Chapter 3

Stretching, Fares got out of his seat, grabbed his baggage, and finished his arrival procedure.

"Ms. Hojo, so where are you staying?" Fares asked after seeing that she was done with the procedures too.

"Please, call me Yuna, everyone does that now. Well, I am staying at a friend's house."

"Do you have a ride? You could come with me if you would like, My brother's picking me up."

"Thanks for the offer, but my friend's coming to pick me up too," replied Yuna with a sweet smile.

Ring~ Ring~

At the same time, both of their phones rang.

When they answered, they didn't expect the person on the other side to be angry, which made it awkward for them.

When they got the coordinates at the parking lot, they left together only to be surprised at what was going on there.

"Brother, can you believe this lady? She just crashed into my car from behind, and instead of apologizing she goes on and on about me repaying her repair fees!" said Fares' older brother Zayn.

"Older sister, you've got to make that idiot pay for suddenly hitting the brakes, breaking the brand-new car my father bought me!" replied the other girl Fares didn't know, at the same time as his brother.

The guy was Fares' older brother Zayn. He was a tall muscular man with broad shoulders, brown hair tanned skin, and wide jaws. He dropped out of college to work at his father's mechanic workshop to support his family's expenses.

The girl Fares didn't know, had a small figure with beautiful braided black hair, blue eyes, and cute dimples, even though she was sneering. She was wearing a beautiful red dress with a synthetic rose tailored across the chest area, showing her elegance.

"Umm" replied both Fares and Yuna looking at each other awkwardly.

Stepping in first Fares said "Yuna, this is my brother, Zayn. Zayn this is my senior in human biology, Yuna Hojo."

Picking up on his intentions Yuna continued "And this is my friend, Sarah Conner. I've known her since middle school when I first arrived in the US. Sarah, this is my junior, Fares."

"Hello, pretty lady. I am Zayn, nice to meet you," said Zayn extending his hands for a shake, forgetting about the current situation.

Yuna nodded and shook his hands, and couldn't help gasp in surprise at how big his hands were she was surprised at how huge the guy was, and looked at Fares doubting that they were brothers.

"So, what happened here exactly?" Yuna asked.

After a dozen more minutes of explaining, they got the gist of it.

Zayn was searching for a free parking lot and had to hit the brakes when he noticed a speed bump. However, it was too unexpected for Sarah who just got her license a week ago, and she hit the pedal instead of bumping into him.

"How about this, Sarah, why don't you apologize to Zayn first and ask him to fix it for you?" Yuna suggested.

"B-b-but sister…. It was his fault," replied Sarah unwillingly holding back tears.

"Sarah!" Yuna insisted.

"So now that you have a boyfriend, you take his side? You're so mean, Yuna," said Sarah before turning to face Zayn.

"I-I-I am sorry, please fix my car." continued Sarah quickly before turning her head to the other side holding her tears. This was this first-time big sister Yuna talked to her that way.

Yuna blushed when she realized what Sarah said before saying "Who's got a boyfriend?" and smacked Sarah's head lightly.

Turning his head away from the awkward scene Fares said to his brother "Brother, fix her car, please. Everybody has a first at stuff like this, no?"

"Yeah Yeah, alright. Miss, I'll accept your apologies, and will fix your car for you. Here send it to this address." Zayn replied, giving her his business card and thinking how magnanimous he's become.

"Alright, now that it's settled, let's go." Fares said putting his luggage into the trunk of the car.

"Umm, sister I'm sorry, but the car won't start." cried Sarah running into Yuna's arms.

"Sigh. Fine, we'll take a cab." Yuna said hugging and calming Sarah.

"Don't be silly. My offer still stands, why don't we give you both a ride." Fares offered again.

"Really? You're cool older brother. Thank you then." said Sarah quickly as she ran calling shotgun and sitting in the passenger seat.

Shaking their heads at the scene, they placed Yuna's luggage in the trunk and got into the car.

Before driving off, Zayn called for a tow truck to come and take Sarah's car to the workshop.

The drive back was surprisingly fun as if everybody forgot about what happened.

_________

When Fares returned home, he felt a nostalgic feeling. This was the house he grew up in. A two-story building with a garden where they used to have their party's at, and a garage where his brother's love for mechanics began.

Fares' love for mystery began, when his neighbors would scream all night thinking there was a ghost, and he had to bravely search for the cause only to find out it was a whole family of rats there.

What greeted him when entered the house, was a rugby tackle.

"Brother! You're back!" It was his younger sister Layla.

Layla is a 15 years old girl, with dark brown hair tied into a ponytail and a set of gorgeous black eyes. Growing up, Fares was her hero, she would always go with him on his mystery-solving adventures, and Fares would always appear when she was scared of the monster under the bed. Honestly, though, he would just always be there just to solve more mysteries, but she doesn't need to know that.

Thud~

Falling to the ground, Fares cried in surprise but quickly patted his sister's head before saying "I am back, Layla."

"Hey brother, I heard from mother that you did something about something, and will become famous is that true?" Said Layla with a silly grin on her face.

"At least remember what she said." Fares retorted then continued "Well, yes I did finish research about the human soul, but-"

"So you're going to be one of those famous professors, with many organizations after you, and your life will be in danger?" Layla cut him off and said enthusiastically.

"What? No, that stuff doesn't happen as often as you think. And, didn't I tell you many times to stop watching those stupid dramas, and what's with that genre, by the way, shouldn't girls your age watch romance drama or something?" Fares said, pinching her cheeks as he got up.

"Tch, party pooper," said Layla with a pout.

"Anyway, where is mother and father?"

"I don't know. They went somewhere yesterday and didn't even say where to." Layla said, annoyed that she couldn't answer her curiosity.

"Yesterday, huh." said Fares as he picked his bags from the ground and went to unpack in his old room.

It was a simple room with a single bed and a desk where he used to study. The only distinctive feature was that there was a whole wall covered with a bookshelf filled to the brim with all sorts of books. From ancient Egyptian mythology to modern science, although everything was dusty showing that nobody has entered the room in years.

After a quick cleaning, the room as good as new. He placed his bags and fell asleep right away.

_______

"So he's already here? I thought he wouldn't come back for a few days." Samira said as soon as she entered the house.

"Yeah, he probably just missed me." Replied Layla smugly.

Rolling her eyes, Samira turned to her husband Adam and said "So what do we do now? I mean we can hide this for now, but what about that thing you got? He wouldn't leave it alone, and it isn't exactly easy to hide."

"Don't worry honey, we could just spend the rest of the day with him, and give it to him at midnight, as long as he doesn't come into contact with it before his eighteenth birthday, it will do him no harm," replied Adam confidently.

Then they asked Zayn to give them a hand carrying the large Crimson-colored box into the garage.