"Guys, you know the code..." Rayen said, his eyes flitting between Adrian and Liam.
The two of them stared at him, confused.
Without explaining, Rayen opened his mouth, his hand resting at the door handle. "1..."
Exclamation marks seemed to flash on their heads as they realize what he was just about to do.
Nodding at the same time, the three of them tried pushing the door to open it. However, no matter how they tried to budge it open, it wouldn’t.
Shaking his head in disappointment, the driver said, "You think I’m stupid? You want to avoid paying? This generation of kids really underestimates us, old folks!"
Quickly giving up, Rayen turned his head back to the driver, his lips in an awkward, apologetic smile. "Uh... No, we’re not avoiding it, sir."
The driver lifted his eyebrow and scoffed. "Oh? Then what?"
"W-We..." Rayen stammered.
"It’s a prank! Haha!"
With his quick writer’s mind, Adrian suddenly thought of this good reason. He and Rayen laughed awkwardly toward the driver, while Liam remained strangely silent.
"Prank? You brats!" The driver didn’t buy it and yelled. "Hurry and pay already!"
"Can you wait for a moment? I’ll just get some money in my apartment," Rayen said.
"Alright," the driver said, clicking his tongue.
As the driver pressed the unlock mechanism, they heard a click coming from their doors. Rayen immediately opened the door and Adrian followed suit. But just as Liam was about to climb out of the vehicle too, the driver held him back.
"Don’t trick me. I’m taking one of you hostage," he said with a smirk.
Mouth tightly shut, Liam remained silent and went back inside the car like a kidnapped puppy. Rayen sighed, his chest churning with guilt at the pitiful sight of his friend before leading Adrian to the entrance gate.
However, they met another obstacle.
’What’s up with my unlucky spree?’
After the cab driver, they now had to battle with the guards.
Since Rayen was considered somewhat high-profile, he prioritized his safety and lived in a gated community. Forgetting this, he was just about to waltz in confidently when a guard stopped him with a sleek baton.
"I’m sorry, but I don’t seem to recognize you."
Rayen frowned in confusion. "I live here."
"What’s the building and apartment number?"
"Red Palace, 307," Rayen responded.
The other guard inside the guard house looked up the residence information and eyed Rayen suspiciously. Seeing this, Adrian quickly yanked Rayen back.
"Stupid. You don’t live here now. You’re dead," Adrian whispered.
"....." Realizing his mistake, Rayen was unable to speak.
"Can we ask for your ID? You don’t seem to be the owner of this apartment," the guard that checked the information asked.
Rayen whispered back to Adrian, "What do I do? I don’t have an ID!"
Adrian shushed him out and stepped in. "Sorry. My friend’s just panicking. We’re actually relatives, and we couldn’t contact him lately, so we’re quite worried. Can you possibly contact him?"
Of course no one would answer the guards if they tried to contact the owner, because the owner wasn’t home. He was right here!
However, the guards weren’t aware of that.
Despite the pair’s suspicious behavior, their reasons seemed to make sense, so the guards decided to comply with their request. This way, they could also verify if they were telling the truth. If the owner truly didn’t know them, they simply wouldn’t be allowed in.
The guards immediately attempted to contact the owner through the room’s intercom, but it just kept ringing without an answer.
"What are you planning? No one would answer that," Rayen asked Adrian quietly.
"We can reason out that it’s an emergency if they can’t contact you."
A writer’s brain really did have its uses.
One of the guards approached them. "There’s no answer."
Adrian immediately followed through his plans, but he was met with rejection.
"Since you can’t provide an identity card, we can’t allow you inside."
Hearing those words, Rayen felt annoyed. "We told you, he hasn’t been responding for a long time! What if something happened to him?"
Well, technically, something did happen. He was already dead.
Right now, it wasn’t just about getting money to pay the taxi fare. Rayen was also adamant about checking the situation, especially since no news of their deaths had reached the media. It was strange. Two weeks had already passed, yet no one knew?
"We’ll check it ourselves," the guard answered succinctly, offering no further explanation.
’Then how do I get the money?’
Sighing in frustration, the two of them had no choice but to wait outside. Perhaps if something were really discovered, they might be allowed in.
"It’s so hard to see you, Mr. Vocalist," Adrian grumbled. "How do we even pay for the taxi?"
’This is because of that damned Plotter!’
Just as they were about to give up and think of another solution to their predicament, Rayen spotted a familiar black SUV driving past them, stopping at the entrance checkpoint of the apartment complex.
When the window rolled down, Rayen could glimpse the driver’s face from where they stood. Rayen froze as he watched the person’s arm draped over the window to hand over an ID.
The guards immediately took it to record the visitor’s details.
"Is the person at Red Palace, 307 at home? I’ve been trying to contact him, but I couldn’t," the person inside the SUV asked.
The two guards at the gate glanced at each other briefly before their eyes darted to the two tall figures standing to the side. Noticing their actions, the person shifted his gaze from the guards and met Rayen’s eyes.
"Sir," one of the guards called for Jared’s attention. "Those two were trying to get in earlier, saying they’re the owner’s relatives."
Jared’s eyes narrowed as he assessed the two guys from the side.