Friday, 6:00 PM
Uzi slowly opened her eyes, waking from a sleep that had lasted more than 10 hours. She rubbed her eyes, trying to remove the remaining traces of sleep from her face, and with difficulty, she pulled herself out of bed. She looked around, trying to remember what had happened the night before. After a minute, she said, "Oh," remembering the events of the previous day and the fight she had with N. She muttered, "N! Right, where's N?" She looked around frantically to locate him and saw that N was still sleeping peacefully on the floor. She breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that nothing bad had happened or that her father hadn't entered her room.
Uzi looked at the clock and was surprised by the time. "Did I really sleep for more than 10 hours?! No wonder my body aches!" Uzi wasn't exaggerating. Sometimes, after a long, tiring day, the body enters deep sleep. Waking up from this deep sleep can cause a feeling of grogginess, heaviness, and fatigue. This state is called post-wake sluggishness or sluggishness.
Uzi got out of bed with difficulty, dragging her tired body. She placed her feet on the floor and walked quietly so as not to wake N. She grabbed her phone and left the room, rubbing her eyes to see the screen clearly. The first thing she noticed was 19 missed calls from her father. Shock registered on her face, and she almost dropped the phone. "No, no, this isn't good at all," she said. "This is his fate." The number of messages indicated that the school had noticed her absence and contacted her father to inform him.
Uzi wanted to wake N immediately so he would leave quickly, but her father's voice, calling from the first floor, froze her in place. "Uzi Doorman, are you here?" Khan called after her.
Uzi closed her bedroom door and quickly answered her father before he could go upstairs. "Yes... I'm here," she said.
"Well, you'd better come down now. We have something to discuss here, young lady," Khan said.
"Coming," Uzi said. She went downstairs, knowing she was in serious trouble and that if her father came into her room, the problem would only get worse. Once downstairs, she tried to lighten the mood. "Hey, Dad, how was work? Did you fix any new doors today? Did you manage to break your record?"
"Don't try to play games with me, young lady," Khan interrupted. "Do you know what you did today?" Before Uzi could answer, he said angrily, "you skipped school today, so the administration called and gave me a warning that I've exceeded the allowed number of absences. Why did you do that?"
Uzi said, "Why are you so worried about this? What's the big deal if I'm absent? Nobody cares."
Khan said, "Really? So what if they expel you? You're a year behind in graduation. I mean, look at yourself, you're 19 and still in school, and students your age have already finished their first year of university."
Uzi said, "Here we go again. Don't you understand? It's normal to be a year behind in graduation. You never worried about it before, so why are you making such a fuss now?"
Khan said, "I only want what's best for you."
Uzi said, "Bite me. I know what's best for me. I'm not a child."
Khan said, "That's obvious. The warning the school sent me proves it. Now, if you don't tell me why, maybe I should go and find out myself." He then showed Uzi a ticket to her room.
Uzi said, "No, you can't do that." "As your father, I can do this for your own good," Khan said.
Uzi didn't know how to respond to her father. She had completely forgotten about the absence, and she hadn't expected such a strong reaction from him. He hadn't ignored it as he usually did. It seemed he genuinely wanted to mend the father-daughter relationship that had crumbled over the years. Trying to soften the blow, she said, "Dad, listen, it's not what you think..."
"Not what I think?! Are you joking? I thought we had an agreement, Uzi. What is it that I don't understand that made you absent today?" Khan said.
Uzi had an answer she could give that would put an end to this whole thing, but the problem was... she'd die of embarrassment. There was nothing else she could do, so she mustered her courage and said, "It's... it's..." Her cheeks flushed, and she could barely speak. She continued, "It's a girl thing..." She looked down shyly. "You know."
Those words were enough to make Khan fall silent and completely change his tone. He, too, was flustered. He knew this day would come when he'd have to deal with this problem alone. He said, "Oh... okay... I see... Do you want to talk about it, or maybe we can ask someone for advice?"
Uzi said, "No... no, all you want is for me to relax... that's all."
"Are you sure?" Khan asked. "If you want..."
"I said I wanted to rest," Uzi said.
Khan was in an unenviable position, which made him nervous. "Okay, if that's what you want... I'll go to work... If you need anything, you can..."
"I know," Uzi said.
Khan sighed and left for work. When Uzi heard the door close, she breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down a little. She went to her room to check on N. She opened her door and found him awake. Apparently, the sound of her argument with her father had reached him. "Oh... you're awake," Uzi said.
N nodded, saying "Yes." A silence fell between them. From the moment Khan called out to Uzi, N had woken up, startled and afraid that Khan would discover him. He considered escaping through the window, but stopped when he overheard the conversation between Uzi and Khan. Feeling guilty for getting Uzi into trouble, he asked, "Are you okay?"
Uzi replied, "Oh, yes, I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking? Do they think I can't take care of myself or something?"
