NEWS

Ranaan stepped out o the vehicle and opened the back door. "Master and madam are waiting for you at the mansion. They have an announcement to make."

The driver's face was cool as the breeze over a river. And like the wave in the lake gradually coming to and bringing stillness, Ares's heart returned to normal as he nodded and obediently boarded the car from the open door. Soon, Ranaan entered, and the car began the smooth but soundless ride in the middle of nature.

The reasons for Ares's quietness weren't because he was scared of what was waiting for him or thinking about Eirene.

The last time his parents sent someone to pick him up for an announcement was to inform him that his grandfather, who was living on his own in a different country, was kidnapped but escaped on his own and ended up in a hospital. And although the kidnappers were caught, they were increasing security around everyone, especially around Ares.

All this happened while he was still a high schooler, and there was no need to mention he was stared at weirdly when the bodyguards followed him everywhere, including to the school.

Looking back, the memory was both funny and worrying.

Ares wondered if his grandfather ended up in a hospital again. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he and his grandfather were very similar in places that did not need to be.

Like how they were both terrible with directions. Eat sweet stuff when they are frustrated. Or how they need to sleep before eleven at night, otherwise they would have a sickness to name a few.

Gradually, Ares's anxiety rose as they approached his house where his parents awaited.

As soon as the car was at the front door, Ranaan wordlessly unbuckled his seatbelt and readied to open it, but the boy was faster. He exited the car speedily and knocked on the front passenger seat window. "Where are my parents?"

The driver gave up on trying and rolled down the window. "They are on the second floor, living room."

"I see. Thank you for driving."

"It is my duty, young master." With that, Ares stepped away from the vehicle and let the man park the car in the garage.

And just as he turned to the house, he saw one of the maids, the maid that encouraged him to meet Eirene, standing with her head low in front of the open entrance. "Welcome back, young master."

"Good evening, Vee. Thank you. Ranaan told me they are at the second floor living room. Are they still there?"

"Yes," The maid stretched her arms unnoticeably to receive his shoulder bag but was still caught by Ares, who refused to let her carry it since he had arms. So, like always, she sighed a little disappointedly before she actually began leading him. "Will you follow me?"

"Of course." The boy answered and quietly followed her.

Not even their footsteps sounded in any part of the house.

He could barely hear the conversation between the maids in either the kitchen or dining room as if they were ghost whispers. The structure of the house and the wood used in various places made the building noiseless, almost unlively.

The unnecessarily spacious ceiling was brimmed with weird yet strangely enchanting designs as tall as spruce trees. Expensive-looking ginormous vases and sometimes paintings he didn't quite understand covered the walls.

Combined with a staircase that looked like it was stolen from a ballroom of a castle in a painting, the house was a dream of many, but not particularly to him.

Living in a place like this made him sympathetic towards the people cleaning them almost every day to keep them as neat as possible and presentable at all times. And also, it was just too big for him.

The lack of sound made him feel as if there wasn't anyone around him which ultimately led to him feeling lonely.$$$$$

"Have you eaten, sir?" Vee asked just as they reached the second floor.

Ares quickly replied, "Yes..." He then timidly continued, "I actually ate at Ms Queen's house..." Although he sounded timid on the outside, he had to curl his fingers tightly from making himself jump as if he was walking on lava.

The maid swiftly turned her head to him with an affectionate smile. "Is that so? I am very happy for you, sir."

He returned the smile with a brighter one. "It's all thanks to you and others who have encouraged me to go there. Otherwise, I would have never got to go there with my luck."

"You are exaggerating, young master. I'm sure one way or another, you would have found a way to visit her." And with that, they were standing in front of the living room door.

Vee knocked on the door softly, announced his presence opened the door for him before she disappeared.

Amidst the hushed living room, he saw his mother, Nicole, take her hand back from the table and lightly gesture to the sofa. "Have a seat." She must have just placed her tea cup back onto the small plate and was retracting her hand.

Without complaining, Ares approached his parents and took the empty seat. His mother wordlessly moved his teacup in front of him. "Thank you." He proceeded to take a sip before placing them on the table.

For a moment, there was absolutely nothing, until a "ghksxdjibv".

He and his mother simultaneously shifted their attention disappointed but understandingly, to the source of that noise that sounded as if there was a small construction site right next to them.

