Earlier that day

“Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”, the sound of a phone vibrating goes on and on for a while. Twenty-one missed calls could be seen on the phone. “Buzzz”, the phone starts vibrating once again, and a hand stretches forth to grab the phone.

On the screen what was displaying was the name ‘Babe’ with a heart emoji. The hand okays the call and places it on his ear. “Where have you been when I have been calling you?”, a loud voice sounds out from the call which jolts the person out of his sleepy mood, but he doesn’t make the mistake of saying anything in argument.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, Raph?”, the female’s voice sounds once again. “I am sorry”, Raphael replies with a submissive tone.

“That’s all you can say right?”, the female’s voice sounds out again, to which Raphael just keeps mute once again. The female on the other side sighs for a moment before continuing, “You know I can’t bear getting angry with you. My flight has already landed won’t you come pick me up”.

On hearing the last words, Raphael gets up from his bed in a flash. Staring at the time which was by his bedside, it was already ‘11 am’.

‘This is all the fault of Andrew’, he says inwardly while replying to the female on the phone, “I would be with you shortly. Just wait for me, babe”.

Yesterday, when he thought that they would be going home, Andrew took him to a club. Something which they rarely do, they both enjoyed themselves and got a bit wasted to the extent that if they hadn’t taken a driver with them, they would most definitely have gotten into an accident on the way back to their house.

Raphael hurriedly takes his bath and puts on his clothes ready to leave the house. Before leaving the house though, he checks around for Andrew but he seems nowhere to be found. Being in a hurry, he failed to notice an envelope on the top of the table which leads to the outside of the house.

On getting to the outside of the house, one couldn’t help but be awed by the spaciousness of this place. This place was a real beaut, in layman's terms could be identified as heaven on earth. There wasn’t anything that one would want that wasn’t in here.

There was a fountain in the middle of this big spacious compound. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that this compound measured two acres, which goes to show how much space this compound occupies. It was just like a place meant for royalties of a country, but these two young men were the ones who were the owners of this property. They had maids, gardeners, guards, and the sort of occupying the compound and they had their quarters built inside the compound.

The house which the boys lived in was so huge that it wasn’t impossible to get lost within. The boys had gotten lost in their own house once in a while in the past and thus they placed directions in the house for easier movement.

Both inside and outside the house was properly furnished. They had different paintings costing millions to billions Fells inside the house and sculptures were made in the compound.

The compound was also beautified with flowers and trees which were properly attended to, to prevent the likes of snakes or other stuff littering around the compound. This gives the compound a refreshing feeling and one can’t help but want to just sit down and admire everything in it. It also had a place that was spacious enough for a copter to land on.

There was a building that was closer to the mansion though. It wasn’t big. It was just wide, like an elongated snake. Pressing a button in his hands makes a mechanical noise in the building and the gate rolls in opening a path starting from the middle.

What was inside the building was slowly being shown to the world. It was a fleet of cars, different models, statures, and heights. Moving around the place for a while, Raphael finally picks a car whose stature was low, green in color, and seems superbly fast. All that was seen here truly fits the richest men in the country with a net worth of over nine hundred billion Fells, which was the third highest currency in the world. There wasn’t much difference between the third and the first highest currency though as one Fells was equivalent to zero point three Cues which was the highest.

The car just needed a fingerprint to open, Raphael quickly got in and drove off. From the speed of the car, it was sure that it won’t be long before it would get to the airport.

If you want to know how Raphael got to meet this girl, it isn’t some long story like what you might think. It was love at first sight. They met in their university days. Their first years, and unlike Raphael, she was very popular in school from a very respectable family who was way well to do than their parents before their death, so the social standing between them was very high for her to even set her eyes on Raphael.

Andrew had gotten Raphael a phone and although his clothes were a bit nice, it still wasn’t possible for Raphael to stick up his courage to talk to her. So, Raphael spoke to his brother about it, and Andrew talked him up to try his luck. If it didn’t go well, then he could just kill the feelings on time rather than letting the feelings go on unchecked and it blossoms into something else.

Raphael took his brother’s advice and on a bright and shiny night with the moon in full bloom, while coming back from a night study inside the school, they happened to meet down the road.

Raphael was shocked seeing her in front of him although with a group of other students who were chatting and laughing along the way, he was fidgeting hard about what to say at that moment to get her attention so that she could spare him a look or two with her perfect smile, that would make him happy, but she happened to notice him and turns while staring at him in his eyes. This action shocked Raphael as he had never expected this from her.

