A Friend From The Past
Ellise slowly makes her way to the living room where her aunt is waiting and apparently DT too! She still can't find any reason why he would come back right after dropping her off.
"Ellise, it's been a while." her aunt Joy stood up from the sofa, right after seeing her enters the room. She opens her arms for a hug. She saw DT from her peripheral vision, sitting on the armchair, drinking some fruit juice. Him being in the room, she's feeling embarrassed to hug her aunt. but she knows that if she didn't do it, she would not stop pestering her until she gave up.
Without a word, she stepped inside her aunt's arms for a hug. Her face shows resistance and her aunt laughed and pinched her cheeks. "What kind of attitude is that?" she asked.
"Why are you here?" she asked instead of answering her question. She dropped herself next to her on the sofa looking bored.
"Dana is here and she would like to have dinner with you."
"Does it have to be today? she asked, in a flat tone.
"Well, today is the best time for everyone's schedule to sit down and have a meal together." her aunt said, in annoyance.
"Do I have to make an appointment for a date that would be convenient for you?
She faced Madame Bae and said in such a dramatic manner, "They grow up and before you know it, you need an appointment to have a meal with them."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.
"How about you? Why are you here?" she turned her attention to DT than talked to her aunt.
"Uncle Wan told me to come back to the club with you," he said nonchalantly, but deep inside he was happy and amused to see Ellise banter freely with her aunt. He gets to see a glimpse of the old Ellise with how she acts with her aunt.
"Did he say why?"
"No. He informed but he never explained. That's how he runs the club."
Ellise seeing a reason to escape the company of her aunt grinned inwardly thinking that she found the perfect excuse not to attend the said dinner.
"Do you have appropriate clothes in the WIZ for a formal dinner?" her aunt asked, which made her raised her eyebrows.
"Mr. Wan is asking me to return to the WIZ, I have no time to have dinner with you," she said, standing up with the intention to return to her bedroom to fetch her backpack and then escaped.
But her aunt grinned at her like she is reading what is running in mind, saying, "Well, better to bring a dress to the WIZ club so you don't have to come here to dress up, you can just go together to the restaurant with Nina and Wan."
She looked back at her aunt who is smirking as if she got her, she pursed her lips and marched back to her room.
Once she's in her bedroom, she simply picked up the backpack she thrown away on the floor and opens her wardrobe. She removed from the hanger the first dress her eyes laid on.
Pulling it up, the dress looks unfamiliar. She didn't but this one. She was about to put it inside the garment bag when a note fell down from the dress. She picked it up with a creased forehead.
She saw the now-familiar handwritten of her stepmother. Apparently, this dress is from one of her friends store Carolina Herrera, she got them even with they aren't yet available in the store.
She smiled softly tucking in the card inside her bedside table. This dress is probably one of what his brother brought again when he dropped by.
She hurried packing the things she will bring back to the WIZ and sweeping a last look inside her bedroom to make sure she didn't forget anything, - she closed the door.
"I'll drive," she said to DT walking out of the living room.
DT hurriedly, put down his glass and bow down to her aunt and Madame Bae apologizes in a hurry before following her outside of the house.
Her car is already waiting for them. Ellise climbed into the driver's seat.
Without saying anything and trying to be calm, DT gets in the passenger side and puts on his seatbelt. Ellise has already maneuvered the car out of the gate, right as he sits down. He bites his cheek, not wanting to give her any reaction because from what he remembered with Ellise from before, the more you call out her action the more that she would act out, to annoy you further.
"Where were you when the boss call to pick me up?" Ellise suddenly asked DT.
He was surprised that she initiated a conversation, even when the conversation is something work-related.
"I was still in the neighborhood," he said, he didn't say that he was already on a taxi on the way back to the WIZ when his uncle called, and he was the one who suggested to his uncle to get Ellise and for them to return together.
He remembered his uncle laughing on the phone, taunting him on how it didn't take long for him to break and run after Ellise. He listened quietly to his uncle's mocking because he asked him for a favor not to say anything to Ellise.
He stole a glance over the driver's side and saw her side profile in full concentration on the road, and he thought to himself, would he still be given a chance to make a different choice this time.
Until now he has no idea what happened to Ellise, where did she go, and why did she have to disappear after that night, was it because of the choice he took that night, or was there a different reason.
Eliise has been an enigma. She could make you feel like you know her, only to realize that you have no idea what kind of person she is.
He thought he knows her well, but when she vanished into thin air, and by fate, he got her phone, he realized that he had no idea who Ellise is.