Chapter 3: Yorknew City

...CHAPTER 3: YORKNEW CITY...

Yorknew city. 3 p.m.

Since the auction date is drawing near, there is a festive mood going on in every corner of the city.

Clandestia was strolling leisurely down the streets leading to a lively day market in the city center. Her milky brown locks cascaded down her waist, shining and swaying softly with every step she took.

It’s a relief that Neon had no interest in commoners’ market stuffs so she’s got this time all for herself. It’s not that she’s stopped loving Neon’s company or anything, she just wanted some peace once in a while.

She squinted her eyes and looked up. The sky was a clear shade of blue. The water fountain at the roundabout where she arrived was sparkling like silver. Everything in the city seems luminous under the sunlight.

She loves hectic daytime like this when things are all bright and buzzing. It’s an effective distraction for her, away from the prophetic dreams problem that she had these days. She sighed. It’s been 4 years since her last prophetic dream. She’s even scared of falling asleep nowadays.

Ah, this is useless! When did she become this feeble?

She puffed her cheeks and gave them a sound slap with both hands as if to wake herself up from her endless thought. It hurt more than she thought though.

“Lady Clandestia?!! You’re okay?” Some of the Nostrades’ bodyguards escorting her panicked.

“I’m ok. Just a bit tired, don’t worry!” Her mouth twitched. Great, she must look like a lunatic now.

Talking about bodyguards, she’s got another issue at hand. Apparently, people at the Nostrade mansion thought she was doting on that blond guy who is currently busy guarding her cousin sister at the moment.

In fact, Clandestia thinks this may come in handy though. It’d be a good excuse.

She’ll go ahead and make it look like the rumor was true then. It’s much better than letting him suspect that she was trying to read his mind which he might already speculated. The guy seemed pretty sharp and may get unnecessarily cautious around her. This is when rumors can be convenient indeed. She smiled grimly.

Well, it’s not too hard faking an interest in a guy for a limited time. She saw how the female students at her university did it all the time.

While she was busy with her thoughts again, a certain gadgets store came into her sight. Her eyes brightened. Just what she needed.

“Welcome, this is hot right now!” The store clerk cheerily showcased a hand phone in front of the store.

He was talking to two boys around twelve or thirteen year’s old standing in front of her.

One of the boy had spiky black hair. He looked seriously interested in the hand phone. The other boy has messy white hair and a pair of cat-like sharp eyes which gives off a mischievous vibe. The duo looks really pretty that they immediately attracted attention from everyone passing by.

“Boys, it’s a card-size and very thin.” The store clerk took out his own credit card to emphasize the phone’s handy appearance. “It even has a tracking device, so it’s good for meeting people.”

She heard the spikey black hair boy gave a “wow”. His big brown eyes were wide like saucers.

Ha, so cute. Looks like he’s really buying it.

She tilted her head and look at the shop clerk.

Dang, this guy doesn’t look trustworthy at all. It’s too convenient for adults to prey on young children and make sales.

She sighed and jostled forward to stand in front of them. “Excuse me… Can I see the phone, too, Mister?”

“Oh, sure, miss. This will come in handy for young girls like you, too.” The shop clerk immediately switched to her.

She smiled and took the card-sized hand phone. She knew this one. One of her student from the university bought it for his grandma or something. He said it’s convenient for old people since it only has basic feature of making and receiving call. In other words, it’s pretty much an almost useless phone with no feature at all.

“How much is it?” She asked.

“100 K. Special price for you, young miss.” He said enthusiastically.

Ridiculous! She remembered her student told her it’s only 30 K or something.

She smiled wryly and casted the two boys a meaningful glance. The black haired boy gave her an innocent look. Great, he didn’t get it.

But the cat-eyed boy was staring back at her. He silently put his arms around the back of his head and watched her. Oh, looks like he understood.

“Thanks, Sir.” She smiled calmly. “But I’d prefer a phone with a lot more additional features. This is downright expensive for a basic phone.”

“SHE’S RIGHT!!” A male voice was heard from behind. She promptly turned her head. “DON’T BUY THAT ONE!”

A very tall guy in a black suit showed himself in front of them. He wore glasses like some typical office clerk but his eyes were intense.

“You’ve got it right, little lady.” He winked at her and turned to the boys. “Yo, Gon, Killua!”

“Leorio!!!” The two boys shouted excitedly. So they’re friends.

“Guys, calm down. I thought this little lady was your new friend?” He winked at her again.

“No, I just happened to be interested in the same store as them.” She smiled kindly. Now that their guardian has come, she’d better let them be and get on with her business.

“I’m Leorio.” The guy flashed her a wide smile. He’s definitely flirtatious but strangely, her hunch doesn’t give any warning. He gave off a rather pleasant and honest vibe.

Leorio came up a little closer to her and slightly lowered his voice: “Thanks for taking the trouble and help my two friends earlier!”

That promptly made her beam internally. In fact, her intuition has never been wrong. Meanwhile, the body guards standing a meter away from the store started getting cautious seeing Leorio’s action but she secretly gave a hand sign for them to stay put.

“You can call me Clandestia.” Clandestia smile brightly, thinking it’d be nice to make an acquaintance at this new city anyway.

Her brilliant smile seemed to send Leorio into a temporary trance. He failed to react while the white hair boy came up to them and gave him a firm nudge by the elbow: “Oi, snap out of it, Leorio. You looked stupid.”

“Hmm.” Pfft… Clandestia tried hard not to laugh at Leorio. She doesn’t want to look rude. So in an attempt to distract herself, she turned to the boy and asked “And you are?”

