A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 140

Long ago, in his younger years, Rufus was quite a rebellious child. He had lived with his mother ever since his birth, and had never seen his father. By chance, he knew that he was the bastard of Horace, the kind of bastard who would never be legitimized by his father because of the latter's ambition.

At that time, he was not yet mentally mature enough to accept the cold, harsh truth. Daily, he constantly felt defeated, depressed and dejected.

Ever since the day he could form coherent thoughts, his mother had constantly told him that his father had passed away, and he was the last thing on his father's mind even on his deathbed. Using that as a driving force, his mother pushed him to strive hard in his studies.

And he believed it. With all his heart and soul he believed that he was loved by a father he had never seen. He believed that he was never deprived of love. He was determined to live his life to the fullest, in honor of his father, who did not have the chance to live long.

He worked hard; he obtained the best grades; he was the posterchild of brilliance in everyone's eyes.

However, things started to change when Rufus turned 17. His mother's health condition worsened. Her low blood pressure that plagued her for years has pushed her body to the brink of collapse.

Maybe she was afraid of taking her secret to the grave, or maybe she was afraid of leaving her child alone in the world after she passed away. So she eventually decided to tell him every bit of the truth about his lineage.

It turned out that the truth was too much for him to bear. He became a rebel for some time.

He missed school; even if he did attend, he would only stay for half the lesson. He was also involved in a lot of fighting. In no time, he went from being the exemplary student to a problem child, one who brought forth headaches for all the teachers and his frail mother.

One day, he was reprimanded by his teacher. After much arguing, he was fed up and stormed out of school.

While wandering around, he happened upon a stubborn little girl.

He examined her uniform and realized that she was from another school. The skirt ended only above her knees. Rufus couldn't help but stare at her exposed legs.

She seemed to be obsessed with a claw machine. He couldn't keep count of how many coins she had put in.

One, two, three… She promptly inserted her coins into the slot of the machine, played, but all seemed futile.

Rufus stepped closer to the girl and observed her intently. Her earlobes were surprisingly tiny, and her skin was spotless and smooth.

Her eyelashes were elegantly long, and would swing everytime she moved. She stopped and stood still, gazing at the metal arm of the machine.

Slowly, the arm inched closer to the white unicorn and lowered to grasp it. It always dropped close to it, but just couldn't hold on long enough to pick it up.

It was her last try. She had run out of coins. The tip of her nose was caked in tiny beads of sweat—she was nervous.

To her dismay, the metal arm once again failed to get the toy she desired.

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She was visibly upset. As much as she wanted to try again, she was out of coins and had to go.

Then, an idea formed in Rufus's mind. He fumbled around his pocket and took out a coin, which he promptly inserted in the slot.

Beating the claw machine was pretty tough, but it could be very easy as you get the hang of it. The fundamental rule when it came to this game was to be fast and precise, which required a certain level of skill.

It just happened that Rufus was a master of this. Most of the time, his classmates would turn to him for help with this game. He had gotten so many prizes that he had literally got bored with it.

But today, for some strange reason, he was moved by this little girl's determination. She was so stubborn that she had spent so much just for that one doll.

She could have easily bought a few dolls with the amount of money she spent.

How silly she was!

That was why he decided to interfere. Without any effort, he got the unicorn.

The little girl was speechless when she finally grasped the doll she wanted so much. Her cute mouth was agape in shock. She was so cute.

His voice was as tender as the warm glow of the afternoon sun. He just pushed the unicorn to her chest, and she accepted it with both hands.

"Here you are. It's yours now. Next time, if you know you're not good at it, don't play it. You'll just end up disappointed. And disappointment," he wagged one finger in front of her face, "is no good."

He was right. Disappointment was no good at all. It was what made him a totally different person, stripped of his ambition and hope.

Still clutching the doll, the little girl raised her head and stared at him blankly.

Rufus took one last look at her before turning around to leave.

Never had he seen the girl again.