Published at 28th of July 2022 10:36 am

Chapter 12.5

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“……”

Mason looked away from the TV and wondered how many times his new life has changed in little over a month.

Before he died, he was just a normal mercenary, but after he woke up, he became Hollywood’s troublemaker. That by itself was a big change, but it hadn’t been the end.

A month was short but could be long at the same time. Mason’s life had changed a lot and kept changing during that month.

First, he had come to accept that the face appearing on TV was not that of a stranger’s. He understood that, ‘this is my face.’ In the beginning, he felt his face was that of a stranger’s and was startled every time he looked at the mirror, in the restroom. Compared to that, this was a great change.

“Um, Haley? –Can you sign this paper for us?”

He heard the voice and turned around, and saw two young girls standing with their eyes sparkling. This was one of the things that have changed.

Mason took the pen she offered and signed on her notebook and smiled slightly. He returned the pen and notebook to the two blushing girls and bid goodbye. He heard the girls cheering afterwards.

Still, he mostly received the cold stares that spoke of annoyance and hatred, but there was definitely a small change. Though rare, a few fans or people with goodwill started to appear. Although Mason was indifferent to other people’s stares, he thought that ‘like’, rather than dislike, was obviously better.

There was no job for him then, so he was about to quit being an actor, but he became an actor who was nagged into signing a contract by the director and his manager even though he was being offered a million dollars.

When he woke up in Haley’s body, during that shocking moment, even Mason, who was always optimistically thought ‘Isn’t living same everywhere. No, this is a new chance’ had felt dizzy at this sudden shift in reality.

Mason couldn’t even predict how this life will change, up to what extent?

He finished his ‘today’s schedule of drinking one cup of coffee from every café nearby and looking around the interiors.' He bought some ingredients for dinner and went back home. He walked around a little to observe the streets in between the cafés and the population around there, but once again he failed to find the spot he sought after.

Mason thought, ‘Well, I need to film a movie first, so I can’t even build a café…’ and looked ahead and noticed someone squatting down in front of his house. It seemed like that person noticed Mason too, stood up and widely waved at him while walking up to him.

“-Liz!”

Mason frowned slightly. It was Haley’s cousin Joy. She was standing there without any makeup on and a little bit skinnier than the last time he saw her.

“Liz, have you been well?”

She walked stiffly up to him and asked. He saw her awkward stare and instead of looking at her coldly, he smiled brightly.

“Yeah. What’s going on?”

Joy’s face got a little brighter after Mason smiled. Her expression was like ‘Did this idiot finally feel better?’ She carefully approached him and gave a servile smile.

“Um, can we talk inside? I have something to tell you…”

“Just say it here.”

Mason smiled and said firmly. She, who looked bright for a second, flinched, and Mason continued.

“Why did you come?”

He was smiling, but the tone was obvious that he just wanted her to get to the point.

“Liz…. Seriously, why are you being like this? Are you still mad?”

She sobbed and suddenly cried.

“I told you, I’m sorry. How can you be still so mad?”

“Mad? I’m not mad.”

Mason said calmly. There was no reason for him to get mad. Haley’s family ripping him off was just another stranger’s business. Of course he thought those people were like bugs, but that’s because it was against Mason’s principles.

“Liz..- Please forgive me. Everything is my fault, hm?”

She cried with a pitiful face. A pretty face, which kind of resembled Haley, but messy and wrinkled.

“It’s not the problem with money. I was too harsh, right? I was just completely dependent on the money you gave and didn’t even say thank you. Sorry. I’m really sorry. If you can forgive me, I’ll do anything. Please. Please, Liz–“

“Forgive me”– She suddenly kneeled down and clung onto Mason’s leg. She cried, full of regret and reproach, saying everything was her fault and to forgive her. Mason looked down at her and asked.

“You need my forgiveness?”

Mason said while tapping her shoulders and she looked up, crying.

“I got it. I don’t know what I have to forgive, but I’ll forgive everything, so you may leave. I have to eat dinner and read a script.”

Tony said he was going to bring the script today. Four days after getting the new script, they will start filming. The day will end after eating dinner, reading the script and exercising for one hour. He’ll probably knock out right away after exercising.

Mason shook his leg free from her grasp and dusted the pants. She looked stunned that she got his forgiveness so easily.

“Th, then you are gonna pay my living expenses again? I don’t even have to pay back the debt?”

“Why should I?”

“You, you said you’re gonna forgive me?”

Mason thought for a second whether including Haley, if everyone in this family was not smart and said.

“I’m forgiving you because you asked for it. I told you I’m not doing this because I’m mad? –Go back, Joy.”

Mason waved his hands and told her to go away, and she bit her lips and cried even more.

“Liz, are you really gonna be like this? It’s enough already. I got a distrainment because I didn’t pay back your money. I’m about to get kicked out of my apartment next week!”

“If I get kicked out from my apartment, how am I gonna live with my kid? After I got divorced, I didn’t even have money. You know, I don’t even have enough and have to eat less because I have to save up on food?” She laid out her poor situation.

“What does that seriously have to do with me?”

Mason sighed lightly and asked.

“What? What does that have to do with you? You, you don’t even have sympathy? How can you?”

“Why do I have to feel sympathy towards people who tried to kill me? Did you forget that we made eye contact while you were trying to take off my oxygen mask?”

She hesitated when she heard that and said, “That was just…. Jo, joking around!” The excuse was not even smart. Mason laughed with a dumbfounded expression.

“Wow, what a freak? The person you should be grateful for, for paying your living expenses is dying next to you, and you play around with his oxygen mask?”

