Waking up to the sound of an alarm clock ringing and an annoying call from Matilda couldn't make my day any worse. I plop a pillow on my head to ignore the noise pollution and tried my best to turn my alarm off as I reached for something in my nightstand, hoping that I can touch the device soon.

"Victoria, Victoria!" A loud bang was heard on the door and I pretend that I haven't heard anything but it was impossible to pretend if it's the thing keeping you awake. She is mouthing nonsense as usual or maybe trying to wake me up so I can do all the chores for her.

I take the pillow off my face and soon, I got greeted by the friendly rays of the sun and started kissing my face, I turn my back from the window to avoid the brightness and covered my whole body with my blanket and I was faced with my digital alarm clock realising the date today. I got out of my blanket and sat on the bed and held the clock on my hands.

"... And dress well since Mr. Minami is taking you out on a formal restaurant!..." Matilda rambled on and her words caught my interest since it has Mr. Minami's name on it, but I never would have known that he is letting me eat on a fancy restaurant on my 20th birthday.

22nd of September 1995 was the day that I was born and got out of my mother's womb and it's exactly 20 years from now since I've been thrown out in this sinful world.

"Okay, okay, just go away!" I yell back to the nonstop shoutings of Matilda and one last bang is heard until silence approached and only leaving footsteps were heard. I stared back at the clock, still can't believe that yesterday was my last day of being a teenager and I feel old.

I stand and walk in front of my mirror and grab a comb to untie the knots on my hair. Seeing my reflection, it doesn't seem like I'm 20, I still see myself as that innocent 8 or 7 year old girl back then who knows nothing about anything.

I was clueless and frightened at that time, I didn't know what to do, those memories were still fresh on my mind but never have I known the real story behind the imprisonment of my parents. All I know is that they go to McDonald's everyday to work and earn a million or half, monthly. I lived in a very wonderful house and my mother would always buy me new and expensive toys, that is until they were jailed and I was left to be guarded to Mr. Minami and his company.

Mr. Minami is nice but I really didn't like him at all, it's like he's a fake person pretending to be all nice and mister goody pants but at least he is nice and he did provided me a house and education and food like he said when I was given to him and I did get to see my parents every two months. That Japanese guy looks like he had something planned on because he wouldn't do this for me and my parents without a reason, of course there would always be a payment or a condition for all his deeds.

I took a shower and quickly put on my uniform. I graduated high school two years ago and here I am going to a university and studying criminology which is quite ironic because my parents are so called "criminals" while their daughter here is studying criminology.

I walk downstairs since I was ready to go and I see Matilda cleaning the house and not a single dust is ever seen. I rolled my eyes away and straightly got out of the house and walk my way to get a brunch first before going to the university.

It was stupid to think of Mr. Minami to let me stay with Matilda even if I am now above 18 instead of having my own dorm and in that way, I wouldn't be bothered to wake up 30 minutes early just to get on my classes on time and in that way, I wouldn't be walking on the busy streets of Manchester all the way to the university everyday.

I stopped over on a fast food chain to have a burger to eat along the way while walking and soon enough, I was at the gates of the uni and saw the same old hoes flirting with jocks along the sidewalk as if we were still on high school but I didn't gave it much notice any further and continued walking on with the burger on my hand.

"Heya, Victoria," I heard a voice call from behind and saw Zayn catching up from behind with a new dye. Since Zayn is half British and Pakistani, he has tanned skin and brown eyes, his hair used to be black but since he dyed it grey, I guess I can say that his hair have black roots and grey dye, he styled his hair in a quiff today.

I kind of like to call Zayn as my best friend and maybe the only close friend I have in the university, although I have two other nursing students and another criminology student I call my friends. Zayn didn't liked the fact that I call him my best friend since he thinks that it's lame to have a girl best friend, he insists that he has a best friend who lives in another country but I always take it as an excuse for me to stop calling him my best friend. He is a year older than me but we're both in the same level and he also studies the same course as me since his father wanted him to be a cop or an investigator someday which is quite eerie to me because of some indescribable reason.

"Hey bro!" We exchanged high fives and hugged like how a man hug should be. I wasn't actually the girliest girl, I was more like a boy who was born a girl but it doesn't mean that I am a lesbian, it's just that girl stuffs are lame, I never liked pink nor bright makeup and dresses, they make me cringe and all I think of it is a thing a clown would wear. That's why I ended up being friends with loads of the cool guys instead but not that type of cool who're so full of themselves, the type of cool who's really cool, just like how I would describe Zayn.

"Nice hairdo," I compliment, referring to the grey dye on his hair, Taking a little bit of strand and let it fall in front of his face.

"Yeah, dyed it myself, everyone thinks that it's stupid but I think it's cool anyway," he had a grin on his face as we continued to walk to our classes. "Oh and hey, treat you out later for ice cream and pizza, sounds good?"

"Aww, I would've liked to but I have to meet up with someone important today," Zayn got disappointed and mumbled an "oh".

"Well, if that's the case then I'll just give you out the cash for the treat-" he pulled out something from his pocket and took out his wallet and grabbed a couple of money then handed it over to me. "Happy birthday, V!" He tried his best to sound very jolly but with his raspy and deep voice, it was hard for him to. I returned a sweet smile to him and took the money from his hands, I really like our relationship a lot.

