"Thank you again for coming, volunteers, I'll see you all again on Friday," Madame Vestia told them after the meeting ended.

Oddey took her bag, but before she left, she saw Gage with Courtney talking and laughing with each other that she was getting jealous, so she bolted out of there.

Later, the girls were in Usagi cafe chilling and drinking their coffee to distress from the busy college life, "so how was the meeting?" Rita asked.

"It was okay. They were just talking about the play and what we were gonna do, that's all."

"Did you see... them?"

"Unfortunately, I did. Well, Gage was just handing out pretzels anyway, but yeah... it's gonna be hard to ignore him, I mean them." Oddey recalled something. "I think he was about to say apologize or something to me, but the best friend had to interrupt."

"I do think she likes him, but she doesn't have the balls to say it."

"I thought so, too."

"It's obvious, but the question is, does he feel the same way?"

"I can't tell. If he does, I don't care. They can have each other."

"You do?" Rita asked and gave her this look of doubt.

"Ugh... who am I kidding? Of course, I care," Oddey whimpered. "I will care a lot if they do like each other."

"Hang in there." Her bestie patted her shoulder.

----

"I was about to apologize when I gave her the pretzel and then told me to buzz off," Gage ranted to Felix as he got back to his dorm.

"She said buzz off?" Felix questioned. "Doesn't sound like her."

"That's because she didn't, more like... implied," he clarified, but Felix did not seem convinced. "Be...cause when I was about to apologize, Courtney called out to me..."

"Of course, Courtney did."

Gage then dropped himself in his bed and huffed in frustration, "Why did she have to volunteer?"

"Wow, you're the only one who can make people volunteering to do things sound bad."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know..."

"HEY!!" Courtney barged into their room, which startled them. "Ready to rehearse again?"

"Hi, Court," Gage said to her.

"Oh great, we must've summoned her," Felix muttered.

"Huh?" Courtney somehow heard that, but not clearly.

"Nothing. Anyway, if anyone needs me, I'll be in my art room," Felix stood up and walked out the door.

"Okay, bye," she then turned to Gage. "Let's begin."

"Sure," Gage gulped since practicing lines was one of the favorite things he wanted to do.

----

Days went by, and during those times in the theatre club, the regular members were rehearsing the parts they wanted to audition for while the volunteers did some acting exercises since most of them had no experience in it.

Gage was going over his lines but he caught Oddey having fun doing the activities with some group of people, she was told to be a silly dancer so Gage watched her do that role by skipping, moving her arms pretending like she was a ballerina with a funny that made the students laughed and clapped at her little performance. Gage found it humorous, too, that he snickered quietly.

Courtney noticed Gage's face. She looked over to where he was gazing. The girl was burning with envy that he got distracted because of Oddey, so she marched up to him and then snapped her fingers at him. "Hey, what the hell, Court?" Gage groaned.

"I'm just reminding you to focus," she playfully claimed. "Now eyes on your line, Romeo."

Gage rolled his eyes and shook his head at her, then did what she said and went back to reading his lines, but in just a second, his eyes would just leer back to Oddey.

Oddey, on the other hand, knew that Gage was staring at her, which she sort of wanted to happen. The feeling of the guy you like looking at gave her the drive to take this volunteering seriously.

Meanwhile, Madame Vestia wanted to discuss the set design of the regular members since the ones they had were still not feeling well. "We need to at least have a concept by now," said one member. "Why not hire someone?"

"Out of the question. Plus, it's too late to come up with the money," replied the other. "You know how long that could take."

"He's right," Madame Vestia said. "Does anyone have any other suggestion?" No one answered and just kept brainstorming, but then the art professor sighed and looked over to the volunteers and saw Oddey talking with them, which gave her a lightbulb moment.

Once the session was done for the day, Gage fixed his things before going, "Wait for me here. I'm just gonna go to the bathroom," Courtney told him.

"Okay," he nodded. Once his friend headed to the ladies' room.

Gage saw Oddey was still there talking to a few members praising her efforts, he was about to walk up to her to try to apologize to her and he was about to call her but Madame Vestia approached her. "Ms. Empirio, I need a word with you," she pulled her out of those students, which made Gage miss his chance again. "I must say, you are marvelous today."

