Chapter 8 _

"Mr. Roy? As in Roy Kim?" April whisper-shouted and got a pinch from Rose in response.

April re-adjusted her state of mind and calmed down. The pinch she received reminded her of her role as the Ice Queen's personal assistant. She couldn't afford to damage her boss' reputation by stargazing. There would be other opportunities for doing that later.

Rose observed as April calmed down before anyone could have noticed something was amiss and she gave an inward sigh. On usual days April was great at changing between her personas but this was an idol she had been chasing for a long time.

It would be very easy for a person with the greatest self-control to break down and April didn't really have great self-control. She was more of a spontaneous person. She acted on impulse and rarely thought of the consequences that would spring forth from her actions.

Raine was aware of what happened behind her but she continued to stare at Roy and behave as nothing happened. "Don't worry about it, Cindy. You may take your leave now."

The manager bowed once more to Raine, turned to bow to Roy then walked away. Raine finally took her eyes off Roy to glance at his companions. "I would have thought you could have waited till dinner to see me."

Roy scrunched his eyebrows and sneered. "I have no desire to meet with you."

"Really? then you wouldn't mind excusing me then. As you know, I have somewhere to be. A place where you should also have been heading to." Raine asserted as she took a step forward.

However, Roy stubbornly blocked her path and refused to give in to her. "Raine Elizabeth Peters! Stop playing games. I've spoken to Rachel."

Raine who was in a playful mood earlier lost all interest in trying to be amiable to him. She and he had always clashed with each other.

Since the moment he knew about her friendship with Rachel, he had always tried to push her buttons and there had never been a time he had not been successful.

After getting used to such repetitive provocation, she had made it a norm to be more proactive by instigating fights with him instead of waiting for him to start one.

However, she had tried being friendly because she didn't want to break the image they had engraved in their hearts not did she want him to lose face in front of strangers.

She had done her best to protect him but he had slandered her instead so she was going to back down anymore.

"Really? What's the correlation between that and me? and please, don't slander me. I have never and would never play games."

Roy returned Raine's glare with one of his own. Truthfully, he had understood why she had tried to be friendly. He wasn't blind after all. He had thought of replying nicely and asking for privacy but his mouth suddenly had a mind of its own. He was probably too frustrated and needed to find a scapegoat.

He had made some time off his busy schedule to come to represent his family's company in the business dinner organized for that night because he had wanted to go on a date with Rachel after.

Because of the nature of his job, he rarely had time to go on a date with Rachel. Moreover, he was about to shoot another movie and it would be for more than six months. He wouldn't be able to see her for more than half a year if he missed this night.

He could still endure his disappointment if that was all but he had pre-planned to propose officially to Rachel that night as well. It had taken him months to plan everything to his taste but all his perfect plans had crumbled in just an afternoon. Any sane human being would have been very frustrated as well.

His proposal plan had ended prematurely and to top it all, he couldn't meet with the person he had journeyed down to see. She told him he would be a distraction to her so he wasn't allowed to come near her office.

He had nearly run mad the instant she had told him so when he had called to remind her of their lunch together. Moreover, when he had heard that Raine had ordered her to work overtime and that it was her secretary who was going to attend the business dinner in her place, his rage knew no bounds.

He had had to pull over his car to prevent causing a road accident. Logically, he knew Raine wouldn't have told Rachel to work overtime if it hadn't been an emergency or if Rachel hadn't courted her own death but emotionally, he really wanted to kill her for disrupting his plans.

After calming down, he had lifted his head and noticed his surroundings. He wasn't far away from her restaurant. With that piece of information, he decided to have lunch and pack her favorite food for her. Even though he couldn't see her, he could care for her and be a bit content that she knew that he was always thinking about her.

Whenever he visited Bleü Raine, he always used the VIP room reserved for the owner of the restaurant. However, as he was about to go there, he had been stopped by the manager.

He knew there could have been only one reason for that and his pent-up frustration came back in full force. Though he spoke gently to the manager inwardly, his emotions were waging a war with his logic, and apparently based on what conspired when he had met with Raine at last, his emotions won the war.

"You know better than I do what the correlation is? You really know how to hit a person where it hurts." Roy laughed mockingly and Raine scrunched her eyebrows.

Raine couldn't understand the parables he was speaking. When did she provoke him? Was it because Rachel was working overtime?

"Really? It's good to know you've been hurt deeply. It's rare to get such a chance to hit you accurately. Like I've said before, I'm quite busy. Let's pick up this conversation another day."

Raine had used up all her patience and simply didn't care about whatever he was talking about. She would call Rachel later to know more about it but for now, he could steep in his hurt for all she cared.