WAITING

Yep. Confirmed. He was driving her nuts. Or more specifically, reversing her mental age really fast.

Eirene looked down at her lap. Thankfully, she didn't tie up her hair as she thought of in the morning.

In the afternoon sunshine, her long, thick, black hair shone as she concealed her face behind it from the boy. He was silent. She didn't feel any pressure from him in that silence. Just as he said, he held back. She wondered if it was for himself or for her, but that didn't matter.

"...Yeah..." She muttered, almost coming out as an inaudible sigh. "Thank you..."

"I didn't particularly say anything special, but I'm more than happy to receive it. You're welcome."

Eirene peeked through her hair strands and found Ares's sunny smile directed at her, although he couldn't see her face.

She didn't know how to reply to that and chose to secretly watch him Moments later, his smile softened, and she thought he was finally going to look away from her, but she was wrong. Instead, the smile turned tender and dear. It was as if he was gazing at a... loved one.

All of a sudden, she could picture him next to her under the bright sun, drinking tea on rocking chairs and gazing at children playing around them. He followed those children's movements with the same eyes he had on her right now.

Somehow Eirene felt this was more like a memory instead of imaginary like they had already experienced it, and she was just revisiting her memories.

The actress faded back into reality and still found Ares gazing at her. His smile had changed again, and this time, it was more joyful and sweet.

Just as the atmosphere was getting pleasant, a knock on the door snapped Eirene's head back up. She didn't know if it was Jaxon or Theia, but they shared a common thing with her. She wasn't going to let any of them show her weakness.

----

"Mum?" The little girl with the fiery red glasses entered the room unsuspectingly. But when she settled her eyes on him, the muscle around her lips twitched.

But Theia didn't waste any moment on him and quickly pushed her glasses back and asked cutely. "Can you help me with my music homework?"

Ares's heart was beating to its limit.

He thought his heart was already working overtime and ready to take a vacation when he was with Eirene, but who knew having two Ms Queens in the same room could worsen the problem? Everyone other than him.

It was like his heart was a metronome and was hitting prestissimo. He knew if Mr Queen, Eirene's older brother, came, his heart and body won't make it.

Unfortunate or not, just as Ares was going to excuse himself out of the room from all the hostility Theia was emanating, his eyes were captured by those of the actress.

Words stopped coming out of the girl's mouth as she noticed her mother was no longer paying attention to her but to the peasant she didn't like.

For a second, Ares was convinced the girl was an owl or used to be an owl in her past life. He saw her rotate her neck 360 degrees with eyes that rained drops of venomous daggers.

'Oh, no. Help me.'

Or was she a Medusa?

His movements were stoned, and the only thing he could do was keep on beating his fragile heart.

Just then, a saviour showed up.

Jaxon popped his head from the other side of the door after knocking. "I see you having fun."

Ares wanted to ask what made him think that, but the manager was already continuing his sentence.

"There is someone at the office requesting to meet me today. I gotta go, but I'll probably make it back for dinner. Later amigos."

----

As soon as Jaxon opened the door upon arriving at his office, he saw a silhouette of a woman standing up in the twilight.

Why was she sitting in the dark? Alone?

He stepped into the dark, and his fingers flicked the light switch near the hatstand. He squinted from the sudden light, but it seemed that didn't happen for the other.

Just as Jaxon adjusted to the sudden change, he could finally recognise the woman standing there in all nervousness. "You are..."

"Hello..." She answered. She was dressed in white, making her look very foreign in the brown-based office. But that wasn't his first thought. It was the bandage on her forehead which was more than enough to make him remember.

Jaxon smiled and gestured to the seat as he walked over and sat on the other side of his desk. Soon after, a knock came, and another figure entered the room with a tray of hot tea.

"You are finally here," said Viorel, closing the door behind him.

"I am." The manager replied. "Are you that left this lady here alone without any lights?"

Before the other could answer, the woman spoke. "I... asked to be left like this."

"I see." Jaxon nodded and quietly waited for his friend to finish with the drinks. Unexpectedly or not, Viorel didn't go out of the room once he was done and took a seat directly next to the woman and smiling right at him. "You are staying."

Viorel only raised his brows in confirmation and relaxingly sipped on his tea.

The manager looked at the woman and found her looking back at him with a confused yet nervous expression. "Is it okay if he stays?"

