Don't Touch Me

02 - Bad Fate

Warning: Sensitive language and violence ahead.

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In a wide living room, a guy absent-mindedly stares at his phone.

“Should I open it?” the guy asked at himself.

While contemplating, another man arrived at the area and immediately sat on the sofa.

“Did you already log into your account, Grey?” the guy who just arrived asked. Grey only shook his head in response.

“I don’t think that I’ll see anything good if I log in my account,” JC thought to himself.

“Come on! We already talked about this, Grey. You need to be active on social media again. Don’t you want to come back? This is just a small step to start over,” the guy said.

“But Manager Hee,” Grey plead, but Hee only interrupted him.

“Don’t you dare give excuses, Grey. Just do it before I hire someone to hack your account!” Hee said angrily, leaving Grey with no choice but to sigh.

Tons of notifications welcomed Grey, which he already expected. However, a new notification caught his attention.

“For you Grey mentioned you in a comment,” Grey read in his mind.

Before he could click that notification, his attention drifted to the television that Manager Hee had just opened.

“For this episode, we will talk about the former superstar, Grey Southwood. I’m sure everyone knows him, right?”

“Of course! But you know that his scandal is not a joke, right?”

“It was really insane! But at least he was proven innocent by the court.”

“Still, his career is now at the rock-bottom. I think we're more popular than him, right?”

Manager Hee immediately turned off the television. Silence lingered in the room, as to why Manager Hee thought of something to break it. He immediately grabbed his bag and took out a photobook.

“By the way, Grey, I just got the photobook from the shooting last week. Take a look at this. You look amazing, right?” Manager Hee said and pointed at the photobook.

But his eyes widened as what he took out was not the photobook, but a script. Just as when Manager Hee was about to hide it, Grey immediately stopped him.

“Wait a minute, is that a script? s**t, no way! Don’t tell me…” Grey asked in excitement, making Manager Hee shook his head.

“There’s a project for me?! Is that for me? Really?!” Grey asked.

“Ah, Grey. That’s---” Manager Hee stuttered but Grey interrupted him.

“I knew it! Hahaha! Come on, Manager Hee! I know you want to surprise me,” Grey said with a wide smile. He was about to grab the script, but Manager Hee stopped him.

“It’s not for you, Grey,” Manager Hee said, which immediately removed Grey’s smile.

“It’s a drama for Vester, but he rejected it,” Manager Hee added.

Vester Cullen is a famous artist of SBPen Entertainment where Grey is currently working at. He also lives up the reputation of the “ace” of the company, which was Grey’s former position.

“Oh, really?” Grey said weakly. But his gloominess vanished as he thought of an idea.

“If Vester rejected it, then…” Grey thought while still staring at the script on Manager Hee’s hand.

“Manager, what if we grab this role? Vester already rejected it, so I see no problem,” Grey said.

“That’s what you thought, Grey. There’s a problem, nope, problems. Vester rejected this role because first and foremost, a field experience is needed to be done by the leading characters. Of course, Vester has a jam-packed schedule. He won’t have time for this,” Manager Hee said.

“Well, not me. I have lots of time,” Grey said while shrugging his shoulders.

“Second, the shooting will be mostly conducted abroad,” Manager Hee entailed.

“Manager Hee, I’ve traveled abroad a lot of times. This is really a perfect opportunity for me! I’m sure I can handle the field experience,” Grey said confidently.

“Yeah, right. The lead role is a comic creator, Grey. You suck at art. You can’t take it,” Manager Hee implied.

“Hah, that’s nothing. I can surely improve with a proper trainer. Bring it on. Tell the agency that I’ll take the project. You better find the most suitable trainer for me, and please. No girls, or I’ll go insane,” Grey said, making Manager Hee sigh while dialing his phone.

But after three hours, they still can’t find a comic creator who wants to work with Grey. Due to Grey’s scandal, no one wanted their reputation to get tainted upon working with Grey.

“What do you mean? Grey Southwood? That artist who has a drug scandal?”

“No way! I won’t work with that addict!”

“I can’t bear to see how my readers will react upon knowing that...oh damn! I’m sorry, Hee, but I can’t put my reputation at risk.”

Grey and Manager Hee could only sigh upon hearing the beeping sound of the phone.

“I knew it. It’s all in vain. I badly need to unwind,” Grey thought.

“Manager, I’ll go buy some snacks quickly,” Grey said and left without allowing Hee to say anymore.

Wearing a simple plaid shirt, jeans, mask, and cap, Grey went to a cafe to buy something to drink.

“Grey, you’re such a failure,” he thought.

While walking in a daze, he passed by a bookstore. In the middle of deciding whether to go in or not, he noticed a guy in eyeglasses while reading a book.

But he was surprised to see how a bulky man punched the guy in glasses. Although he can’t hear what they’re saying, he can obviously see a commotion going on.

“No. Not today, Grey. You should not get involved. You won’t be able to clean your reputation again if you get into a mess like this,” he scolded himself and started walking away.

But Grey was surprised to see that the guy in eyeglasses is already getting dragged outside by the bulky man beside the apartment building where he is currently staying.

 “You f*****g bastard! Out of all girls to flirt with, you really dared to touch my girl?” the bulky guy yelled.

