Harem app

”Thank you,” Eva said, her voice sweet and sincere. Her smile, despite the conflicting emotions it carried, was so pure that it filled my heart with an unexpected happiness.

”How are you feeling? Do you want to talk about what happened today? Can I help in any way?” I asked, letting a bit of my anxiety slip through my words. To avoid overwhelming Eva with more questions, I fell silent and tried to give her the most comforting smile I could.

”You don’t need to pre...”

As usual, Eva tried to mask her true feelings with a playful tone, as if everything was under control. However, her voice faded in the middle of the sentence. She still tried to regain her mask of confidence, but with each passing moment, that facade seemed to crumble. Her eyes filled with tears as a shadow began to overtake her mind.

The corners of her lips, which had been attempting to hold a smile, started to give way to the weight of a deeper emotion. Eva tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. She remained silent, unable to express what she was truly feeling.

Her breathing grew heavier as she sank deeper into the shadow of her emotions. Trying to contain the internal avalanche, Eva placed a hand on her chest and forced a smile, biting her lip to use the physical pain to push away unwanted feelings.

It was painful to witness her internal struggle, as if every fiber of her being was engaged in fighting the whirlwind of emotions overtaking her. Unsure of what to say, I wanted to show her that I was by her side, so I moved closer.

Our gazes met. ”You don’t have to hold back; I’m here for you. Just know that,” I said, trying to convey that everything would be okay with a reassuring smile.

A solitary tear traced a path down her cheek, and in that moment, her emotions finally burst forth, releasing a torrent of feelings she had tried to suppress. Her tears flowed like a river down her face.

Yet, her expression was one of sadness. Mixed with fear, frustration, and anger, she shouted incomprehensible words. Struggling to cope with her emotions, she gave me a light punch in the chest, shouting even louder. Then, her anger shifted to a nearly childlike fragility.

In tears, she nestled her face against my chest and cried uncontrollably. Faced with this, I could only run my hand through her hair, trying to soothe her a bit.

Silence enveloped the room for a long time. Eva pulled away slightly, regaining her composure as she dried her tears with her shirt.

”I just wanted them to support me, to tell me I’m on the right path. I knew it would be like this, but it’s frustrating and... How can I not be angry?”

Gradually, she managed to release all the feelings that had been trapped inside her chest. At that moment, my only role was to listen attentively to what she had to say.

Eva yelled until she had no more energy, demonstrating how loud and even irritating her voice could be. It wasn’t a problem, though; it was good to see her returning to some semblance of normalcy. At least she seemed a bit more cheerful as she complained and voiced her frustrations.

However, amidst her almost childish complaints, she looked at me seriously. Eva took a deep breath before saying in a muffled scream:

”I’m so afraid of being a disappointment, of failing, and...” She took another breath, her arms still trembling. ”Honestly, I’m exhausted from all of this, and my feelings are still so confused. I’m sorry for dumping all this on you.”

In response, I extended my hand to help her up and said, ”You can always count on me, and I’m sure things will work out in the future. I don’t know if you’ll become a famous singer or rich, but I know you’re not a failure; in fact, you’re incredible for facing everything and everyone to get here.”

”You know that’s not true,” she accepted my help and stood up, ”I’m just a rebel without a cause, a child pretending to be strong, but deep down, I’m a scaredy-cat who can’t even face her own father.”

”If a child doesn’t feel comfortable talking about their dreams with their parents, then the problem isn’t with them.” I was confident I’d never feel insecure talking about my goals with my mother, no matter how crazy they were. ”I don’t know what happened in your past, nor will I pretend to understand, but I do know this: you’re strong, talented, sweet, and very brave.”

Seeing the look of discouragement on her face, I gently lifted her chin with my fingers and made her look at me.

”Don’t look down, okay? I know you’ve done so much to get here, so be proud of your journey.” I lightly ran my hand through her silky hair. ”Besides, if you’re scared and don’t know where to look, you can always look at me.”

