After he left, our lives slowly returned to something that felt normal, though it was a different kind of normal from everyone else in our classes. While other students had parents to cook, wash dishes, clean their houses, and pack their lunches, we did everything ourselves. After school, when all our friends ran off to play, we reported to our part-time jobs.
Almost two years passed like that, with our days split between school, work, and house chores. Then suddenly, all at once, our not-so-normal stability fell apart.
The kingdom's government forced the mall owner to sell the shop to the ministry as part of a road-widening project. The shop was demolished. So was our life. Everything we had been building collapsed overnight.
We returned to struggling again, but this time we were more cautious. We did not waste our savings like before. We searched everywhere for new jobs. The places that offered work either did not match our school hours or required heavy lifting, which would be impossible for fragile Sophia. We rejected those.
The remaining places were worse. They asked Sophia to stand outside the shops as a display, wearing pretty dresses to attract customers.
Ind and I rejected those immediately. We refused to let strange men stare at her with their filthy eyes.
That was when we made a new rule:We would work together in the same place, and no job could involve using Sophia's looks.
Because of that rule, half our savings were gone by the end of the month.
At that rate, I could see what was coming. We were about to run out of money again. I did not want history to repeat itself, so I sneaked away and returned to the garbage dump… just like last time.
But this time, Sophia found me on the very first day.
I still do not know how she knew. Maybe she always knew. Maybe she had followed me before. She burst into tears and began searching through the garbage with me. Seeing her small hands digging through filth was unbearable. I stopped immediately. I promised her right there that I would never do that again.
To help us survive, Sophia came up with an idea. She reduced our meals and cut our basic needs in half. We followed her plan, but the lack of food combined with the constant search for jobs began to hurt us—not just physically, but emotionally. Other students mocked us for not bringing lunch boxes or for roaming the streets looking for work.
I did not care. One look at my eyes and my classmates would tremble. But Sophia was not like me.
One afternoon, Ind dragged Sophia over to me. Their faces looked normal, but I felt something was wrong. I glanced at her hand and saw a cut on her fist.
I did not think. I simply marched to her classroom.
The anger inside me was boiling. I thought I would not calm down even if I punched someone to death. But the moment I reached her classroom, the anger vanished.
Three girls who had bullied her were stepping out.
One had a bleeding nose.One had a torn lip.The last was crying while clutching her cut hair."
Arthur stopped narrating and began laughing loudly as he remembered it.
Seeing Isha staring at him in disbelief, he continued, "Back then, Sophia was just in fifth grade. But her courage and her fierceness shocked everyone."
He looked down for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"For me, I was always worried about how they would manage without me. But that moment told me everything. They did not need me to protect them anymore. They were strong. Both of them. Without realizing it, I hugged them and cried."
His smile faded as he continued.
"After that incident, our savings were gone completely. Not a single silver remained. The next week, we did not go to school at all. We wandered the city instead, searching for any job we could find.
This time, we were terrified Sophia would collapse again. So we broke our own rule. We decided that if needed, we would work separately.
But I could not let go that easily.
One last time, I convinced them to stay together. We went to the huge new mall that had opened recently, the one everyone said would never hire children.
Maybe that day, luck finally smiled on us.We got hired.All three of us.At the same place.
Our routine returned: school in the morning, work in the evening, homework at night, and chores in between.
But those two months of starvation made something clear to me. The money we earned was not enough. And the end of the lease was approaching. Next year, we would have to pay rent with our own income.
Sophia and Ind did not know about the lease ending. I did not want to burden them. So I buried the worry deep in my heart.
At first, it was just a quiet worry. Something I thought of only at night.
But slowly, it grew into something larger. Something heavier. Something that followed me everywhere I went.
Something I could no longer ignore.
In my ninth grade, I learned if we continued we couldn't afford our school, rent, food, clothes—everything. And more than anything, I did not want Ind's dream to shatter. He always wanted to become a scientist and work at the "Vebula Science Lab" just like his parents.
I could not allow his dream to die because of money. So I made a decision.
To make the future possible for the three of us, one of us had to stop studying.And that person was me.
I deliberately failed every exam in ninth grade. After the final exams, I lied to them, saying, "I don't like studying anymore," and I quit school. I did it so they would not worry, so neither of them would feel guilty.
At fifteen, while all the other boys my age were in classrooms preparing for their futures, I became a full-time employee at the mall.
But I never felt bad about it.Not even once.
All my life, I never cared about my own future. I only ever wanted Sophia and Ind to live the lives they deserved. As long as they were happy, I did not care whether I ended up sweeping floors or cooking in some restaurant for the rest of my life.
And it didn't feel lonely either.Because around that time, I discovered something… an unexpected pleasure that distracted me from everything else, the taste of a woman's body.
Women were always drawn to me.And malls are the best places to find plenty of women who are lonely, bored, or simply looking for an adventure.
So I never had a shortage of them.
In fact, my first time happened in the storage room of the mall, with a customer who pulled me inside before I even understood what was going on.
After that day, everything changed.Hooking up with girls became a part of my routine.And Sophia scolding me every time she realized I had switched to a new girl became another part of that routine.
Before I even turned eighteen, my knowledge and experience with women grew far beyond what most adults could even imagine. Nearly every week, I ended up sleeping with someone new, keeping my lonely self distracted and busy.
And on the rare days when I did not have a girl by my side, when the loneliness started creeping back in, I would immediately run to school just to see Sophia and Ind. Their faces alone were enough to steady my heart again.
When I was nineteen, around the time Ind graduated from high school, I dragged him to a brothel so he could "experience love."
I still don't know how, but my plan leaked to Sophia.It is not really a mystery… I just don't know which one of her friends told her, because I had slept with almost all of them.
The moment she stormed in and dragged Ind outside by the collar, I felt something I had never felt before.
Chills. Real chills.
Just two seconds of her glare were enough to make me feel like I might actually piss my pants.That whole evening she lectured me without taking so much as a sip of water. Somewhere during her endless scolding, I fell asleep. And when I woke up, it was already midnight.
Sophia wasn't beside me.The blanket was cold.
I got up and walked to the hall, still half-asleep… and what I saw there was something I never imagined I would witness.Sophia was kissing Ind.
Of course, I always knew Ind loved Sophia. He had adored her since we were kids. But I never wanted to admit that she might like him back.
All my life, I wanted both of them to be happy, but imagining them as a couple was strange for me. I used to believe she would be happier with someone rich, someone who could give her a life completely opposite to our hardships. And at the same time, I always felt ashamed for thinking Ind wasn't "enough" for her.
Eventually, I convinced myself they would end up together. But not like this. Not so suddenly. Not while I was still clinging to my own insecurities.