Novel Lived
Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Do Me A Favor
Kaiden lied on the bed for a while as he tried to relieve his frustration when he heard someone knocking on his room door rapidly.
It was Jazmine who wore a tight crop T-shirt to her belly button’s length and loose pants. Her chest was rising and falling heavily with sweat across her forehead. ‘Was she doing strenuous exercise?’
Uncomfortable from his strange stare, Jazmine wanted to lash out but she suppressed her temper when she remembered the reason she was there and forced herself to smile.
She looked at Kaiden with her signature smile revealing eight teeth, “I was practicing dancing but my boombox broke down suddenly. Do you know how to fix it?”
“Of course!”
Kaiden nodded and followed her to the dance studio in the basement.
He did all sorts of jobs when he was at his poorest. He was amused because he never expected that he would make use of his skills someday.
“It’s that boombox there, I got it overseas some time ago but the sound quality has been distorted with some static noises as if it has a poor connection. I have to ask for your favor because this is the newest model and no one here knows how to fix it.”
Jazmine was exasperated. She could arrange for technicians to come from overseas but she would have lost interest in dancing already when they reached here.
She would have replaced the boombox already if she did not like its 3D surround sound system.
“What do you think? Do you know how to fix it?”
Noticing that Kaiden did not say anything after examining the boombox for some time, Jazmine became skeptical.
“Do you have a screwdriver? I need to open this. Something inside must’ve gone loose from the long-term vibrations.”
Kaiden stared at the huge boombox as he secretly judged Jazmine for being a wild person.
A boombox that huge would have caused the top floors to collapse already if not for the excellent soundproof system.
‘A component inside has gone loose?’
Jazmine was clearly doubtful of his answer and she refused to believe that the problem was only that simple. However, she still complied and got him a toolbox since he was the only one she could rely on at that point.
Kaiden took the screwdriver and found each of the screws swiftly before removing the screws skillfully, his effortless motion shocked Jazmine to the core.
“There is indeed a loose component. Look at this spare part, it should be here but it moved there.”
Kaiden pointed to a spare part as he explained, half of it was touching the sound source at the side.
Jazmine looked oblivious, she clearly did not understand the relation.
“What does the screw have anything to do with distorting the sound? Where should it be located, then?”
“Uhh…” Kaiden became speechless.
‘Fine, women are indeed uninterested in talking about spare parts.’
“It’s not a big problem, it’ll be fine after I put it back to its original position. The sound is affected because it moved and went near the speaker by coincidence.”
He explained as he returned the spare part to its original position with his hand before reattaching the speaker in a specific order.
“Try not to blast the boombox too much, overly strong vibrations will cause the spare parts to loosen. The boombox’s machinery is too complicated and many parts of the design are not durable. The sound quality is indeed great, but the boombox itself isn’t of good quality.”
In short, the boombox was only good for display purposes and it was only suitable for casual use at home.
Jazmine stared at Kaiden with admiration. Surprised by his vast knowledge, her hostility toward him reduced a lot.
Noticing his sweat, she gave him a bottle of mineral water thoughtfully.
“Here’s some water, don’t complain.”
Kaiden accepted the bottle and took a sip. “Is this…expired?”
“No way!”
Jazmine snatched the bottle with disbelief to take a look and the date on the bottle cap made her so embarrassed that she wanted to hide in a hole.
She looked up and noticed that Kaiden was staring at her with a half-smile and it annoyed her.
“Stop staring! I usually don’t drink bottled water, how would I know?” Jazmine was stubborn. “Also, just throw it away if it’s expired, it’s no big deal.”
“Hahaha… Alright, I’m leaving first if there’s nothing else.”
He proceeded to leave. He wanted to take a warm bath after all the sweating.
“Wait, I have another radio, there is something very important to me in it. Can you fix it, too?”
Noticing that he was leaving, Jazmine blurted out in panic.
“Miss, you’re not holding back at all but that’s fine, I like to help people in need!”
Kaiden turned to stare at Jazmine with a bold expression. “Bring it to me later? I’m going to take a bath now.”
He left without looking back.
He went straight to the bathroom to take a warm bath after returning to his room and felt a lot better.
Being covered in sweat was extremely uncomfortable.
‘Wait… What should I wear?’
Kaiden covered his lower body with a towel after the bath and walked to the closet dripping wet.
He stared at the clothes occupying half of the wardrobe. The ones he brought and those purchased by Alexandra were all put together and took up a chunk of the space.
He figured that he could discard his old clothes since he bought new ones. The reason he did not throw them out was that he wanted to keep them as a reminder of his past.
“Kaiden, are you done?”
Jazmine’s voice rose from the outside of the door.
“D*mn, she’s right on time.”
Kaiden complained as he opened the door to the sight of Jazmine staring at him eagerly with a radio in her arms in front of him.
“Have you been waiting for me at the door? You’re asking me to fix your radio right after you heard me coming out of the bathroom?” The corners of Kaiden’s lips twitched slightly.
‘What is on the radio? What is so important that she waited at the door for so long?’
‘Did she even…take my words seriously?’
“Ms. Jazmine, I told you that I’ll fix it later, right? Are you not going to let me rest?”
“Come on, you can’t be exhausted, you didn’t even do much the whole day! Hurry and help me to take a look at the radio, it’s really important.”
Jazmine walked past Kaiden into the room blatantly in huge steps and sat on his bed before placing the radio on a table carefully.
Support us to help bring more chapters to you!