Zayne's hands were furiously typing away on his keyboard. His eyes — beset with dark circles underneath — bore holes into his computer monitor, only looking away from it to check on his notes from time to time. But Zayne soldiered on despite the aching of his back, the rumbling of his stomach, and the heaviness of his eyelids.
"Oh my fucking god. I have to finish this before my readers start sending me death threats... again." He checked the time on his screen. It was 2:32 pm. He still had about thirty minutes, but he groaned. There would still be editing to be done. Zayne's pride as a semi-professional author wouldn't allow him to post a chapter with a typo. Furthermore, his ruthless readers would probably use it as a pretext to make him set his future subscription prices lower!
"Fuck! I shouldn't have agreed to extend our stay!"
Zayne had gone on a vacation to the Maldives with his girlfriend, Luna, to celebrate their engagement. They'd enjoyed it so much, that Luna urged him to stay longer. Even though he never doubted her desire to marry him, he was still ecstatic about the success, so he'd agreed.
While they stayed there, naturally, he hadn't gotten any work done, so his stockpile of chapters had been used up. If he didn't post one today, his patrons would start raising a fuss! And it was the final chapter too!
Writing wasn't a problem, but he'd promised his patrons an illustration that he personally made to go along with it!
An illustration that it took him the past two days to make! (He was a fast writer but a slow drawer.)
'If I finish this in the next seven minutes, I still have twenty to use for editing! That's more than enough time!'
With his mind spiraling into hysterics, Zayne peered into the essentially blank page on the screen.
'Yeah, there's no way that's happening!'
Time whizzed by. As the clock struck 2:59 pm, Zayne heaved a long sigh and leaned back in his chair.
Against all odds, he finished writing and editing the final chapter of his serial Dark Fantasy, Grant's Merry Adventures in Garottia.
"Finally! The last chapter is done! It is done~!" he exclaimed happily as he rubbed his tired eyes and massaged his throbbing back. Despite everything, his face was painted over with satisfaction. "It was nine years in the making, but I finally finished my web novel! Muahahaha~!"
GMAG, the first novel he'd ever started writing, wasn't the only novel he wrote. He'd self-published multiple series that made bank. Not big bank, but still.
Be that as it may, GMAG was the longest-running, and was responsible for building his fan base. So it had a special place in his heart.
So special, that he just kept writing and writing for nine years. This was also because people kept complaining when it seemed like he was about to end it. So, despite his desires, he'd kept it going.
But now, it was finally over. All "plotholes" have been explained, most enemies vanquished, every dead ally avenged, and a world in relative peace.
He was finally free from that god-forsaken novel!
His loud, joyous laughter threatened to disturb the neighbors as it reverberated throughout his room. He didn't care at the moment though. Besides, the neighbors were used to his sudden, maniacal laughter. Furthermore, they probably weren't even there to begin with since it was mid-afternoon.
"Hahaha... haha... haaah... Okay, that's enough, I guess." After laughing for a minute, the elation and sense of fulfillment he felt finally ran out. What was left in its place was the overwhelming fatigue that was built up over his double all-nighter. "Sleep... sleep... sleep..."
Zayne chanted his favorite mantra as he stood up and ambled over to the door of his work room. Despite it being called "his work room", it didn't actually have much in it. Just his chair, computer, desk, and some other equipment Luna used for V-tubing.
He stumbled across the halls until he reached the bedroom, which he shared with Luna — his girlfriend for the past eight years.
As he entered, the bed was all he could see. It was beautiful—the greatest invention known to man. You could sleep on it, sit on it, have sex on it, and even just look at it.
Beds were the best.
Zayne was just about to collapse on it when his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket, mild annoyance on his face, and took a look at the caller ID.
'Who is this...?' Zayne stood there as he stared at the unknown number blankly. He normally wouldn't answer calls from people he didn't know, but for some reason, he felt that the number was somewhat familiar. 'Maybe it's one of my Gym bros...?'
With that possibility in his mind and a soreness in his head from lack of sleep, Zayne answered the call without thinking about it too much.
"Hello? Zayne here, and I am not happy about your call." he greeted dryly.
"Hey! It's me! Zack! You still remember?" The caller, a raspy male voice, cheerily asked.
