Love Vs. Rich #3

Yaki happily drives his car in the freeway at 45 mph. He turns to see Ka Lu looking straight at the road, sitting very close to the door. He focuses his attention back on the road and said, "Why are you sitting so far away from me? I’m not going to bite."

"I just can’t trust a guy like you."

"You accuse of being a rapist and now you don’t trust me? You’re one weird woman."

"I’m not weird."

"Then paranoid."

"I’m not paranoid either just because I have accused you of being a rapist."

"Hey, I wouldn’t rape a girl like you and I’m also very picky too you know. Between a poor girl like you and a diamond, I’ll rather choose the diamond."

"You... I hate people like you! Let me off here!"

"Why?"

"I’m tired of your yapping. Let me off here now or I’m going to jump off the car!"

"Huh, I’m riding at 45 miles per hour so that gives you a 10% of being injure but this is also a freeway so there will be cars coming in and out. If you jump off now, there will be a 50% likely that you’ll be hit by a car or get ran over. If you did get hit of ran over, there will be a 30% of you dying, but most likely 90% that you’ll die. Want to jump when you heard all the facts already? Fine, here I’ll release the locks for you." Yaki press a button to release the locks and gesture her to the car door with his hand.

"You think that I’m that stupid?"

"You did sound daring," and he once again gesture her to the car door. Mad with rage, Ka Lu didn’t speak anymore throughout the whole trip until they reach the abandon house. She quickly gets out of the car and slams the door, calling, "Dad, Mai, I’m here! Dad, Mai, I’m back! Can you guys hear me?!" Yaki got out of the car and walk up to Ka Lu.

"I think they’re not here."

"They have to be here."

"Maybe they went back to the poor village."

"Very funny and no, they’ll never leave me behind because we promise that we will always stick together."

"Doesn’t look like you stick together when you got chase by the gangster."

"Quiet you; I was only buying something for us to eat." Yaki then felts sorry for what he said right then.

"Look Yaki, I thank you for sending me here but right now you can go back and I hope never to meet you ever again." Ka Lu went and hid behind the buses next to the house. Yaki returns to the car and sits there, staring at her.

What if something bad to her again, he thinks to himself. He took out his keys to start his car but he pause and stares at her again. Ka Lu sits on the doorway, waiting for her dad and her sister. Hours past and she became drowsy and her head nodding constantly. She looks up as she recognized distant footsteps and see Mai. Excited, she jumps up to embrace her sister and Mai hug Ka Lu back. Something taps her shoulder and she turns around with a smiling face.

"Dad!" but she sees Yaki instead.

"It’s only me," he said. "What did you call me?" Ka Lu looks around confuse for it’s nighttime and she begins to realize that she was dreaming.

"Are you sure you want to stay out here?" Ka Lu stands up and yells at him angrily, "I thought that you’re supposed to go home already! I don’t want your family to worry about you!"

"What? I waste my time our here to guard you from harm and this is the thanks I get."

"Sorry," she apologizes, feeling selfish for what she said before.

"How about this? You come home with me and I’ll bring you here again without a scratch, I promise."

"No, you did so much for me already and plus, I do not want to owe anyone." She walks to a bench and sits there looking at the ground. He went up to her and stands right behind her.

"I’ll give you your options, either come nicely to my car or I’ll have to take you there by force." Ka Lu looks at him and continues to look at the ground, uneasy. Yaki sigh and start to roll up his sleeves. He grabs her shoulder but she instantly stands up and runs a few feet ahead of him. He puts his hand on his hips, walks toward her and picks her up.

"Let me go," she yelled, "Let me go!"

"Not until we’re at the car."

"Fine, fine just let me go, I’ll walk." Ka Lu straightens herself up when Yaki puts her down and she quickly walks up to the car and opens the door.

Beep, beep! Beep, beep! The alarm went off and she backs away from the car. Yaki laugh at the sight of this but was force to stop when she frowns at him. He turns the alarm and gesture her inside. She obediently did so and Yaki walks over to the driver side, still smiling from what happened and before he knows it, he is howling with laughter.

"What’s so funny?"

"Nothing," he answered as he struggles to control his laugh.

As he drives, Ka Lu notice a piece of cloth tied on his forearm, his blood begins to drip from it.

