In the background, Katherine started to speak.

  "This is Katherine Austen. No, she's not from a Jane Austen novel. She wouldn't survive in it, to be honest. Yes, she is a couch potato, likes to game and works as a freelance graphic designer." There was a whirring sound in the background. "Uh…… she draws e.r.o.t.i.c book covers, too…… and fan art." Then there was silence. The sound of crickets came on.

  "I will stop referring to myself in the third person, now." Her face came on the screen. She was smiling. Lily and Angelina had helped her put on some natural makeup and she looked good if she said so herself.

  "Welcome to my channel. There are two ways we can go about it, sneakily worming my way into your heart until you can't stop thinking about me…… or I can head in guns blazing. Choose." The camera panned down, showing her watch and then her face.

  "Oops, times up. I guess you're stuck with me now." Followed by a blinding smile. Her hands darted out of her side and she grabbed the camera, pulling it closer to her face. "I'm fun, I promise. Let's play!"

  Yes, that was what she posted as an introduction to her channel. Within the first hour of posting, there wasn't much activity, but ever since the Children of God's notification went out, people came flooding to her profile, looking for content.

  There was only one video that day. And then, slowly she posted one video after another. For some reason, her wide-eyed crazy introductory video had garnered a lot of attention. She even got calls from friends from high school and…… friends from the bar.

  A particularly unimportant character in her life called her one evening and she picked up, surprised. Let's call her Karen.

  "Katherine?" Karen started, startling her.

  "Hey, what's up? We haven't spoken in a while," Katherine said, trying to sound as polite as possible.

  "I just wanted to catch up with you. I saw your video on my recommendations. Didn't know you were so keen on gaming. How have you been?" Karen was extremely enthusiastic about how she spoke and unlike her usual self. At other times, she was throwing tantrums and fussing about the littlest things, so if she was being so nice, she must have been up to something.

  "Yeah. It was unexpected. Thank you for checking in," she replied courteously. "How was your vacation?" Katherine asked even though she didn't want to entertain any questions.

  "Ah, it was amazing. I went to the beach and got a lovely tan. I totally hooked up with a hot foreigner!" Karen exclaimed. "I was wondering if we could meet," she said out of the blue. Katherine was shocked. Not that she was eager to meet or anything, but the number of times people wanted to catch up because she was somehow…… famous?

  She didn't think that was true, though.

  "You fell in love during vacation. How nice," she commented, ignoring the second part. This woman was always in love with someone or the other. Previously, she had treated Katherine like shit and her friends had told her that Karen had a huge crush on Nathanial. The same Nathanial who apparently liked Katherine. Not ideal.

  "Yeah. We exchanged numbers but he is on a road trip so we haven't spoken yet." Karen sighed dramatically.

  If that wasn't love, Katherine didn't know what was. And yes, she was being sarcastic.

  Karen spoke about how one of her followers had gotten engaged and how happy she was about it. Her tone said differently. Katherine was at her wit's end, beyond frustrated and ready to end the conversation so that she could call Cage before he fell asleep.

  "Ah! I forgot to ask. How was your vacation?" That took Katherine off guard.

  "It was fine," she said promptly as her mind flooded with memories of Cage.

  "So, you didn't go with a guy?" Karen asked, stopping Katherine on her tracks.

  "What guy?" Katherine questioned cautiously.

  "I went to the bar last night. Nathanial obviously told me everything. Everyone knows that you've got a man nobody knows about," Karen scoffed. Katherine felt her eye twitch. This nincompoop had gone around telling people she was dating. Didn't that go against some rule? Was she allowed to talk about the private life of a customer to others?

  "It's new and I don't want to talk about it." Growing more uncomfortable, Katherine was formulating ways to end the conversation.

  "You don't want to talk about it? He must be ugly or something. Who is he? Does he come to the bar too? You don't go anywhere else, so."

  What the hell. "As I said, I don't want to talk about this. Can we move on from this conversation?" Katherine pleaded.

  "I met your ex, Jonathan. He had a baby. You must be upset."

  No, she wasn't.

  "I'm sorry. Our relationship ended long ago and I moved on. I don't care about that man's life anymore. I would appreciate it if you didn't bring him up in front of me anymore," she spoke firmly. Just as she was going to say her goodbyes and hang up, Karen had the audacity to put in her two dimes.

  "Anyway, if you've moved on, you wouldn't mind hearing about him. By the way, do you think you can promote my channel on yours? You've crossed a hundred thousand followers today." So, that was what this was about. Katherine scrunched her brows and wondered how she should reply.

  "I don't think I am allowed. I am only doing this for the game. I won't continue posting after it is done." At least, that was what Katherine thought. She didn't say much more and hung up the call.

  When she got off the phone, she quickly called Cage to talk to him before he crashed.

  "Hey," he answered, sounding tired to his bones.

  "Are you okay?" she asked, so concerned that she wanted to run to him.

  "Yeah. I just had a tough day. My flight is at 1 PM in the afternoon, so I need to rest for now. I'll pack in the morning and then speed to the airport." Katherine could imagine how he must have looked, light stubble on his chin, and his hands clutching his hair as he tried to figure out what to do next.