'Fuck...' The drowsiness Zayne felt instantly vanished and he wanted to hang up immediately. He resisted the urge and racked his brain for what to do. 'Well, in the meantime, I guess I should ask what he's calling me for.'
"Yeah, I remember," Zayne suppressed the anger in his voice as he replied. "I also remember telling you not to call this number."
"Oh... did ya? Can't remember. My bad! Haha..." Zack responded, not an ounce of guilt in his tone. "Well, since we're talkin' anyways, d'ya mind helpin' me out?"
"I do mind," Zayne sighed. Nothing good would come out of helping a drug junkie. But he knew what the man could do if he didn't get his heroin, so Zayne decided to hear him out for a bit. "Make it quick."
"I knew I could count on ya!" The junkie gleefully exclaimed. "So, y'see... My dealer just got shivved. Guy's six feet under now. My other suppliers're AWOL too! But then I remembered ya! So here I am!"
"Uh-huh," Zayne responded, his facial expression blank. "Hate to break it to you, but I don't sell 'em anymore."
"WHAT!?" Zack hysterically yelled, forcing Zayne to reflexively bring the phone away from his ear. "But why!?"
"Almost got caught." Zayne lied. Once his novel took off, he washed his hands of that business. But the junkie didn't have to know that. "Sorry, can't help you."
"Well, maybe ya have a personal stash? I only need a li—"
"You know I don't use my merch. Or anyone's merch, for that matter," Zayne interjected, rushing to end the conversation. "Sorry, man. You just gotta find someone else."
"Wait!" Zack desperately cried, but just before Zayne pressed the end call button, Zack dropped a bombshell. "If you don't help me, I'll tell someone about the kidnapping you had me do!"
Zayne's grip on the phone tightened. 'This son of a bitch...'
"..." The look in his eyes became overcast as dark thoughts swam behind them. Eventually, Zayne sighed. "I might know someone."
"Oh yeah!?" The junkie whooped hopefully. "Alright, just send me their number or address or whatever, yeah? I really need a shot right now, man... I can't take it anymore."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm blocking you after this by the way. No more contact with me. I literally only know one guy, and that's that," Zayne said. This situation had just exhausted him further. "If you contact me one more time..."
Sensing the threat in his voice, Zack hollered reassuringly. "Oh, yeah! Sure! I get it, man. Sorry by the way, I just didn't have anybody else to contact, y'know? After ye send the guy's contacts, I won't bother ya no more."
"Good. Bye." Zayne hung up. He plopped his butt down on the soft mattress of the bed and he brought up one of his contacts named "Tyler".
Tyler was one of the only people Zayne could say was his friend. Which was depressing, since Tyler was the scum of society, and Zayne didn't really like him very much.
Luckily, his friend seemed to be online.
|
There was a pause after Zayne sent his last message, but he knew the man wouldn't refuse a fat sheep. He received a reply soon enough.
|
'Shouldn't've tried to threaten me, Zack.' Zayne smirked. After sending Tyler's contact info to Zack, Zayne cleared his phone history meticulously. Now that that was over with, he could get some shut-eye.
Ring~♪
Just as Zayne was about to let his body fall backward onto the bed, his phone rang again. It was short, so it was most likely just a message.
"Son of a bitch! Let me slee— huh?" Zayne cursed and was about to throw aside his phone when he saw who the sender was.
[Best Girlfriend in the World~♥ (Change it back, I dare you)]
'Oh, it's Luna.' Zayne sighed. The sender was a pain in the ass too, but in a different way. She'd get mad if he didn't respond. 'Does she need me to get her tampons again?'
|
"Fuck..." Zayne cursed at the blatant attempt to guilt-trip him. He sent an excuse but got a reply pretty much immediately, which made him get up, despite his reluctance.
|
"Haah~" Zayne heaved a sigh that seemed to carry with it a part of his soul, as he stood up with difficulty and made his way to the bathroom.
As he washed his body, he lamented his fate. His possessiveness being taken advantage of by his girlfriend was a burden he would have to bear for the rest of his life, he supposed.
After taking a three-minute shower, Zayne put on a pair of black jeans, a white shirt, and some sneakers. He fixed his appearance in the mirror, making sure he didn't look like a total slob.
Dark hair and eyes, a gym-fit body, and a height of a hundred and eighty centimeters.
A perfectly average appearance if he'd ever seen one.
'Well, it ain't getting better without surgery, so might as well get on with it.'