N said, "No, no, it's not like that. I just wanted to check after what happened..."
Uzi interrupted him, rolling her eyes. "I said I'm fine. Let's drop it."
N said, "Fine, if that's what you want."
Uzi said, "Good. Now that we're done with this, let's go."
"Where to?" N asked.
"What do you mean, where to?" Uzi replied. "To the mall, of course."
"Oh... but why are we going there?" N asked.
"Hey," Uzi sighed. "Didn't your clothes get ripped during the fight? So you need new ones, or are you planning on staying in those tight clothes for the rest of your life?"
N scratched his head and laughed. "Haha, yeah, I think you're right."
"Okay, just give me a few minutes and I'll be ready," Uzi said as she went into her room to get ready.
"Okay, I'll give you some privacy," N said as he left the room.
As N left, Uzi asked him, "Hey, what about your friends (J and V)? Shouldn't you go and tell them you're still alive or something so they don't come looking for you?"
Disappointment crossed N's face as he said, "No, you don't have to worry about that." He placed his hand on his elbow, looking down at the ground, and continued, "I don't think they'd even care if I lived or died, and they wouldn't bother looking for me."
Uzi felt guilty for her question, which had upset N, and tried to cheer him up. "That's great! That means we have the whole night together without them interrupting, right? I mean, who wants to spend their time with fun-killers, huh?"
A smile spread across N's face as he realized what Uzi meant. "Hahaha, yes, you're right," he replied.
Uzi felt a surge of relief when she heard N's laughter. After everything that had happened, Uzi realized that the young man standing before her wasn't as bad as Julia had led her to believe. Yes, he might have caused the deaths of some people, and that was awful, but he didn't seem to be the type to want it. He did it all to survive and to follow his companions' orders. So, it was possible that Uzi might trust him a little more than before. "Okay, just give me 10 minutes and I'll get ready, then we'll find you clothes that suit you," Uzi said, laughing. "Or rather, they'll make you look even darker, haha."
N didn't quite understand what Uzi was trying to say, so he replied, "Great, I like to do anything."
6 PM at the Old Mansion:
V woke up in the vampire-like position, upside down and covered with her wings. She sat down and stretched to shake off the sleep, saying, "Well, another day, another hunt, and another prey screaming for its life, hahahaha." V was in a good mood; she had managed to hunt (or rather, play) three prey: a man in his forties and two women. When she returned to the Mansion today, J hadn't argued with her about eating the prey. Instead, she had placed the leftovers on the kitchen table for N to cut up, as usual.
V headed towards the entrance of the Mansion to go hunting. When she arrived, she found J standing there. She could tell from the way J was looking at the entrance that something was wrong, so she approached her and asked, "What's the matter? Why are you standing there looking at the entrance like that, as if you're waiting for someone?"
J said, "Well, as you can see, it seems that idiot hasn't returned since yesterday."
V was shocked by this. This wasn't like N; he always followed J's orders to the letter to avoid her anger. She hadn't noticed this when she returned in the morning, perhaps because she did what she always did and didn't pay any attention. V said, "This is unusual. What do you think happened to him?"
J sighed and walked towards the entrance, saying, "Maybe that idiot got himself into some trouble and can't get out of it."
V asked, "And what are we going to do about it?"
J turned to her and responded with another question, "What do you mean by 'what are we going to do?'"
V explained, "I mean, shouldn't we, for example, look for him or find out if he's dead or alive?"
"Well, that's strange," J said, a mocking look on her face.
"And what's so strange about it?" V asked, annoyed by J's smile.
"I didn't think you were the type to care, especially about something so pointless," J said. "Remind me, didn't you used to ignore him? Why are you suddenly so concerned about him now?"
"Well, first of all, I don't care about him," V said. "And secondly, shouldn't we at least make sure he doesn't do something that could harm us in the future? Besides, he's one of us, so..."
"Oh, please, grow up a little! One of us?! Really? It's enough that that fool doesn't remember what we do, and he hasn't even lived half as long as we have. Besides, I don't think he'd do anything to harm us, like revealing our hiding place. We barely have enough food to last us through the summer, so we don't need any more trouble."
"I understand," V said, "but..."
J interrupted her. "Then understand that we're just trying to survive here, that's all. That's why I made those rules you try to break every day. Besides, I didn't force either of you to stay here. Either of you can leave whenever you want. So if that fool dies, he'll have done us a huge favor and rid us of him. Or if he disappears for days or months, he should try not to drag us into his problems." J spread her wings and took off to hunt.
V sighed after hearing what J said. Yes, she didn't pay any attention to N, but at the same time, she didn't hate him... completely. He might have been foolish to her, but at least he was the only person who spoke to her and interacted with her without trying to kill her.
V decided to give N some time. If he didn't return, she would start searching for him, not because she cared, but simply to find out if he was alive or dead. She spread her wings and took off to begin hunting.