It was a moment of beginning and an end for Ethan Rize as he stared at his father’s eyes for a bit too long.

The disgust and hatred in his father’s eyes were clear as daylight. Ethan felt himself swallowing a considerable amount of saliva down his throat.

From the corner of his eyes he could see the exact emotions pouring into the air from his elder brother’s eyes—in fact, from where he stood, his father and elder brother looked like two people cut from the same cloth.

He always knew their personalities and patterns of thoughts were similar to each other ever since he could count backwards, but this was eye-opening—seeing them stare at him with horrible emotions towards him.

“... Did you not understand what I said?” Peter Larson, his father, yelled. His voice was thick with disappointment—disappointment he held for years and years before this situation.

“Ethan!” His father called him again—noticing how Ethan was looking at his father blankly.

Ethan paused for a moment and took a breath in–the air was painful to take in, but he quickly adjusted himself.

He faced his father, who was standing right in front of his brother. Surrounding them were workers of the house, and some of his father’s friends who had come to celebrate Peter’s 20th anniversary of starting the business which had grown to become an empire. Ethan had a lot of respect for how his father had shed years worth of blood and tears for his business which made Peter one of the best in his field—but he was not a good father, at least to Ethan.

“I’m not an idiot, father. I understood every word you said. But what I’m not understanding is why you can’t see any other future for me or James apart from taking over your company,” Ethan motioned James for reference, but the latter’s expression contorted, looking at Ethan as if he was crazy.

Ethan shook his head in disappointment, well aware of the fact that James would rather shave his head than agree with his little brother.

James never wanted to ‘not’ take over the company. Because it had his future written in it, and he didn’t want to kick away a goldmine unlike his idiotic brother– Ethan.

‘This is how it always has been… fucker.’ he cursed his coward of a brother under his breath.

“What future are you talking about? Tell me something that you haven’t told already! Is it promising… the future you’re talking about?!” Peter’s voice raised.

James let out a chuckle. “Promising, my ass.”

“It is at least worth taking the risk for, father.”

“What’s happ-”

All the pairs of eyes shifted to the person who barged into the room and looked around cluelessly. It was Alice. Ethan’s little sister. The little white-haired rebellious diva. And she was, in fact, rebellious.

“Oh!” her mouth formed a slight ‘O’ as soon as she realized it was another argument between Ethan and her father.

She sighed and shrugged.

“I’ll leave you to it,” she said and walked out of the room as if nothing happened–just like she always did.

For Ethan, she was the only person after his mother who he cared for—at least a little. Because Alice never gave a shit about what Ethan, Peter, or James did.

Apart from that, Alice had a habit of avoiding Ethan like a plague, and for some reason, Ethan liked her more because of that.

“Alice!” Peter called after her, but she was long gone in the stairs that she didn’t give a single glance back.

This situation just kept getting absurd and absurd for Ethan to watch.

“You both damn well know that I want to follow my passion-”

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“And what? Create games? I would have accepted it, if what you wanted to become was anything practical when it comes to the real world. But creating video games… Ethan, your mother would have wanted better from you!” Peter looked away as soon as he said the words.

That was the last string.

*Snap*

“What the fuck did you just-” Ethan took a step forward, eyes raging and his body shaking in anger. Soon after, he halted his steps and then turned around to walk out of the door that had been wide open the entire time.

Peter Larson pulled the mom-card at the wrong time this time around. He had done it several times before, and it was just to get him into an internship and to make him finish his business degree—but that was that.

But this time, when Ethan was talking about his dreams, Peter had said his mother would want better. When in reality, it was his mother who always encouraged Ethan to follow his heart.

And that was another reason why Ethan Rize chose to have his mother’s last name instead of his arrogant father’s.

‘It had worked well for me so fucking far’ Ethan seethed internally as he walked out of the street towards a quite garden path as soon as he was outside the mansion.

Every step he took made his mind go back to his father.

Ethan had known his father for as long as he can remember in his twenty five years of life and not even once was he surprised by how his father never liked him or his passions. His father wanted a child who would say yes to everything he ordered, but Ethan was far from being a yes-man to things and people he disliked.

He wanted nothing to do with his god-forsaken family and just create games that he knew people would enjoy, making a name for himself in the industry so big that it’d shine over his father’s bald head.

‘But…’ he reached his back pocket and touched his empty wallet.

It was literally penniless.

“Well… Shit.”

“Hah, literally the best fucking day of my life as soon as I leave therapy. Dr. Thompson would be proud. ‘You’re ready for the world’, my ass.”

He shook his head and kept walking.

Walking.

Walking.

And more walking.

His thoughts kept running astray as he walked farther and farther. Neither the blue sky, nor the busy streets were able to distract him even a little from the shitty flow of the voice in his mind.

‘Being broke might not be that bad, look at those beggars… Just living the dream, asking for money-’

As he was hypnotizing himself with positivity following Dr. Thompsons words, he stopped in his tracks. The sun had already set but for some reason, there was a bright light blinding his eyes.

Before he could process, he covered his eyes instinctively and peeked from between his fingers.

A truck was coming his way faster than light, making him instinctively realise that he was fucked.

“But how…?” He looked around for a split second to realise he was walking in a park walkway where there was no way a truck could drive towards him. It was just impossible.

And for some reason– “Is that a fucking-” His words were muffled by his own vision as he saw the truck looking at him like a retarded monster. The headlights looked like the eyes that looked down at him as if it was laughing at him, and the bent bonnet was… like a smirking lip.

The ‘face’ of the truck itself made Ethan feel victimized. And at the moment, it didn’t slow down–but something else did… The time.

He could feel his heartbeat in his ears and his limbs going dead cold. "This is the end for me,” he said, not even trying to use his motionless limbs to make an attempt at running.

As the words left his lips, he was reminded of all the mangas and webnovels he had read. He remembered how the main character would die by truck-kun for the ‘plot’.

But soon, he was in the present. He saw the speed increase a little as the giant truck smashed against his feeble body.

*bam*

His world went dark.

….

*beep* *beep* *beep*

The ECG monitor beside Ethan woke him up as he uncomfortably tried to open his eyes. He felt a tear streaming down his eyes as his blurry vision started clearing up slowly.

He was alive.

“I’m not the main character,” he said bitterly, looking around the hospital room as he realized that he had survived from the legendary truck-kun’s vicious attack.

He had plasters all over his body and had one leg above his head. His hands were in a weird position, and his back-

It was all uncomfortable.

It was even more uncomfortable to move his head.

Beside his bed, the clock read 21:07. But the date…

‘I’ve been here for a week.’

The door opened revealing a nurse with a pen and a booklet in her hand. Her eyes widened as she saw Ethan.

Ethan, on the other hand, had his eyes roaming down the pretty nurse’s body, which came to a halt when she started screaming as if she had seen a ghost.

“Ohhh myyy!” With that, the booklet in her hand fell to the ground, followed by her wobbly body. She fainted.

“...”

A moment of silence passed between the woman on the floor and Ethan, who was not amused by the situation.

“The fuck is wrong with her?”

Ethan tried to lift his head up so he could see what was happening on the ground clearly, but the pain from his back was too painful.

Before he could lie back down, several other men and women wearing white clothes walked in.

The nurses and doctors had a similar expression as they looked at Ethan with horrified eyes. Some even had their mouths hanging open.

It was an eerie and uncomfortable feeling.

He looked back at them not knowing who was crazier. Was he hallucinating all of this or are they actually staring at him like… that?

*Ding!*

A small bell’s chime rang in his head followed by a translucent blue screen that hovered over him.

“Okay, now what the-”

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