[Music Recommendation: "In Silence" by Janet Suhh (It’s Okay Not To Be Okay OST)-available in Youtube or Spotify] ~ Please listen to it in a loop while you read this part to experience the utmost beauty of this chapter T_T ~

My dad’s sullen eyes tried to smile for me. But he couldn’t fool me. I knew he was forcing himself to smile.

“Senara,” he called my name like any loving father would. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear him call me that way or I’d rather have him be stern with me. “How’s school today?”

“Normal,” I replied, shrugging. “How’s business?”

Bullseye. His eyes instantly reverted back to being sullen. My guess about it related to our family business was right. Having memories of my past life was really helpful.

Dad sighed deeply before answering me, “There’s a few problems right now, to be honest. But don’t worry, it will be over soon. All businesses face it’s own challenges.”

“Have you found a solution already?” I reverted quickly. I wanted to know if he already met those scammers.

“Actually…,” he said, then paused as if deliberating if he should tell me about it or not. He had always been open about a lot of things but if he thought it was something not fit for my age yet, he wouldn’t tell me no matter how hard I pressed him.

‘I need him to confide in me and think I’m mature enough to handle it’ was what I thought at that moment. So I told him…

“I may only be 15 right now, but you should know that I’m really smart. You never know, maybe I have an idea how to fix your problem.” I tried to talk big.

It was perfect. My tone was confident, too. I looked at him in the eyes as I spoke.

“You always told us never to underestimate the capabilities of the youth of today. Because they are the hope of our country. But… how will we become the hope of the country if our parents kept us safe from the harsh reality of the world? Making us live in some self-made fantasy or idealism?”

Dad looked surprised. He probably didn’t expect such deep words from a teenager.

“I need to know the truth about the world and how it works, dad. I’m not a kid anymore, and everyday, I grow older and wiser. I think it's time to prepare me for what’s really out there.”

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if what I was saying would really convince him to open up with me. Half of me, just really wanted to tell him those words. Because in my past life, when I started working at the age of 16, life slapped me hard with it’s reality. How many times I wished that my parents told me about it sooner than having to experience it myself, and scar me for the rest of my life, making me unable to trust anyone completely.

Yes, life wasn’t some fairytale filled with sunshines and daisies. If anything, it would be best compared to sailing in the sea. Some days would be peaceful, but some days would be a storm. Some days you would be fooled by the sun, and some days, comforted by the rain. And it would be solely up to you to sail against them.

Dad lowered his eyes and sighed deeply.

“Right. You’re no longer a child,” he murmured, trying to let the truth sink in to him. “In that case, sure, let me tell you the truth.”

I exhaled, relieved that he decided to believe in me.

“You see, Senara, in this world, not all the people you’ll meet are good people.”

I nodded in agreement. Then, I sat beside him on the bench as I listened to him.

“Remember our largest shop located at the heart of Global City?”

“Yes, you said it's our main branch, and most of our sales came from there,” I answered. I did remember that place, despite the long years I haven’t seen it. “Three-storey, very wide, and surrounded with a garden—our biggest high-end restaurant.”

That’s right. If Ken’s family owned several appliances shops, Hora’s family owned furniture shops, our family owned chains of restaurants. Some were high class ones, some for middle class. Global City was the most populated and visited place in our country due to its beauty, and it being the heart of many businesses and companies. We were very lucky to be able to obtain a huge land in that area considering its price per square meter. If it wasn’t for our ancestors investing on what others thought was a dying, barren land way, way back—I forgot if it was my great, great, great grandparents who bought them or something—we wouldn’t be able to get a piece of land there.

“Right, that’s the one,” Dad confirmed. “You see… since that restaurant is located in a highly-coveted area, it somehow garnered unwanted attention.”

Badump! Badump! Badump! My heartbeat grew louder in my chest that I could almost hear it.

“Unwanted attention from whom?” I bravely asked.

“... From big whales.”

My eyes widened in surprise. Dad liked making his analogy with the ocean—something I inherited a bit.

“You mean… like really big whales?” For short, corporate giants.

He nodded. “Yes. And compared to them, we are merely small fishes in the sea.”

F*ck. There would only be one thing that corporate giants would want from small fishes like us—territory!

“They want the land,” I stated, not even asking because it was clear what they wanted.

Dad looked surprised again from my statement, but he nodded in agreement.

“And that’s not all,” he continued. “You see, no matter how much I didn’t want to give it up since it would be a very big loss to us, I know we’re nothing against them so I was willing to sell it to them just as they want it to be. However, when we were discussing the payment for the land, not only did they want to buy it at half the original price, they also wanted us to be business partners. They introduced this business that they planned to launch next year and ‘persuaded’ me to invest the money there.”

My blood boiled so much, listening from the despicable truth that dad just told me.

“In short,” I breathed heavily in my anger, “they want to acquire the land for free!”

Alas, Dad sighed deeply once more…

“Yes, they want it for free.”