After he massaged his — in his humble opinion — above-averagely handsome face, Zayne sprayed some cologne on and left for the parking lot. Once there, he fished in his pockets for his car keys...
But came up empty.
'Oh, shit...'
Zayne hit his sleep-addled head with his palm and angrily stomped off, back into the apartment.
Zayne got out of his car, and onto the pavement of the street. He glared at the sky as he walked towards the café, wiping off a bead of sweat that had formed on his forehead along the way.
'Jesus Christ! It's gotta be a bazillion degrees or something out here!' Zayne cursed as he hastened his steps, rushing into the air-conditioned building. He practically kicked the door down as he inwardly exclaimed. 'Ah~ I'm alive~'
Now that he'd made it into safe ground, Zayne had to go find the person who'd mercilessly called his introverted self out on a sweltering day like this. He looked around, and immediately found who he was searching for.
It was easy, since her table was being surrounded by four men. All of whom were trying to talk to her but were being completely ignored as she disinterestedly checked her phone while her chin rested on her left hand.
From the bits of conversation and banter he could make out from this distance, it seemed like the four knew each other.
'Wow, what a crowd.' Zayne thought in exasperation as he walked towards his girlfriend's table.
Light brown hair — tied in a ponytail — swayed lightly with every shift of her head. As her willowy fingers tapped her phone, her amber-colored eyes stared into the screen. Her relatively simple outfit — a white blouse tucked into a pair of denim jeans — showed off her buxom figure extremely well.
She looked down to take a sip of her coffee, letting her luscious pink lips caress the cup's edge. Soon, her perfectly symmetrical features — that would put most Hollywood actresses to shame — broke into a satisfied smile, speaking volumes of what she felt about her drink. Which made sense, seeing as this was her favorite café.
The stunning young woman was Zayne's girlfriend-turned-fiancée: Luna Hart.
"Hey, I'm here," Zayne announced dryly. He tried to tell her with his eyes, 'Why are there so many people? Just tell them to go away.'
"Oh, hey." Luna's smile lit up even more as she shrugged. 'I thought you'd find me easier if I kept them around.'
"Well, are we going home or not?" Zayne impatiently pointed outside.
"Don't be like that. I haven't even finished my latte." Luna gestured towards the table, where a half-filled cup of latte lay. She then turned her head to gaze at the crowd around her. "As you can see, my boyfriend's here. Please give us some space."
A Hawaiian shirt-wearing handsome man with blonde hair in and sunglasses grimaced.
"Dafuuuuq~ this is your boyfriend? C'mon, baby girl. You can do better than that. Like me! So lemme get yo number, mm'kay?"
One of the other men playfully elbowed the first. "Hey, don't believe this guy. He drops his shawties at the drop of hat. Come with me and I'll treat you right, babe."
"Yeah! Just pick any one of us!" A third man smirked as he side-eyed Zayne. "You're too good for this guy."
'Woah woah. Tone down the rudeness, why don't you?' Zayne inwardly shook his head in exasperation. At this level of shamelessness, he felt amazement first, rather than anger.
"Hah?" Luna's eyes narrowed dangerously.
'Oh no...' He quickly grabbed her shoulder and forced her in place, as he faced the asshole.
"Look, man. That's not for you to decide." Zayne made a show of peeking behind the man, towards where some of the employees were eyeing them worriedly; some of them even had their phones out, ready to call the police. "You guys tryin' to make a scene?"
The blonde man irritably glanced behind him then backed off reluctantly. "Fuck... let's just go."
Once the blonde man backed off, the others went away as well. Muttering curses and insults at Zayne as they left.
Zayne heaved a sigh as he took a seat opposite Luna. Then he noticed that she was still glowering at the men. He grabbed her hand and placatingly said, "Down girl. Calm the eff down."
"Tch." Luna clicked her tongue and her expression returned to normal. Which is to say it looked rather expressionless. "You should've just let me kick their asses."
"Don't ruin your life for those shitheads. What if they reported you for assault or something?" Zayne smiled wryly, recalling how his girlfriend was a second-degree black belter. "Besides, I'm used to people saying we don't really match up."
"And like I keep telling you, don't get used to it." Luna scowled, she grabbed her cup and then downed the rest of it in one gulp. She then turned to grimace at Zayne. "Don't you get mad at that kind of stuff?"