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She still looked as beautiful as he had first met her, with her black silky hair which was well braided, and her brown eyes which has become more beautiful with the moon’s glamour. She wore a pretty blue gown that was perfectly fitted to her and was long to her kneels.

“You have been staring at me for a while now”, she says while staring at Raphael. “Uhm, uhm”, Raphael didn’t know what to say at this point.

“I have also noticed the looks you usually leveled at me at other places”, she continues while her face becomes stern. “Seems to me like you a stalker, even right now you are stealthily following me. You have some nefarious plans in your mind right?”, she asks without giving him any chance to say a single word in reply.

“Guess you have no guardian. Or the one you have is not sensible to have taught you any manners and here you are trying to do something that is totally against the laws. I do wonder if schools of nowadays do not bother to check the background of the students they admit, and as such allow such a person into these grounds who could cause harm to other students”, the girl says while the other students were laughing.

It was also at this moment that a superhero wannabe says, “Hey dude, I would advise you to.....”, he wasn’t able to complete his words though as he was quickly put down by Raphael.

Although it was a bit dark, the anger in Raphael’s eyes was very obvious as he finally replies to the girl, “Here I was thinking that I have found someone I could love. I didn’t know she isn’t worth a single time I spent admiring her. If not for the fact that you are a lady, I would have shut your mouth the moment you started talking badly about my brother. But if you happen to badmouth my brother once more, I would forget every single thing my brother taught me and do the unthinkable”, after dropping those words, he sighs before walking away without sparing a single look in her direction.

The other people who were with her couldn’t say a word seeing the ruthlessness on Raphael’s face. But once he was gone, they started saying stuff about him and telling her not to worry about him and that he was just a nuisance.

The next day, don’t know if it was through coincidence or something else, they were placed in the same group. That is in every class they happened to have together, they would forever be in the same group, as they were in different departments and had different courses but most of their courses in their first years were taken together. That was how Raphael got to know that her name was Ella. But although he now knew that, he didn’t give her any face at all. He was cold towards her, and she on the other hand believed that it was just a trick of his and that sooner or later, he would show his true colors.

But that was how, the first session of their school went on close and all through, except if he had no other option, Raphael wouldn’t say a single word to her, like his words were gold and they were in the same group during every practical class or project they had.

Soon the first semester results were out and the highest in their set happens to be both Raphael and Ella as their grades were the same. This came as a shock to Ella and she didn’t believe it and even thought inwardly that Raphael had to pull some strings to achieve such a feat.

The second session finished through and the results came out. But this time around, Raphael came in higher than her, and she had a B in one of the courses she offered while Raphael bagged an A in all of his courses. This time around, Ella blamed the fact that he could get this score on the fact that his departmental courses were easier. One wouldn’t help but wonder why she would continue checking on his grades when he didn’t even care to pay attention to hers.

Their second year started, and Andrew visited the school for the first time, while they were strolling, Andrew asks about the girl Raphael had told him about. Raphael just told his brother that he no longer had any feelings for her, but Andrew insisted that he showed him. She happened to be passing by at that time, and the moment Andrew sighted her, a smile blossomed on his face.

After asking Raphael what happened between them, Andrew got the gist of the whole issue and his smile broadened while he says, “I like her, I like her”. This action of his shocks Raphael, and he repeated the part about her insulting him, to which Andrew just replies, “It’s nothing, insults are nothing but a fart that can’t cause any harm”.

Towards the end of the first session of their second year, Raphael stumbles in on Ella about to be stolen from and raped by some group of boys. That was already late in the night while he was returning to school outside the school gate. He first thought that this was too much of a coincidence to get his hands into. Maybe she was just finding a way to get back at him for those words he dropped a year ago. But the scenario seems too real as her clothes were being ripped off and her breasts were fondled.

Although he no longer felt the same way as he did initially for this girl, she was after all, his first love, he couldn’t stomach such a scenario, hence he stops the cab he was in, ran back at full speed to the place, got into a fight, and well, he wasn’t like his brother, he was stabbed.

Luckily, the noise called the attention of people who quickly called the authorities. Afraid of being caught, the guys ran away leaving the scene of the crime. It wasn’t always good to be a busybody even for love. He was quickly rushed to the hospital and thankfully he was saved as the stab wasn’t too deep and it didn’t touch any important organs. Hopefully, he had learned his lessons. But as every other story, such an act swept the girl off her feet and feelings started budding at a fast rate, in no time, it would bloom into something perfect and beautiful.

That was how their love story started, it was short, wasn’t it? Well, till we meet again.