Grey’s eyes widened as he saw that the bulky guy was not alone. He saw how the guy in eyeglasses was pinched to the wall, shaking in fear.

How can he turn a blind eye?

“f**k! I don’t care anymore,” Grey said in his mind and tightened his cap. He also fixed his mask before walking towards them.

“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Just let me go!” the guy in eyeglasses yelled while struggling to take the hands in his shirt’s collar. But it was no avail as the other guy is too strong for him to handle.

“Hah! You’re trying to fool me, no? I saw how you sneak glances on my woman! Tell me, did you already laid her? How many rounds did you do?!” the bulky guy asked in fury.

Shane fiercely glared at the bulky guy holding his shirt’s collar. He groaned in pain as the guy pinned him on the wall once again, making his eyeglasses fall on the ground.

“f**k, he’s holding me with his bare hands. The germs…” Shane thought anxiously.

Shane can feel his chest tightening as his breathing becomes more unstable. He couldn’t even hear what the bulky guy is saying now as he is being colluded with fear.

“You’re a worthless child! You deserve to die!”

The memories that kept haunting Shane slowly flowed into his mind. That was the night when he almost died at the hands of his own father, choking him to death.

“Dad, stop it. Please…” Shane thought desperately, colluded with the memories he had,

Before Shane went insane, he felt how the grip of the bulky guy instantly loosened, making him lose his balance and fall to the ground. He gasped in breath, coughed, and clutched his chest.

Shane tried to take a peek of the guy who had just arrived and helped him, wearing a cap and facemask, but he couldn’t recognize him at all.

“Who the f**k are you to interfere?” the bulky guy asked furiously.

Grey didn’t bother to answer and glanced at Shane who is now holding his own neck.

“These delinquents,” Grey thought and glared at the other guys.

“Ah, is he your friend, weakling?” the bulky guy teasingly asked Shane. Shane can only confusingly stare at the guy who helped him.

“I don’t know that there are still people who want to play heroes,” Shane thought. After all, the guy is a total stranger to him.

“Just get the hell out of here before things get worse,” Grey warned coldly at the guys, leaving them laughing hard.

“And who are you trying to scare?” the bulky guy asked and immediately went for a punch.

As they exchanged fist fights, one of the three guys forcibly took off Grey’s facemask, revealing his face.

“Hah, I finally saw your face. You can’t escape now,” the guy said.

However, their eyes widened upon realizing who he was. The smirks in their faces instantly vanished upon seeing Greyford Southwood right in front of their eyes.

With Grey’s drug scandal, no criminal or delinquents would want to get involved with him, in fear that they might get exposed due to Grey’s popularity. In fact, although Grey was proven innocent, the drug suppliers and pushers involved in his scandal were widely known, leading to their arrest eventually.

“Didn’t I already warn you that the situation will only get worse if you don’t leave?” Grey asked coldly.

“You, you’re the---” the guy couldn’t continue anymore as Grey’s stare became sharper.

“We’re sorry. We’ll leave. Yes, we will leave right away,” the guy said and pulled his company with him, leaving Grey and Shane alone.

Grey picked up the mask and cap that fell earlier and dust it off. Meanwhile, Shane could only stare at Grey’s bare face, where he finally remembered who he was.

“Grey? Who the heck is Greyford Southwood?” Shane asked in his mind after seeing the flooded comments on his post.

He never imagined that the guy in his dream was actually a real and living person, a notable one.

Shane didn’t want to believe it. However, upon seeing the social media profile of Grey, he lost grip on his phone because of too much shock. Grey and the guy in his mind really do look alike.

Shane scrolled up to see Grey’s latest post, which was in 2018, with a caption “I will be back soon. Please wait for me.”

“Soon? But it’s already been two years since he last posted. Is his definition of soon different? Is he from planet Neptune?” Shane thought and chuckled.

“No wonder I don’t know him. He’s on a hiatus. Poor fans,” he uttered.

He immediately logged out his account to seize the notifications.

“I think I really have a bad fate with that guy,” Shane thought.

“Hey, are you alright?” Grey asked, making Shane snap back to reality.

“That’s really him,” Shane thought.

Meanwhile, Grey noticed how Shane was in a daze upon seeing his face that instantly turned on his narcissistic mode

“It’s been two years since someone got starstrucked by me. I didn’t even know that I saved my fan,” Grey thought in delight.

Thus, he walked towards Shane and offered to help him stand up. But to his surprise, Shane quickly stood up and walked backwards. Despite a bit of embarrassment, Grey still flashed a smile.

“What if his fans saw us together? God! I don’t want anything to do with him anymore!” Shane thought hysterically.

Shane could only think of running away as fast as he could, leaving Grey dumbfounded. Before Shane could run further, Grey frustratingly yelled.

“Thank you, my handsome self for saving you!” Grey yelled sarcastically that made Shane stop running.

“Right, I forgot to say thank you,” Shane thought. But as he took a glance at his filthy body, he couldn’t think of anything more but to clean himself as soon as he could. Afterall, he couldn’t bear to stay any longer as Grey’s fans might see them.

He was left with no choice but to continue running away.

“What an ungrateful guy,” Grey thought in annoyance.

“I really have a bad fate with that guy!” Shane thought while running.

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“Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like.”

-Lemony Snicket