1 Chapter 1

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Edmund dreaded this very moment for a whole nine months.

Every day since that fateful night was a misery to live. The rape accusations had left him haggard and helpless. He hunched over, stumbling his way to flick on the lights, gazing at his reflection. With the eye bags, a nasty stubble, and hair coarse with grease, he looked nothing like the award-winning scholarship student to one of the most prestigious theatre and drama universities in the country.

He stifled a laugh. All his hard work to make it big in the film industry was nothing more than a pipe dream now. He was expelled a month ago, his graduation and diploma he was so proud of dismissed: that very scholarship revoked exactly a year ago. Yesterday, he had received a call that his mother, living and farming in a village halfway across the country, had fell sick bedridden.

The cold water he splashed on his face sent shudders down his body when he clearly turned the tap on lukewarm. It served nothing but a reminder for his predicament. Rent was due. The landlord of his small, old apartment shut of his utilities. He was to be evicted tomorrow, maybe later today. The worse? He could do nothing about it: his entire life savings was gone entirely to waste.

A knock on the door brought him deeper into his self-deprecating stupor. Wasn't the judge hearing his case today? He would be damned if the cops were not outside the door.

"Come in," Edmund mumbled, unlocking the door.

He knew his trembling raised arms made him look like an idiot, so he was not prepared for the familiar face that greeted him stiffly at the door. "C-class monitor Charlize?"

She gave a slight wave. "Hello—"

The door swung shut, but Charlize was faster. He left the door and her foot caught in between as horror memories resurfaced from that night. The graduation party. Hotel. His first taste of alcohol. Waking up fully naked and unclothed. He collapsed onto the wall, pressing his back against the cold dusty door, burying his face into his hands.

***

"Would ... would you believe me if I told you it wasn't me who spread those accusations?" Her voice faltered.

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anymore. But you're here." Edmund paused. His breaths were shaky. The tremor went throughout his entire body not just his heart. "NO, I won't believe. I can't. Just tell me what you're here for so we can just get this over with," he spat, all before wallowing himself in silent tears.

The muffling and shallow breaths were too much for Charlize.

"Edmund ... I'm so sorry. Y-you've become so fragile. I didn't think it would come to this. I-I thought with my family's resources we could find the perpetrator by the next day, but..."

"You admit it wasn't r*pe."

"... You were smashed, I was smashed. I still don't have a clue who spiked the wine, but it couldn't have been you, seeing your condition right now ... I-I just ..."

"We did smash hard that night," he stated bluntly, earning a blush and a chuckle.

"Funny," she continued. "I didn't think it was you, then either ... but my family had their opinions, so they just let the rumours spark. They didn't allow me to clear them up either."

"Seems fair to me," Edmund muttered dully to himself.

The atmosphere grew stormy. When Charlize started shuffling at the door, he believed Charlize realized that her words had hurt or the numbness in her foot jammed at the door started to grow uncomfortable.

"You know, Edmund, I'm a victim of this incident too. My family sent me to a tribal country just to try and prove my virginity. But alas, my first time ... that was taken, just like that," she finally said, letting out a long sigh.

He heard her clench the doorknob. It rattled.

"I don't know what you thought of me, but the rumors too have affected myself moreso than I would like to admit. Please, can we just talk it out? Like old times? Study sessions?"

Edmund answered with nothing but silence and a few steps away from the door. "Just come in on your own," he mumbled in one breath.

There was a loud clatter that he took as her agreement to enter. He scourged the collected mess in the room for any water bottles or tea to serve, but came up with his hands nothing.

He looked up and found nothing but a gust of wind blowing through the door. The door rattled here and there.

Charlize's figure was nowhere in sight.

"Shit. Shit. Shit! She played me a riddle. Again!" Edmund hissed at himself.

His knuckles cracked. His fingers dug into deep into his skin, leaving behind a trickle of blood and stinging pain that could not be ignored. He took small, steady steps to the door, ready to slam it with all his might, when a small voice cried from outside.

"Goo!"

It took all of his willpower to hold himself back. The pain in his hands stung real bad as he grabbed the door handle, but he knew he had to tolerate it. The door opened more gently this time. He peeked left-right but there was nothing out of the ordinary; no signs of the sound. Then he looked up-down and almost stumbled backwards in a bag of trash.

How had he not have noticed the cradle in Charlize's hands?

In the baby's tiny hands was sheet of paper that it gripped tightly. He gazed into the baby's mesmerizing blue eyes that drew him to a deep trance. The baby seemed to stared at him through the bangs that covered his eyes. Edmund did not break eye contact as he slowly pried the baby's hands open and unravelled the letter.

It read, in small, cursive print: 'Look down, Edmund. Look down.'

