5

"Hmm..." Daniel looks intently at his father who hummed while listening to the final of his new song. "So?" He asks after Dad took off the headset.

"What so?" Dad raises an eyebrow at his son.

"So what do you think of the song?" Daniel asks in exasperation. Dad slowly stands up from his chair and walks towards his son.

*Pat*

He pats his son on the shoulder. "Listen son..." He says in a serious tone, making his son's facial expression to adopt to seriousness as well. "Your songs..." He draws out as sweat forms on Daniel's forehead. "Will bring in a lot of money and we still haven't talked about the split we'd be doing with the royalties." He says, but his ungrateful son repays his smart words with a punch to his arm.

"You bastard! Why put such tension in your words!" Daniel complains, regretting the fact that he listened to his father.

"You brat!" Dad lifts his own fist in the air, preparing to dish out punishment.

"Are you boys finished with the song?" a Calm voice enters the two men's ears. a Voice they dreaded to hear while being in this situation.

But after the two man made quick eye contact, they both smiled and Dad lightly punched Daniel's shoulder. "Oh you!" He says in a joking tone, while Daniel chuckled.

"Oh, Mah you're here!" Daniel fakes a surprised face and greets his mother. "Yes we just finished the song. You wanna hear?" He asks, making Mom walk toward the computer and put on the headset.

Daniel elbows his father. "Never knew what to do in these situations... It's not like I can talk to the other person." His words caused a chuckle to escape his gather's lips.

"Well you're doing something now." Dad responds.

"No, well yes. But that's only cause there's another person in the equation." Daniel speaks with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't get it."

His father's response irked Daniel. "What do you mean you don't get it? What's not to get?" He asks.

"Get what?"

"What?"

"I don't know?"

"Pah, please tell me you're joking..." Daniel speaks softly in a quite voice, getting closer to his father and patting his back. "But if you're not, I won't judge." He says, but his eyes show clear judgement.

"Piss-" Dad stops mid sentence as his wife suddenly hugs Daniel out of nowhere.

"I'm sorry sweetie." Mom says in whisper, tears in her eyes as she hugs her son tightly. After listening to the song, she can't imagine what her boy has been through, but at least she can be here to make it better.

"What, Mah?" Daniel asks awkwardly, but still reciprocates the hug. "Oh..." Daniel suddenly realizes that she must have done this because of the song... Which would bring him a lot of questions about what he did in the span of 6-7 months when he had no contact with anyone, but Daniel already planned on not telling anyone what happened then.

It's the perfect cover for his massive change and where all the lyrics are coming from, although nothing happened in those months to 'this world's' Daniel.

"It's fine, Mah." Daniel says and looks into his mother's eyes. "It's all in the past." The image of his deceased mother fuses with his current mother in his view. "It's all in the past..." He mutters, before the moment gets broken by his father clearing his throat.

"Ku-hum! Alright Daniel, since we're finished with the song, you should head home and rest, you have to go on stage tomorrow."

His father's words echo throughout his head. "Oh shit." He lets out. "I completely forgot about that. I don't have the proper clothes for it." His word caused his father to sigh and his mother smile.

"Perfect." Mom says and looks at the two men. "Let's go shopping." She grabs the two men's hands, not allowing any protest.

---

"How many stores do you want to visit, Love?" Dad asks as he and his wife sat on a bench inside the clothing store, waiting for Daniel to exit the changing room.

"Until we find the perfect clothes for him." Mom responds as Daniel walks out of the changing room with a brown suit pants and white buttoned up shirt. "Nope." She calls out and hands him another set of clothes, ignoring the grumbles of her son and husband.

Walking to the, too familiar, changing rooms, Daniel suddenly feels a push to his left, causing him to lose his balance, but catching himself quickly, he turns to look at the perpetrator who pushed him.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't look where I was walking." a Woman says in an apologetic tone, bowing her head slightly. "Hmm?" The woman suddenly scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. "You look familiar..."

"We've never met... Trust me, I'd remember you." Daniel quickly replies nervously while looking at the features of the person in front of him. Standing at a height of 5'8 with wavy dark brown hair, almost black, with green eyes. Sharp eyebrows above them and a face that could only be described as lovely. She looks exactly like his past crush Mary Clint.

"Are you sure..?" The woman asks, finding his nervousness suspicious. Her eyes widen suddenly. "I remember! I saw you yesterday night while you were singing!" She giggles at the memory of Daniel doing exaggerated movements while singing in an empty street.

"Wha..." Daniel's brain short circuit. He forgot about the whole 'New World' thing in the heat of the moment. His nervousness settle slightly, but not by much since it was still an embarrassing moment.

"I wanted to tell you that you're voice was wonderful, but you ran off." The woman says, tacking some strands of hair behind her ear, which caused Daniel to overthink instantly.

In all the flirting videos Daniel saw on YouTube, women did that when they were interested. But maybe the hair was just in her face so she put it somewhere else...

"What are you doing here?" She asks, breaking Daniel out of his thoughts.

"Uh... My Mah brought me here to get clothes." He says, before thinking of his own words. "I don't live with my mom, she dragged me and my dad here to get clothes for the performance I'm doing tomorrow." He says in quick succession, congratulating himself for the save.

The woman's eyes sparkle at wat he said. "Are you gonna sing?" She asks, thinking he sings because of what happened previously.

"Yeah, it's gonna be my first time..." Daniel answers and silence descend the duo.

"I'm Olivia Watts by the way." The woman says, holding her hand out for a handshake.

"Daniel Stephen." Daniel responds in kind before spotting his parents looking at him and gossiping quite loudly. "It was nice meeting you, but I've gotta do a fashion show for my Mah before I'm stuck in this Mall for the rest of my life." He quickly says goodbye and enters the changing room.

"Alright..." Olivia speaks softly to herself, seeing Daniel walk away and walks off herself, joining her friend group who giggled at her interaction with Daniel.

And so time moved coming to a halt at the day of the performance.