PAMPERED

164 Day out

Meanwhile, in the shopping mall in the city…

“Penny” Slater called, holding an ugly–looking stuffed toy in front of his face. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

When Penny turned her head, her face remained the same when she saw the horrendous

stuffed toy. But when Slater abruptly pulled it down, she flinched.

“Penny!” Slater gasped in disbelief. “How could you not flinch at the sight of this stuffed toy, but get surprised with my face?! I don’t look as horrible as this one!”

She deadpanned. “Really?”

“Hah!” he gasped again. “What’s with that look?!”

“Nothing.” Penny looked away and set her eyes on the rack of greeting cards before her. She rubbed her chin, scanning the variety of greeting cards.

Slater glanced at the rack curiously. “Is someone having a birthday? Why are you looking for greeting cards?”

“For future purposes.”

Future purposes?

Slater observed her side profile, unable to stop his imagination from thinking of her bags. Penny had many different sorts of stuff in her bags to the point one would wonder if she was even bringing a ladder.

‘Is this how she usually prepares what to put in her bag, so she’s always ready? he wondered, assuming he was witnessing the ‘behind the scenes‘ of her magical bag.

“That one!” Penny’s eyes lit up and pointed at the top of the rack. However, she couldn’t reach it. even if she tiptoed. Hence, she turned to Slater. “I like that one, but I can’t reach it. Can you get

it for me?”

“Which one?”

“That!”

Slater leaned his head closer to her index that was pointing at the card as if he could see better if he did. “That one with the red and purple color?

“Yes. Get it for me.”

“Is that an order?” he frowned but still approached the rack to get the one she wanted..

Much to their dismay, Slater could barely reach it with his fingertips!

Penny gasped as she looked at her third brother in dismay. Looking at him, she realized Slater was still young and short – just like her! He was only several inches taller than her, but it was

still the same!

–

‘I forgot he’s a late bloomer,‘ she mentally lamented.

100

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164 Day out

Meanwhile, Slater’s face reddened in embarrassment. He didn’t even have the nerve to face her right now and see her reaction. This was embarrassing.

“Why would they make this rack so huge and tall!?” he gasped. “Isn’t this store for kids?! It’s not kid’s friendly! If anything, it’s dangerous…!”

While Slater concealed his embarrassment with his anger, a hand suddenly went over them and picked out the card. Looking back, all they saw was Atlas.

“Is this what you want?” asked Atlas to Penny, ignoring the dramatic Slater.

Penny smiled and nodded, accepting the card with both hands. “First brother, can you also get that other one? The yellow one!”

Atlas nonchalantly shifted his eyes to where she was pointing and unhesitatingly grabbed the one she liked.

“That other one too! The one next to it!”

And without saying a word, his hand automatically veered to the next greeting card.

Penny kept pointing at almost everything, and Atlas got it all for her without a problem. Watching this from the sidelines, Slater looked away bitterly.

‘Why am I so short at my age?!” Slater lamented in dismay. ‘This is so embarrassing!

Since the brothers were all part of Penny’s fan club, they were doing some shopping to give away to people. While Hugo and Atlas were already on it, Penny and Slater roamed around to find something she wanted to buy.

Slater was there to help her! Yet, he couldn’t even reach the top of the rack and as if she was mocking him, she was pointing at everything on the top shelf!

“Is that all?” Atlas asked as he handed the handful of greeting cards to her.

“Yes! Thank you, First Brother!” she grinned from ear to ear before she started shuffling the

cards.

Deep lines appeared between Atlas’s brows as he watched her check the cards one after another. “What are you doing?”

“Choosing,” she answered without looking. “I couldn’t see everything from the top shelf, so I was simply basing everything on the color combination.”

Both brothers watched her until Slater blurted out, “Why not get all of them?”

“Slater is right. Just buy all of them, Penny” Atlas agreed. “Dad gave his card to us.”

The moment Atlas mentioned that, he remembered his father before they parted with him.

[Eldest, you got this! Don’t come home until you maxed out that card! Buy everything that Penny needs and wants and everything that she laid her eyes on, alright?!]

Charles’s remarks might’ve come from good and enthusiastic intentions, but for Atlas, their father subtly didn’t want them to come home ever. How could they max out a card that had no limit?

10:04

104 Day out

“Big brothers, I can’t just waste money on things that I don’t need,” she frowned, thinking her brothers’s talent was to waste money. “I’ll just get what I need and then I’ll move on.”

“Alright,” Atlas nodded and sighed. ‘Until now, I can’t figure her out.”

One thing, they wanted to pamper her with everything they could. On the other hand, Penny’s meaning of pamper was different. She was very unlike Nina, who fancied pretty dresses and everything shiny. As for Slater, he just kept quiet while sharing his eldest brother’s sentiments.

Deep in his heart, however, Slater felt useless.

“Third brother, which one do you think is good for birthdays?” Suddenly, Penny faced her third brother and showed her two different greeting cards.

His brows rose and pointed at himself. “Are you asking me?”

“Am

I looking at somewhere else?”

“Oh!” His lips stretched again, and he leaped to her, almost glaring at the two greeting cards. “This one looks cute, but this other one had more meaningful quotes. Penny, who are you gonna give this to?”

The corner of her mouth curled up as she said, “To an old friend.”

“Oh, then I think give those to me. Slater quickly took the other greeting cards from her and searched through them. After just a few seconds, he took out one card. “This one looks nice. What do you think?”

Penny looked at the greeting card before her and grinned in satisfaction. Surely, Slater at these types of things. It was why she took him with her. She made the right decision.

was good

“Third brother, you’re terrific! How did you catch this one?” she blurted out, making him rub the tip of his nose with his index. “Wow!”

“Penny, you might not know about this, but people always say I have a knack for this type of thing…”

As Slater regained his confidence as a big brother, Atlas could only smile at the two of them. His brows then rose, looking over the other rack, and caught Hugo pushing a cart outside the boutique. Atlas signaled Hugo to wait for a bit, and the second brother idled outside the boutique.

They waited until Penny finished choosing before the four headed to a restaurant for lunch.

This was the first day out of the siblings. So far, it was good.

Thanks for 4k PS