Zayn's all so brotherly and protective to me yet he treats me like one of his guy friends too and I'm like his little sister trying to be all cool and boyish just like him, sometimes I can be a girl with Zayn too since I'm a girl anyway and I'm just so glad I found a brother like him.

"Thanks for the money, you know I wouldn't spend it on ice cream nor pizza right?"

"Yeah, because you're gonna put it on your catty bank and save up for your future," I laughed silently on his new term for my piggy bank that's actually a black cat but then realised that we had to hurry up since our first class starts at 11:30am and it was really nice that him and I have it together, it's the class where we first met anyway.

My first class ended and me and Zayn parted ways to go to another class. I was thankful I didn't held a gun for the rest of the day, since Zayn and I are criminology students, we decided to enrol ourselves to a gun training just to help us when we become future cops someday.

I'm still not comfortable in shooting since it makes me think that I just literally killed somebody even though I only shot a dummy. I am quite good at targeting the bullseye and I am quite proud at the same time wasn't because my mother always told me how the gun is the weapon of the devil and yet, there she is at jail because she shot a lot of people and yet her daughter is learning how to shoot even if her mother told her about how the gun is the devil's weapon.

The sun was about to set and I was about to go back home to where me and Matilda lives as students with different courses has taken their way to their dormitories but I decided to call up Zayn before I leave the school and so I went over to the pay phone and dropped a couple of coins on it as I input Zayn's number. Multiple rings were heard until he answered.

"I just called to say thank you on the money, Zayn... I hope you'll have a nice day and maybe we can get that ice cream and pizza tomorrow or on Saturday,"

"Yeah, sure, and hopefully I can buy you a phone so you'll stop calling me on cheap pay phones nor borrow a phone from anyone, have a nice day too and happy birthday to my lil' sis, love you," Mr. Minami didn't allowed me to buy, get or even own a phone and I don't know what's his reason behind it, it is quite stupid as usual but I agreed to it since he's the one providing me my needs.

I hung up and returned home to get myself dressed up for my dinner with Mr. Minami, it wasn't that special to me and I would have rather hang out with Zayn to buy me ice cream and pizza than with Yu to go on dinner and order everything edible on the menu, but I can't deny on his requests since that's the only thing I can do to repay him for the things he has done to me.

I took a quick shower and wore a simple little black dress with long sleeves because Mr. Minami was quite a maniac too so not revealing much skin is really an option every time I hang out with the old man. I decided to leave my hair down and wore a black sneakers.

I came downstairs to be surprised by Matilda's endearing cocktail dress with bright colours and it was backless, it was very much the opposite of how I wore. Her heels are cackling and screeching every time she took a step and it was as annoying as her high pitched shouts. I know she is trying to show off for Mr. Minami for almost at the beginning when I was left under her guidance, but who would've liked to have an old man like him? It was probably just for money but too bad Yu likes young bitches who's also fed off with his money.

"What are you wearing?! That is not presentable for Mr. Minami,"

"So what am I supposed to wear? Backless and sleeveless bright cocktail dress? I'm sure it'll look presentable anyway as long as I wear decent clothes."

"You call what you're wearing decent?" She glared at me from bottom to top and gave a pathetic laugh as I stood there with a steady face until a knock on the door disturbed our conversation, or more like an argument and it revealed one of Mr. Minami's trusted person which is Roger, his personal driver.

"I think it looks beautiful on little Victoria here with the black dress and sneakers, it brings back the style of the '90s, yours is lame, Ms.Ivanovich," I flashed Roger a smile and came all the way down from the staircase until I reached the floor.

Roger is Mr. Minami's most trusted guy among all his other people, he has dark skin and brown eyes, he was the one who drove the car that I rode in when I was taken by Mr. Minami and he's actually the person who made me comfortable talking to strangers that I didn't even know who apparently took care of me. Roger is also my most trusted person among Mr. Minami's people maybe because he is the closest to me and is the most fatherly to me.

Shall we?" He offered his arm to me and I nodded and hooked my arm on him too in response. "You should go and follow us too, Miss Ivanovich."

"More like 'Ivanobitch,'" I whispered to Roger and the guy on his early 30s smiled and lead me to a limousine that's owned by non other than Mr. Minami, and he opened the door for me.

"Happy birthday, little Victoria! I still remember the day you were picked up from jail and how cute you were, here's a little present from Roger to you," Roger gave me a tiny box and thanked him for his concern. He closed the door and I was soon left inside.

I saw through the tinted black window Matilda trying so hard to get down the porch's stairs with her high heels on and Roger not even bothering to help her out. I chuckled on the sight that I was seeing right now and at last Matilda got down and was headed to the limousine taking another batch of seat at the back and we took off to meet up with Mr. Minami.

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A/N hello and good day to everyone, I hope you all liked the first part of the story. I would just like to tell you about my update schedules. I will try to update 5 days after every published part and I hope no one has a problem with it ^-^ have a nice day everyone!

Next update : 01/10/2016
Twitter : LovingHLLNZ

All the love. "K"