Friends Come First
Lisa watched as Tom saw Amanda to her door.
She hadn't wanted to look but she didn't know why she kept staring at the both of them.
'Amanda Park' She smirked. "Interesting" She muttered to herself when she saw Amanda pull Tom into a hug.
Tom was as stiff as a statue but he quickly recovered himself and tried to hug her back.
She saw him wince in pain when he stretched his hands and she was able to guess that he still felt the pain from earlier.
'Just a little fall and he's already like that. Is he that weak? How annoying' She complained to herself and started the car when she saw him coming.
As Tom opened the back seat to get inside, Lisa stared at Amanda who was also looking at her.
Amanda's stare turned into a dark glare but soon changed to a smile when Tom waved her from the car.
"Where to?" Lisa asked as she drove out of the compound.
"My place." He answered before closing his eyes to relax.
The event of the whole day replayed in his head over and over again.
Till this moment, he still could not understand what happened back then in the car park.
He also did not know why he had held her hand and was trying to pull her.
What had gotten over him?
What had he intended to achieve by doing so?
Why was he acting like a sick teenager who had a crush on a girl and was jealous because she liked someone else?
He cringed at the thought. There was no way he liked Germany. No Freaking Way!
He opened his eyes and looked at her. He would give her the credit for being so professional and good at her job. She always did her job and minded her business.
"Germany?" He called her gently.
"Yes Sir?" She responded professionally, aost immediately.
He paused, not knowing what to say. He thought he should apologize for holding her earlier but it was too embarrassing for him. He also didn't want to remember how she had threw him over her shoulders.
"I....I wanted to tell you that...." He paused.
"That is....Mrs Lu is on a sick leave." Thankfully, he remembered something he could use to bail himself out.
"She called in last night to say she was sick so I gave her a week off. It means we'd have to fix our stuff on our own for the meantime." He explained further.
'Fix?' Lisa was a bit confused.
Did he mean she would have to clean her own room for now, wash her own clothes and cook her own meal?
She was never used to that lifestyle. Even while staying at the base, they had special cleaners who handled everything but they always knew where to stop. Since she was working for the Hwangs as Tom's bodyguard, there was a clause in the contract which stated that she would do nothing but serve as his bodyguard. No cleaning, no chores. They had said it was an 'extra benefit' but she wasn't stupid. She knew how it worked.
They wanted to indirectly spy on her and also to know whether she was hiding anything inside her room.
But now that the maid was unavailable, how was she supposed to always go out to the restaurant when she had to be stuck with Tom for every hour?
Or would it make sense for them to always have takeouts?
Aside from that, she couldn't go out always because it was risky for her. There were a lot of people searching for her and the police were not excluded from the list. She couldn't always trust her disguise to keep her safe outside.
As much as she hated to converse with him, she needed to be sure.
"Including feeding?"
Tom was surprised to hear her question. It was rare for her to ever ask him anything.
"Yes. We'd have to fix our own meal." He relaxed back and closed his eyes.
Lisa thought about explaining to him that there was nothing like 'we' because she didn't know the things to mix together in order to create an edible meal at the end. But she decided to let it slide for now.
She could always make do of the excuse that she was not hungry. It was not as if she wasn't used to starving. Besides, they were chocolates and cookies inside the fridge in the kitchen.
"We're here." She informed him as the car slowed down.
He nodded. Immediately he got down, he noticed that his two friends were already waiting for him outside— Joel and Lisa.
"You delayed." Anna was the first to complain.
"I had to drop off Amanda first. You both should have waited inside."
"Never mind. We just got here a few minutes back." Joel added as he moved closer to where Tom was standing.
His eyes moved to Lisa who was standing beside Tom.
"You know you're supposed to protect him and not hurt him. What was that stunt you pulled back there?" He scolded her harshly.
"You're lucky Mr Hwang didn't hear about it, and let's hope no other nosy reporter captured that moment." Joel paused and looked at Anna while he signalled for her to say something.
Tom on the other hand looked at Joel in surprise. He wondered what was suddenly up with him that he was scolding Germany. Who gave him the right to do so?
Anna took cue and looked at Lisa also.
"You should be careful. Something like that should not happen in public again. First, you should be sure no one is around before you suddenly flip him off your—"
"Anna!" Joel called her in disbelief.
Lisa simply looked at the both of them with a straight face. She didn't see any reason why she should even indulge them when she wasn't working for them. If Tom had not been standing there, she would have walked out on them a long time ago. And if Tom wasn't their friend, then it would have been over for them— especially that foulmouthed Joel.
"Was this the reason you both came here?" Tom raised his brow to look at his friends.
"Part of it." Joel admitted.
Tom sighed before turning to look at Lisa.
"You should go rest inside. I'll order something for us to eat for now."
Lisa bowed curtly and immediately excused herself to go inside.
Tom's eyes followed her. When he turned to look at his friends after she was no where I'm sight, he noticed that Joel's jaws were dropped as he looked at him with agape mouth.
"Is she a bodyguard or a princess?" Joel asked suspiciously.
"I'm surprised you're still surprised by now." Anna added before turning to Tom. "Let's go to the hospital. And you better hurry because I do not have all day."
"Show off! Tell everyone you have a date and we're the single ones" Joel added with a eye roll.
Anna giggled before spreading her arms wide and raised her head to say loudly "EVERYBODY I HAVE A DATE AND MY TWO OLD BEST FRIENDS ARE STILL SINGLE!"
"What? Old?" Joel looked at her with a frown.
"You both always look for an excuse to pick on each other. And.....I am not going to the hospital." Tom stated bluntly.
"Oh yes you will. Because it's a legit way for you to get closer to Germany." Anna added.
"Closer to Germany?" Tom's brows wrinkled. "Did I say I wanted to get closer to her?"
After a little pause, he added "But let me hear it."
Joel smiled knowingly before reminding them that it was his idea.
"Let's just go to the hospital." Anna added impatiently but received a suspicious look from Tom.
"Why should I believe you want to help me make Germany get closer to me? You've always been opposing me." He added while giving her a skeptical look.
Anna hissed. "Well, friends come first. And I'm sure I'll be needing your favour in the future. So start moving."