- One Day -

If this could be endured, then what else couldn't be endured? Charlotte regretted to not open the paper even when she had to break her promise to her brother and beat him up before he left on his date with Celeste.

Before, after she handed the paper to Khun, she wondered what was written on the paper. She had promised her brother that she won't look at the paper but she never promised that she won't ask Khun about what Altaira wrote on the paper.

Altaira knew that Charlotte had admiration for Khun. But after these seven years, she had never talked about her old feelings and when he once asked, she answered that she had forgotten that old feelings. Of course, her answer didn't convince her brother and the more she denied, the more Altaira was sure that Charlotte still harbored feelings for him.

So when he said that he was going to prepare someone a date, she never thought that the victim of his trick would be her again. And there she thought that her brother was nice enough to spare her for this one.

On the paper, Altaira asked Khun to take care of his sister when he wasn't around and to make sure that she won't be able to get the chance to spy on their dates or to be approached by some weird guys. If Khun did that for Altaira, then Altaira will repay this debt and favor in the future. No matter what he asked or wanted later on, as long Altaira could fulfill it, then he would immediately fulfill it.

Charlotte thought that Khun wouldn't take that offer. It wasn't like her brother had something precious or worth to be given. She was too angry to think all her brother's good sides and believed that Khun would just throw that paper to the trash can and acted like nothing had happened. But to her surprise, instead of throwing the paper away, he folded it again and kept it before telling her to follow him.

She felt so surprised that she was stunned. Even if she suddenly got struck by lightning, then the amount of surprise that she felt couldn't be compared to this one.

Did Khun take the wrong medicine today? Or he was still tired that his mind didn't function properly? She wanted to ask but knowing the consequences of asking, she swallowed all the questions back.

To say that this was a date, Charlotte felt that she was treated like a child more. It was as if that she was a six years old child who was left with her uncle and stayed with him so that her uncle could watch her. This kind of thought hurt her pride.

Khun looked at Yeon, Rak and Prince who were going to spy on Bam's date. After he was sure that the three of them were going to spy them until the end, he calmed down for a bit since if something happened, then the three of them could do something. If something happened to Bam because of this date, then no matter how many times Endorsi apologized, it would still be unforgivable.

What a good teammate brother had found, Charlotte silently thought and followed him from behind.

The two of them went to the cafe where Charlotte saw two familiar regulars.

One of them was a regular with blue hair and eyes similar with Khun. From his appearance, he looked like a child. But for a child, his blue eyes were quite cold. His name must be Khun Ran.

While the other one had short black hair and red eyes with white pupils. He had pale complexion and his height was around two meters. From his black hair and red eyes, Charlotte guessed that he must be Novick.

Both Ran and Novick were Khun's former team before the incident in the Hand of Arlen where the two of them ended up in FUG's Team. In the Manhwa, Khun called the two of them as he wanted to tell them something.

The three of them looked at each other as they were waiting for one of them to start introducing themselves. And after they had finished introducing themselves, Ran asked Khun, "Why do you bring someone else here?"

Charlotte looked at Khun, waiting for his response as well.

"I was entrusted by someone to take care of her" Khun honestly answered as he sat down.

"What? Is she six or something?" Ran asked again while looking at Charlotte.

Charlotte knew that she wasn't the part of their team. Now that they were here to talk and discuss about their further plans, Charlotte knew that it was inappropriate for her to listen to their talk. She didn't mind choosing another seat to sit down and wait for him to finish their talk.

"Then why don't I choose a different seat?" Charlotte asked to Khun. "I don't mind."

She didn't know what Khun was thinking until he told her to sit next to him. Could it be because he was afraid of her running away? But she wasn't that dumb to challenge him. No matter how much she wanted to run away, she knew that Khun would always find a way to hold her collar and then pull and drag her away. And besides, as long she had something to eat, drink and play, why would she run away from him?

"Sit or not?" He asked again.

Judging from his tone, if Charlotte didn't follow his words, then she would be scolded. Without talking or thinking too much, she just pulled her chair and ordered ice cream and then enjoy her vanilla ice cream.

Khun still remembered when he found Dan who lost his legs and found Gyetang lying on the bed without breathing anymore. He still felt guilty for that. Today, he called his teammates because he wanted the two of them to be their spare team and to find Rachel and the others. After they found them, Khun wanted the traitors to be eliminated.

While listening to their conversation without any interest, Charlotte was enjoying her vanilla ice cream with happy and cheerful aura. The sweet taste of ice cream had calmed her down and fixed her mood. She enjoyed her ice cream without caring about the others.

Khun who glanced at her for a moment could only thought of one word: 'childish'.

"Hm....well, it's an reasonable offer" Novick said. "But where do we find our other members?"

"Ah, don't worry about that" Khun said with a smirk. "I already found someone with good skills."