"What happen to your arm?"

"It’s just a cut, that’s all."

"A cut from what?" Then she remembers about the gangster.

"Did the gangsters do this?"

"Hell no."

"Don’t lie to me; I know that it’s the gangster that did it."

"O.k. so what if they did, would you care?" Ka Lu begins to search around the car and she found iodine in the back seat. She reaches for his forearm but Yaki brush her off.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Trying to stop the infection in your arm that’s what." She reaches for his arm again but he brushes her off.

"Pull over Yaki."

"What are you even…?"

"Pull over now!" With a grunt, he pulls over and stops by a meadow.

"Get out."

"You’re telling me to…"

"Out now!" Yaki gets out of the car and goes over to meet her. Ka Lu rips off the cloth and opens the iodine.

"Ow, ow!" he yelped as Ka Lu pour the iodine on his wound.

"Keep still." She pours some more iodine on his wound as he endures the pain. She pulls out a handkerchief from her pocket and wraps it around his wound. A warm feeling surrounds him as she ties the handkerchief around his hand and his heart beats slowly.

"I’m finish," she said as soon as she finishes tying the handkerchief. Yaki looks at her, his temptation was too great and he kisses her cheek.

"Gross! What was that for?"

"Umm…a thank you for concerning about me." They both enter the car and left the meadow.

Yaki parked his car and they both went into the mansion. As they enter the door, Yaki’s mother stops them and looks at Ka Lu with irritation.

"Why are you here?" Yaki’s mother asked in a dead tone.

"Mom, I just…"

"Yaki, I didn’t ask you. I was asking her." Ka Lu looks down in fear mix with shame, knowing that his mother doesn’t like her.

"Answer me or is your mouth cut off."

"Yaki wants me to stay here for the…"

"Don’t lie to me; I know your type of people well, Gold diggers as always."

"But madam, I was never a gold digger and I never like your son."

"You!" but before she could slap her, a hand grabs hold of her wrist. She looks back to see George holding her wrist.

"Caroline, what did I tell you about manners." She looks at Ka Lu, then at her husband.

"Fine, she can stay but if something is stolen from my jewelry box, I’m blaming her," and she storms off. George apologies for his wife rude behavior and lead the way to the guest room.

That night, Ka Lu can’t sleep because she is worrying about Mai and her father. There was a knock on the door as Tyno came into the room. He sits by Ka Lu and stares into her eyes.

"Can’t sleep?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"I’m worried about my father and my sister."

"Don’t worry too much or you’ll get sick, o.k. Learn how to take care of yourself first."

"O.k. Tyno, I’ll remember."

"Good, now go to sleep." Tyno left the room and Ka Lu was fast asleep.

Ka Lu awakens in the guest room to see a maid cleaning. She could tell the maid is tire from working everyday.

"What are you doing?"

"If you have eyes, you could tell that I’m cleaning." Ka Lu knows that she offended her and tells her that she’s sorry. The maid continues her work but Ka Lu gets up and stops her.

"You look tire, why don’t you rest for a moment?" The maid doesn’t know what to say but smile at her and give her the equipment. She jumps and spread herself on the bed.

"Thank you, my back was killing me from all that work."

"No problem."

"You know, when I first look at you I thought that you were a gold digger but I now see you have a kind heart."

"Thanks for your kind words." She then remembers about Yaki and asked the maid if she know where he is.

"Why would you want to know? Are you his girlfriend?"

"No, he’s supposed to take me to a place to find my father and my sister."

"Oh I see. Well, he’s probably at work now."

"Work? Where does he work at?"

In a big building labeled, Sweet Voice Corporation, workers are busy as they went through files and calendars. A fine dress ominous business man with a black hat enters the building and walk up to the circulation desk with a beautiful woman following behind him.

"Hello sir, what can I do for you?"

"I’m here to meet the vice president."

"I think he’s at his office, sir."

"Thank you," and he sets off with the woman following him closely. He reaches the office and opens the door to see the back of the chair facing him. He immediately knew something is wrong but he walks up to a chair and sits in it. The woman who was following him did the same and looks at the back of the chair. The man takes off his hat, revealing his evil but professional look.

"Hey vice president, I am here to check on the schedule."

