27:Gnawing Thoughts

Evan was so engrossed in writing the code that it wasn't 11 PM on the same day, but rather the next day.

With no one to disturb him, his sense of time has slowly become dull, and even the hunger gnawing at him has been ignored.

Since he sat there like that without eating any food, and without enough nutrition the amount of stress made him pass out.

He woke up two hours later and the first thing he did was to gulp down the spirit-vitalizing tea and devour slices of cake in the refrigerator.

As he felt fresh and refreshed, he felt that he should calm down a bit and relax.

For the first time in a while, Evan felt quite restless.

"Ha! My mind felt like it was clogged earlier."

Looking around the room, he couldn't help but think about his past days as this wasn't the first time he passed out due to exhaustion.

Previously, being depressed, he worked out heavily to forget his pains until he passed out.

The experience of depression is marked by deep emotional turmoil. He felt increasingly detached from activities he once enjoyed followed by the same question of why was this happening.

On one hand, he wanted to beat his adoptive parents while on the other hand, he felt that it was morally wrong.

Despite looking good externally, he struggled with overwhelming sadness, irritability, and a sense of emptiness.

His self-esteem suffered and he found it hard to connect with others, often withdrawing from social interactions. He was never able to fit in the age group.

Most kids of his age would enjoy drinking in the bar, having fun with girls, flirting vulgarly while left over would be cooped up in a room to study but he wasn't in either category.

He was neither good at studying nor in socializing so all he did was work and work.

Every time he wasn't doing anything, weird and pessimistic thoughts would hit him out of nowhere.

"Damn! I shouldn't be affected by those bastards...Let's do something to freshen up and change my mind."

An idea struck in his mind.

Driving lessons, he should learn to drive and also enrol in the fighting class. The gym in the society complex was good but there weren't fitness personnel or coaches so he was able to maximise to full benefit.

The moment the thought arose, Evan sprang into action

Next day…..

After Evan took a shower, he enrolled and went for his driving lessons, and in the afternoon, he went to the shop.

He entered it by the back door. Now that the shop was always full, he didn't want many people to see him, especially to prevent any unforeseeable accidents.

Maria noticed a few reporters looming around who might be curious about it. It seemed his shop would be caught in a whirlwind of storms if they knew the man whose parents tried to blackmail Suri as owner of this shop.

The chances might be low but it's best to be cautious.

Meanwhile, he found Celina had taken a leave but it wasn't a problem.

Knowing her, Evan was sure that she was busy, and it was a condition they had agreed. In her absence, all trouble fell on Maria.

Days passed Evan was in his bedroom watching an online class on hacking levelling up his skills. He knew that he might need hacking sometime sooner.

As someone who was about to step into the IT software and technical world, he can't go around without this.

He figured that he would learn more in these classes as the teacher would offer different perspectives on the subjects.

When he received an email from Sam with the accounting of last week's profit of the shop. He opened it and the more he read it, the more he felt happy.

In the first 5 days of the release of the new recipes, the shop had a huge increase in customers and consequently in profit. After the fifth day, the profit stagnated.

But Sam observed that the reason was that the space of the shop was too small to house more customers causing stagnation of profit.

'I guess it is time to open the branches. Maria told me that the shop was a sensation around the city and everybody heard of it. We have to take advantage of this publicity to open more branches so I can have more profit' he thought

Evan opened the file that Maria sent him about potential places to open the branches.

He particularly liked 4 places. 2 in the north of the city, one in the east, and the last being inside a mall.

Next day early in the morning. If anyone looked at the street, they would be able to see a tall, handsome youngster running across the street.

Evan had found a gym having many personal trainers and fighting coaches with a monthly membership of 4000 rupees per month.

The price was a bit high, but Evan still felt reasonable after finding that the coaches were all black belts having proclaimed fighting careers.

Evan started learning the basics of martial arts. His routine would start with basic stretches, cardio, and some core-strengthening exercises followed by fights.

And all of this was done regularly.

Then Evan sparred with some fighters who also came to learn.

After one week of training, Evan already could control his body without any discomfort and learn three different martial arts.

With his extreme comprehension, it was easy to learn, follow, and record movements with a glance.

Muay Thai is a style that originated in Thailand. Karate, the school Japanese style. And Capoeira, the Brazilian style followed by Taekwondo.

Of the 3, he liked Capoeira the most. Because this style was a mix of dance and fighting, the opponent didn't even realise he was in a fighting stance before being knocked out, it was very acrobatic too.

However, learning theoretical knowledge and applying the basics practically was different.

Due to excessive greed, he threw some moves that his body wasn't ready for causing him to pull some muscles

"Evan, let's have a freestyle sparring," said the guy named Hiro Tastuke

Name: Hiro Tastuke

Skills:

Intermediate Fighting[8/250]

Intermediate Leadership[24/250]

Impression:18