I am willing to follow you (3)

They landed. After leaving the unbelievably small airport, they were headed for the hotel Adria booked. They had new documents and identities and they were all set for a new life.

"Hey, señorita, you are beautiful." At the front desk, the attendant couldn't help but compliment Ditto's look.

These were simple words, yet Ditto's heart began to burn.

She knew he wasn't trying to hit on her, or something, but.....

Burn, yes.

There was a pain, that one could not hide, and Ditto was bearing the same pain in that moment.

Beauty is taken as a blessing by people. They cherish it, take care of it, and want it to last forever. But not Ditto. To her, beauty was a curse. Once, it was the core reason of her confidence, over confidence at moments, and it was her pride. But later on, all her misery was multi-folded because she was beautiful. Her beauty was the cause of her humiliation. Her beauty was the cause of people's misery. Her beauty was the cause of death, her own parents death.

Certainly, she had no reason to believe that she should cherish her beauty.

She shuddered when the young man complimented her looks.

There was a reason good looking people weren't good from heart. When one is fed with compliments and only compliments, they begin to think they are more privileged than others. People around them are indeed attracted to that fake appeal, and they gladly treat them 'specially' for the time being. But this is short lived. And there are many types of people.

People who compliment beauty.

People who think it's inner beauty that matters. People who worship beauty.

People who aren't bothered at all.

People who want to possess the beautiful thing.

Patrick was the first type of person.

Ditto, Adria fall in the second category.

Max and Rick fall into the third.

Akon and his dad aren't bothered at all.

Then the last type of people. They are rare, cruel, and disgusting. They like to possess that beauty, then twist it forcefully to the extent when it's no longer beautiful. No longer pleasant to look at. They can't stand by that because they themselves are too despicable.

To destroy Ditto's soul, it was the simple reason why Shredder let her live. He killed everyone near and dear to her, just to watch her break apart. After making a fair share of mistakes in her life, Ditto was ready to live a responsible and mature life. She now respected people's feelings, she now knew how to take care of others. But God had other plans for her.

She knew how superficial beauty is.

*****

Back in S country

Max was stuck in dilemma. He knew Adria was gone. He knew she won't be coming back any more. He knew, he lost her. Yet he could not tell anyone about this. Her disappearance for a while was normal. She went away without saying a word and returned after a while, with off course, something important for their gang. And because she did that often no one was worried about her absence in last 48 hours.

"Heck. They won't even notice even if a month is passed. What do I do!"

Then he put pressure on his brain. He thought, she clearly left no sign of where she disappeared. But all this couldn't be done by her, and her alone. There must be a person, close to her, who've helped her. And the person who helped her, might be monitoring us from a distance.

That person, who could it be?

"Aha! Now I know."

He was right, about there was a person who helped her and was monitoring them, but he was wrong about whom he thought about. The person who was monitoring them, was as prevading as air, everywhere, but you wouldn't notice unless it will allow you to.

He thought about a thin figure. Beautiful, and cute. Too cute to be believe that the person really exists. Like a doll. Her features were a bit East Asian. She was fair, and her cheeks were red. Her lips, thin as paper, pink. If she bit them, she would look seductive enough to crumble the sanity of any clear headed man. Her eyes were sparkly, filled with child like innocence. She was 22, but with her child like face, you won't be able to tell her apart if she gets mixed amongst a bunch of high schoolers.

She was an orphan. But being a genius, she got scholarship and studied in same university as Adria. When Adria was in her university for some business, she saw her, getting bullied by her friends. Friends? Well they were friends, yet. Until they got to know that she was an orphan.

She tried so hard to pretend to be someone she wasn't, only because she wanted everyone to accept her. But she stuck out the most. And trying to fit among others, she acted all high and mighty. People despised her for acting like that. And when they found out she was an orphan, their all anger was directed towards her. She tried to run away, from them, from everyone. She ran without a sense of direction. Adria ran after her when she saw she was heading towards the super busy road, and held her hands before she bumped into a car. She sat down, cried her head out, then said she did not want to live anymore. Adria talked some sense to her, and offered a job at her Internet café. She was the only close person to Adria.

"She might know where Adria is now. But she won't tell me. I need to gain her trust."

Her trust. Ajia's trust.

Max knew Ajia had a crush on him. After all, he was so impressive and caring(towards Adria, off course). All her life, when people got to know she was orphan, they treated her either with pity or bullied her. Adria and Max were the firsts to treat her like a normal person. Towards Adria, she was grateful. But towards Max, her pitiable heart began to build dreams of being together after. She wasn't aware of the complicated relationship between Adria and Max.

Max, on the other hand, was aware of his effects on the poor maiden's heart. He didn't gave it much thought back then, but now this fact will come handy, won't it?