After their father left, the two kids sat down in the plush leather seats alongside the massive glass wall, which provided a breathtaking panoramic overview of the city sprawling below them like a living map.
Both were completely mesmerized by the scenery, their faces practically pressed against the glass.
Philip, who was lurking around on the other side of the waiting area while pretending not to acknowledge their presence, caught sight of their awestruck reactions and felt smug satisfaction wash over him.
'This view is nothing. I've even seen Mount Fuji last summer and it was way more beautiful,' he thought smugly to himself.
Competing with people who didn't even know they were in a competition, all inside his own head.
After a while, the boy suddenly stood up from his seat. "Wait here, Ava. I need to make a quick visit to the restroom."
"I need to use it too, Derrick," Ava said, her voice taking on that pleading tone kids use when they really want something, looking up at him with big eyes.
"Father might come out at any moment, so it's best if one of us stays here to make sure he doesn't get worried when he comes out," Derrick made his point calmly and logically, which Ava understood and reluctantly accepted with a pout, her bottom lip sticking out dramatically.
As soon as Derrick disappeared around the corner, Philip saw his golden opportunity and quickly shuffled up to Ava, his heart pounding in his chest.
"Hey, you," Philip bluntly called out while pointing directly at Ava with his stubby finger.
His round figure and awkward posture made it look like a scene recreated straight from a video game—Bowser approaching Princess Peach, minus any of the threatening presence.
"Hmmm?" Ava, who was seated with her feet swinging off the ground since the chair was too tall for her, turned her head in a slightly tilted manner, curious and confused.
The afternoon lighting that streamed through the glass wall further accentuated her delicate facial features, the golden glow adding even more to her natural charm, making Philip's heart skip a beat once more and his palms sweat.
"You have a pretty face," Philip suddenly blurted out. He'd initially thought of walking closer and starting a proper conversation, but flustered completely out of his wits, he just said whatever popped into his racing mind.
"Thank you?" Ava, who was still at an age where boys weren't yet a romantic interest but just other kids to play tag with, was confused at the random compliment from a stranger. But she still answered in a polite manner like her parents had taught her.
"Do you want to be my friend?" Philip asked without a hint of hesitation, the words tumbling out as he smiled while saying it.
His eyelids were so close to each other due to the fat on his face that they almost connected when he smiled. One could theoretically hide from his line of sight if they'd told him a funny joke and made him laugh.
But Philip had the confidence of a wild badger charging into battle—he'd never once thought of himself as an unattractive person.
He vaguely remembered people calling him handsome when he was younger, but that was years ago, back before he'd transformed into a walking cinnamon roll.
He thought without a single doubt that surely this pretty girl would definitely want to befriend him.
"What?! No, ewww," Ava couldn't hide the disgust that flashed across her face when she heard his question, her nose wrinkling up.
Ava had never met this boy before in her life. And as her parents had taught her countless times, she tried her absolute best not to judge people based solely on their appearance.
But she didn't know a real-world test for that important lesson would come so soon and so intensely. As it turned out, she failed miserably on her first try.
The boy standing in front of her was genuinely the most unattractive person she'd ever seen in her young life. And his personality and approach clearly didn't make up for it in the slightest.
Philip, having just done his very first confession of any kind, which ended with a complete and brutal rejection, was shocked to his absolute core. His whole world tilted.
'Is he going to cry?' Ava thought nervously as she glanced to her side from time to time, looking for her brother to come back and rescue her from this awkward situation.
Philip gritted his teeth hard and looked down at the floor like he was about to burst into tears, his whole body trembling slightly. But he didn't cry.
He just backed away slowly, step by step, and walked stiffly towards the bathroom area with his fists clenched at his sides.
Derrick had also just finished his business in the restroom and was making his way back down the hall.
He passed by Philip, who seemed to be fuming and radiating anger for some reason, his face flushed red. But Derrick didn't question him or say anything.
"Now it's your turn to wait. I have to use the restroom, too," Ava announced the moment Derrick got back.
