"Instead of staring holes in me, I'd much rather to exchange this discomforting silence with the noise of your questions." Bryan wiped his mouth after saying that then sucked on the straw to drink his juice and kept alternating between doing that or eating some of his dessert.

  Linnet continued to stare at him in silence for a while before sighing then she opened her mouth to say : "Why did you lie?"

  "I never lied to you."

  "Then how do you expin having all that money in your account while having almost nothing te night of yesterday, expin that to me." Linnet said while crossing her arms and leaning her back, deep within her eyes there was this stubborn glint since she's almost disappointed in this guy who thinks that he can win her over by just throwing cash at her.

  Of course she wouldn't mind giving him a chance if he took the right approach instead of taking this roundabout and utterly confusing route!

  Bryan struggled to stop a smile from appearing on the corner of his mouth while watching the way Linnet's body was all tense, "That's easy."

  "Fine! Let's hear it then." Somehow seeing him being so calm during that sensitive moment made her so angry that she was gritting her teeth after saying that, because Linnet thought that Bryan's careless attitude is because her weight within his heart is much lighter than she thought it would.

  Bryan unlocked the screen of his phone then retrieved the history of all his transactions, "Remember when I told you yesterday that I have little money for my comfort?" Seeing Linnet nod he flipped the screen to show her while gesturing with a finger, "This was the original amount of money on my account before my exam and the reason I had less than what you saw was because I had already spent some of it on breakfast."

  Linnet rolled her eyes at him because Bryan is making this look like she's questioning where he spends his money but he completely ignored her reactions and continued to say : "As you can see I used all of it to bet on that team winning and here's what I earned in return..."

  Of course Bryan enjoyed watching Linnet's facial expression switch from anger to doubt to seriousness to shock before finally settling on disbelief!

  "D-don't tell me you're pnning to keep using it all to gamble like you did earlier?" Linnet jumped to sit next to him and urged Bryan to keep his phone in his pocket while gesturing for him to lower his voice a bit while whispering these words.

  Bryan smiled widely while feeling warmth fill his chest, for some reason he was struggling against these unexpined feelings of attraction towards Linnet especially when one of her hands held on his right forearm tightly.

  From that touch he can clearly feel genuine worry and anxiety then before he could process these emotions his left hand was already on top of hers and patting it comfortingly, "No more gambling." Bryan said.

  *Phew*

  Linnet released a deep sigh before noticing Riley's twinkling gaze falling on their touching hands as she removed the ptes from the table.

  As if electrocuted she separated from him while blushing deeply, "G-good-"

  "That method would no longer give me any satisfying profits in the future with all the regutions and restrictions these betting companies keep setting in my way to accumuting wealth."

  Bryan's words made Linnet choke on hers and she couldn't help but gre at him while saying : "What are you pnning to do? You better not ruin this once in a lifetime opportunity!"

  Of course Linnet noticed how Riley was dragging her feet while doing such a simple task because this friend of hers was eager to hear all about this exciting drama.

  "Don't worry. I know where exactly to invest my money and most importantly when to abandon a sinking ship." Bryan used his phone to scan the bill of his monster meal and confirmed the transaction while rubbing his belly which felt half empty still but he felt like upholding his reputation in front of his neighbor is more important than engorging himself for hours until he's filled to the max.

  'Maybe I should order something to eat before I hit the bed, the mattress was delivered a couple hours ago and now all I need is to buy something to clean the air of my room. But what's most certain is that I'm moving out from that shithole staring next month.'

  For some reason Linnet felt the need to warn him about getting swept in the momentum but just seeing him being so confident was quite addictive.

  Bryan waved goodbye to Linnet and Riley and grabbed his stuff before walking towards the door where he put on his coat then opened his umbrel and was about to head out when a group of four males were coming in.

  The few customers and the two female waiters saw him take a step back to open the path for the new customers to enter and everything seemed to proceed naturally until the third person entering noticed the fancy clothing and the many bags of famous brands Bryan's carrying.

  'Hmmm' The first thing he noticed was this guy's evil smirk before he acted like he's losing his bance which would cause both of them to collide with Bryan being tackled to the floor by this complete stranger.

  "Huh!" But this man never expected his sudden movement to miss the target completely and he found himself rolling on the ground before hitting his own friend which staggered forward and pushed the first person to enter the restaurant who found himself being caught by surprise and one of his hands trying to find something to hold on to actually found Riley's tray full of empty ptes, gsses, and silverware.

  *Crash* *Ctter*

  The fourth person stood there at the restaurant door with confusion written all over his face as he watched his three friends groaning from pain or cursing on the floor.

  Bryan on the other hand was standing next to him and calmly watching them try to get up without cutting themselves by the gss shards or looking for paper roll to wipe the juice and food residue from their skin and clothes!

  "You son of a bitch! Why did you do that?" The man who tried to bump Bryan suddenly screamed while pointing a finger towards him as he got up from the floor huffing and puffing from an overloading mixture of anger and embarrassment.

