Saving the Villain

When Cosette told Luke her time was up, he was baffled and thought they would get off the bus. So Cosette had to explain to him she wanted to forfeit her seat to the elderly. She already thought Luke had taken his first bus ride well, so she didn't want to pressure him to give up his seat for another.

To her surprise, Luke told her to sit down and gave his seat to the middle-aged woman like a gentleman. Luke, although not pleased with standing throughout the ride, didn't complain.

"Do you always give up your seat?" he asked when they finally hitched outside the bus.

"No." She shook her head as they stood under the shade. "I only give it up to the elderly, pregnant women, or those who were traveling with children. Are you alright?"

Luke sighed as he planted hands on his hips. "I will be lying if I said it's fine. It's inconvenient and I don't understand why would you want to ride the bus when riding your car saves you more time."

"Well…" Cosette pressed her lips and smiled, shrugging as she breathed out sharply. "It's just… I want to do something that is new to me. It's only a hassle at first, but it's not that terrible when you get used to it, trust me."

'I might not ride a bus again,' he thought but kept it to himself as he glanced around. "Don't tell me we're going to ride another bus again?"

"Hehe… no. We'll walk." She chuckled and smiled sweetly, watching him raise a brow in confusion.

'Just where are we going…?' he wondered seeing that excited smile on her face.

Luke had thought there was a mall she wanted to go to or just an amusement park she would like to see. There were myriads of wonderful places he knew, but he believed there were better ones since Cosette wouldn't travel for an hour and walk for minutes if it was not worth seeing.

To his dismay, the place they went to wasn't a tiny mall, or a hidden oasis in this area. Luke found himself sitting inside the convenience store and in front of the transparent glass wall. Across the street was a construction site.

"You ride for over an hour, went through the hassle of squeezing with the crown, and then walked for about fifteen minutes to eat ice cream?" he asked as he slowly turned his head to Cosette, who was sitting beside him.

"Mhm!" she hummed and nodded, enjoying the ice cream she bought for her and him. "It's good. You should eat yours before it melts. It'll cool your head."

"…"

Luke could only stare at her for minutes, as he couldn't believe this. "And then, after eating that ice cream, what are you planning to do?"

"Hmm…" Cosette pondered about it as she didn't really have a concrete plan.

All she had in mind was to hang out with Maxen, but he said he would have to work at the construction site. They used to pass by this area. Some construction workers would sometimes call Maxen whenever they would see him. So Cosette knew this was what he meant when he said he would have to hustle.

"Maybe, have lunch?" she shrugged, chuckling when Luke scrunched his nose up. "Were you disappointed?"

"Yes." His answer was quick and honest. "I mean, I don't see the fun in this. It's not like I want to go home now and leave you, but this is just something I didn't expect."

"Heh… when you have no money, things like this are fun."

He frowned. "But you have money."

"It's not mine, it's my dad's."

"It's the same. He was working hard for you to have a good and comfortable life," Luke argued as a matter of fact.

"Make sense, but spending what my father worked hard for so thoughtlessly is something I can but don't want to do." Cosette shrugged once again, thinking about her argument twice since she didn't want to go hard on him and tell him she didn't want to be entitled. "It might be a little complicated, but our wealth is the product of my ancestors and my father's blood, sweat, tears, and even countless sleepless nights. "

She then shifted her gaze ahead, staring through the glass wall and at the construction site. "I just cannot take everything for granted just because everything is prepared for me. I might have a head start for being born privileged, but there's also this feeling that I am also being left behind in another area."

"There were us who were lucky to have rich parents and I'm grateful to have such comfort in life," she continued and flashed him a kind smile. "But there were those people who didn't have rich parents and had to do pure hustle to achieve a more comfortable life. Both can be smart and succeed in life and inspire, but this makes me happy and the life I want to live. Living is different from just existing."

Her smile was bright but soft, not blinding, but soothing. Luke opened his mouth, but his voice was stuck in his throat. Not that Cosette hurt his feelings by being biased, but she carefully put her words as being rich doesn't necessarily mean they were better people.

They were still equal and for Luke, this was her means of keeping her feet on the ground. He never thought of that before. Luke was the type who gets everything he wanted without working hard for it. He was arrogant, and he knew that but that was him and he already embraced that side of him.

"Oh!" he snapped his eyes after a moment when Cosette suddenly grabbed her phone and dialed someone. His brows furrowed when she grinned happily, springing up from her seat and waving at someone.

Out of curiosity, Luke slowly shifted his eyes in the direction she was waving and frowned. 'Who the hell is that fatty?'