Lovellia sighed. Or maybe it was her imagination. Wishful thinking.
“So, you’re affected by that song too? What’s with that song anyway? He seemed to have gotten sad while you were singing earlier. Then in the middle of the song, he just walked out and left.”
Lovellia was suddenly alarmed. "He didn't like my song?"
She didn't want anyone not liking her singing skills. She didn’t like it when her listeners were not satisfied with her performance.
“Maybe he just became too emotional. You know, like, he dedicated that song to me.” Her friend hugged herself and dreamily looked up at the ceiling. She could literally see hearts everywhere.
“Get out of your imagination, Bham.”
Bham squeezed her arm. “Don't interfere with my dreams. Men as handsome as that man rarely came into my life. Don’t be a party pooper.”
“Wait! Maybe that song was for his girlfriend. Or his wife. ” A man as handsome as that man could not be without a woman in his life.
“Ay! I don't think he has a wife. No wedding ring. And he also doesn’t have a girlfriend. He's just mine. And I think he will come back for me, ” Bham said, grinning in happiness.
“Fine! Whatever makes you happy. As long as he makes a request again and gives a big tip.”
That was probably the only good thing she could get out of that man. It would have been nice to have a whiff of his wonderful scent, but that’s it. She doesn’t trust men like him. She thought no woman would ever last long being with him. He would only make those women cry.
“And what do you think of that man, the three people in that one thousand bill?”
"Why not? I need money. Next week those hoodlums will probably appear again. It’s going to be a mess again if I don’t pay them the right amount. ”
Every two weeks, the people to whom her father owed money came to collect her father’s debt. They ran the gambling house where her father gambled. The stakes were high there. They purposely lend money to her father until he eventually staked their own house. She was still paying them the interest.
She would never forget the day her father ran away and left her to hide from the people he owed money to. They could not find her father at home so those people went to the School for the Blind where she volunteered as a teacher. She and the other children were terrified because they threatened to cause trouble if she would not give them money.
She didn’t have money then because she was just a volunteer then and still a second-year student in Education. Where would she even get the money? She was already being very frugal because the money she earned working at a fast-food restaurant was not that much. Stunned when she found out how much money her father owed those people, she was forced to say she was blind. That she did not have sufficient ability to immediately repay her father's debt.
They did not disturb her at the school but when she got home, they threw their belongings outside. The house was locked and said she had to leave. But her ordeal was not over because she still had to pay the remaining debt of her father.
Their original plan was to actually hire her to work for their boss's club. They just let her go and let her pay the remaining debt on her own way when they found out that she was blind.
She has no one to run to but Bham. Lovellia had to push through her pretense as a blind person because the moment those loan sharks learned that she was not really blind, they would surely force her to work for them at that club. And who knows, they might even force her to sell her own body. That didn’t even cross her mind, that she would be put in that kind of dreadful situation. She would lose all hopes if that ever happened.
So she needed to continue pretending now, act like a real blind person. That was the only way she knew she would be able to save herself. And since she was known to be blind to a lot of people, she was doubly diligent at work. She wanted to finish paying off their debt immediately. She wanted to have a normal life.
"Ate Bham, you know any extra work you could give me?”
"Again?" Bham exclaimed. “Aren't you happy working as a masseuse in a massage parlor? Are you trying to tire yourself to death?”
Yes, she had another job as a blind masseuse at a massage parlor, besides her being a blind singer.
“I just want more extra income. I’m just making sure I won’t get short of money. You know how hard it is to pay ten thousand a month. And then we still have to pay for the house rent. Kulas and I also have other things we need, right?”