41 Haven Town 4 (1/2)
Entering the house, Nathan immediately removed his shoes and socks.
Nathan comes from an average-income household. His mother was a housewife and his father was a policeman.
In the country of Muwin, religion plays a major role in society, making it a conservative country.
There are two religions that dominate this country, Trinity and Iklas.
In the northern part of the country, Trinity is the most popular religion. Meanwhile, at the South is Iklas.
Between the two religions, Trinity is the lenient one when it comes to traditional gender roles.
The place where Nathan's place is at is a small city called Latif city which is located in the center of Muwin.
His parents' religion is Iklas. Although neither of them takes religion seriously, just the right amount, when it comes to attitude and practices, they more or less lean more on the Iklasian side and the culture of South Muwinians.
”Nathan, is that you?” a female voice called out from the living room.
It was his mother.
”Yeah.”
”The food is already cooked. Just serve yourself.”
Nathan's mother was busy watching TV.
He went to the kitchen to have lunch.
Nathan doesn't mind serving himself and eating alone. He prefers it and is used to doing things his own way anyway.
However, when his father is at home, his mother presents herself as a perfect housewife and they eat together as a family.
As for his father, he rarely comes home. On the rare occasions that he does come home, aside from eating together, the only time he interacts with Nathan is when he's disciplining him which can be very physical at times.
The reason why his family is like this, Nathan isn't exactly sure why, but he could speculate the cause. One time, one of his relatives ”accidentally” told him that his father and mother were forced into an arranged marriage by their parents which is a common practice in the religion of Iklas.
After washing the dishes, he immediately brushed his teeth and head to his room to change into civilian clothing.
He then went to the living room.
”Mother, I'm going now.”
His mother, who was watching TV, looked at Nathan.
”Where's your uniform?”
”We're just going to practice for graduation this afternoon and my teacher said we could wear civilian clothes if we want,” Nathan said with a straight face and no hint of nervousness could be seen on him.
His mother pulled out some cash in her pocket.
”Be sure to come home before 6:00 pm. Your uncle and aunt along with your cousins just arrived yesterday from Womania and are staying at a hotel. They want to have dinner with us tonight.”
'From Womania? If it's my uncle and aunt from Womania, that would be Amir and Asha's parents.'
”Yes, mother.”
Nathan took the money from his mother's hands and immediately headed to the front door to wear shoes and head out.
***
Nathan closed the gate when suddenly someone tackled him from the side.
”Gotcha!”
Nathan was closed to 6ft and was muscular, while the person who just tackled him was smaller and thinner. Because of that, the person wasn't able to push him down.
It was Karen.
She had her long black hair tied into a ponytail and was dressed in civilian clothes: white shirt, blue jeans, and rubber shoes.
Nathan, on the other hand, who had short hair, was wearing a slim-fit black shirt, gray jeans, and black shoes.
Seeing her trying to push him to the ground, Nathan was about to grab her shoulders but stopped when his hands were only just a few centimeters away.
He dropped his hands.
”What are you doing?”
Karen let go and backed away.
”There question here is: Where are YOU going?”
Nathan raised an eyebrow.
”What are you talking about? I'm going to school.”
With a smug look on her face, Karen said, ”If there's anything I know about you, you hate being rushed and told what to do. And plus, you like to do things at your own pace.”
”What does that have to do with me going to school?”
”We still have 35 minutes left before we have to go to school and you're not the type who likes to go to school early, especially if it's just for something like graduation practice. So will you tell me where you're going?”
Nathan shrugged his shoulders.
”People can change, you know.”
He turned and started walking away.
”Let's wait for Vincent and Nikki then. We still have 35 minutes anyway.”
”I'll pass on that.”
”Oh well, you leave me no choice,” said Karen and she took a deep breath. ”MRS. MAKHAD, NATHAN IS GOING TO CUT CLASSES. HE'S --”
Nathan immediately turned back, rushed to Karen and covered her mouth.
He leaned over and harshly whispered, ”What are you doing?!”
Karen removed Nathan's hand that was covering her mouth and leaned closer to him as well.
”You're going downtown to watch that new sci-fi movie, aren't you?”
Smelling the minty scent coming from her breath, it was only then Nathan realized that their faces were so close that their lips were only an inch away from locking together, causing him to blush.
He immediately distanced himself and looked away.
”No, I'm not.”
”MRS. MAK--”
Nathan closed her mouth once again.
”Okay, okay, okay. You win. What do you want?”
”Take me with you.”
”What?”
”Come on. It's been a while since you and I went out alone anyway.”
Hearing that, Nathan's heart started to flutter madly and soared into the sky.
”And plus, I get irritated whenever I see Vincent chasing that woman around like a puppy. I'm going to watch that movie and spoil every detail to Vincent. Wahahaha~!”
Hearing this, Nathan felt like his heart was ripped apart and was quickly falling from the sky.