GIVE HER A BREAK 1

Her lips trembled. Sumire covered her mouth as tears slowly clouded her vision. She chewed on her lower lip, suppressing a sob to escape. Mort vividly saw how her eyebrows, ears, nose, and the corners of her eyes reddened. She was on the brink of tears. The maiden slowly step back away from him until she finally ran away from the basement when hot torrents of grief coursed down her face.

The stranger's face was left full of astonishment, puzzled as his gaze followed the maiden running away from their place. Mort, on the other hand, just lets Sumire go and has no intention of following her. He just stood like the cold wall of the building, hot and unbothered at all while both hands rested on its pocket, oozing an air of superiority.

When the maiden was completely out of their sight, the mysterious stranger looked at Mort, eyes filled with questions.

"Won't you follow her?" He asked Mort. Instead of answering the stranger's question, Mort picked up his phone in his pocket and sent a message.

"Isn't she with you?" The stranger added but he still has not received a response from Mort.

"This is the first time I've seen you with a woman. Is she someone important to you?"

The man asked again but Mort just shrugged his shoulders while waiting for the response to his emailed message and did not bother to throw even a single glance at the uninvited fella.

Mort was indirectly saying that he was not interested in answering his questions. But this brazen-faced stranger keeps asking him.

"I just realize that she misunderstood us. I heard she utters that you're gay. If I just didn't know you well, I would have agreed with her," the stranger blabbers once again and crosses his arms over his chest, and look directly at Mort, "Dude, seriously? I gave you a flower and you sniff it?" The stranger unbelievably said and let out a chuckle, half-heartedly. He didn't know if he would laugh or be pissed at what Mort had done earlier.

When Mort's phone vibrated, the hunk handsome immediately opened it. After he read the contents of that message, he put the phone back in his pocket and then stared at the impudent man who appeared out of nowhere earlier and now cockily eyed him.

"You are quite infamous for putting poison on things you give to others. So, I just checked it."

Mort retorted brusquely. The stranger shook his head one after another.

"But the way you check it is so fucking gay." The man said and burst into deep chuckles. The side of its eyes even wrinkled, amused.

"It's none of your business," Mort said unenthusiastically and remained motionless in his stand and stared at the dark place where the maiden had left earlier.

"I understand. But for the last time, let me ask you this. Is she important to you?" The stranger asked again and he finally met Mort's cold gaze that can freeze the scorching hell.

"Yakov Levin. Mind your own business."

Jaw tightened, Mort said in a dangerous tone. His face was as dark as the night, he turned around and began to walk back inside the building. Yakov shook his head, scoffs, and followed Mort into the elevator.

While on the other side of the MDA building...

"Why? Out of billions of men, why him?!" Sumire asked bitterly to herself with a small orb of tears keep slowly forming at the corners of her eyes every time she wipes them off. Moans escaped her lips through the suppressed sound of hiccups.

She feels so defeated. She wasn't even half as beautiful as the stranger she had met earlier. "Who am I compared to him? That man has luminous skin and a statuesque figure!"

Sumire murmured to herself as she recalled again how Mort sniffed the flower while looking at the handsome stranger.

"There's nothing I can do if he likes men."

Sumire was sitting on the side of the deserted road, bawling and weeping while face rested on her knees, waiting for a taxi cab to send her home and completely forgotten the fact that she had her very own car parked in the building's basement parking space.

Unbeknownst to her, no taxicab or public cars have gone dwell on that particular private road. All employees of the MDA building have their own vehicles granted by the company itself. So anyone who will be accepted by the company is quite fortunate as the company provides their basic necessities and their salaries are higher than the normal wage earner.

And because she happen to meet the infamous Mort Dmitriv Aslanov, the feared Mafia Lord, miraculously, for the very first time in the history of that building, a taxi cab appeared in the place and parked in front of her even though she didn’t wave her hand to stop it.

Dramatically, she looked up in front of her. Eyes, eyebrows, and nose were reddened. She was still sniffing and rubbing her eyes, sparkled in tears.