Derrick pointed towards the restroom area, which was right around the corner at the end of the hall.
Both the men's and women's rooms were separated and positioned right at the end, facing each other.
Ava, feeling uncomfortably full from their big meal earlier, quickly made her way into the women's room.
Little did she know, someone was watching her every movement from right across the hall.
From the men's room, Philip emerged just as the women's room door swung closed behind Ava.
And without a speck of hesitation or fear pumping through his veins, he barged right into the women's room like he owned the place.
Ava, who had just entered and was still in the small entryway, hadn't yet reached the stalls lined up inside.
When she turned around at the sudden sound of the door opening and saw Philip casually entering the women's room like it was nothing, she was genuinely shocked, her eyes going wide.
Although it was very unlikely and deeply unsettling for a boy to enter the women's room, she didn't immediately feel threatened or uncomfortable.
Maybe he just mixed up the signs on the doors, or maybe he was used to following his mother into women's rooms when he was younger and forgot where he was.
She didn't feel the urgent need to be cautious or scared since there were other people right outside the restroom in the waiting area, just a shout away.
"What are you doing here? Get out! This is the women's room," Ava scolded, pointing at the door behind him.
"Why did you say that to me?" Philip replied bluntly, his voice flat but his expression intense.
"Huh?" Only when Ava properly looked at Philip's twisted expression and saw the way he was staring at her did she realize the situation just might not be as innocent as it seemed.
With a creeping sense of eeriness crawling up her spine like cold fingers, she decided it was definitely best to leave the room immediately.
"You're weird. I'm gonna leave," Ava said firmly as she tried to walk past Philip towards the door, giving him a wide berth.
But just as she was about to reach the exit, Philip suddenly lunged forward and rammed her hard into the tiled wall with a loud thud that echoed in the small bathroom.
Although Ava was taller than Philip by a few inches, the sheer mass difference was still a massive factor working against her.
With the size and weight of a small panda exerting full force in such close, confined quarters, a weak and petite girl could only do so much to fight back.
*Thud!*
Ava's back slammed painfully into the hard wall, knocking the wind out of her. Philip was still pushing relentlessly against her with his shoulder, all his weight behind it.
Like a wild buffalo trapping a tiger against a tree, escape wasn't going to be easy for Ava at all.
Philip stood sideways to her, his chubby hands clasped awkwardly together. His head faced downward, avoiding eye contact. His knees and back were slightly bent to give him more balance and leverage against the wall.
Philip's shoulder, which was the only part of his body actually touching Ava, was pressed hard into her stomach, making it difficult for her to breathe properly.
"Why won't you be friends with me?!" Philip shouted, his voice cracking with frustration and something that sounded almost like desperation.
Philip had never had a single friend his age, regardless of gender, in his entire life.
Added to the fact that Ava was extremely cute and had seemed nice at first, he desperately wanted to befriend her, to have someone, anyone.
Facing such a harsh and disgusted response on his very first attempt at making a friend, Philip didn't know what else he could possibly do. So in his twisted, immature logic, he tried to physically force Ava to be his friend.
Ava, on the other hand, was completely confused by his shouted question and couldn't think of any coherent response with the pressure being pressed painfully into her stomach, stealing her breath.
"Why did—" Philip tried to ask the question again, his voice rising. But before he could finish the sentence, he was suddenly and forcefully yanked backward by his collar, the fabric digging into his throat.
Derrick, who had already suspected something was off about Philip's angry demeanor when he'd passed him earlier, had gone back to check on his sister after a nagging feeling wouldn't leave him alone.
That's when he heard Philip's raised voice shouting from inside the women's room.
Philip was so panicked and focused on Ava that he didn't even notice Derrick entering the room behind him.
Derrick grabbed him with both hands and slammed him down hard onto the cold tile floor, then immediately pressed his knee firmly into Philip's chest, pinning him down with his full weight.
He then quickly gestured with his head for Ava to leave the room, his eyes never leaving Philip.
