*Slap*
"I am sorry." A simple apology was all he had. At least for now, Aree had no intention to explain it to Dan, his father.
Dan was glaring at him. The staff of the restaurant didn't know how to react. The kitchen chefs were already accustomed to the fiery temper of the head chef, but they never expected to see this. They turned to their mistress for the rescue only to find that she had no intention.
'What the hell had happened? Why the young master is getting get beaten? And it is not the mistress but the boss…'
"What are you doing uncle? He had done nothing wrong. He was trying to sav…" the mark of his teenage years was still present on his face but his brave words were silenced by his so-called uncle.
"Thank you Kolac, for bringing this idiot here. But you should go home. Sister must be worried." Dan's voice was as calm as it could be, but… 'Mother and uncle have the same temperament' and thinking about it he didn't say anything.
"The restaurant will be closed for the rest of the week. Xavier, take care of it." After Kolac left, thunder strikes.
"Yes, sir." The chief of staff received his order and left.
"Let's go home."
"Thank you for your good work." The staffs bowed in unison, as Dan and mistress left with Aree following them.
********
*Sigh*
Aree sat on his bed. The day was long and he was exhausted. This was the first time he had talked to Minki after he had reborn two years ago. The future took an unexpected turn as he had expected.
This was not the first time he had tried to change the future. He had done some experiment before. Sometimes it happened as he had remembered from the past life sometimes it didn't. Like the president of the country, the rise of companies like OOgle, Paple or the price of the tibcoin. No matter how much he had invested in those companies or buy the tibcoins, his effects were too little to change the future.
On the other hand, the event that was related to him directly, like learning martial arts, working in the restaurant or event like today, things can turn crazy very quickly.
"It doesn't matter, as long as she is happy. In this life, for sure I will make her mine. Otherwise… I won't let her die again." From the bookshelf, he took out the dairy.
The diary of the future past, the story of the past life has been documented in the very dairy on the first night he had woken up. To begin with, he had no recollection of time like today. In the last life, he didn't know her around now. All this story, he had heard from Minki in the latter years. When he had everything but her, and she had already lost her position, betrayed by her closed one was on the verge of the collapse.
"They are going to look for a private tutor for her and if everything happens according to the past then we will meet within a month. You have nothing to worry, thi…" the mumble tangled, the dream of a hopeful future lost to fatigue. Aree fell asleep clutching the book close to his heart. It read…
I was seventeen when I first met her. The eyes, those never looked up, the lips never smiled, she was sitting in the room in the white as her nanny led me to her room.
After a general introduction, the nanny left. I took the seat. Money was never a problem for my family. My father was the head chef of one of the Michelin starred restaurant that he had owned, mother was the director of her parental company. So I was a little surprised when I was forced by mother to tutor someone who was just two standard below me.
But the first day revealed it all. It was the child of Arihat. Arihat Motors was one of the top companies in the country, so it was no wonder why I was forced. On top of that, she was so lazy that she never left the bed. It was hard to study like that but I had to teach her like that.
It was boring to the point that I argued with mother only to get beaten a few weeks later and got threatened. It was the very thing that changed it.
She stole glances of my bruised face from time to time. I was angry. She was the reason why I was beaten so...
"What are you looking at? Yes, I got beaten by my mother at this age. Do you want to laugh? Then laugh, it doesn't matter to me." I shouted but it had a different effect. For the first time, she came off the bed. My eyes followed her movement, as she soon returns with the first-aid box.
'Is she being sarcastic?' I relegated the thought as soon I looked at her face. It was too close to me as she put the ointment on the edge of my lip.
I don't know why? I was shocked, maybe because I was being sympathized by a girl for the first time in my life, or from the surprising words she spoke.
"I know."
"What do you know?" I asked.
"It is painful. How much it hurts when you get beaten."
"You know? Did you get beaten?"
Her hand quivered, stopped an inch away from my lips. Her eyes were quick to look away. She turned and, "You should leave. I am not feeling well."
I didn't ask anything, left without a word. No matter how much I want to change that moment I couldn't. Only if…
Life was the same afterward, the only thing that had changed was my feeling. I didn't know it whether it was simple 'like' like or infatuation, it developed in one-sided love in the next three years. I never confessed. I never had the guts too, but I happy that I could see her. I was in third years in university, she left to study abroad.
Next time I met her, fifteen years had already passed. I heard about her from time to time with names like 'Youngest influential people of the country' and '34th influential people of the world'. I didn't know whether I was happy or jealous but life went on. The day was like any other, I saw her again. Times had changed so did the name. 'The Fallen Queen.'
***********
"Young master, we will be opened soon." Xavier calm voice woke Aree up. The seafood pasta had already gone cold under the mistreatment of a careless fork. "Should I heat it up?"
Aree poured down the cold pasta without replying. He had no urge of eating, so whether cold or hot it didn't matter. Taking the empty plate to the kitchen, he went to change from school uniform to work.
Money is not a problem, with the pocket money from his parents he didn't need to work if he wants to spend the life of luxury but… In the last life, all he did was to study, and a professor of economics was the end result of that. For a renowned professor like him, it won't be a problem to know where to invest and when, what was a glaring problem was the money. Like he knows a tibcoin, which is very below one dollar will rise to its peaks just after 7 to 8 years, increasing it's values more than 100,000 times and with the amount he had invested for the last two years it won't be surprising if he got inducted in the list of…
But there wasn't an ounce of a smile on his face. Each time he looked at the clock it got darker.
'Mother should have asked me to tutor her two months ago, but…'
"What are you daydreaming about? Get ready soon." It was Dan this time.
"Dad, will you regret if you do something good for others and due to that something bad happen to you?"
It was unexpected, but not surprising for Dan. It was not the first time either. Dan cleared his throat, "Do you regret it?"
Aree didn't know how to answer. He had felt he had returned to save her but now…
"Looks like you regret it. Then it is not good." Dan voice confirmed his thought. Aree too had felt that, but "But if you did something to get something in return then what you have done was not for others but for yourself and when you do something for yourself then…" Dan stopped in confusion as Aree left the room in a daze.
'Dad is right. I should be happy. What I have done, it is for her good, she never loved me not in last nor in this life. I shouldn't impose my obsession on her. I should…' Aree had turned into a statue as soon as he returned to the floor.
The restaurant had opened and the one who came in was Minki. They looked at each other at the same time and was stunned still.
"Sister, aren't you going to get in?" A child dressed in the latest trend, similar in height to Minki enquired from behind.
"No, no. It is nothing. Let's go in." Minki stole another glance of Aree before following her party to the table.