"What schedule?" The chair swings left and Yaki meets the man face to face but the man wasn’t satisfied to see him.

"Where’s the vice president," he demands.

"You mean Tyno? He’s not here so I’m taking over for him."

"And you might be?"

"Yaki, Tyno’s assistance. Nice to meet you Mr.…"

"Alex."

"Hey, if you’re Alex, then this must be Fenix correct."

"Yes, I’m Fenix," the beautiful woman answered with a sullen voice.

"Wow! I thought that I’ll never have a chance to meet you here but anyway, you guys are here for business right?"

"Yes, we’re here for business," said Alex. "I want to see the schedule for Fenix’s performance tomorrow."

"Right but unfortunately I don’t have his password."

"What do you mean?!" Alex thundered.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I’m only joking."

"A lowly assistance like you should be fired!"

"Fired? It’s your fault not having a good sense of humor."

"I’ll be sure to tell Tyno to fire you off of work!"

"What’s that?" Tyno enter the room, eyeing Yaki suspiciously.

"Have you done something wrong again Yaki?"

"No Tyno, it’s just that he doesn’t have a good sense of humor."

"Sense of humor?" Alex rages and turns to Tyno.

"You have a very worthless assistance here."

"Um…first of all, I’m not just an assistance, I’m a assistance slash CD manager and also, I’m Tyno’s brother and the son of this owner’s corporation so if I were you, I wouldn’t be saying things like that to disrespect the boss’s son." Alex caught himself from saying another word against him and sits down on the chair. Tyno went over to Yaki and whispers in his ear.

"Yaki, what are you doing? We don’t joke around with singers and their manager especially this one because he manages one of our top singers." Yaki is disappointed to hear that Tyno is on Alex side and walks out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Tyno asked as his eyes follow him out of the door.

"Taking my break," he answers back. Tyno knew what that meant and he sits back in his chair and talks to Alex and Fenix about her schedule.

Back at the house, Ka Lu and the maid were cleaning the kitchen together.

"You shouldn’t be doing this Ka Lu, you’re the guest."

"You shouldn’t say that, I’ll be bore if I have nothing to do and plus, it’s fun working with you Flora."

"Really, nobody ever said that to me before." Ka Lu then hears footsteps and quickly gets up and sits on a nearby chair. Caroline looks at Ka Lu, then at Flora and left the room walking majestically.

"That was close," Flora said relieve. Ka Lu went back to work with her.

"Why did you tell me not to work with you when she’s around?"

"Caroline trusts me the most so if she sees you are working me, she wouldn’t trust me anymore."

"Why’s that?"

"She hates you of course." Ka Lu throws her sponge on the floor and puts her hands on her hips.

"Hate me? Why would she hate me?"

"She’s paranoid that’s what."

"Who are you guys talking about?" They both turn to see Yaki right behind them. Flora looks down in shame and Ka Lu hesitates, looking from Yaki to Flora and back at Yaki. He puts his hands on his hips and puts on his tattle expression.

"Um… it’s not Flora’s fault…"

"Don’t worry, I’ll let you guys off this time," Yaki said cheerfully as Flora gives out a sigh of relieve.

"Thank you young master Yaki."

"No problem," he said to Flora and turn to Ka Lu.

"Ready to go?"

"Sure, just let me get my things."

They’re at the abandon house again, waiting for Fong and Mai. Yaki looks at his watch to see that three hours had passed already and he looks at the darkening sky. He walks over to Ka Lu and lean on the wall, staring at her.

"You sure they haven’t gone back to that poor village yet?"

"I’m sure; they will never leave me behind." He just sighs and takes out his wallet. He takes out some money and reaches it out to her.

"I don’t mean to disrespect you but take this money. It should be enough for you to go home and get something to eat." She looks at him then back at the road, angry.

"Come on, it’s possible that they went home already."

"No they…" but she couldn’t finish her sentence as she burst in surprise calling, "Dad! Mai!" and sure enough, Fong and Mai were walking towards her. Ka Lu runs over to her family and embraces them in her arms. Yaki smile from the background and he puts his wallet away. He walks to his car quietly not to disturb them. Once he enter his car, her looks at them one last time before he drove off, leaving Ka Lu with her family.