A Talk- Part 2

Shirona Yui tried her best to maintain control over her emotions but her current expression gave her away. That said, she didn't allow her expression to get any further out of hand as she coughed a few times to regain her composure.

Wang Xu stared at her blushing expression for a few moments, enjoying the interesting sights before him. This went on until Shirona Yui finally regained control over her emotions, prompting him to release a sigh over the short time he was able to enjoy the view.

Following that, both sides descended in silence for a few minutes, each glancing at the other every once in a while, before the waiter returned with a trolly with their dinner on it. Both sides watched as the waiter filled the table with their respective orders.

Just as the waiter was finished and was about to leave, Shirona Yui noticed a few extra dishes were placed on the table. She couldn't help but speak at this moment as she pointed at the extra plate, "Excuse me. It seems that you've made a mistake. We didn't order these dishes."

The waiter just looked at the duo before smiling as he spoke up, "I've made no mistake, ma'am. These dishes came as a complement for ordering all the others. Naturally, they are on the house."

After saying this, the waiter gave Shirona Yui a slight bow before leaving the booth, leaving a stupefied Shirona Yui and a chuckling Wang Xu. A few seconds later, Shirona Yui locked her eyes Wang Xu, who was now turning his head away to not see the slightly angry expression on her face.

Eventually, Shirona Yui released a sigh before she started on her meal. As she did so, she made sure to slide the extra dishes closer to Wang Xu who was now looking at her with a peculiar gaze.

Seeing this gaze, Shirona Yui returned one of her own. Both sides entered a staring contest for a few seconds before Wang Xu conceded the match and started his meal, leaving Shirona Yui with a smug smile on her face as she started hers. Like that, both sides spent the next half an hour in silence, enjoying each other's company as they ate in peace.

*******

After finishing their dinner, the duo was now enjoying their respective beverages. On Shirona Yui's side, there was a glass of fruit juice in her hand. As for Wang Xu, he was drinking a glass of 'Revolver'. Instead of asking the restaurant to make it for him, Wang Xu had asked the waiter to bring the required ingredients and mixed the drink according to the method Carlos had demonstrated before him. Both the waiter and Shirona Yui were surprised at his actions and were curious about his creation. That said, neither asked anything about it as the waiter left the duo in private while Shirona Yui now had another layer of depth in the gaze she had on Wang Xu.

After enjoying their drinks for a few minutes, Wang Xu decided to speak up first, "Ok, Department Head Shirona. Now that we've had our meal, would you be so kind as to explain the reason behind it? While I don't mind the fact that I got invited out to dinner, such actions aren't usually without reason."

Instead of answering Wang Xu immediately, Shirona Yui emptied her glass of fruit juice before placing the empty glass on the table. Wang Xu noticed the atmosphere around Shirona Yui changing during this action of hers as he watched a serious expression form on her face. He took another sip of his drink as he waited for her to begin.

After a few seconds of silence, Shirona Yui finally spoke up, "Security Guard Wang, did you know that both of us take the same train to work every day?"

Hearing those words prompted the raise of an eyebrow from Wang Xu. This was indeed information that he lacked, mainly because he was never aware of Shirona Yui before today. That said, he didn't think that this was all she had to say so he shook his head towards her as a response to her question.

Seeing his action, Shirona Yui took it as her signal to continue, and so she did, "You don't need to think too much about it. It was only this morning that I found out about this myself. That show you put on with your wires this morning was quite entertaining, to say the least. I was so thoroughly enthralled by it that I nearly missed my stop this morning."

At those words, Wang Xu released a light chuckle, imagining her experience for the morning. Shirona Yui silently watched as Wang Xu chuckling, contemplating how she was going to broach the subject. In the end, she decided to take it slow and study his expression as the conversation progressed.

That being said, Wang Xu wasn't one to delay such talks when he can see the visible signs of distress on a person, whether or not they were aware of such signs themselves. With that thought in mind, Wang Xu spoke up here, "You don't need to fret so much on the topic, Department Head Shirona. Just tell me what it is you want to talk about. You don't need to worry as I'll at least hear you out before deciding if I should bite."

At the end of the joke, there was a playful expression on Wang Xu's face that made Shirona Yui doubt if those words were truly a joke.

After taking a deep breath, Shirona Yui now stared directly into Wang Xu's eyes without a hint of emotion as she spoke, "Security Guard Wang, the incident that transpired this morning. You were the one who prevented the high school student from being hit by the truck, am I correct?"

