Hello, Hottie

A cold draft kissed Cherry's cheeks and exposed arms. It made her feel like she was freezing. To make herself more comfortable, she tossed her body to the side then curled into a ball, burying her head in between her arms. Finally, the chilling wind breeze no longer grazed parts that were not covered by her clothes.

But damn. The bed was still too cold!

What the heck was this? The world was also against her catching a bit of sleep? Haha, that sounded like an awesome bullsh*t. Even prisoners and guilt-ridden criminals could sleep if they wanted to! Why couldn't she?

"Aahhh, why is life like this?" She purred like a cat that was very dissatisfied with her sleeping spot and position.

One of her eyes opened, or actually, just half-opened to check the time through the slight gap of the curtains by the window.

'It's still dark...'

Thinking of this, she hugged herself more and went back to sleep. She estimated that there were still around two to three hours before daybreak. There was still plenty of time before she would have to go into thick-face mode again to look for a new job.

She cursed in her sleep. The thought was making her angry at her life.

'Maybe I should just sleep the day away... There are still some thousand dollars left in my account... And okay, I know I'm being lazy but I'm just exhausted... A day of rest should not be that bad, righ----'

A sound of something metallic and crisp clanging against a hard ground interrupted her train of thoughts. That sound was very familiar and has a melodious quality to it.

Because of it, her drowsiness flew away, carried by the cold draft of air.

It's a coin!

It's money!

'Arrrggggh, I can't let even a single change escape from meee!!!'

In dire strait and need of a job to sustain her, of course, she could not be careless about money no matter how small of denomination it was. What if that coin got into a difficult spot in between two adjacent walls, or rolled down a ditch or unknown hole beneath her bed?

Both her eyes fluttered open!

Every coin was precious! Can't waste or lose a single one!

'Eh?'

'Where the heck am I?'

She repeatedly blinked until she saw that the coin producing that nice ching-ching sound was dancing on the floor.

It didn't take long for it to stop. But even before it did, her eyes were no longer at it, but the wheels she could see parked near it.

Something was really wrong...

Her heart started thumping wildly.

Why was the coin almost at her eye level... together with that wheel?

Also, when did she have something like that in her house?

Her brain almost short-circuited after it picked up so many odd things about her current situation.

A few seconds later, reality finally couldn't take her foolish expression and train of thoughts so it slapped her hard to make her realize where she really was.

"Vroom! Vroom!"

'Er... That surely can't come from within my apartment...'

She swallowed hard and looked up. Under the blanket of the night sky and the flickering lights from the lamppost, a man wearing a thick black jacket came to her sight, riding a tall red motorbike. The two-wheeler vehicle had a box behind the driver's seat like those used by take-outs delivery men.

Cherry couldn't help but blink again as she slowly got her upper body up. This time not because her brain was lagging from processing what she discovered, but because she got drawn to his beautiful black pearl-like eyes. Despite her not being able to read any emotion from that soul-stealing pair of eyes, she could still swear to the heavens that they were the most enchanting eyes she had ever seen in her whole life.

The man silently nodded at her, his whole action looking so smooth and elegant. And she could once again swear to heavens that despite the brown mask covering his lower face, he was the most handsome guy she had seen in her whole life. And no, her aesthetic was perfectly normal because she had lived in this lookism-based society since birth. There was just something special with this guy that could instantly steal a woman's heart.

OMG! She never felt this way before, even for her scum of an ex-boyfriend! Was this love at first sight? So that stupid concept was real?

'Who cares! I found the man with the most beautiful eyes and upper face. Of course, it's okay to fall in love!'

"Hello, may I have your number?"

Cherry was so lost in her daydream. She didn't notice herself almost salivating as she looked at the man. Probably unnerved by her hungry stare, the guy immediately rode his motorcycle away, not answering her query.

"Ah, wait!" She tried to reach her hand out to the leaving man, propping her body up.

A few seconds later, when the daydreaming girl could no longer hear or see his figure, she once again looked around and then finally waking up completely to the reality that she was not inside her bedroom.

"Eh? How come I'm out in the cold?"

Her heart seemed to receive a tremendous shock as she gazed at the lonely coin lying an arm's distance away from her. Her poor brain too had equally been electrocuted.

"... I, I can't believe this... I slept in the middle of a deserted street. And I've fallen to the point I'm mistaken for a homeless beggar, and by such a hottie at that. Aaahhhh!"

Cherry couldn't withstand the blow. She wanted to die. But after realizing she actually doesn't want to, she cried so hard on her way home.