Caleb took a deep breath.
"I just need a minute to calm down," he muttered, then turned and headed to the couch in the back room.
Lucy gave a small nod. She didn't ask anything.
Caleb sat down. Straight posture. Total silence.
His thoughts started drifting.
Luna. Was she… some kind of psycho?
A cold chill crept down his back.
Did she rent a house in the suburbs just so she could… lock me in?
She always acted gentle… but way too gentle.
Her face flashed in his mind again. That smile. That soft voice. Those calm eyes.
"Damn it," he muttered.
His focus was slipping.
He should be thinking about revenge.
Not getting dragged into some twisted adult drama with a freaky past.
Caleb looked at the system screen floating in front of him—see-through, still ticking down the Hijack duration.
[Time Left: 06:19]
He sat still for a long while. Only the ticking seconds kept moving.
Eventually, his head started to clear.
He scanned the tiny room—an old bookshelf, a tea thermos, and a faint trace of floral scent still hanging in the air.
This place... felt safe enough.
Lucy'd probably be busy for a while.
And Caleb?
He had a good amount of Hijack Points now.
"Duration's based on points, right?" he thought. "If I spend… 6 points—that gives me one hour."
He leaned back, glancing toward the cloth curtain that split this room from the front.
One hour.
"If Lucy lives about an hour away… I could burn 6 points to make her head home without suspecting anything. But that's just wasting points…"
A slight smirk crept across Caleb's lips. He rubbed his chin.
Options were opening up.
"Maybe it's better to move at night. After Lucy's gone?"
But the more info he had, the harder it got to control the pieces.
The whole world was starting to feel like a chessboard.
"This is giving me a headache."
He pulled out his phone, opened DhatsUpp, and started typing:
Looks like I'll just stay at Lucy's flower shop for now. You don't need to worry. And… sorry if you already spent money for me.
A few minutes passed.
Caleb was still sitting on the couch, head leaning against the wall. Silent.
Then—
Bzzzt.
His phone screen lit up.
[DhatsUpp: 2 Message from Luna]
He opened it.
"Caleb… I'm glad you're able to rest somewhere peaceful. But… please think twice. Lucy—she's a good person, yeah. But she and your mom… they had a really nasty fight back then. And I know, scars like that sometimes leave behind small grudges you don't see."
"I'm not saying she's evil. But you're in a fragile state right now. Easy to take advantage of. And you have no idea what she's been holding in her heart all this time."
Caleb read it slowly. Quiet.
His eyes narrowed.
Reading her message felt weird… after what Lucy told me about the 'C' folder, he thought.
Lucy—blunt, sarcastic, a little rough—was being painted as dangerous.
But it was Luna who had been secretly keeping photos of him since childhood. Obsessively.
Luna who now sounded… too caring. Too eager to control.
And now? She was trying to push him away from the one place that actually felt safe—to somewhere she picked? Caleb couldn't help but wonder.
"…Is this reverse manipulation?" he muttered under his breath.
Still, her reasons made sense.
Her words were soft.
And Caleb had no solid proof yet.
Just… a gut feeling.
A gut feeling that both of these women… knew more than they let on.
And they both revolved around the same center point: Caleb's mom.
He glanced at the system screen—the hijack timer had two minutes left. The panel showing the duration always popped up by itself whenever he wanted to check the remaining time.
Then, his thumbs started typing:
I get where you're coming from. But I don't wanna move out right now. I need time to think. Besides… you're the one who said I should rest, remember?
Send.
He put the phone down and let out a long sigh.
Somewhere between exhausted and overwhelmed.
Lucy carried wounds.
Luna carried obsession.
And him?
Stuck in the middle.
"Shit..." Caleb rubbed his temples. "This is getting so damn messy. I feel like some clueless idiot right now," he muttered.
[Ding!]
[00:00]
Caleb let out a quiet sigh.
That's it, he thought.
The transparent system panel vanished into thin air—And suddenly—Footsteps.
Lucy stepped out from behind the curtain, slowly walking toward him. But… that wasn't what made Caleb freeze.
She lowered her head slightly. Then, without saying a word—she hugged him. And slowly sat down beside him.
"Eh—?"Lucy pulled Caleb into her chest.
His body went stiff, reflexively. Tense. But Lucy just held him gently from the side—like a mom comforting her kid who just came home soaked from the rain.
"Caleb… don't let your feelings take over to the point you wanna marry Luna, okay?"
"…Huh?" Caleb glanced at her, confused.
Lucy kept looking straight ahead, her hand slowly stroking his back.
"You're still young," she said softly. "Your mind's probably all over the place right now. But marriage? With someone like her? Just think it over, okay, kiddo?"
Her voice didn't sound sarcastic. Or manipulative.Just… worried. The kind of gentle concern that plays like a sad song on a lonely weekend night.
Caleb almost spoke up. Wanted to push back. Ask her, "Who said anything about falling for her?"
But then he remembered how the hijack worked.
It was over.
Everything had been reset. And Lucy… wouldn't remember what they just talked about.
Caleb looked down.
Goddamn… system, he muttered inwardly.