Ava, still badly shaken by the entire incident and breathing hard, didn't need to be told twice. She quickly scrambled up and ran out of the room as fast as her legs could carry her.
"I knew you seemed off somehow," Derrick said coldly as he stared down at Philip, who was desperately trying to shove his knee off, his hands pushing uselessly.
Without any hesitation or second thought, Derrick delivered a straight, hard punch directly to Philip's face, his knuckles connecting with a sickening crack. Then he followed it up with several more rapid hits, each one landing with force.
Catching someone in the act of harassing his little sister, anyone would be absolutely enraged. Derrick was no exception to that rule.
"Stop! Stop! I'm Philip Whitmore! How can you hit me?!" Philip cried out desperately from underneath, his voice muffled and pathetic.
Philip tried his absolute best to sound intimidating and powerful with his words, but his sheepish, whiny tone completely gave him away.
Nevertheless, Derrick stopped his assault at once when he heard that name, his fist freezing mid-air.
Even at his young age, he'd heard plenty about the Whitmore family and their enormous influence before from adults talking.
And even without his father explicitly telling him, Derrick could easily figure out that his father's company was currently struggling badly, barely staying afloat.
Derrick had overheard his parents talking late at night when they thought he was asleep, saying they would hopefully get a chance to plead for a major investment from the Whitmore Company. That was exactly why he'd asked his father to bring him along on this trip.
To get to see firsthand how business negotiations were handled. His sister had also tagged along simply because it was a school day off and she didn't want to stay home alone.
Unfortunately, Derrick couldn't follow his father into the main executive office for the meeting and had been forced to wait outside with Ava.
He didn't expect his sister to be harassed during that short time. And he definitely didn't expect the perpetrator to be the heir of the Whitmore family of all people.
Derrick looked down at the sobbing, fat kid beneath him with a bleeding nose. His cheeks were so puffy and swollen that Derrick genuinely couldn't determine if they were swollen from the beating he'd just given him, or if that's just the way his face naturally looked.
He knew with absolute certainty that if things went wrong here, if he made the wrong choice, his father would surely not get the financial support he desperately needed. Or maybe even worse—his father's struggling company would suffer devastating consequences from it, maybe even go under completely.
So should Derrick just apologize profusely to Philip right now and beg him not to tell his father what happened?
That way, Philip might be merciful and forgive him, and everything could go back to normal.
Derrick still had his fist clenched tightly, hovering in the air, staring intensely down at Philip's pathetic, tear-streaked face.
"I'm gonna tell my father," Philip cried out once more, his voice cracking with each word, tears and snot running down his face.
At that exact moment, Derrick made up his mind in a split second. There was absolutely no guarantee that Philip would actually forgive him even if he begged.
Maybe Philip would even twist the entire story if Derrick let him go now, painting himself as the victim. So Derrick realized he had to go completely full-on assault mode instead.
Derrick reached down and pinched hard at Philip's already bleeding nose, gripping it between his fingers as if he were genuinely trying to rip it clean off his face.
Philip wailed loudly as the sharp, burning sensation set in and exploded across his face. But Derrick quickly slapped his other hand over Philip's mouth, muffling the screams.
"Listen carefully, fatso. If you don't do exactly as I say, I will tell your father what you just did to my sister. How you followed her into the bathroom and assaulted her," Derrick hissed, his voice low and threatening.
Philip's eyes widened dramatically in an instant when he heard Derrick's cold words, his pupils dilating with pure panic. That reaction confirmed to Derrick that his aggressive approach was absolutely the correct one.
Philip never intended to assault anyone—that thought hadn't even been in his immature mind.
He just wanted to demand answers from her, to ask her why she didn't want to befriend him. What was it about him that made her react with such visceral disgust?
But when he saw her trying to flee the room the moment she heard his desperate question, he panicked completely. And in the process of trying to stop her from leaving, he'd accidentally rammed her into the wall.
Derrick slowly, carefully took his hand away from Philip's mouth, ready to clamp it back down if he screamed.
"No! I didn't mean—" Philip started to protest, his voice desperate and pleading.