Chapter 33 - Awareness

Reya heard a small gasp next to the door. She gazed up to me meet the stunned eyes of three people standing there.

"Ehmm, what are you guys doing there?" she whispered. She had initially come here to call this guy don for dinner, but she got engrossed in their conversation and completely forgot about it. "Um, Dinner?" she said to him with an awkward smile.

He snickered and nodded.

She rolled up from the floor and held her hand out.

The only visible part of his face, his mouth lifted in a small smile. "I heard you helped cook today. What's special?"

"No, I only chopped some vegetables. Lukas did all the cooking," she whispered but somehow, her face heated up slightly.

"Nice, he cooked really well," Clive said.

And thus all five of them went down to the dining hall.

"Little Miss Mina, has already had her dinner. I thing she was tired form the journey," Lukas said with a fond smile.

Lukas had already set the table in an elegant way. Even the forks and spoons were arranged neat to the porcelain plate.

"It's like a five star dinner," she whispered to Lukas with a smirk.

Lukas waved his hand and pulled out a chair for her. "Oh young lady, you are making this old man blush,"

She sat down onto the soft cushion with a sigh. Such a formal setting did make her uncomfortable. But gazing at her happy family, she just ignored it.

"You don't like it?" a baritone voice whispered next to her ear.

She snapped her head towards him. "No! I like it a lot. Even the food is great," she said in an abnormally high pitch voice.

"Oh, then why do you keep shuffling your feet so much and biting your finger nails," he whispered.

She was indeed biting her nails at this moment. With a slight cringe she removed her finger from her mouth. "It's a nervous habit," she whispered.

"Hmm I see. You are socially awkward," Clive whispered.

"No... Why..Why would I be? I am a social butterfly," she said with a scoff.

Clive just gave her a sceptical gaze. "Mnn hmm,"

Reya sighed. "i mean this is your house. And you are a stranger to us. It.....it just feels like I Am mooching off," she hiding her face with a small hand towel.

He laughed out loud. His baritone voice deepened even more. "Stupid, you are my guest the why do you feel so," he said.

"We are uninvited guests," she corrected him.

"But still you are my guest, and besides it look like my brother really likes your mother," he said pointing his fork to the chatting pair. "It has been so long since i have seen him smile like that," he whispered and forked a piece of broccoli.

"What do you mean?"

He gazed up at her and ate another mouthful. "He went through a bad divorce. His wife and children lives separate. On that day the planet descended he was on the way to meet the divorce attorney," he whispered in a soft voice.

Reya sighed, thinking about it. When Mr. Kooper had met them first, he also said that he lost his family in the disaster. 'It would have been a huge blow for him,' she thought.

"Why? But Mark seems like a good guy. Why did his wife want to divorce him?"

Clive shook his head. "Donno,"

It's by luck they had escaped the tragedy. She went back to her meal with that, though still in her mind. She robotically chewed the potatoes in her mouth and swallow.

"Is it not to your liking Reya," Lukas said with a soft smile.

"No.. No it's just I'm distracted, these potatoes are bomb. They are much sweater too," she said and chewed louder.

"I'm glad it's harvested from our own farms," Lukas said with a proud smile.

Reya nodded and casually said, "Why do you guys even have vegetable gardens? Is it to grow organically or something?"

"No, it's became master made us prepare for this tragedy," Lukas said.

Reya pause mid chew. "What do you mean prepare? What were you preparing for?" she said with her eyebrows raised.

"Of course.. It's the planet's descent," Lukas said and gracefully wiped his mouth.

Reya dropped the spoon in shock.

"You guys knew about the world ending?" she whispered softly.

Clive stopped eating and dropped his head in his palm. "I...I was meaning to tell you about this."

"So you knew."

He nodded his head slowly.

"You guys knew and did not warn anyone," she shouted.

Clive snapped his head towards her. "Reya, something can't be said out loud,"

"What the hell does it mean? If you had told people there would be more survivors," she shouted.

Clive shook his head. "Do you think I wanted this to happen as well? I did inform people, Reya. I did. And they wanted my head for it. So I hid. And I lied okay; I was not recruited by Ruskies. I was hiding from NASA," he said.