THE MY GREAT PAINTER SYSTEM
The 'Stuck'

Sean had a hard day. However, everything he had done with Steven Smith paid off with the painting 'Hidden Paradise’ which is now in his hands.

With the rest of his strength, Sean was about to return to the dormitory and get some rest. However, none of that would happen after Sean failed to unlock the room.

"Damn! Why can't it open?" Decit Sean kicked the door leaf in annoyance, then he peeked at the keyhole and no one could give any answer to Sean's misfortune. "Is there a problem with the key?"

In extreme frustration, Sean rubbed his head, all the wonderful plans to immediately rest hampered already. If Sean can't open the door, there won't be a comfortable bed for him to sleep in tonight. The young man would not be able to enter and inevitably he just slept on the hard sofa of the dorm room.

There was no choice for him other than to look for a replacement key that the housekeeper had kept.

Sean immediately searches for the hostel manager in his room who is none other than Zavier, but the person Sean is looking for is not inside. For a moment, Sean fell silent and tried to think of a place that Zavier used to stop by. There is nowhere else but his own room. Although Sean knows that Zavier's room is inhabited by Carla Edena, but does not rule out the possibility that he is in that place.

At his thought, Sean turned to Zavier's room.  After Sean arrived, the door was knocked, but there was no answer or response from within.

“Hey, is Brother Zavi in the room with you?” Sean's question was addressed to Carla Edena, but the words came to a halt before the whole thing was finished.

From between the door leaves, Sean was able to see Zavier's figure from inside so he immediately entered the room as usual. However, his three steps from the door suddenly came to a halt.

“You?” Sean's eyes widened to see the person he thought Zavier was Felix

As a cousin, Felix's appearance is not much different from Zavier's. The only difference is in terms of age and everyone who sees it will say they are brothers.

'Deg!'

It's totally beyond belief. Felix shouldn't be here, it's going to endanger Carla Edena who temporarily has to stay in Zavier's room.

Aware of Carla, Sean frantically searches for her whereabouts. Sean's gaze shot out in all directions, but at every corner of the room wherever Sean could not find his whereabouts.

One question that appeared to Sean at that time, was Carla Edena already found out?

“What do you see?” ketus Felix makes Sean jerked for a moment. Simultaneously, Sean retracted his gaze.

“No.” Quietly enough Sean replied, but not to his agitated heart half-dead. “I was just looking for Kak Zavi and ..”.

Aware of mentioning Carla Edena's name, Sean immediately locked his words. The possibility of Carla being discovered is not entirely true. If the woman gets caught, there's no way Felix would act like this on Sean. It was certain that one of his hands would grab Sean's neck before he even walked into this room.

“What?” Felix asked again, not understanding. 

With that Sean becomes increasingly convinced that Carla can escape before the arrival of Felix.

In order not to get caught, Sean must immediately say something so that it does not seem suspicious.

“Ah, I mean, my room key is broken, I .. look for Kak Zavi to borrow the spare key.” Sean tried to curl up as he could.

He really struggled to overcome his nervousness and it was read Felix. Felix, who had been sitting on the couch, got down and walked around Sean. There was nothing Sean could do but bow his head and hope that Felix would immediately erase his curses.

“Then how can you casually go into someone's room without permission?” press Felix on Sean who thinks he has been presumptuous to enter Zavier's room.

It's natural for Sean to do that to Zavier, but here Felix doesn't know Sean's closeness to his cousin's brother.

“The door opened itself and I guess .. you are Brother Zavi.” Sean admits half the truth, but the other half will be hidden from Felix. 

Sean's hard work seemed to pay off. Felix seemed to believe his confession, although he kept staring at Sean with caution.

"Follow!" felix's orders were straightforward.

Sean followed Felix who had arrived at the dorm room. He opened a box where all the spare keys of each hostel were kept. However, upon looking inside, Felix's expression changed. The young man furrowed his brows as he did not find Sean's room key.

"I didn't find the key to your room" Felix said. "Maybe Luis took his backup key first.”

Although Sean is not convinced by Felix's words, but he tries to seem to believe. Sean nodded and wanted to quickly get away from Felix. Suddenly, Felix held him.

“What?” asked Sean who could no longer hide the anger within him. 

In Sean's heart he said that it would not make him curious in the least, but Sean was able to know what Felix was going to say was not a good thing.

“I want Brother Zavier to ask you to come back one room with me. Isn't that a good idea, Sean?” Felix deliberately provokes Sean to see his expression. However, Sean manages to hide the expression Felix wants.

In response to that Sean could not say anything, his lips were locked tightly, but he only had time to reply to Felix's gaze sharply. For the last time, Sean smiled wryly and left just like that.

***

“I had expected this to happen, but this was too soon from my prediction. How could Felix take such a quick step?” On the way, Sean never ceases to complain about Felix's words.

One more room with him would repeat the tragedy. There will be a greater apocalypse if this really happens. However, right now it is not the right thing to think about it yourself. This problem had to be solved with the help of Zavier and Luis.

Unknowingly, Sean had already arrived in front of his room. Not wanting to waste any more time, Sean tried to lock his room but still couldn't.

‘Shelf!’

A small fist that was deliberately targeted at the door of the room made Sean jerked and he suddenly turned to see the person who dared to do that to Sean. Sean's eyes widened when he saw Frans right behind him

“You, what are you doing here?”

Sean did not hesitate to pretend anymore to cover up his displeasure. However, the young man before him was the same. Frans bravely flaunts a folding knife in front of Sean.

“How can you do that?” frans suddenly said.

Sean who could not guess the direction of Frans' conversation just looked at him in wonder. “Do what?” 

"You know this knife?" The tip of the knife that Frans brought close to Sean, even Sean can feel the cold sensation of the metal touching his cheek. Luckily Frans was able to control his emotions until the tip of the folding knife did not scratch Sean. "With this knife ... I tore up 'Stuck' and how did you manage to clear that up overnight?"

Duars! Solved already the mystery of the destruction of painting Najwa Wong.

Despite having expected it from the start, Sean had no idea that Frans would admit it himself. Curiosity urges him to figure out how Sean is coping.

Right now, this minute and this second, Sean had to use his head to think quickly before Frans' knife tip completely tore his cheek. "I went to see Najwa Wong and he was willing to re-paint it."

Sean's one lie seemed convincing and could be easily trusted Frans. To think about however the 'Stuck' painting Frans saw was really the same and Najwa Wong himself had confirmed its authenticity.

'Cloth!'

Frans dropped his knife on purpose and both his hands clutched Sean's shirt firmly.

"Do you want to fight me, huh?"  frans growled, adding strength to his grip.

Sean tried to rebel, but failed. With difficulty speaking he tried to explain. "Don't be childish, Frans!"

"What?" Frans was stunned to hear Sean's words that seemed unafraid of him.

Sean tried to loosen Frans' grip. "I told you not to be childish! It will hurt yourself!"

"When everyone knows that the painting in Ellinden Gallery is damaged, you never think that it has a big impact on Ellinden's own gallery. No painter would want to leave his paintings in the gallery!" keep Sean fighting.

That perfectly reasonable excuse did not make Frans acknowledge the truth. However, Frans was not a fool who could not think the meaning of Sean's words.

Sean just needs to underline the reason for himself that he didn't do that for the Ellinden Gallery but for the guarantee of Sean's own life. However, he said otherwise so that Frans would not repeat the troublesome act.

Amidst the serious talk, the newly arrived Luis soon pushes Frans away from Sean.

"Do you have a noisy hobby in front of someone else's room?" Luis said with a cold expression.

It seems Frans did not want to take Luis, he immediately left in silence.