“The name is Killua.” He replied, giving her a scrutinizing look again.

“And I’m Gon.” The black haired boy came up and beamed at her. “Nice to meet you!” He added cheerily.

She grinned back. This boy is really loveable.

“Nice to meet you all, too.” She kind of like them.

“Here is my business card.” She offered them, her purple eyes shining. “I’m a professor and also a psychology doctor.”

“Oh, Leorio’s a doctor, too” Gon smiled. “Doctor Ellis? Is that how you’re called?”

“Just Clandestia is fine.” She beamed at Gon.

“A professor looking so young?” Killua asked mischievously. “Or… are you secretly an old lady?”

“Hey, I’ve only turned 17 last month!!” She scowled.

That earned Killua a hard slap on the head from Leorio: “How rude, that’s no way speaking to a girl!”

“Ouch! You damn old man!!” –Killua fumed, shooting Leorio a dirty look.

“Pfft, hahaha…” Clandestia broke out laughing. Her intuition was right. They’re fun people. “You guys are really close.” She added amusingly which made Gon and Leorio chuckle in turn.

“Oh, and forgive my rudeness. This is my name card.” Leorio pulled out his business card and offered to her. “I’m an internal medicine doctor.”

“Pleased to be acquainted, Doctor Leorio.” She giggled playfully. That efficiently gave Leorio a nice blush.

“Ahem... By the way, have you found a phone that suit your preference yet?” Killua gave an awkward cough and changed the topic. He can’t stand the sight of his stupid friend anymore.

“Ah yes, I’d prefer a phone which can use a lot of languages.” She replied. “I knew the one you were checking out earlier was crap but I’m not sure what to buy neither. I’m just a tourist here anyway.”

Their friendly banters made her almost forget what she’s originally came here for.

“In that case, I recommend Beatle verion 07.” On cue, Leorio pulled out a hand phone, which is true to its name, looks like a cute beetle figurine.

“A little heavy and pricy but it has worldwide usage, 200 languages translation function and you can watch TV and record, too.” Leorio explained enthusiastically. Well, looks like he’ll work well as a salesman, too. And she knew that phone. She saw that Kurapika guy using it, too.

“WOWW, let’s get that, Gon!!” Killua yelled excitedly. “I want it!!”

Clandestia smiled. No matter how cunning he looks, he’s still a young boy, huh?

“Hmm, agreed! I want it, too” She added and turned to her new doctor acquaintance. “Leorio, since you’re good at this. Can you help us choose that beetle phone?”

“Rogers.” Leorio playfully made a salute. “Anything else that you want?”

“I want some extension for that phone, too. Like a smart watch that can connect to the phone, I guess?”

“Beetle smart watch, huh? Ok. Guys, wait for me here. I’ll get you the best price!” He winked and made his way into the store.

And indeed he really kept his words.

A moment later…

“80 K for each?!” Clandestia said in amazement. “You really got us the best price, Leorio!”

“Told you so.” Leorio patted his chest which was now swelling with pride. His nose was pointing high to the sky.

“There was even an audience forming around us just now.” Gon said in utter disbelief.

“You really went overboard.” Killua cocked his head, hands in pockets. “I’ve never seen anyone be applauded for buying a cell-phone.”

“Neither have I.” Clandestia agreed. “And the watch was only for 35K. OMG…”

“Yeah, you’re the best Leorio!” Gon exclaimed cheerily. “Thanks to you, we’ve all saved a lot of money!”

With that, everyone laughed to their heart’s contents like they’re already best pals.

At that moment, Clandestia noticed some of the bodyguards getting restless from the corner of her eyes. Ah, that’s right. It’s almost noon. She has to return to Neon.

She sighed, feeling a bit thwarted.

“Are you alright, Clandestia?” Surprisingly, Gon was the first to notice.

“Well, I guess it’s time for me to go.” She said. “I’ve got some business to attend to.”

“So soon?” Leorio asked with disappointment. It’s been long since he came across a beauty like her.

“Yeah, thanks for your help. I had a lot of fun with you guys earlier.” She beamed. “I guess it’s a goodbye then. If we’ve got a chance, I hope we’ll all meet again.”

“Sure, Clandestia.” Leorio said “We’ve got your card, so we still can contact later.”

“See you next time, Clandestia!” Gon added

“Ta-ta!” Killua only gave her a short salute but she can see his eyes were not so cold like earlier.

With that she waved her hand, gave them a bright smile and left.

She pivoted on her heels and head back to the hotel, feeling unusually upbeat.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Back on the crowded streets of Yorknew city…

“Hey, are you coming with us or not?” Killua clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Leorio had this gloomy expression ever since the purple eyed girl left.

“Hurry, Leorio. We’re starving!” Gon shouted.

“Right, right. What do you boys even know other than eating and playing?” Leorio sulked.

Killua gave Leorio a side glance and sighed. “Oh? But I know that she’s not simply a professor or doctor. Didn’t you notice her bodyguards? They didn’t look like normal bodyguards.”

“Ofcourse I know. She must be from one of the mafia families” Leorio sighed. “It also means that she’s here for the auction just like us.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Gon tilted his head. “I felt that she’s a nice person.” He added firmly.

This made both Killua and Leorio smile. They couldn’t bring themselves to disagree.

“In fact, I think I’ve really found my soul-mate.” Leorio comically clutched his chest and spoke solemnly.

“Aha, you fell in love with everything that wears a skirt.” Killua rolled his eyes.

The three friends continued their long-waited banters and disappeared into the crowded street of the city.

Little did they know that the encounter that day was the start of their tangled fates.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***