Edmund knew the message was not about the baby, but something else. Down to the westside, he noticed a peculiar limousine parked in the street across his apartment, but moving cars quickly disrupted his view. When the traffic cleared away, he could make out the figure of Charlize being forced to enter the limousine by two bodyguards, he presumed, dressed in black suits. He shot his gaze down at his hands.

'Yes, you impregnated me. This is our daughter. I did not dare take contraceptives. I have daily checkups with a doctor. Hormones, blood tests, everything. My family would know. It didn't matter in the end. My worst fears came true and the rumors surfaced. By then she was already a fetus and abortion was not an option for me, for personal reasons I cannot disclose to you. Yet'

The letter was shaking so much that the words were unreadable. Each word slowly registered in his brain, giving him to urge to shred the thing up. He did not want anything more to deal with the incident. He could not believe a single word he was reading.

When another "Goo!" sounded about, it stole all his attention. The baby—his daughter—waved her tiny hands and giggled as if encouraging him to continue.

'I'm so sorry, Edmund. Please believe me. My family sent her here for you to take responsibility and they'll try to make things terribly difficult for you both, to make you guilty. Again, I'm so sorry about your graduation,' the letter read.

'I'm being sent overseas for proper teachings, as they say. Maybe months. Probably years. I beg, from the bottom of my heart for you to raise her well till then and only till then that things will clear up. My shameless self can only say good luck. I'll claim full responsibility for everything, so please forgive me.'

'You don't need to forgive my family,' it continued. 'They will make things hell for you. Just hold on. Believe me. I will repay you with everything.'

'PS: you're kind of cute. not lying when i say this but ill be waiting. don't have a bf yet but i wouldn't mind if its you so when this is over how about we try things out? xoxo~ class monitor class of 2021 charlize'

Edmund let the wind carry the letter inside his apartment. As if laced with magic, it landed neatly on his desk amongst his other valuables.

"Goo," his daughter called again.

"Yeah, that class monitor. She's always been good at riling me up and ticking me off."

He was not sure about his class monitor's confession. To him, the only part of the letter that was plausible was her family background. Otherwise, how else would she know about his revoked graduation and scholarship when he has been hiding out in his apartment for the last nine months?

Edmund was now sure that the perpetrator who spiked their drinks was most likely an enemy of Charlize's family. All throughout high school, he played a low-profile and never got into a fight. There was zero chance someone would hold out a vendetta against him. The problem now was her family could not unravel the situation: he had ended up as the scapegoat, hurting them both in the process.

What woman would want to have a child with her classmates she's only acquainted with? On the other land, if the letter is telling the truth, Charlize does not see him as an acquaintance.

Worst of all, he had no doubt his mother would awake from her coma to kill him if she found out he had gotten a girl pregnant.

Edmund rubbed his forehead, feeling the headache worsening. The tiny bumps of acne and dried clumps of hair reminded himself of how laughable he must have looked in front of Charlize. He was unable to take care of himself these past nine months, but she still entrusted their daughter to him anyway.

His dishevelled self suddenly entered to a series of memories when he was younger. He remembered his bright and lively self farming in the village with his mother, when his father had to left their family.

"Is Father not coming back?" His younger self would ask every night, clenching the wooden framework of the door to the empty room.

However, he had never received a proper answer; his mother would always reply with a single sentence: "Remember, a man has to take responsibility."

Edmund clenched his hands and ran outside. The wind blew his hair upwards, letting him see the outside world clearly for once. Charlize and the limousine was gone. Down his peripheral vision was their daughter swinging her hands around in the air. He did not hesitate to reach down and gently hoist the cradle upwards and into the room. He drew the curtains, coughing a few times at the mini dust storm that kicked up, laying her on the table.

He let her hook his fingers around his pinky. The touch scared him, but he did not resist. He was glad for that. The little girl's happy giggles was infectious and she was warm. Too warm, almost. He felt a hot flush creeping up from behind his cheeks.

"Ba!" she coo'ed.

Something dawned on Edmund.

"I'm 18, currently broke, practically homeless, and got no degree or diploma. Some big family from capital is after me when I have a baby daughter to raise." He drew in a deep breath. "Class monitor, how the hell am I supposed to get this Grade A in parenting?"

"Goo! Ba. Heh."

That stole all his attention. He stared into her chubby cheeks, cute nose, and the brightest pair of blue eyes had ever seen when a white light enveloped the two of them.

"What!? No, the baby—" Edmund cried out.

A loud and crisp 'ding' resonated in the air.

Though he was in a blank white haze, he could clearly hear the cold and monotonous voice resound in his head.

[Perfect Father System has been activated. Host: Edmund]

[Host has met all the requirements. The system has been granted to overturn your life upside down, and most importantly, to help you become the perfect father.]

[Host, please enter you daughter's name.]