"Meh. It happens." Zayne shrugged. "I actually have a future. So, I don't wanna get sued for fighting with a shithead like that."
"Well, that's true..."
Zayne nodded, satisfied. But then he grinned mischievously. "Although, if you want a little payback..."
"Oh...?" Luna raised an eyebrow as her lips slowly curled into a smirk. "I'm interested."
"Let's do that thing."
"Thing...?" She tilted her head in confusion. "What're you talking about?"
"The thing from the chick flick you made me watch with you the other day." Zayne reminded her with a deadpan expression.
"Oh!" Luna punched her palm in realization. Her grin widened as she nodded in agreement. "Game!"
"Aight, let's go." He stood up.
"Wait, you're not gonna order anything?" Luna blinked in confusion.
"I want to sleep, Luna. I don't think I'll find anything to help with that here."
"I guess..." She also stood up, then brought her body close before whispering, "Do it."
"Alright..." Zayne whispered back.
He reached down and grabbed Luna's ass — squeezing it for good measure — causing his fingers to sink into her flesh. Using her butt as a grip to glue her to him, Zayne sent a look towards the men from earlier — who'd stuck around for some reason. Making sure he had the dirtiest smirk he could muster, he looked into their awestruck eyes.
"Lessgo, bitch." Zayne spoke, using a voice loud enough to be vaguely heard by them.
"Yes! ♪" Luna pressed her body onto Zayne's while secretly looking at the blond man from earlier. Her heart grew lighter when she saw him and his goons gawking at them. 'Yeah, eat shit, assholes.'
The couple walked out of the café in high spirits, elated that their ruse had gotten a satisfying reaction.
Once they'd gotten far enough away from the place, Zayne let go of Luna's butt. "Well, that went well."
"Mm. Maybe we should do that more often." Luna nodded as she moved away from Zayne. Not too much, but they weren't stuck-together-with-glue kind of close anymore. She smoothed out a few wrinkles from her blouse as she said, "So, where are we going?"
"Uh. Home? Duh." Zayne's lips curled into a sneer. Lacking two nights' worth of sleep, he didn't want to go anywhere except home.
"But it's so nice out." Luna took a deep breath, taking in the fresh air. "There's a park nearby, let's take a walk first."
"Can I say no?" Zayne complained, pointing towards the dark circles under his eyes to emphasize his point.
"You need the exercise."
"I go to the gym—"
"Once a week," Luna pulled him by the arm. "And that's on a good week. You spend most of your time sitting in front of your computer. It's unhealthy."
"Urgh..." Zayne groaned under her logic. "Attacking me with facts is unfair. Also, can't we do this on another day? I just finished my web novel, so I have a lot of free time now. Maybe I can go for a jog every morning. When it's not sweltering hot."
"Sure." She rolled her eyes. "And what's the possibility that you'll just procrastinate over and over, never actually going for a run?"
"Ah, well... it's not a hundred percent, bu—"
"It is a hundred percent," Luna interjected, completely certain. "C'mon. There's no time like the present for stuff like this. You lose motivation way too quickly. We gotta keep you nice and healthy so you live longer than me!"
"Damnit..." Zayne cursed as he let himself be pulled away.
Last Edited: Aug 29, 2022
Goes looking for copper. Sees something shining like Gold. Finds Diamonds.
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks!
Did you find me in the forums...?
@Lire Nope. I was just roaming about, searching for novels to read to waste the precious amounts of time that mortals get which can't be regained no matter what.
BUT I FOUND DIAMONDS!!!
@Ast3ral A splendid use of a limited resource if I've ever seen one.
I hope you stick around till the end! I'll apologize in advance for the slow pace. It's intentional.
Y'see, I like to flesh out my characters BEFORE I chuck them into all sorts of shit. Characters are the bread and butter of every story after all!
Eh? Who's your favorite author and where's the yandere novel they wrote...?
Lmao. Stop flattering me!
Interesting
TFTC
It's kinda amazing that this story is somehow still getting new readers even though I haven't updated it in so long...
Goe better be 9 years long too @lire it better be
Yow im from the ph too
Kudos to fellow brotherr
Eyyy! Good to see ya, man!
Just so you know Mr Author I'm rereading this till you update GoE
You'll blaze through it again in no time. This is only 50k words
We found another diamond