At the Skydiving Center, Samantha just finished her jump and was about to leave when she met Kai at the lobby."Hey, Kira! You going home?"
Samantha turned to her side, "Yup. Why?"
"Let"s go grab some coffee."
Samantha chuckled, "No, thanks, Kai."
"Tch, when will you ever let your guard down for me?"
"I don"t have time to date around, Mister. Why don"t you invite Chelsea over there? You know she has been crus.h.i.+ng on you for a long time."
Kai looked at the blonde haired girl from afar, "Yeah… she"s just a friend."
Samantha didn"t reply and gave him a friendly punch on his arm.
"Kai!!", a man from the entrance called Samantha"s friend.
When Kai saw the man, he brightened up, "River!! Dude! I thought you were coming tomorrow!"
"Well, I got bored so I came early!", he said after exchanging a fist b.u.mp with Kai.
Kai introduced Samantha to his friend, "Kira, this is my friend River. He"s also into all sorts of jumping.", Kai said as he snickered.
Samantha and River shook hands and Samantha got curious, "All sorts of jumping?"
River nodded, "I"m a skydiver too, I also do bungees and cliff dives."
"Cliff diving… I"ve never tried that actually.", said Samantha, her curiosity was piqued.
Kai hooked his arm around his friend, "Well, if you want to try, River is the best man to teach you. He"s been cliff diving for as long as I can remember."
The three of them talked for a while until they"ve decided to go cliff diving in the afternoon. Samantha went home and packed some stuff and took a quick nap before she met Kai and River at their meeting place.
The cliff diving location that they"ve decided was the nearest one, it was only 30 minutes from the city. The cliff was at around 13 meters high. Kai and River arrived first and a few minutes later Samantha arrived with her black Bugatti Chiron with red accents.
"*whistle* I didn"t know your friend Kira is loaded.", River nudged his friend.
"Yeah, I don"t really know how rich she is. She"s quite mysterious. n.o.body knows her background."
"Is that why you like her coz she"s got deep pockets?"
"What? Of course not! She"s… a nice girl."
"Pfft. You? And a nice girl? Hahaha."
Kai playfully wrestled River under his arm, "What are you laugh---"
"Sorry, did you wait long?", Samantha said as she walked towards them.
"Nope, we just got here too. Let"s go."
They started to walk towards the edge while River explained the basics with Samantha. Since it isn"t Samantha"s first time to do extreme sports, it wasn"t hard for her to understand.
"Cliff diving and Sky diving are quite different. But you"ll find out once you try it. The rush isn"t the same but it"s quick and it has a different feeling since you"re not spending a long time falling. And unlike Sky diving, you do chutes and then land on the ground. With cliffs, it"s water... and when you hit the water, your velocity drops almost swiftly; so from your utmost speed to zero very quickly."
After explaining, River showed his moves first. He jumped from the edge of the cliff and a splash was heard from the water below. Kai turned to Samantha and gave her a smile, "Kira, are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Absolutely!"
"All right, I"ll see you down there."
Kai ran towards the edge and jumped. Samantha"s heart thumped as the feeling of excitement came over her. At that moment, she wasn"t in the plane, rather she was at a cliff about to jump in the water. She took a step forward and looked down to check once more as if making sure that the water was still there.
"Kira!! Jump!"
"Jump Jump Jump!"
Samantha breathed in and out, "No parachutes for you this time Samantha. It"s just 13 meters, you"ve jumped higher in the sky, what are you so worried about?". After a few more seconds of giving herself a pep talk, Samantha lifted her foot off the edge of the cliff and let herself drop vertically and went into the water.
She felt a surge of adrenaline as soon as she jumped and it was the closest feeling to what she experienced on her first skydive. Although it was very quick, she was very satisfied.
"That was perfect!", River complimented her as soon as she surfaced.
And that"s how Samantha began to cliff dive. They dove again a few more times before they called it a day. Cliff diving was another thrilling activity for Samantha, it"s very dangerous but it was something that she craved for.
