My Crazy Housemate: What Makes You Happy

"It all started about 10 years ago." Leo narrated.

"The whole family was happy until that moment. Well, not really happy– like happy, but we could manage. Then, during dinner one evening, I suddenly told the folks...

"I don't want to be a doctor." 

The whole family stopped eating and looked at him while he gulped nervously. Now, there was no going back. He had to face whatever came his way head–on.

That day, he had been really terrified because they had all expected himself and his brother to become doctors since Chloe had made it clear from the beginning that she wasn't going to be one and it had been obvious in her grades where she always got lower grades in science subjects. 

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" His mother asked first when she saw how tight Mr King's face was.

"I'm sorry, it isn't." He shook his head gently.

The atmosphere was so tensed that even a stranger would feel it in the air if they walked in right now.

Mrs King looked at Leo in disbelief before turning to look at her husband who had dropped his cutleries and was wiping his mouth clean with a napkin. 

"So, what do you intend to do instead?" His father had asked calmly which surprised him since he hadn't expected them to take it easily. 

But he still wasn't sure they would like what he wanted to do. So after looking at them cautiously, he confessed..  "A photographer." 

His mother choked and quickly had to reach for a glass of water to gulp down the shock.  

"A... photographer?" His father asked in utter disbelief which reflected in his eyes. 

"Yes. It's what I intend to do." He sounded braver now as he spoke. The challenge was always how to raise it and now that he had, there was no going back. 

He looked at Louis who had been quiet. He had had the conversation with him some days ago so while everyone else was baffled, Louis was calm and just sat down there observing everything. 

"But Leo, you have good grades. You are... you were born to be a doctor.. both you and your brother. The twin doctors, remember?" His mother tried to cajole.

"That had never been my dream." Leo cut in rudely. 

"You are the ones who need the 'twin doctors' and had been talking about it to everyone for years. I'm sorry mum, but I am sick of it. Being a doctor isn't going to make me happy."

"No one gives a damn about what makes you happy!" His father cussed loudly and hit the table, taking them all by surprise from his sudden outburst and from cussing, since they rarely heard him utter cuss words.

"You don't have to be happy. Your number one duty and priority as a Doctor is to make other people smile, to make them happy, to give them hope. That is why we stay hours in the theatre trying to make sure people survive. It is all about sacrifice!"

"And I don't want to make that sacrifice at the detriment of my happiness!" Leo said in a slightly raised voice which showed he was angry. 

"I don't want to do that. I don't want to spend all my life trying to make people happy while I am not. I... won't do it." He said before leaving the table. 

"It was from that day.. everything changed." He said to Mia. 

"He totally cut me off. My mother was forgiving but my father never was, although in public, he didn't make it so obvious." He sighed unhappily. 

"I wouldn't lie and say I do not miss those days when we were all happy together. I do miss it."

"But do you regret your decision?" Mia asked the most important question she had wanted to ask from the moment he started telling her about it.

Leo shook his head almost immediately. 

"I do not regret it one bit, Mia Lucas.."

"But there was a time I began to think things through and regretted it. That time, my father cut me off from everything and even finance. He didn't want to support my career and forbade everyone in the house from helping me out. So I had to work really hard. I took part–time jobs—"

"You did?" Mia asked in surprise as she observed the boy sitting opposite her. He didn't look like someone who had lived that type of life.

Leo chuckled. "Yes. And I hated it even though I really hadn't done difficult tasks. I worked for elite organisation. I shamelessly used my identity as a 'King' and claimed I wanted to just learn for the experience and see how it was like to live outside. They naturally paid me more than my income with hope that I would put in a few good words to my family, especially my father— who wasn't speaking with me by the way." 

Mia chuckled. "Well, good for you." She gave him a 'I-am-proud-of-you' kind of smile.

"I am glad you, at least know what you wanted and went for it regardless of everything. You are lucky." She said with a sad gleam in her eyes that Leo instantly took note of. 

"What do you really want to do?" He asked with inquisitively. 

"Me? Uhmm.. . I... really don't know." She shrugged. 

"A Businesswoman? A Dancer?"

She shook her head. 