"Thank you," Oddey grinned.

"But I did not call you here for that."

"Okay, what is it?"

"You know, we have a problem with the set designer. He's still recuperating."

"Oh, that's too bad."

"But then I remember that adorable backdrop you did for your friend," Madame Vestia mentioned, which made Oddey puzzled as to where the conversation was going. "And that's when I thought, why not you do it?"

Gage heard that, and his head turned to them. Oddey was very much taken aback by that that she was too choked up to answer, "Me?" she stuttered.

"Yes, you."

"But I... never designed one for a play before. Why me?"

"Well, I'll be honest, we don't have much of an option here and I wouldn't offer it to you if I don't think you are capable."

"I don't know," Oddey moaned, feeling unsure about taking such task. "It's awfully big of a job to take."

"That shouldn't stop you, darling," Madame Vestia responded in an encouraging way. "I trust in your artistic talent and you'll have a team of people helping you out along the way."

The art student was still hesitant because it was a huge job, but after telling that she was good enough, she began to consider it. "Sure," she accepted the offer. "I'll give it a shot."

"Aww... thank you," Madame Vestia sighed in relief. "Alright, your first special assignment for me is to give me a sketch of your idea for the set. You can go to the auditorium anytime you want to get a good plan."

"Okay, thank you too, Madame Vestia, for trusting me."

"I'll give you til next Friday to present it to us."

"I should give it my very best shot then."

"Wonderful! I'll see you in class tomorrow."

Oddey beamed that such task was given to her. Gage stood there behind her, smiling like he was happy for her, so he walked towards her, "Kudos," he told her.

"Hm?" Oddey raised a brow.

"For... Madame Vestia to trust you to design the set," Gage added.

"Oh, thanks," Oddey responded and gave him a friendly grin and left.

"Let's go!" Courtney appeared.

Gage was startled, "Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go," he stammered.

----

*BANG. BANG. BANG*

Somewhere in Quinn City at a shooting range, the man with a dark quiff haircut and a clean shave fresh from the barbershop wearing a black cashmere sweater and corduroy pants with a pair of Italian loafers was practicing his aim on the paper targets. "Ahem," his chauffeur came to him. "Ready to go, Mr. Magnum?"

"Yes." The man then placed his pistol inside a bag. "Let's go."

They went inside the black Mercedes-Benz sedan and started driving. Mr. Magnum was seated in the passenger seat at the back. He looked through the window to see the different people walking in the street.

There was a red light, so they had to stop, and as they waited for less than two minutes to go green, a thin little boy came and cleaned the windshield. "Hey, kid, we're good here, thanks," he told the child.

"But I need the money to buy food for my little sister," the boy said.

Mr. Magnum heard that. He took out his wallet and pulled out some cash, then pulled down his window. "Here you go then," he said to the kid as he handed it to the poor boy, but he was reluctant. "Take it for you and your sister."

The poor boy took the money. He was wide-eyed to see so many of them in his hand. "Thank you, Mister," he smiled.

"Don't mention it," Mr. Magnum answered. The boy ran off to an alley with a huge smile on his face. The stop light turned green, and they drove off again.

"When are you going to see your daughter?" the chauffer asked

"Soon, but she knows I'm in town."

They arrived in a construction building with the logo of Magnum Holdings. He wore his black aviators, then got out of his car and looked up at the structure, grinning with pride. "Good afternoon, Mr. Leon Magnum," an engineer approached him with his rolled blueprint in his hand.

"Afternoon," Mr. Magnum said to him, and then they went inside while the construction was still going.

"Everything is going as planned, Sir. The concrete walls and floors here are solid and smooth. The materials we use are disaster-proof like you wanted."

"Excellent work, Engineer."

"Thank you, Mr. Magnum. I'll go back to work now."

Leon admired the progress until a newspaper on a table next to the blueprint caught his eye. Especially, when the topic was about the man who ruined his life on the front page.

He took and began reading it. "I'll be coming for you, all of you," he groaned with hands held on the unvarnished ledge. "Enjoy your life now because I will get back at you. A thousand times worst from what you did to me."