew he shouldn't but he walked over to Denver as they both entered the kitchen.
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It was past midnight already, she had not heard his door open, she looked at her phone , should she text him, that will be weird , she had never texted or called him before , what if he was actually doing something and she was just interfering, she sighed , she shouldn't, it will be weird if she just called him all of a sudden , like she had never called or texted him, so why would sh3 do it now.
As she was still contemplating what to do , her phone buzzed, it was faced down, her heart stopped for a moment , was it Diah.....Daniel?, her whole body went cold , what if they were here, with trembling hands she lifted her phone up and she was shocked that sh3 didnt know when she threw her phone across the bed, as she looked at it in disbelief, was she seeing things , there was no way he just texted her ?, she clasped her mouth with both her hands in shock , her eyes widened as she suddenly could not breathe, after a while and she had somewhat calmed down , she hesitantly stretched out her arm and reluctantly took the phone once again, she found herself falling limply from her bed to the floor, she wasn't seeing things , Denver had actually texted her, her hands trembled as she read the message , " hi.....it's Denver", it was obvious that while he texted this , she could easily imagine how nervous he must have been, how many times he had deleted the text before he finally sent this , she was shocked that he had even sent the message , it was still amusing as she imagined it.
Then her face fell when she realized that she had to text back, what was she going to say , should she also say " hi", or when will he be back home , but that would feel like she had been intruding , " I won't be home tonight....I went to my parents home", Rhea bit her lower lip, she had opened his message , so she had seen it , she has to reply but.....what would she say , her fingers trembled a little against her phone screen, with a lot of hesitation and and relunctanc3 she texted him back with a simple " ok", immediately she sent it she regretted it, what did she just do?. It's not like she knew what to say to hom before but a simple " ok", it felt like she was being non challant, like she didn't care about his whereabouts, she stretched out her hand and took her phone which she had unconscious thrown on the floor and there it was , another of his message , he had replied , " make sure you lock your door before going to bed , close your windows so you won't catch a cold , and also I made some soup for you, since I will not be around tomorrow , warm it and eat it up, my passcode is 2823", it was like a manual, telling her how to spend her night and morning and like a mother who was advising a daughter who lived faraway, a small smile etched at the corners of her lips, he was careless, how could he trust someone so easily , despite knowing each other , how could he..., as she stared at the text , she didnt just want messages, she missed him and...she wanted to hear his voice , it sounded unbelievable even to her , she dug her fingers through her hair as she scoffed , " what am I doing right now...", she muttered as she lay flat on her bed looking at the ceiling, it felt empty , she had lived alone in this floor before but why was she just noticing how lonely it actually was, she glanced at her phone, she wondered how Denvers voice sounded on the phone.
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Denver was staring at his phone , it was clear that she had seen his message, but she had only replied to one with a simple. " ok", " ha....", he sighed, maybe he had been inconsiderate, did she feel uncomfortable with his message? , did he overstep his boundaries ?, as he continued questioning himself internally, at that moment his dad came in holding two cups of milk , Denver quickly stood up and took a cup from his father's hand, his father smiked as they both sat on the couch, " so....how have you been ....., you came so abruptly that I forgot to even ask you....", Denver cleared his throat as he dropped the glass of warm milk on the table , " I came all of a sudden with Coco, I must have put you and mum in a sticky situation....., I just need to settle things first , so....dad , for now let him stay here ....", saying that Denver bowed his head as he fidgeted with his fingers , he didn't want to bother his parents but..., he just knew that if Daniel knew that the boy had turned his back on him then it was pretty obvious where he was going to start looking and who he would start suspecting.
Richard ( Denvers father) smiled as he gently patted Denvers back , " you have grown so much and your heart never changed ", Denver smiled softly , " hah.....you think like that too, don't you?, Richard rested his head on the couch , a low sigh escaped from his mouth , " that kid...was abused, I want him to stay as long as he wants ", his voice was low , almost uncertain, like he was doubting himself , " any guest you brought in.....you know we are always okay with it.....", his father's voice had always been warm , never had his father yelled at him and no matter the decision he made , they had always trusted him , he wondered why it was like that, " you guys trust me too much..... , it makes me worried sometimes ..", he looked up at his father , he looked so calm, " why would you worry , nobody in this world is forced to trust anyone , they say to trust someone , it has to be earned ..., but I dont agree to that ", he said as he shook his head a little is disapproval , while Denver tilted his head out of curiosity, Richard leaned in closer, clearly trying to understand what his dad was saying , " trusting someone is like death....., it is inevitable , a person may do nothing for you and you could still trust him and another could burn the world for you but...you can't trust that person, it's just part of human nature, that is how complex our species is".
What his father said made him wonder which side did he belong to?, if he can burn the world for someone , could she trust him or....., if he just sits there and does nothing , will he still be trusted , if anyone was asked that question , people won't rely on their conscience and could pick whichever the other found considerate, but as for him, he didnt know what he wanted.