Sumire stood up and slowly looked back at the tall building. Various emotions passed through her face. "I, Sumire Caste-Leone Massoullève, will never set foot in this place. This is the last time I will step on this building, hmph!" She declared emphatically and emotionally. "Mark my word, Engr. Aslanov. Hmp! " She mumbled incoherent things, both hands form into a fist and choked on her sobs.

Sumire dramatically turned around and swerve the big coat she was wearing that Mort owned on her back. She load herself inside the taxicab and didn't even notice that Klauss was the chauffeur.

While the car was hitting down the night road, Sumire was emoting inside. Her eyes darted far away and rested her cheek on her palm as she leaned against the taxicab's window. The dimness of the car inside conforms to her feeling of grief.

"He should have told me he is gay."

The maiden sniffed. Her eyes begin to mist with tears again. Sumire was unaware of Klauss' lip lifted high in enthusiasm when he saw through the front mirror the glint of sorrow and depth despair in her eyes.

She looks totally hopeless!

"My poor heart needs a break."

Sumire dramatically clutch her chest and tears were about to drip down her cheeks when Klauss, who was driving the car, suddenly played the song "The One That Got Away" by Katy Perry.

'What the fuck?' Sumire hissed in her mind and the silent tears formed in her lower eyelid ready to cascade down now withdrew. Her eyes darted piercingly at the chauffeur whom she failed to see his face as the dim reigned inside the car. 'Is that song supposed to help me with how I'm feeling right now?'

"Hey! Are you messing with me? Turn off the music." Sumire gave an angry and emphatic command to the chauffeur but Klauss did not listen to her, instead, he turned up the volume of the music in crescendo. Her eyes squinted and lips pursed.

The maiden completely lost the will to emote and just leaned on the backrest of the car. She decided to continue her interrupted drama in her home.

Sumire has not yet told the chauffeur the address of her residence but just a few minutes have passed, and they arrived at her home.

She got out of the taxicab with a heavy feeling and immediately took the money out of her wallet. But even before she could hand the money to the driver, the car was gone in front of her.

'What's with that driver...'

Astounded, Sumire frowned and narrowed her eyes darted at the license plate of the taxicab but she found nothing. 'weird ..'

The maiden just shrugged her shoulder and entered her house.

Alone and with no shoulders to cry on, her dark and empty cold home opened up to her. Sumire walks sluggishly with heavy breathing and footsteps. The grief she felt earlier returned to her. 'Damn, curse this feeling.' she uttered to herself. Deep emotions started to stir in her heart and mind.

Solemn tears began to form in the corners of her eyes as she approached the living room. Sumire opened the lampshade that was modernly glued to the side that served as an ambient sole light of the place. She wanted to get drunk and wasted tonight. Drown her despair in wine.

She took a bottle of strong wine from her wine rack at the bar counter and carried it towards the living room and sat down on the big sofa and there her tears streamed down. 'Why do I have to feel this way ...' she hugged both of her legs and sobbed. Sumire took the human-size teddy bear that was seated next to her and hugged it.

"I fucking hate him!" She complained to the teddy bear, cursed his name between her sobs, and then made a vow. "This will be my first and last time to cry over a man! *sobs*"

She will mourn and sob out the great sorrow that pangs her heart. The maiden decided to vent out all her sadness tonight but even before she could open the bottle of whiskey, her phone rang and vibrated.

She fists her hand.

"Who the hell called me! This better be good!"

Sumire gritted her teeth in annoyance as her emoting had been disturbed for the second time. The cloud of tears in her eyes receded again.

She picked up the phone and frowned as she answered the call especially since it was from Eiryss, her manager.

"Sumiii, turn on your tv right now. There's a rumor about you and the man you're with in the captured photo. It was spread all over the internet and news."

Eiryss greeted her with bad news. Sumire, on the other hand, was stunned in her seat and stared in the absence of nothingness as she struggled to reminisce about which man she could possibly be with in that photo.

Before she could further dig deeper into her memory, her question was answered immediately when she turned on the TV. There she saw the photo of her and Mort where she kissed him on the side of his cheek. It was a perfect stolen shot!

"Oh, god! This is a disaster!"