Just when she arrived home and started cooking for her dinner, her phone rang.
"Speak."
"My girl Kira, come out and play with us tonight.", said the woman from the other line.
"I don"t think I can, Quinn. I"ve jumped like a thousand times today."
"Oh come on! Last week, you said you"re hanging out with us tonight. Also, there"s a newbie who wants to race with you."
"Why would he want to race with me?"
"I think he lost a bet or something."
"So... he"s racing against me to lose another bet?", Samantha chuckled.
"Ooooh!! I knew it, you"re coming huh? You can"t back out now. We"ll wait for you."
Samantha sighed, "Fine. You better make this worth it."
Samantha"s into extreme activities now, Skydiving in the morning, cliff diving in the afternoon and car racing at night? Samantha has changed over the months that she"s been away from everyone.
---------
Back at Country K, it was the next morning after Daniel Cho found out about the video of Samantha singing at one of the bars in Country D.
He replays the clip from his phone whenever he gets the chance. This was the closest thing he has heard from Samantha since she left. Even though it was only 15 seconds, it was better than not hearing her voice at all. "Have I gone insane?"
Daniel Cho called a.s.sistant Ahn to his office.
"Ahn, any updates from that vlogger?"
"Sorry, Boss... I think my cousin is quite busy, he"s currently somewhere in some remote place where internet isn"t stable. I tried calling him but he told me that he"ll get back to me later."
Daniel became silent for a minute and he remembered his friend Lucas from Country D.
"Have you prepared everything that I asked you?"
"Yes, Boss! Everything is ready."
Daniel dialed his brother Liam"s number and asked him out for lunch.
Once they were in the restaurant and have ordered their food, Liam stared at his brother while trying to decipher whatever is going on in Daniel"s mind.
"I sense that you need something from me."
"Why do you say that?", Daniel responded before he took a sip from his coffee.
"You"re treating me to lunch. It"s either you need a favor, or you"re just showing your brotherly affection towards me. The latter, I actually don"t mind since you rarely do that anyway. But a favor? Huh. That... that"s making me nervous."
"I"ll grant you a wish."
Liam scrunched his brows, "I"ll have to know what"s at stake first. What do you want?"
"I"ll be leaving the country for a while."
"Okayyyy... it"s not the first time that you"ve left the country so it must be the duration. How long will you be gone?"
"That depends... I"m quite unsure yet... I"ll stay there as long as it takes."
"Huh? As long as it takes... to what?"
"As long as it takes to bring Samantha back here."
Liam had a puzzled expression, "But... how are you going to do that? You haven"t even found--- Ah!! You found her! You found your pen?!"
Daniel"s lip twitched at Liam"s words. "I found my pen?"
"Wait... so what does it have to do with me?"
When Daniel smirked, Liam began to get nervous. He gulped when his brother started to explain everything.
-----
Samantha has just arrived at their agreed location. There were about 50 people gathering with several luxury and racing cars that lined up in the dead road. At the back of an SUV was a ma.s.sive speaker that blasted a song and made the place lively.
When Samantha came to Country D months ago, the first thing she did was buy a car. She drove it around the city while looking for a house to stay. Quinn"s group found her at a stopover and was eyeing her car and ever since, they started hanging out.
"Kira! Over here!", Quinn waved her hand and Samantha parked her car in the middle of the road.
After exchanging a few nods and h.e.l.los, the new guy and Samantha got into their own cars and started their engines. This guy had a Bugatti Veyron, so the street race will be a test of skill and speed. As soon as she saw the signal, she beamed and stepped on her gas and her car sped off at an incredible speed. Her heart raced and a gush of adrenaline took over her senses. The familiar feeling made her feel alive.
Samantha has been living her life in another country away from the man and everyone she loves; with a new ident.i.ty and extreme activities, she became an adrenaline junkie.
"Look, Mia! Even with my car, I"m flying."