  "I would've tried to stop you from falling if I could but as everyone can see both of my hands are full," Bryan smiled faintly while staring at the fellow who stood up and was trying desperately to intimidate him to no avail, "The umbrel in this hand have many pointy parts and the notion of having some of them puncture your skin was a dreadful fate to have."

  The third man gawked once he noticed how lethal it'd have been if he had fell on something like that with the full weight of his body but what frustrated him the most is how this annoying fellow didn't follow the script which he was expecting like him foolishly asking "What did I do?" or him being enraged after being cursed at by a complete stranger which would've given him a reason to rally his friends and give him a beating.

  During that punishment he'd find an opportunity to snatch a few items from these bags and cim them for himself as trophies or outright announce them as some sort of compensation!

  "Let's call it quits Kel-"

  "Screw that! He hooked my foot on purpose." Right when the second guy finally managed to wipe his face clean and was about to put an end to this situation, the third man who clearly insists on making a scene shrugged the hand from his shoulder while giving the fourth customer standing right next to Bryan hidden signals with his eyes.

  "How dare you bully brother Kel-"

  The fourth man suddenly shouted these words after receiving the signal and reached with his hand to grab Bryan's head by the hair but caught air instead.

  His words were cut off once Bryan's hand instantly let go of the bags as he leaned back to avoid the attempt of a sneak attack then tching to the wrist of the fourth man lightning quick and tightening his fingers around it like a steel vice!

  *Crack*

  *Ugh*

  "Uaahh! My hand..." The fourth man retracted his arm once Bryan let go of it and huddled to the ground while wailing like a child.

  "You!" The first and second customer were angry at their friend who escated this situation without at least giving them the opportunity to be prepared but now their eyes were directed towards this stranger who harmed one of their own right in front of them which is beyond disrespectful.

  "Get him." The third customer went for a tackle but instead of having his arms circling two feet... the fourth customer found himself getting smmed by a shoulder to the teeth and both men tumbled and rolled through the open door of the restaurant towards the street where the cold rain pulled them from their daze and cleared their minds to the reality of their situation.

  The few customers and the two female waiters plus the group from the kitchen staff which were attracted by the commotion were all looking towards Bryan who was sitting on a nearby chair and supporting his head on a fist with an elbow on the table.

  'So I can use that Flickering-Shadow Step thing huh! But judging by how there was still a faint trace of some Clouds left tracing my feet, I guess my Movement Technique isn't perfect. However, my grip strength is off the charts.'

  Bryan looked towards the two hesitating men after witnessing the fate of their two friends and said : "I've already called the police and everyone here is a witness, if you insist on trying to force a fight on me then I won't hold back and I'll start to actively defend myself properly. What do you say? Shall we take this outside or do you want to have a warm meal while we all wait for the w enforcement to come take our statements?"

  Right when the two men were about to make the right choice a vindictive shout from outside answered for them : "Why are you acting so timidly around this wuss? He's a rich weakling who only knows how to run and there's four of us here!"

  Bryan shook his head and got up to walk outside while thinking : 'Technically there's only you who's practically unharmed in your group, the first guy's hand slipped on a wet spot and he hurt his shoulder badly not to mention that he's probably still concussed since his head also got banged roughly against the floor.

  'The second guy is still limping after your body forced him to twist and overextend the tendons of his knee and ankle during your fall which tested the level of flexibility he's currently at.

  'The fourth guy is one armed in this fight and his lower jaw is already badly dislocated yet all I did was break his wrist while you yourself took care of the rest.

  'The worst enemy to your group is you not me!'

  The third man intentionally waited until his friends the first and second got out of the restaurant before pointing a finger at Bryan while saying : "I hate rich people like you who think they can have everything their way."

  "Oh! Seems like you've got me all figured out then." Bryan said while keeping track of the positioning of the four men with his eyes.

  The third man was smiling inwardly because he's successfully managed to distract this fellow with his words which would give his companions a better opportunity to deliver punishment ter, indeed the first man's eyes brightened once he noticed a piece of wood about a meter or so long and as thick as his arm next to the trash container near the side-alley behind the diner.

  The second wasn't able to find anything to use in the fight but he sneakily started to remove the belt from his waist.

  The fourth was standing behind the third with an injured arm tucked closely to his chest while the other supporting his jaw but if you listen closely he was cursing the one standing in front of him for being an asshole who caused all of this to happen.

  Now instead of sitting together to eat and have fun, they're having a brawl like thugs with a complete stranger who turns out to be unbelievably formidable to have as a foe!

  Meanwhile inside the diner everyone watched from behind the gss with varying emotions and expression.

  "I hope your boyfriend teaches these bullies a lesson, I hate it when they come here and take advantage of us." Riley muttered while cheering Bryan inwardly.

  Linnet on the other hand was very worried about her neighbor that she didn't even notice it when her friend said that Bryan is not her friend or neighbor but her boyfriend.