It had been ten minutes since Lim observed Miya frowning when staring at the first page of their agreement bundle.
He lost his temper, "you could digest my words, don't you?"
"Boss, sorry… It's not about— your words." Miya took a deep breath, "it's more about— Look!"
She was showing the paper to Lim.
Just like a kindergarten teacher teaching an alphabet to her students, she pointed the alphabet one by one.
"See… Your handwriting is just unbelievable! All of the letters are almost flat, except some letters which have a big belly on them. Like d, D, b, B, p, P, h, R… I can recognize some letters that have different lengths like l, j, g, k, t, S, f. But the rest of them, they were as shapeless as the itsy-bitsy swaying grass."
Miya's criticize slapped his face.
He offended, "only a genius can have that type of handwriting. You know, the genius's brain could think faster than our motion speed. When I want to write down the word 'money', I just write 'm' but I already thought up to the 'y'. Got that?"
"Ahhh… If that is the case, I think I am much more genius compare to you.
When it comes to money, by only seeing the first letter, 'M', my mind will jump across the ocean to think about millions of ways about how to get that money!"
"Are you a gold digger?"
"OMG! How did you know that?!"
Lim raised his eyebrows. He didn't believe that there would be a girl who was lightly telling the world that she was a gold digger.
On the other hand, Miya was so excited to tell Lim about her past.
"I used to be a gold digger. You know— Literally a gold digger! I used a metal detector on a jungle and a beach to dig any precious things when I was working with an antique collector in my village. Hahahaha. Sounds cool, huh?"
When she became aware that Lim was staring at her with a flat-faced expression, she knew that Lim didn't care about that.
Then she got back to their main topic. "Um— Boss! Can you just tell me the gist of the all points about that agreement? What did you call that? 99 Co—exist Treat—? Whatsoever it is."
"99 Coexistence Treatises! The genius language."
"Ya… Ya… Ya… Ya…"
"To sum up. The most important thing is, we have to respect each other's privacy."
"100% agree!"
"You are not allowed to be near, even less, to enter my room!"
"I'm OK with that, as well. That is to say that, you will tidy up your room by yourself, don't you?"
"YES! No objection!"
"OH... WITH MY PLEASURE! It's going to reduce my tasks, after all."
"You have to do all of the daily tasks."
"Yeaaa…" Miya began to be less excited. But then…
"Your working hour will be 5 to 5. But if there were any undoing tasks, you have to finish it without any kind of overtime expenses as a granted."
Miya was about to complain, but maintain to shut her mouth up while Lim added, "your salary is big enough right? Besides, you only need to work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday."
Miya jumped from her seat, "REALLY?! OMG! Boss, you have to talk about that from the very first beginning! AISH! I can tell that; you're not such a good dealmaker. Give me the paper. I'll sign it by now!"
At the point of signing the agreement, Miya remembered something. "Boss, there are no clauses about any kind of scams, right?"
"Nope!"
"About selling organs?"
"OF COURSE, NO! Are you—"
"Drugs?"
"NO!"
"Online prostitution? Or human trafficking?"
"NO! WHAT KIND OF PERSON DO YOU THINK I AM? Give me back the treatises, and go away if you don't wanna work with me!" Miya got on Lim's nerve.
He snatched the paper from Miya's hand.
But Miya pulled it to her side.
"Come 'on Boss… Don't take it personally! I just wanna make things clear. I'll sign it now! Now, as a now now…"
Miya opened the last page of the bundle.
"I will add 1 clause to make it 100!"
She was writing down something on it and hand it over to Lim.
"If you agree with that, you sign it first, Boss."
"It is the boss' responsibility to ensure the safety of his workers." Lim red the clause proposed by her. "What do you mean?"
"Don't you ever scare me with any kind of guns anymore! Like once you did to me yesterday."
"Hmnn… It's a fake gun. I've already told you about that." Lim was being a consistent liar to keep his white lie unrevealed.
"A bullet is not the only killer in this world. Anything that makes someone's heart come off, is a killer. If I didn't die with your bullet at that time, I might be died because—"
"OK. DEAL!" Lim cut off Miya's nagging.
He halved the bundle of paper into two piles.
Signed the last page of both piles and gave them back to Miya.
"I already scanned and copy the documents. Make sure you write down exactly the same clause on the other copy. Each of us will hold one copy of this 100 Coexistence Treatises."
"Oh… It consists of two piles. So actually, it's not that thick." Miya signed each pile.