As the door was opened, Charlotte heard the sound of bell ringing. She glanced to see who had came and then saw two people. One was Dan and the other one was the brown haired girl with rabbit ears. Seeing those rabbit ears, Charlotte was able to tell that she must be Xia Xia.

Xia Xia helped them to found the hostages and decided to work with Khun. She would be the Light Bearer on their team.

"You must be Nox right?" Xia Xia was able to tell just by looking at her. "You look similar with Viole."

"And you must be Xia Xia" Charlotte politely responded with a smile.

Xia Xia and Dan will be the members on the spare team. They would be working together with both Novick and Ran. By the time that Dan was there, he looked surprised to find Charlotte there.

"Why are you here as well?" Dan asked.

He also thought that Charlotte had nothing to do with the team. Why would she come there?

"Ask him about it" Charlotte pointed to Khun who glanced at Dan. By his looks, he was asking Dan whether there was a problem with him coming there or not.

Of course Dan didn't have any problems. Even if he had one, then he won't say it out loud.

After the discussion was done, Khun stood up and told Charlotte to follow him. Charlotte obeyed his words and stood up, following him from behind.

"Where are we going to go now?" Charlotte asked.

While Khun was waiting coolly with both of his hands on the pockets, Charlotte put both of her hands on her back while jumped and walked happily.

"Cinema" he answered.

"You are nice enough to bring me there?" Charlotte asked.

"Then do you want to return to the resort and wait for your brothers to return?" Khun asked.

She immediately replied, "On the second thought, cinema is way better."

He just smiled a little and walked away with her.

•••

[Don't make me find you and strangle your neck

-- Charlotte]

When Altaira received this message on his pocket, he smiled. He had guessed that Khun would be telling Charlotte about his little message.

"Your trick is going too far, don't you think?" Celeste asked Altaira and took a sip on her drink.

"Really?" Altaira asked. "But I guess this is a good news for all of us, actually."

Celeste raised one of her eyebrows. She had no idea about what Altaira was talking about.

Altaira knew that the trio wanted to seek something from him. He asked Khun to take care of Charlotte and would be willing to answer all their questions or to get whatever they wanted because of this. There was something that he wanted to tell them after this date.

And it was something important that was related with his younger sister.

•••

After watching the movie, Khun decided to take Charlotte to somewhere else.

Charlotte was the one who choose the movie. She decided to watch a tragic love story and because the story was too touching, it wasn't surprising that most of the audiences were crying. Perhaps the only one who found it lame was Khun and he didn't even drop a tear for it.

"If you don't want to cry, then you could have choose a different movie" Khun said. "You don't have to watch something that will make you cry."

If both Bam and Altaira knew that he had made their sister cry this bad until her eyes were red, then he won't have any peaceful days anymore.

"You don't understand" Charlotte said while sobbing and wiped her tears. "It's......it's precisely because the story was...was touching that I want to watch it."

This made Khun raised one of his eyebrows. Surely, he didn't understand her taste. Charlotte didn't understand his taste either. Khun gave her tissue to wipe her tears. Looking at the young man, Charlotte turned away and then wiped her tears, silently thought that she had embarrassed herself again before him.

It has been awhile since she felt awkward and nervous around him. She thought that she had gained more confidence but realized that she was overestimating herself. She was still too caring that she even sympathized with Reflejo who attempted to kill her and her friends. She thought that she had grown better and cold enough to slay all her enemies without hesitation but turned out, she didn't improve that much for these seven years.

In the middle of their way, they bumped into a young man who was carrying a drink on his hand. The young man bumped into Charlotte and his drink fell and stained her clothes. He immediately apologized for his carelessness.

But when he saw Charlotte, he froze on his spot.

Khun knew that Charlotte was just like Bam, their faces were quite adorable and they had their own charisma. It would have been a lie to say that this childish girl wasn't attractive. Seeing the young man's reaction, he looked like as if he was interested in Charlotte in his first sight which he found unreasonable.

Could this be the reason why Altaira wanted him to watch Charlotte well? How troublesome, he thought.

The young man offered to help Charlotte in which Charlotte denied. But since he kept pestering and saying that he would be offering her help, Khun didn't have much choices but to step in so that he could get rid of that young man.

"I will just clean this later" Charlotte said. "Today I'm really unlucky. After being get rid of my brother, now I bumped into a young man and stained my cloth. Fortunately I wear black."

"Do you know that the man who bumped into you seem to fall in love with you at the first sight?" Khun asked her.

Hearing his question, Charlotte paused and raised her head to look at him in disbelief, "He did? Did I attract another innocent boy?"

"Innocent?" Khun echoed. Her words sounded like this had happened before. He just smiled and asked, "Do you know that if I don't step in, that man wouldn't let you off until he gets what he want? There is no innocent man in this world."

"There is" Charlotte denied. "Isn't my brother one?"

"Altaira? Which part of him is innocent?"

"Not him, but the brown one."

"Bam?"

