While Lola and Roja started off their friendship, Jason met Oren at the bar. Ten minutes later, Jason already had three cups of some strong liquor. Oren doesn’t even know what his older brother is drinking or if he already drank before coming to the bar, but he knows he has to stop him. “Don’t you think it’s enough now?” he asks in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Jason, already feeling the first effects of the alcohol, replies harshly, “No, I can decide by myself when I’ve had enough!”

As he orders another cup, Oren rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. The bartender understands the meaning of this gesture and doesn’t refill Jason’s cup. “You’re getting drunk, bro, let’s leave. The others can’t see you like this!” Jason sighs, he knows that Oren is right. Slowly, he turns around to leave without another word. At that moment, Lola walks in and passes her older brother.

As she approaches her twin brother, Oren, she wonders, “What’s up with him? He seems drunk again.”

“He is drunk,” Oren answers a bit disappointed. Lola sighs dramatically. She can’t believe Jason is drunk again, this has happened too many times in the last few weeks. He’s slowly losing control over it. She’s scared that this will ruin their family and their father’s gang.

“What about that girl he brought with him? How is she?” Oren asks to divert the conversation.

“Her name’s Roja. Physically, she’s okay. Mentally, she seems so… broken. No matter what I said, she accepted it,” Lola replies.

Oren seems concerned, “I should go and welcome her.”

“But be careful,” Lola warns him. Oren nods understandingly and leaves the bar to get back home.

***

As Oren reaches Roja’s room, he knocks twice but softly. After all, he doesn’t know if she’s even awake. Roja answers with a neutral, “Yes,” because she thinks it’s Lola who’s coming back. Oren walks in and sees how Roja stares at him in fear. Sitting on her bed, she’s almost shaking. Oren tries to look as unfrightening as possible by smiling softly and keeping his arms in a relaxed pose. Compared to Jason, he already looks a lot less scary. Oren’s black hair is tied in a man bun while Jason just leaves it messy.

Roja also notices some resemblance with Lola, which makes her calm down a bit as he calmly says, “Hey, I’m Oren. Lola’s brother? I didn’t want to scare you, I’m sorry.” Roja takes a deep breath and Oren realizes that she’s trying everything to not look frightened. “I thought you might be hungry, so I brought something for you,” he adds. As he shows her the sandwich he is carrying in a lunchbox, he can hear her stomach growl and he laughs. He hands it over to Roja, who thanks him but doesn’t start eating. “I couldn’t find anything else in the kitchen, sorry. We’ll have better food tomorrow!” he apologizes before noticing that the sandwich isn’t the reason why she’s not eating. “You don’t need my permission to eat, enjoy it!” he reassures her and smiles as she finally takes a bite of that sandwich.

When she finished eating, he asks, “So you were with Ric all the time? I guess you don’t want to go back to him.” Frightened, Roja shakes her head. “You don’t have to. Jason doesn’t seem to want you to leave anytime soon and no sane person would send you back to Ric.”

“But I don’t want to be a burden, I don’t have any money to pay for all of this,” Roja says, almost starting to cry again. The sound of her voice makes Oren sad as well. He asks himself if the girl even knows who they are.

“We have a great family business that gives us the chance to not think about money,” Oren explains and sees Roja relaxing a bit. “You don’t have to worry about causing any money-related problems,” he adds to make her more comfortable but instead she flinches.

He noticed that he moved his arms a lot while talking. “Why do you flinch every time I move my hands?” he asks more quietly, already knowing the answer. Roja’s expression turns from rather emotionless to sad in a heartbeat. She tries biting her tongue to stop the tears that are already rolling down her cheeks. Oren instantly regrets his question, “I’m an idiot, I shouldn’t have asked. No matter what happens, you don’t have to be afraid that one of us will ever hurt you.” Roja takes a deep breath and wipes away the tears, trying to stop her memories from crashing down on her. Oren sees her fighting with her thoughts and decides to leave. After telling her that she should relax like Mary told her, he promises to check in with her the next day.

As he leaves, Roja lies down on the bed again. Her heart’s racing and her thoughts keep going back to the time she spent with Ric. However, there’re also thoughts about her current situation. Lola and Oren seem friendly, but their brother is so aggressive. And where’s their mother? Seeing that Lola is hardly older than Roja, the shy girl thinks that her new friend can’t be living alone with her brothers.

A few minutes later, Roja falls asleep. Her hopes for a better future have grown just a little bit again after finding another new friend.