Chapter 48 - ETIENNE

Since Etienne woke up, everything told him that today would not be a good day. 

So at first, Etienne slept through his alarm. Sometimes, in order to write the melody on the piano before he knew it, it was dawn. Once he started creating music, he lost the concept of time and that's why he also overslept often. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't his last one and quite important class today before the final exams. But unfortunately, he had it, so when he opened his eyes and turned his head to stare at the clock, ringing proudly on the nightstand, he was quite surprised and panic-stricken which resulted in him falling off the bed, after that his back was aching uncomfortably. 

And this was only the beginning for Etienne...

Facing the mirror, Etienne was just staring at the worst nightmare of hair ever, tangles and knots and random strands sticking out where they were not supposed to. The hairbrush didn't help much in taming them. 

After that, Etienne burned his breakfast toasts and there was nothing in the fridge, in the end, he didn't eat anything in the morning. 

Next, he couldn't find clean clothes and when he finally found them, they were creased and wrinkled, but he didn't have another choice. 

So let's sum it up… hungry, tired, disheveled, and uncomfortable, Etienne had only one thing to say: "Oh..."

This 'oh' didn't sound optimistic at all. When Etienne finally left his house in a rush, still hoping to make it in time, he estimated that his chances of having the worst days day in his life would be about 81.23%. Etienne got already a few written in the memory and every another was worse than the last.

He quite confirmed his suspicions when he fell down on the straight road with no bumps, scraped his elbow and hands painfully.

Etienne mumbled: "Oh."

Then he tried to slowly rise up from greeting the ground with a hearty hug. Etienne lifted his hands and inspected the small red scratches on his palms. They weren't bleeding, maybe stung a little bit, but he could still play on the piano without a problem. 

Etienne's short legs moved quickly, but still, he reached the bus stop one minute too late and missed the bus to the university. There was no point to wait for the next one, which will be here in about twenty minutes.

Etienne stared blankly at the crowded road, not knowing what to do, it was too late to attend the class and too early to go to work. 

And then the bus driving on the northbound on Julien's apartment complex stopped on the opposite side of the road.

The driver doubtfully waved at him: "Are you coming in?" 

Etienne was confused as he looked up at the driver. After a while, he finally snapped out and immediately said: "Yes." 

The driver smiled when he swiped his card to get on the bus.

Earlier, in the middle of confusion, Etienne realized he was in the possession of Julien's credit card and this was a chance to return it. 

When Etienne checked the balance of the card, he felt foolish. His hands trembled and with a frightened face, he stuffed the card back into the wallet, too scared to use or even look at it again. The amount of the money was enough to buy real estate in the center of the city. 

Maybe for someone else having a rich friend was a blessing and the opportunity to do their best to suck your personal wealth out, but for Etienne at the beginning of their friendship, it only added more insecurities to feel with himself. 

Etienne was never satisfied with himself. As a child, he was always wanting to be this perfect kid who always pleases his parents, but it was quite difficult. No matter whatever he did, how good or bad, it was never enough. So Etienne was always striving to be perfect and excelled in everything he did. He had amazing grades at school, he always got straight a's in all the subjects, he did extracurriculars, but all of this was never kind of recognized by his parents.

After he turned out to be an omega and on top of that recessive one, his parents completely distanced themselves from him, not wanting to support him financially anymore. When Etienne got one of the university music's best programs to get into, he needed to survive in a new city by herself with only two thousand yuan.

Etienne expected that when he gets independent, he would be free from this anxiety, but he always had 'you are not special, you are not powerful, you are not clever, you are not important' in the back of his head chasing after him. 

But then he met Julien, a friend, somebody who told him to stop thinking about himself like that and called him brilliant. It was his strongest impulse to cling to this friendship, money was meaningless in this matter. So even if Etienne was always stressed that he won't have money at the end of the month, instead of using a given credit card, he took work extra hours in the club. 

Another matter was that his heat was slowly approaching so it was better to return the card as soon as possible, because of specific episodes he was dealing with during the heat cycle. 

About half an hour later, Ioan came out of the bathroom when the door phone rang. It was the security guard, saying that there was a visitor here for his brother. 

Ioan frowned. And answered as he wiped his hair: "Who is it?" 

The security guard replied: "It is Mister Emond." 

Ioan smiled widely: "Let him in, please."

After five minutes, the doorbell rang. Standing in the doorway was unmistakably Etienne. He was dressed in plain but chaotic-looking clothes and his soft hair was lifted as if it had been struck by lightning. With a pair of shining clear and crystal watery eyes opened in shock, it made him look just like a cuddly stray cat, causing other people to want to stroke him.

Ioan smiled and nodded at the stunned Etienne: "Mister Emond? Julien didn't tell me you would be coming today."

However, Etienne just stood there stunned for quite a while and even ignored greeting, after seeing Ioan's brawniness bared upper body muscles. The man had an upright posture and was almost naked with only a towel wrapped around his waist. 

Ioan raised an eyebrow and then gently smiled: "Mister Emond?" 

Etienne retrieved his sight and looked up. In a small voice, he said: "Oh?"