Chapter 73 Another Day on the Job
After being introduced to his new client, Alex spent the majority of his day keeping a close eye on the girl he was charged with protecting. One thing became abundantly clear to him the more he watched Mimi.
She was everything his mother had said she was. Mimi was a kind girl who was not only a bit immature for her age, but incredibly naïve. She seemed to have no experience whatsoever with the opposite sex, except perhaps interacting with her father. This was made obvious by the way she blushed and became timid every time Alex was in her vicinity.
But there was something else that became clear to Alex the more he watched over Mimi. The girl was isolated from the rest of her idol group. This was not something that was immediately obvious to most people.
But Alex had a keen eye, and her peers were clearly bullying the girl in ways that were not excessively cruel, but were repeated often enough to create an environment where Mimi, the star of their group, chose to isolate herself.
At first, Alex thought the other women were perhaps jealous of Mimi's beauty and success. But after watching them and their actions for an entire day. He realized the reason for their cruelty was far more ugly.
These young women, who were barely into adulthood, were the exact opposite of Mimi. Not only did they do drugs in the changing rooms in between their practices, but they also were hooking up with men in the industry. Thus, Alex came to the conclusion that these girls were jealous that Mimi was truly how she presented herself to be, a pure, innocent, and kind girl who most men could only dream of being with.
Naturally, it was against their contract to date. But that didn't mean that these young idols listened to such a stipulation. And though these girls thought that Alex didn't notice, he was a vigilant man, with a very good sense of situational awareness. And thus he instantly took note whenever one of the girls snuck off with a male coworker.
After the day was finally over, the girls decided to go out to a local bar, and of course Mimi was not invited. This left the girl alone on her phone, playing the same mobile game she had been when Alex was first introduced to her.
Alex was no longer dressed in his security uniform, and had changed into some casual clothes. This was because his shift was over, After all, one of her father's cronies would be showing up shortly to escort her back to her family's estate.
Of course, Mimi had no idea that Alex was standing by her side, looking over her shoulder while watching her play the game. The girl was playing what was clearly a modern interpretation of the old video game Tetris. This caused Alex to become quite intrigued, as he spoke up, and in doing so startled the young pink haired cutie.
"Hey is that Tetris? I did not think someone like yourself would be interested in such a game...."
The moment she heard a masculine voice call out to her, and so close at that, Mimi became startled, so much so that she accidentally dropped her phone, which fell to the floor, and in doing so shattered its screen. However, she did not realize this as she turned around with a frightful expression on her adorable face, only to soften up when she realized it was Alex who was speaking to her.
Of course, she barely recognized the man. After all, his hair was styled completely differently than earlier in the day. He was also dressed in a sleeveless hoodie and a pair of gym shorts, which was in contrast to his tailored suit and tie that he was wearing while working throughout the day.
However, what immediately attracted Mimi's attention was Alex's azure eyes, which she had not seen earlier in the day due to the fact that he was wearing jet black sunglasses. Upon seeing these two sky blue irises, Mimi blushed profusely, while silently muttering her thoughts in a voice so low Alex almost missed them.
"So beautiful..."
Alex winced when he heard these words, but forced a smile. After all, as a man, he did not exactly like being called beautiful. And thus there was a bit of an irritated tone in his voice, as he asked the girl to clarify what she meant by her words.
"I'm sorry, what?"
The moment Mimi realized she had voiced her thoughts aloud, her face became beet red as she shielded it with her hands, not wanting Alex to see how embarrassed she was. She even shifted the direction of her face towards her feet as she spoke to the man in a timid voice, one which he found to be incredibly cute.
"I'm sorry! I meant your eyes... You have very beautiful eyes...."
Luckily for Alex, Mimi did not see the painful expression that appeared on his face when he heard the compliment which this girl had given him. There was only one person in his life who had ever told him his eyes were beautiful, and that was the woman who he had inherited them from.
It even took Alex a moment to mask the agony which he felt, after all he could practically hear his mother's alluring voice call out to him, telling him that his eyes were the most beautiful thing in the world like she had often done when he was a young child. But Mimi did not see any of this, and thus once Alex had regained his composure, he decided to return the young idol's compliments.
"Thank you, but you know your eyes are far more beautiful than mine.... I have never met a girl with two different eye colors before, and I must say blue and green go well together, don't you think?"
Mimi did not react the way which Alex had thought she would when he complimented her. She slightly parted her fingers to look at Alex directly to see if he was being honest with his words. And when she saw a genuine smile on his handsome face, she actually broke out into tears.
After all, her heterochromia was her biggest insecurity. This was because she had always been ridiculed for it by her peers. Whether that be in school, or in the K-pop industry. For someone to actually say her mismatched eyes were beautiful, it was something the lonely girl had never even imagined.
When Alex saw that this angelic young woman had broken out into tears, he actually felt bad. Which was perhaps the first time in his two lives that he had ever genuinely felt guilt over anything, especially making a girl cry. After all, as a notorious playboy, he had made women cry ocean's worth of tears in his past life, and never felt a thing.
But to see this young, innocent, naïve, and sheltered girl cry because of something he had said. It made Alex feel something strange, as if he were outright despicable for causing such a thing to happen. He hated himself in a way that he found was revolting. The moment he felt this self-loathing, he immediately tried to rectify the situation by consoling the girl, and trying to find out what he had said that had made her cry in the first place.
"I'm sorry! Please don't cry! Is it something I said?"
The girl sniffled and wiped her eyes with the frilly cuff of her pink dress in an attempt to get rid of the tears. And it was then that Alex was truly perplexed, because he did not see any stains on her face, almost as if she were not even wearing makeup. This shocked Alex, but not as much as the words she said after she forced herself to calm down.
"No, it's nothing you said... I just.... Nobody has ever called my eyes beautiful before.... I'm really happy..."
Alex was stunned. In what world would the two of them both have complex emotions attached to the color of their eyes? Clearly, this was the manga that he now lived in doing its work. After all, Alex realized that the more he lived in this world, the more his memories and personality blended with that of the character Alex Smith. Hell, he was starting to forget things about his past life. In fact, he could not even remember his name from that world.
It was at this moment that the girl's broken phone began to ring, which Alex picked up and handed to her while apologizing for breaking it.
"I'm sorry...."
The girl shook her head while snatching her phone back, before assuring Alex it was not his fault.
"Don't worry about it... It was my fault... Oh, what is this? Mommy is calling me?"
The girl instantly answered the call and spoke to her mother, and by the end of it, she had a sullen look on her adorable face, before looking over at Alex with a pleading expression, almost as if she were a puppy begging for food.
"Mommy says the car won't be able to pick me up today.... And that I should have my new bodyguard drive me home... Will you please drive me home?"
Alex smirked when he heard this, he did not know why, but after only being around this girl for only a single day, he had a sudden urge to protect her against this entire rotten world, and thus, he pulled out the keys to his luxurious hyper car and nodded his head. Before assuring her that he would take the girl home.
"Sure, after all, it's my job to ensure your safety..."
After saying this, Alex escorted the girl to his sports car, where he would then drive her back to her estate, before finally being able to visit Sakura's house to spend the evening with the girl and her mother. n/.0veLbIn