Under their gaze, his father, Cristian, nervously munched on the cookie he just took a bite. Unable to avert his eyes from his family, he slid his hand with the cookie back onto the plate but couldn't do it right on the first try and only succeeded on the third try.

The small round white ceramic plate made a slight clink sound when it came in contact with the medium-hard cookie, but the sound was no more.

Now, the room was filled with awkwardly munching and crushing sounds.

"Haaa..." Ares heard his mother's sigh which became all too familiar. "Honey, we are going to talk about an important topic. Why did you do something that took away the tension we just built up?" She sounded disappointed, but nonetheless, the boy knew what was going to follow next.

And just like he expected, in the next moment, his mother brushed the crumbles from the corner of his father's mouth while shaking her head and mumbling incoherently under her breath.

"Sorry..." His father timidly said and hurriedly chewed to swallow the piece and finally begin the conversation.

His mother waited for him to finish, and served him another round of tea before she carried on with grace as if the last moment totally didn't ruin the mood. "Xia's son," Xia was the name of Omal's mother. "Called me earlier today that you were visiting your friend on a countryside."

Ares nodded honestly, "That is true." Although the friend part was questionable, he didn't dig into it since he knew if he began wandering about her, his face would turn into the shade of a ripe strawberry.

"You won't be able to do that anymore." She nonchalantly told him.

He widened his eyes, mostly confused with a bit of shock, but there was always someone who showed a stronger reaction, his father.

Cristian snapped his neck to his wife with a mouth that hung open in shock. "Why?!" He asked what Ares exactly wanted to know. But when his mother answered him with an unfriendly glare, he seemed to remember whatever it was and sat right back with a couple of nods. "Ah... right."

The boy looked back and forth between his parents and settled his eyes on the person who had the higher chance of telling him. "Can I know why I'm not allowed to do that?" Yet, this time his predictions didn't exactly come true.

Before even a sound made out of his father's mouth, his mother answered calmly. "Oh, you are allowed. I'm simply saying that you won't be able to."

The once-averted eyes of Ares returned back to Cristian, hoping his father would add a few sentences that would clear away the fog around the answer.

His father seemed to get the sign and answered with a smile. "Congratulations. You'll start working with me. You'll be my secretary and assistant from tomorrow!"

----

"What happened to you?" Eric looked at him as if he was witnessing a squashed corpse of an insect bathing in its nasty guts and hesitantly held out a vanilla shake. "You look like me when I have my exams coming up, dead."

Ares turned to him like a sloth as he sipped on the vanilla shake his friend bought to cheer him up and massaged his facial muscles. The whole thing took twenty seconds before he answered with a weak smile. "Better now?"

"No..." His friend replied without a moment of hesitation and led him to sit on one of the benches under a tree in the courtyard of the university. "Are you really alright?"

Ares sipped the drink again unblinkingly as if in a trance and answered while looking at the birds playing on the grass. "I'd like to pretend that I am okay... I never knew my father's work was this hard... It's only been three weeks but I feel like I've finally had the taste of adulthood."

Beside him, he heard Eric laugh. "I can relate to that, one hundred per cent. During the first two years, you pack yourself with knowledge, but there isn't much place to express it. So when finally enrolled on the third year, I was excited to the moon and back, but what waited for me was hell.

"I work my ass off, but it's still not enough most of the time. Then I realised that I was swimming in a river flowing down when there was no need to. I was wasting my energy. So I decided to float and let it carry me. You'll eventually learn that."

Just as Eric smiled warmly at him and gave him a comforting but a little aggressive hug, the phone in Ares's pocket vibrated. His friend instantly gave a space for him to pick up but still linger around, especially after seeing that the caller was none other than Jaxon.

Ares began the call. "Hello."

"Hi." The man replied. He sounded a little rushed, or was he troubled? "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. How about you?"

He heard Jaxon a little fast breathing. "I'm doing good too..."

There was a short while of unwieldy quietness before Jaxon broke it down. "There is an update about the case. I figured you'd be curious."

Ares nodded and silently waited.

"Good news is that we are finally beginning the trial." The boy felt a sense of relief wash over him. Justice was going to be served at last.

But this piece of news was just the calm before the storm.

Jaxon took a quick breath before he continued, "Bad news is, the pilot, Benjamin Pucchino, the one who took the biggest role in the incident, is dead. He committed suicide this morning."