With our bodies so close, I could feel her delicate breath and her lovely scent. Her lips were so near that I could almost feel their warmth. Additionally, she looked at me with such intensity that it was impossible not to fall for her. Noticing the situation, Eva turned red and then pulled away in an exaggerated manner, which I found quite endearing.

”Don’t worry about the work today; I can handle the rest for you.”

”Thank you for that, but after our afternoon shift, I still have a night shift today, so I’d like to reschedule the meeting for tomorrow.”

I was surprised to learn she worked two shifts, but she mentioned doing this several days a week. Specifically, she covered Zack’s shift, a rich kid who was the son of the owner of the kitnet she rented.

The story was this: the rich kid’s father had put him to work in a friend’s store as punishment, saying that the salary would be his entire allowance. Not wanting to work, Zack, who managed some of his father’s properties, made a deal with Eva. She essentially lived for free and covered part of his shifts.

Since Zack was likely drunk at that point, she had no choice but to work his shift.

”Besides, right now I want to distract myself, so working will be a good thing.”

”I understand,” I patted her head again. ”Let ’s go.”

”Hehe! Seriously, thanks for everything. Is there anything I can do to repay you? You always help me so much?” She asked with her usual sweet smile.

”Can I ask for anything?” I asked with a mischievous grin.

Her face turned completely red with embarrassment. ”Why do men only think about those things, pervert!” she said, giving me a few playful punches.

She then looked at the ground, almost burning with embarrassment, but eventually opened her mouth to say, ”W-well, if it’s for you...”

Unfortunately, she spoke too softly, and I had already started to say, ”I was just kidding; just hearing you sing makes me immensely happy.”

”Y-yes, of course.”

After the words left my mouth, I deeply regretted what I had done. Eva, meanwhile, looked both irritated and embarrassed, but it was still great to see her more animated.

Honestly, I had planned to give her the gift only at the meeting, but given everything that had happened, I decided to give her the pendant earlier, reminding her that she could call me if she needed anything.

And so ended the day, with me having completed a mission. My next goal was to kiss Eva, which I probably would have accomplished if I had been a bit more assertive. Still, it wasn’t a big problem; after all, I’d have plenty of chances to do it in the future.

When I got home, I opened my phone and saw new messages about the work. The guy I was talking to needed me to edit some videos, create intros, and render the material. All of this was relatively easy since I was used to it.

Additionally, he offered another job: handling some tasks on a website. I didn’t know exactly how to do this, but the need for money led me to accept. I decided to learn the basics of HTML, site management, and maintenance. Since I had done something similar in the past, I’d probably just need to refresh my memory.

Moreover, after more discussions, I landed an extra job: being the technician for a live stream. They planned to do a charitable broadcast and needed someone to ensure everything went smoothly live. I had no experience in this kind of work, but the pay offer was good, so I couldn’t refuse.

So, it was agreed that I would edit the videos as quickly as possible, and based on that, they would decide if they liked the work and set the deadlines. The website tasks were simple, and I would start working on them the following week.

The event was scheduled for three weeks later, but in just ten days, if everything went well, I’d have my first meeting with the presenter and others. Honestly, I was a bit tired at the time to pay too much attention to the details.

So far, everything was wonderful. However, when I opened the first video to edit, I was surprised to see a beautiful blonde on my screen.

Yes, it was Amber, and I had just been hired to edit some promotional videos for her cult.

My mind was a mix of disbelief at what was happening before me and the frightening thought that Lucia had orchestrated all of this on purpose. Additionally, I didn’t even want to think about how laborious it would be to deal with meeting Amber in person.

”I’ve arrived and...” Before Mirajane’s sweet voice could explain anything, I felt a touch on my shoulder.

”Join us, let’s have a drink.”

My heart nearly stopped when my eyes locked with the inscrutable depth of Lucia’s gaze. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but whenever I was near her, a creeping anxiety settled in, as if something was amiss. Yet, my mind couldn’t grasp even a hint of what might be causing it.