🏆 ❝𝘛𝘙𝘈𝘝𝘌𝘓𝘌𝘙❞ - AIM TO ENGAGE 2023 WINNER
🏆 ❝𝘔𝘈𝘙𝘒𝘚 𝘖𝘍 𝘋𝘌𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘠, 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘊𝘏𝘌𝘚 𝘖𝘍 𝘍𝘈𝘛𝘌❞ - AIM TO ENGAGE 2023 FAVORITE PICK
Explore the Multiverse in this short story anthology following two souls, Dara and Page, as they...
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Page tucked her skirt under her legs when she drew them up. Her arms circled her knees. "We thought nothing of it, but it got worse when I got older," she continued, clearing her throat to ward off the stammer rising in her voice. "Teens and their mood swings, am I right?"
"You bet," Dara said. "It can't have been easy."
"It wasn't," she confirmed with a nod. "Not in the least bit. High school was especially bad, so I had to be homeschooled for the last two years. Until university, I resolved to never get close with anyone, so I didn't really have deep friendships. I figured it was better to stay as an unknown shadow than a thing of rumors and mockery. People can be quite cruel, you see."
Dara bobbed his head. "Can relate to that to some degree."
She whirled to him as if he just said he was ugly. "Really, you?"
"What? Can't say I have it rougher than ninety percent of the population—I'm aware of my privileges and what it means to grow up in the family I was given—but even I get the short end of the stick when it comes to people's cruelty," he replied. "I used to be made fun of because of my fear, and being a conglomerate heir made it worse. For some reason, people liked to find something wrong with me to make themselves feel better about their situation, and...well, I used to hate everyone for not knowing better than to leave me alone. I didn't have many friends either, so that makes two for two."
"I suppose." Page hummed. "I've tried everything I could to remove my affiliation with butterflies as soon as I started working in the industry. It could get in the way of business meetings, important galas, and yes, even dates and securing a potential partner according to my family's wishes. They were even lenient enough, letting me choose who I want to spend the rest of my life with. Some heirs weren't as lucky."
It was true. One of her close associates, the daughter of the Han-Ni Group, found out she was supposed to marry a 50-year old man the day before the planned ceremony, and her family threatened to cut her off if she didn't agree to the marriage. It turned out that the 50-year old was the owner of a huge corporation that the Han-Ni Group couldn't live without.
Page didn't want to push her family's buttons until the same thing happened to her, so she operated on a tight timeframe. Every busted date pushed her closer to such a turning point, and her father's wrinkles doubled every time she came home with the news of a failed meeting or whenever they would receive a formal refusal letter from the guy's family mailed to their house.
Still, even if she fancied Dara now, she didn't want to tie him down with someone with a curse and whose curse brought things he was absolutely afraid of. It was a torture she wouldn't wish upon anyone.
"How did yours start, then?" Page found herself asking just to prolong their time together. Even if this relationship wouldn't work, at least she could say to herself she got to spend a full afternoon with the Top 1 of the 100 Most Handsome Faces of All Time. "I also don't mean to pry or offend you."
