It was quite some time before Jimmy Hunter could come up with a plan.He stared at Miya in absolute terror, his eyes never leaving her face, that she had covered with her hands. He immediately took out his phone and sent a rapid text.
Amongst his group of five, Hartley Greene was the only one who was well versed with women. Who better than him, in that case, to help?
Jim"s exact words, as he sent in the text, were: [Need to stop her from crying. You have 10 seconds. Else look for another job.]
Harley"s reply was fast, of course, and rather dramatic.
[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!!!!!]
[Now, you have 5.]
[Kiss her! Sleep with her! It should stop her immediately!!!!]
[Sh*ta.s.s, you"re fi –]
Jimmy couldn"t type in the text when he received Hartley"s again.
[Oh, yes! Tell her a joke! Yes, that"s it! A joke!]
Hm…
Jimmy immediately put the phone down.
Now that sounded like a plan.
But he wasn"t very sure he knew any jokes. Meanwhile, Miya had started hiccupping by now. It was weird to watch, because she still had Ben placed on her stomach, and the boy jerked every time she sobbed.
Jimmy"s reaction was instant.
"Um, Miya," he said rather sheepishly, "Don"t cry. Look, I"ll tell you a joke. Once upon a time… there was a battle."
Somehow, her sobs became even harder. Jimmy"s mind raced.
"No, it"s not a bad joke! Please, listen to me. Look, the battle was between… er, yeah, c.o.c.kroaches and mice! But there"s a twist in the story too! The c.o.c.kroaches were vampires."
Miya somehow stopped shivering. She then wiped her tears with the back of her hands, and gave Jimmy such a filthy glare, the young master nearly jumped out of his skin.
But seeing that she had stopped hiccupping, though her eyes were still red, Jim got the courage to continue.
"So… in the battle, the mice went… to the bats for help! Yes, and then they found out that vampires only die if beheaded. So they borrowed weapons from the bats, and well… they decided to behead the c.o.c.kroaches."
Miya"s face had darkened now. She was obviously not amused.
Jim swallowed. A few tears still kept falling from her eyes though, so he bravely continued.
"Now, it"s a scientific fact that a c.o.c.kroach doesn"t die even if beheaded. Actually, there"s a whole lot of theory to it. Experiments have been done. Insects have clumps of ganglia, you see —nerve tissue agglomerations— of course, distributed within each body segment. These are capable of performing the basic nervous functions responsible for reflexes, so that –"
"Oh My G.o.d."
Miya"s voice was soft, and her face aghast. She looked as if she had just heard the unbearable.
Jimmy, however, was immediately excited. She had stopped crying completely! In fact, it looked like he had even got her interested in his joke!
"Yes, yes," he said with extreme delight, "There"s more. So, the question before the mice now was, how would the c.o.c.kroaches –"
"Shut up!"
Jim was so alarmed at the sudden outburst, he immediately closed his mouth. The missus glared furiously at him now, and harshly wiped away whatever was left of her tears.
"It"s so horrible! And how is that even a joke?!" she screeched.
Jim was flabbergasted. So, she wasn"t interested in his joke…
"You should apologize to the world for inflicting this joke upon it! And why are you joking anyway?! Is it funny that I"m crying?!" She was obviously infuriated.
Her words, though… Now that provoked Jim.
"Hey!" he immediately retorted, "Don"t deliberately misunderstand! I was doing it so that you"d stop crying. And really, it couldn"t have been that horrible. You"re not crying anymore!"
Miya"s mouth dropped to form a perfect "O". This man was again making her very angry! Somehow, she wanted to hit his face.
"You know," she said with all mustered up strength, "I could start again!"
"Oh no. You look like a freaking demon right now. You"re angry, so why"d you start crying?"
Miya really, really wanted to hit something. Anything.
"You know," she practically hissed now, "I know I"m ugly. Do you have to say it to my face?!"
Jim was on defence once more.
"You are deliberately misunderstanding again! Who called you ugly?!"
"You did!"
"Oh I didn"t!"
"You did!"
"I did not! And I think you"re f***ing adorable, so will you please just shut up? You"re giving me a headache!"
Miya opened her mouth in determined rebellion again when Jimmy"s words. .h.i.t them both. Their impact was enormous.
While Miya shut up midway between her retort and started hiccupping out of shock, Jim"s eyes had almost rolled out of his sockets.
He was a f***ing moron!
What had he just said?!
Meanwhile Miya"s eyes widened, while she still hiccupped rapidly. Sure, the young master had made dubious statements before, but this time he wasn"t being weird or flirting. He had been angry!
Then…!
The atmosphere between them grew awkward with each nanosecond, till they both didn"t even dare to look at the other. Miya"s heart beat like crazy, whereas Jim cursed himself a thousand times over.
Park was right! He was stupid!
And at the rate with which he was making mistakes, he was bound to remain single forever!
Well, technically…
Could he now laugh it off, and say that it was a joke?
Well… she hadn"t liked his previous one, so the success rate of the plan was doubtful.
Oh, d.a.m.n it! Now, he was in a fix!