Those words barely formed a ripple in Wang Xu's expression, the only change being the rise of an eyebrow. That said, internally, Wang Xu was now wondering how someone had managed to spot him when he had decided to move. Although it was an impulsive act on his part to save that student, which resulted in him wasting quite a bit of energy, normal people shouldn't have been able to see him move. It was due to this why he was now looking at the woman before him with a raised eyebrow.

Eventually, Wang Xu relaxed his eyebrow and took a sip of his drink before speaking, "Department Head Shirona, before I answer that question, would you mind enlightening me on how you arrived at this answer?"

Although he didn't explicitly say it, Shirona Yui took those words as a confirmation on his part. The woman was now slightly tensed up after realizing those so she too took a sip of her drink, or tried to but her glass was empty. Seeing this, Wang Xu slid his glass over to her, which she promptly took and sampled, only to notice a bit late the implications of such an act.

Wang Xu acted oblivious to this, allowing Shirona Yui to take a few moments to rid her mind of those thoughts as she calmed herself down. Now that she was in a somewhat relaxed state, she spoke up in a calm voice, "As I said earlier, due to your actions on the train this morning, I realized that we both take the same train to work. Well, it's more like I found your figure familiar. Due to the scare of the doors nearly closing on me after almost missing my stop, I took it slow while walking to work. By the time I had gotten to the pedestrian crossing, you were already there within the crowd of people. At that point, I had just managed to piece together your identity when the sounds of the truck's horn were going off."

Wang Xu nodded his head at this as he too thought back to that same situation of that morning. He took back his glass from Shirona Yui and took a sip, prompting a light blush to form on her face, but once again, he acted oblivious to the situation as he placed the glass in the center of the table between them.

Department Head Shirona took this as her cue to continue her story, "At that time, when I noticed both the youth and the truck, just like the others nearby, I was about to scream out. What prevented this was that as my eyes passed by the area where I had seen you earlier, I noticed that your familiar figure was no longer present, which momentarily distracted me. Following that, I noticed a blur from the corner of my eyes and when I looked at the location, I noticed that the youth that was nearly hit was already sitting while you were walking away as if whatever happened next would no longer concern you."

Wang Xu had a look of understanding on his face. Going by the process of events that she had just described, it was only natural that she would have come up with such a conclusion. Hell, if he wasn't the person in question being described, he would have arrived at the same conclusion if he was in her shoes.

Allowing those useless and somewhat redundant thoughts to flow in his mind for a bit, Wang Xu pushed the half-empty glass towards the woman who was now looking at him with a nervous expression. Seeing this, although she was slightly embarrassed, she still took the glass and took a few sips of the beverage.

When the beverage finally did its job of calming down the nervous woman before him, Wang Xu chose this moment to speak up. As he did so, there was a somewhat helpless yet playful expression on his face.

"Following those series of events, it doesn't even matter whether I agree to it or not as all the evidence directly points to this outcome. Since that's the case, I might as well own up to it, no? Yes, Department Head Shirona. I was the one who prevented that incident from being a tragedy this morning."

As he said this, Wang Xu watched as Shirona Yui clenched her hands into fists with a spark of excitement within her eyes. That being said, the helpless portion of his expression had now receded while the playfulness had grown more pronounced, prompting the woman to sense that something was off.

Seeing her slight change in expression, a smile grew on Wang Xu's face as he stared at the woman and spoke, "So, Department Head Shirona. Now that you have confirmation on your theory, what do you think happens now?"

It was at this point that Shirona Yui could now understand what she had felt was off while staring at Wang Xu earlier. That playful look on his face no longer appeared to be as 'playful' as it appeared and was now starting to look a bit menacing in her eyes. In fact, she was starting to think that it was a bad idea, no, a VERY bad idea for her to have had this discussion in such a private setting.

Quite a few alarm bells were currently going off in her mind as she stared at the man sitting across from her at the table. Although he hasn't made so much as a single movement on his side, Shirona Yui got the sense that should she try to turn away and run, he would immediately pounce on her. That's the feeling she got as she stared at those playful eyes that reminded her of a predatory beast.

As a woman in her early thirties, even with that average looking body of hers, Shirona Yui has been subjected to various kinds of stares from men and women alike over the years. Even then, none of those stares frightened her as much as the one currently locked on her. Her flight or fight instinct was literally screaming at her to flee while her body refused to even budge.

Taking in the expression of the woman before him, Wang Xu's playful smile reduced from the large playful one he had earlier to the more casual variant that he uses on a day-to-day basis.

By chance, if Wang Xu was currently in Immortal Era at this point, he would be receiving the following messages:

[Generating Skill...]

[Skill generation failed.]

[Generating Skill...]

[Skill generation failed.]

[Generating Skill...]

[Skill generated...]

[Generated skill: Predatory Gaze]