For a while

"I'm sure you've heard about the latest already," Matthew suddenly stated just as Ryan was almost reaching out to take the USB drive from the USB port in the mini laptop. Ryan retracted his hand and tilted his face to look at him, totally unaware of what he was asking.

"What's it about?"

"The CEO of Titan Technology, John Ruben. He's headlining the news again, this time with a different storyline..."

Ryan shrugged. "What about him?"

"He's in the hospital,"

"Okay?" he said, trying to sound uninterested whereas he was not.

Matthew narrowed his golden brown eyes as he stared at the obviously oblivion man. "This is no new news, Ryan. It came out yesterday, making waves as a trend. Why are you acting like you don't know about it?"

"Well, I don't. If I do, I definitely wouldn't be acting this way. Do you really think I'm feigning an act?"

Matthew looked at him with keen interest. "When last did you surf the internet?"

Ryan ruminated on it for a second. "Two days ago?" His reply sounded more like a question than an answer.

"I knew it!" Matthew's voice came out a bit loud as he exclaimed, disturbing the peace of the lady working beside him as she shook her head in annoyance.

The man was confused. He didn't understand what Matthew was driving at, not even what he was trying to say. "What do you know?"

"Let's set the picture straight..." Matthew began to say.

"What picture are you trying to set straight, Matthew?" he tried to cut him off.

Matthew ignored him and continued. "The last time you surfed the internet was two days ago which was a Friday, and apparently, you weren't here throughout yesterday. I'll put it this way, you probably suffered from a hangover yesterday... am I right?"

He arched his brows as he awaited a reply from Ryan who stared confusingly at him. Seeing there wasn't going to be a reply, he continued.

"Now, how did I get to this? Well, I remember vividly that you said you were going on a date with Lily on Friday night which then leads to one basic thing—" His right index finger was raised as an indication, "—you guys did the tiny little thing that involves a man and a woman."

He finished his supposed analysis about the situation and revealed a look of satisfaction which wasn't obviously well received by the other party.

Ryan watched him ramble on and on. As he spouted the last 'clear' nonsense out of his mouth, he reacted to it. "What has that got to do with what is on ground?"

"A whole lot, and I'll explain it to your understanding," Matthew lowered his voice after. "You clearly stated that it's been a while you surfed the internet, and my best guess is because you went on a date which probably led to you suffering a hangover and maybe before that, a use of manpower to go through a physical activity, which I'm pretty sure you did go through..."

"Was it even a date...?" Ryan muttered with a sneer as he shook his head alongside.

"You see... I'm right," A tinge of pride could be heard from Matthew's voice as he spoke.

"If only you could analyse appropriate matters, i definitely would have commended you for a job well done,"

"Are you calling me 'stupid'?" Matthew sheepishly glared at him.

He relaxed his back on the chair. "What other word sounds more... befitting?"

Megan suddenly turned to look at the two, unable to control herself any longer. What sort of men does she work with? "Can you guys please bring your voices down? If you are not interested in working, I am,"

Matthew turned his face to her direction. "We would love to, but Nah!"

A curve parted the lady's lips as she revealed a wicked smile. She raised up her left hand and gave a thumbs up. —'It's coming...' Matthew mentally noted—. Immediately, she flipped it over to the middle finger and turned her gaze back to the system.

"Crap!" Matthew muttered silently. Turning his face back to Ryan's direction, he asked him a question, "Do you have any idea on what type of sickness hit John Ruben?"

Ryan immediately deepened his eyebrows. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"The last time I checked, no one else has a complete detailed information regarding John Ruben's profile in this organization asides you. So, of course, you should have an idea about his sickness... maybe it's one he's occasionally battling with," Matthew reasoned.

Sitting upright, the man eventually motioned to take out the USB drive from the mini laptop's USB port. He attached it to the port of the desktop's system unit after powering it on, ready to commence his work soon enough. As he waited for the monitor to power on, he replied Matthew's inquiry.

"I don't know of any long-term sickness he's battling with, but I'm sure glad that the minor problem he has will have an effect on his further plans for the AI advancement project... even though it's going to be for a while,"

"When is the project meant to commence?"

He turned to face Matthew and replied with one word, "Tomorrow."

Matthew smirked. "Surely, I know you'd be glad about it."

The system eventually came on, revealing a bright light with the 'welcome' inscription. He pressed the 'enter' button on the keyboard and inputted a ten-letter password before hitting the 'enter' button again.

"Although, I don't know what the AI advancement project is all about, I believe it has something to do with human intelligence plagiarizm,"

"And that, you don't wish to happen right?"

He nodded in response. "You know that already."

Picking up the styrofoam cup, he gulped down half the content before staring at Matthew again, asking a question far away from the initial discussion. "By the way, where's Cole?"

Matthew made use of his chin to lead him to the direction of the entrance. He turned his gaze to where Matthew was pointing at and he could see a man walking towards their desk. A five-eight white-skinned man, dressed in a white long sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of black pants, having a pair of recommended spectacles on. Through the lenses of the spectacles, a pair of black eyes could be seen underneath thin eyebrows.

The man was Cole O'Leary, third assistant chief editor.

A frown was plastered on the man's broad face as he approached Ryan's desk and stared with an unconcealed disdain. "Good morning." He greeted, making it sound like a forced statement.

"Good morning... is something wrong?" Ryan questioned, unfazed by the other party's look of disdain. He was already used to the man's cold attitude around him.

"The director wants to see you." The man replied straightforwardly.

"Okay,"

Ryan immediately stood up from his seat in attempt to leave but suddenly sat back down to 'sleep' the system before standing up again.

.....

7:58 pm.

The man arrived in front of a two bedroom apartment in a lonesome area — The Palmist, after grocery shopping. This area was a part of the city, located in the outskirts. The thing most notable about this area was the peace and quiet which was beneficial for aged people. Presently, 70% of the occupants of this area were either aged or retired, trying to enjoy a quiet life.

He stepped out of his car with a brown paper bag in hand and locked the door before going up through the balcony to the entrance of the apartment, ringing the doorbell twice to alert the apartment's occupant.

"Come in, the door is open," A voice from inside the apartment came into hearing. Taking the invitation, he held the door knob and gave a little push to the door before walking into the apartment.

The smell of newly polished furniture and air filter greeted the man's nostrils as he entered into the squeaky clean medium-sized interior of the apartment's living room. Sets of leather patterned sofas surrounded a wooden table, which might seem cheap but is definitely not. A mounted plasma TV currently playing a wildlife documentary was near a lengthy wooden cupboard which housed various books stacked in different places.

He made his way to a single sofa and sat on it, placing the paper bag beside him. He looked around as he waited for the hostess of the house to show up. Apart from a few changes, the living room still looked the same to him despite the passing of different years.

Just then, an average height woman's view came into existence. The woman, dressed in a casual knee-length dress with a scarf tied on her head, had a bowl being carried with both hands in a glove as she just came out of what seems to be a kitchen. Her face, which was staring down at the hot bowl in her hands, was raised up as she landed her gaze on the man sitting on one of the single sofa.

"Ryan!" she exclaimed... half-surprised, half-annoyed.

The man revealed a wide grin on his face as he stood up from the sofa. "Mom..."