To say that he was innocent....well, he did look like innocent and naive person just like her. For this one, he can't deny it.

He dragged her to somewhere else to get her new clothes as her current clothes were stained by the drink belonged to the young man before.

And after he bought another one for her, the two of them decided to return. Charlotte who had seen the prize tag earlier seriously felt guilty. The white sweater that she was wearing now wasn't something inexpensive.

Despite of being born in a rich family, both of her parents were strict in spending money. Both of her parents didn't want to have their children to turn into lavish and extravagant people as they were taught to keep low-profile. For them, it doesn't matter if they couldn't change their children who kept causing troubles. As long their children that the importance of saving money, they could sigh in relieve and relax for a bit.

So when Charlotte knew the prize of the piece of cloth that she was wearing now, she had tried to change it to a different one, something cheaper than what she was wearing. But he wasn't listening. Since he won't let her to get different shirt, she wanted to pay for it but Khun didn't allow her either.

Charlotte sighed. He didn't have to get her something as expensive as this sweater. If her parents in her former life knew about this, then wouldn't she be scolded? This was probably the most expensive thing that she had gotten from a friend, no matter in the past or in the present.

"You don't have to look gloomy and guilty" Khun said to her. "After all, I'm going to have your brother pay for it later."

"I don't mind paying for this sweater" Charlotte said. With another sigh, she added again,"If my brother knows about this, then he would have laughed and teased me."

"Why for?"

"Some reasons" she answered. If Khun knew about the reason, then it would really affect their relationships. Their friendship was good enough and Charlotte didn't dare to ask for more.

"You could have thrown that piece of paper away and pretended like nothing happened" Charlotte answered. "What makes you agree with my brother?"

"Some reasons" he shortly replied and put Charlotte in silence.

"....Well, whatever reasons that you had, it must be important enough until you want to spend a day with me" Charlotte said.

"Are you looking down at yourself?" Khun asked her.

"I just thought someone as serious won't want to hang out a scourge like me" Charlotte said and chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head while smiling with her eyes closed.

For several moments, none of them talked. Charlotte who was busy looking around was humming a song with a smile on her face as if nothing wrong had happened.

"Regarding about the matter earlier....." Khun started another conversation.

"What matter?" Charlotte looked at him.

"Is it really fine for you if I eliminate Rachel?" He asked again.

This question made Charlotte felt taken back.

The Charlotte who Khun knew was the younger sister of Bam who lived in darkness with Rachel as her only light. Knowing this, Charlotte looked away for several seconds, thinking what answer she should give to him before she looked at him again, "....I don't know."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"I just want my brothers and friends to be happy" she said with solemn expression. "Aside from that, I guess I have nothing else to ask."

To have a peaceful life in this tower was a blessing already. Now that she lived in the tower, she realized that she should have cherished her former life, where she could spent her days sleeping, eating and playing without worry or care. But in this tower, everyone was worried about their lives. Every single day, they had to go fighting and risking their lives.

She didn't ask for more, just for a peaceful life with her beloved ones and she would be grateful enough.

And speaking about Rachel, although she was a very irritating person, she was still someone important to Bam. She was the first one who reached out her hand for him and to Bam, she was his light. When she pushed him from the shinsu bubble, she suddenly became someone foreign to Bam. He didn't know why Rachel would go that far as leaving him but he still wanted to chase him.

It wasn't Bam's fault, she thought. Bam was someone who cherished relationships, that was what she thought about her brother. He was someone loyal. But the problem was that he put his loyalty at the wrong person, the person who tried to push and take what belonged to him.

Bam was perhaps the type of person who even if you took advantage of him and abuse his sincerity and faith, he would still be following and loyal to you. She saw her brother as that kind of person.

But then again, everyone had their own limit in doing something. When Bam was completely awake and decided to let go of his obsession... until that time comes, no one was able to convince him to stop. The only one who could convince him to stop was himself.

"And besides, even if I tell you to stop, you won't listen to me right?" Charlotte asked Khun. "Rachel had hurt and killed your teammates. If it was me, I would never forgive her either. What's more important was that this is your decision and I don't have the right to interfere right?"

"That's why you didn't say a word in the cafe before" Khun said to her. "You thought that you don't have the right to interfere with it right?"

"As a person, it's best to not care about others' businesses too much" she responded. "Ignorance is a bliss. People could have peaceful lives if they are ignorant right?"

"Right, ignorance is indeed a bliss" he said. "But being too ignorant isn't that good either."

She smiled and replied, "Yeah. There is a limit of being caring and limit in ignorance. A wise person would be able to balance the two of them."

Charlotte paused for a moment before she changed the topic, "Ah, I have figured out a way to repay this debt."

"What do you mean by debt?"

"It's already afternoon and I guess you are hungry right?" Charlotte asked. "Then why don't you let me treat you? You aren't allowed to refuse!"

Khun sighed, 'If I am not allowed to refuse, then why would you ask from the beginning?'