Her eyes moved back and forth between the two men until Viorel quietly placed his teacup back on the table in between them and elegantly but dominantly crossed his legs. "I am Eirene's brother, Viorel Queen. May I stay here."

The way the poor woman nodded without being able to speak a word made Jaxon feel pity for her, but it wasn't as if he didn't understand why his friend was doing that. After all, she was the person that made Eirene wear the fifteen bombs around her neck.

So he did the only thing that could help the situation. Change the damn focus.

"Ahem." He first exaggeratedly coughed as if he had swallowed a ball of cat fur, which worked undoubtedly worked and smiled at the woman, now concentrated on him. "If I am not mistaken, you are Valentina Blacksmith. Yes or no?"

The woman, Valentina, nodded in answer.

"What brings you here?" Jaxon consciously tried to speak in a soft tone to not make her more intimidated than she already was by Viorel and flashed a friendly smile.

The woman licked her lips and took a breath, but that didn't stop the trembling at her shoulders. "I came here to apologise."

"Now?" Viorel sharply asked.

"Hey." Jaxon gave a look, but his friend looked back at him with a 'what?' face.

Valentina lowered her face. Her cheekbones cast shadows over her fatless cheeks, making her appear ten years older. "You are right, and there is no excuse for that. I regret what I did... I am terribly sorry."

Silence flowed, not only between the three but to the area around the building. The wind didn't howl. The owls didn't hoot. The trees refused to gossip. The animals decided to stay in their nest. All these became a big part of the eery muteness.

"Well," In a world with almost zero noise, Jaxon's voice sounded louder than a clap of thunder and clear as the sky over a desert. "She is not here at the moment, and I can't speak on her behalf. But I promise to pass on that message."

Tears flowed out of Valentina's eyes as she nodded to his words. Unsuprressible sobs escaped from her chapped lips, which then took over the quietness.

Jaxon sat there in awkwardness until he remembered the thing that bothered him, even in his sleep. Ignoring Viorel, who was looking at him suspiciously, he activated his computer and typed a couple of words.

After he found what he wanted to show, without wasting a second, he flipped the computer and lightly tapped on the shoulder of the snivelling woman. "I'm sorry to talk to you in a moment by this, but I need your help."

Valentina instantly straightened her back and nodded. Her tears were nowhere to be seen as she had wiped them with her beige handkerchief. "Sure. Anything."

"Great." With that, Jaxon pointed at the man on the screen. "Do you by any chance remember him? He was one of us." All three understood what he meant, the victims of the hijacking.

Valentina took one glance at the vividly blue-eyed man, supposedly Bob Smith and hastily nodded. "I remember him. He was one of us... He was there... sat next to me."

----

"Thank you for visiting me. For coming all the way here."

"It's alright." Ares answered with a smile.

He and Eirene were standing outside her house gate, lit by the stars and the moon and the warm orange lights of the garden lamps. It looked like they were the centre of a river of lanterns.

The boy continued, "I had fun and I am really glad that you are alive." he saw the actress stone when he said those words as if they reminded her of something. But in the next second, a strong wind passed in between them.

Eirene, who only wore a light cardigan over her pyjamas, shivered uncontrollably as she frowned ever so lightly.

Ares went blank at that moment, and the next thing he knew, the actress was no longer in his sight. Rather, in his arms.

Now was forever.

He forgot how to breathe or think.

The only thing that ran through his mind was how feeble she felt. How she appeared and carried herself was the opposite of what was going on with her body.

Like a volcano erupting in movies, Ares sprung himself back from the actress. It was as if a rabbit met a fox. "Uhhh..."

He could feel himself getting hot and his brain filling up with countless errors. Eirene's face was the perfect definition of confusion.

"I am so sorry!" He apologised while not knowing what to do with his arms that touched her. "I meant... to give you this." He hastily removed his outer coat and placed them over her shoulders. In a daze, he half-forced her back to the entrance of the house. "Thank you. Good night. Please tell your daughter her cooking was incredible. Please do not push your self and have a good rest. Good night. Bye."

Ares couldn't look into her eyes and as soon as he finished greeting her, he escaped from there like an arrow being shot. He didn't even wait for Eirene's reply. He was too embarrassed.

He wanted to scream his frustrations out as soon as he was far away from the house, but his plan was demolished as soon as the familiar black car appeared in front of him.

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."