“Tha, that is just….-“

“Anyway I’m sorry”. She clung onto Mason’s leg because she didn’t have anything else to say.

“You are not in a good relationship with other relatives but not so with me Liz, yes? If it’s too much for you to provide all of their living expenses, you can… Can’t you at least spare mine? You can, right? Other people are comfortable how they are. I’m the only one who came to you like this, didn’t I?”

“Pleas, Liz. It’s really hard….” She said it while clinging, and Mason made a smile that implied he was really sick of it.

“I don’t know how all of you sound the same. Indeed, blood is thicker than water, huh? Anna, Jason, Sandra, and even a guy I didn’t recognize, called me and asked to help at least themselves…. I don’t know how Anna found out, but she followed me to my film set and clung onto me and acted violently, so she got arrested by the police. You didn’t hear the news yet?”

“What, what…?”

“I’m saying you are the last, you idiot.”

Mason said while pulling his leg free from her weakening clasp.

“The guy who said, ‘Okay, I got it this time, but please do well next time,’ and lived like a pushover when you cried and apologized, is dead. You remember, right? You took off the oxygen mask.”

Mason thought why she was still clinging on a hot day like this and walked past her and went to the gate.

“Liz! Liz! Lizzzz!”

She clung onto him crying, and Mason ignored her with an indifferent expression. Mason was pretty weak for crying people, but that’s only if they didn’t use their tears. Like Tony, or Noah…..

He pushed her away to close the gate, and she grabbed the gate and bit her lips and glared at him. She figured out that crying was not going to help, so she said with a vicious stare.

“Are you abandoning your family because you are going well? You think that the one movie of Director Vick’s will change your life?”

Mason looked at her indifferently.

“A celebrity can get ruined by a single scandal. How long do you think this is gonna last?”

Mason smirked. ‘Bullshit’. He stared at her, and she flinched and trembled. Mason got rid of her and closed the gate.

“Watch out! You’ll regret this!”

‘Just watch!’ Her scream trickled through the gate. Tony, who was already inside the house, came running to see what was going on, but Mason walked inside with a neutral expression like he cannot hear any curse words.

“You slutty bitch! Just watch!!”

Joy shouted every kind of curse word at Haley’s receding back, peeking through the gate. Haley walked inside without a single glance back at her, so she bit her teeth and screamed, “Aaaaaaack!” like a crazy bitch.

Purposely in this hot weather, wearing dirty clothes and not even any makeup, she had been squatting down in front of the gate and waiting for him.

It’s been 10 years since Haley’s parents died. She’s been living off of him, thinking that he was an ATM machine that spouted cash if you tap it once; because he earned this money back easily.

Just for posing in front of the camera, ten thousand dollars, and one movie earned him one million dollars, easily stacked into his bank account. He appeared on a talk show and kept his mouth shut like a clam, but still the next day, his fans sent him a high-end bag for working hard.

Since it was easily earned money, it should be natural for him to help out his relatives, like Joy, who was living a hard life. Haley will probably feel embarrassed if his relatives were poor.

Her life was seriously hard. She had always struggled with the small amount of money that Haley gave. She couldn’t even think of buying an expensive Hermes purse, so she just used what she always had. Haley, he always wore a reluctant expression when she asked for a bag, even though he bought whatever bags or shoes he wanted.

When the money that Haley gave ran short, sometimes she sold his private life to the magazines to earn some pocket money. Because Haley was stupid, if she coaxed him a little, he would spit out who flirted with him, whom he liked, and how the masturbation toy he bought was too big. He didn’t know what was shameful, and such stories became a kind of life support for Joy.

She didn’t feel guilty because celebrities were meant for gossip. She never sold something that didn’t happen.

Haley had cried, ‘Joy! How can you be like this?’ with an angry face, whenever she sold him out for some pocket money. He did say he won’t pay her living expenses anymore, but every time that happened, Joy succeeded in coaxing him.

She had apologized and begged that she won’t do it again, convinced him how she didn’t have a choice because she really wanted those shoes, get angry that this wouldn’t have happened if he bought the shoes for her in the first place. If she moved him up and down with tears and snots, he would grow sullen and understand her.

She thought it would be the same this time. Something was different when he had sent a reminder, but she assumed that he was madder than usual and will feel better soon if she sweet-talked him. But Haley had said that she was an idiot in a cold tone, unlike his usual self, took out a gun from a bag and pointed it in the air and gave a scary smile.

“Eeek….!”

That time Haley was very scary and annoying, so she got angry and thought she could survive without receiving the usual living expenses. But after the house got an attachment and the babysitters quit because they didn’t receive their salary, she had to go back to Haley.

Joy thought that trying to sweet-talk and smiling was a mistake and so this time, she cried and clung to him pitifully, thinking it would make him feel some sympathy. Haley easily fell for a little bit of affection.

But it was a mistake. Haley didn’t get angry but instead wore an indifferent and placid expression. His eyes did not have any emotion.

‘The guy who said, ‘Okay, I got it. Please do well next time,’ and lived like a pushover when you cried and apologized, is dead. You remember, right? You took off the oxygen mask.’

Just like he said, Haley who lived like a fool seemed to have disappeared at the same time the oxygen mask got off.

If this continues, she might have to sell all the bags and shoes she possessed. It was no joke that the very next week, the apartment and the Ferrari were going to be sold in an auction.

Joy bit her lips and held her anger and screamed, “Aaaack!” again.

She glared scarily at the door where Haley had disappeared into and turned around.

“This is not going to end easily like this, Haley.”

‘Just watch’ –She murmured viciously and bit her fingernail.

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