"I'm taking up business because of my mother. I love to dance. It's my hobby, but I'm not sure it is something I want to do as a career."

"Really? Then what have you always wanted to do from the beginning? What did you imagine for yourself?"

Mia looked at him and giggled a bit drunkenly. 

She had actually expected they would both drink a lot of beer but immediately Leo followed her inside the kitchen, he removed all the beers from the table and dropped water bottles instead, so she was still sober but only a bit tipsy.

"When I was younger... maybe I didn't tell you this, but aside from being a businessman, my father was a politician."  

"Really?" Leo inquired with slightly wide eyes. 

"Yes. So one day, I went with him to the State's government house. Kids were not allowed to stay during their meeting briefings so I stayed upstairs and watched. I was so fascinated. I thought it would be cool to just sit there and decide the fates of millions of citizens that would make them happy." She said with a little smile before looking down shyly.

"You... wanted to be a politician?" He asked with really wide eyes this time.

*******

Noah had to act like he had hooked up with both ladies in the club as he led them by their waists towards the VIP session. 

"Aren't we supposed to be talking or something?" Rachel asked in confusion as they rode the elevator with just the three of them in it. 

"Yea, we can talk about something... anything." Noah agreed as he watched her confused face intensely. 

"I really hope they wouldn't be difficult to find though." Noah said as he looked at Mira who was quiet.

"We must get them and pound her!" Rachel spoke up with vigor as she raised her fist in the air. 

"You seem really excited." Noah whispered to Rachel who humphed at him.

The elevator door opened and the three got out.

Seeing how large the hallway was Mira's brows furrowed. 

There were different doors with numbers just like in hotel rooms. The hallway was quiet and empty except a couple who just walked past them. 

Although she had expected it all to be glass rooms, it look pretty much like every other normal room. The glass was probably only at the other end where the VIP customers could watch the club.

"What are we going to do? I do not think we can just keep moving from room to room." Rachel asked Mira who was looking at each doors with her full concentration.

Mira looked left and right at the doors on each rows which were up to ten each. 

"Or maybe, we can." Mira answered with a nod. 

"We can't. The CCTV camera is going to capture us and they are going to know we are up to something." Noah lectured as he discreetly looked up at a camera.

He was glad he had come here before the girls did something really silly on their own.

Mira took out her phone that instant and began to dial her father's number. 

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked. 

"There always have to be a way." Mira shrugged as the call connected after ringing three times. 

"Hello? Baby? I'm glad to finally hear from you." Mr Bill said in a breath voice like he was panting which disgusted Mira who quickly disconnected the call. 

His daughter had been devastated about their divorce and had refused to take his calls, but here he was...

Maybe other girls would have cried, but what Mira felt was extreme anger.

She whispered an instruction to Noah when her father called again passed the phone over to him to answer the call instead. 

"Baby?" Mr Bill called.

"Are you Mira's father?" Noah asked calmly. 

"Yes. Who are you?" 

Noah could hear the suspicion and alert in Mr Bill's voice hearing a man answer the call instead of his daughter.

"Your daughter was involved in a very fatal accident. You have to hurry here right now. She may die." Noah said dryly without any emotion before disconnecting the call while Rachel rolled her eyes at him.

"Seriously? That's the best you could do?" Rachel asked him with a frown.

Immediately Mira's phone rang again, probably to ask where she was, a door opened noisily which attracted the three people's attention. 

"Ta–da!" Mira muttered with a smirk as she began taking heavy strides towards the room her father was coming out from while buttoning his shirt impatiently. 

"Baby? Where are you going to? What is wrong?" A lady who was half dressed ran out of the room after Mr Bill who just left her halfway without any explanation.

Mira stood frozen in the spot while her father raised his head to look ahead after buttoning up.

He literally jumped in shock seeing Mira standing right in front of him while the lady behind him gasped when she saw the people. 

"Mi....ra..." Mr Bill stammered nervously but Mira's eyes went to the lady behind him.

"Mary.... Lucas?" Mira asked in disbelief.

"Mary Lucas? As in, Mia's sister?" Rachel asked as her eyes widened while Noah wondered what his friend's girlfriend was doing there with Mira's father.