Then she remembered something. "I think you should see your doctor about your symptoms, boss. Last night, you lost your heartbeat. You need medical care."
"I'm OK."
"Boss—"
"I think I'm OK. But I already made several appointments with 8 doctors on Monday."
Miya's jaw dropped.
She thought, "how come he made an appointment with 8 doctors in a row when he thinks there's nothing wrong with him? HAH!"
"Hei! Do you have driving license?" Lim asked.
"Yes, I have. But, do I need a driving license to ride a bicycle?"
Lim chuckled, "it's not a bicycle. Follow me!"
Lim was heading his wheelchair to the left yard, followed by Miya. She never saw this side of the house before.
***
"BUMBLEBEE!!"
Miya yelled happily when she saw a yellow convertible Volkswagen beetle parked on the basketball court.
"You can use it as your operational car."
"Really?!"
"Your salary will be deducted if you scratch that car."
Lim handed the car key to Miya.
He added, "the gate opener remote is on the small compartment near the preselling."
Miya grabbed the car key and went away while dancing like a swan princess.
Lim laughed at her.
"I think my CCTV's signal was lagged when I saw her dancing stiffly this morning. I can't believe my eyes! Look… She is singing her own back sound. And that makes her robotic ballet dance even more dramatically hilarious."
Suddenly, the memory of how Lim accidentally saw Miya was dancing with clothes that only covered half of her thighs, invaded his mind afresh.
DEG!
Lim seemed to be bewitched by the sight in front of him. Miya was so happy inspecting the all parts of the car.
Subconsciously, he whispered, "how come the butterflies appeared one by one in my stomach every time I saw your smile, your tears, your crying baby, even your weirdest side?"
Lim couldn't understand how his mind kept telling his heart to beat faster, every time he saw Miya had opened up every single layer about her life and her mind in front of him.
It wasn't enough to him, though.
A part of Lim wished that she would also open up her heart to him.
"I hope my heart won't beat fast all alone in a piece of deserted music. Like a solo acapella which abandoned by another melody."
PLAK!
Lim slapped his own cheek hard.
"Wake up! She could be the wicked Shallot from The Shallot and The Garlic folktale. Yes! That's why she has a lot of layers!"
Lim went back to the living room on his own.
Along his way, he was slapping his cheek left and right in turn.
***
"Boss!"
Miya was rushing to see Lim.
But she jumped to scare as she saw Lim's red cheeks. "Do you get a fever?"
Miya was about to touch his forehead to check his body temperature.
But Lim slapped away her hand, "NO! Go away!"
"Oh. OK. I wanna ask you about that, actually. Today is Friday! So, can I go outside? I'm free on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, right? I already prepare enough meals for you this morning. I spent hours in the kitchen because I couldn't sleep. Maybe, there is a pea under your expensive bed."
"OK. Bring the car with you! Don't forget to bring the ATM with you."
Lim went to his room. He took a copy of their agreement document with him.
Miya also took her copy of the contract and another brown envelope of her ATM card with her.
***
Miya was in her room, sorting some of Lim's clothes. She was looking for something to wear. She saw a white T-shirt with words printed on it.
It said:
'The (wo)man with no bullshit is a myth'
She covered the word 'wo' with her hand, and laughed. "Yes! The man with no bullshit is a myth."
She decided to wear that T-shirt and white training pants with an adjustable strap on them. She took the brown envelope without looking inside.
***
Miya was riding her bumblebee.
When she arrived at the gates, she saw her bag was still hanging in there.
"But I think last night, there was a big chain around the gate's handle. Ah… Whatever!"
She went out of the car.
She was pointing the remote up to the sky while pushed its button to open the gate.
Using that remote, she did a pose of an anime who was using her magical item to change her appearance before she had a fight.
She was staring at the gate, still in that pose. As if the gate was a sinful monster to be defeated after locking her bag.
Just before the gate was opened, she said, "In the name of the moon, I will punish you!"
PLUK!
Her bag dropped to the ground.
She laughed an evil laugh as if she just won over that monster gate.
She took her bag and went back to the car, stepped on the gas, and went away.
***
Lim saw all of the things Miya had done through the CCTV screen on his cell phone.
The glare of his eyes was filled with millions of puzzles.
"Do I have to trust her? or I don't?"
His heart kept asking the same question.
"To prove someone's truthfulness, I have to let them go. If they return, they're what they are. Besides, I don't wanna be a kind of person who keeps telling others to be on my side."