I was too stunned to speak. I have never thought that he had been through something like that. I looked at him as I swallow the food awkwardly. Now that we have come to this topic, I don't think I could enjoy the food anymore.
"I'm sorry about that." I apologized.
"It's okay, It's just that.." he looked at me. "You look exactly like her," he said.
I don't know how to feel about what he's saying right now. I don't know how I should react to him telling me I look exactly like his dead sister. Though I don't want to dig into that topic deeper, I continued eating. But then, he started talking about it.
"I was 12 when he died. It's dad's fault." he suddenly told me. I looked up. I don't want to admit it but I want to know how his father treats them. He has been connected with the demons all this time and I don't know if he knew. "She had asthma, and she was locked in a room while Mom was away. I was away for school and when I came back, the maids told me she was locked in a room. Dad did it. I looked for a key and when I opened the room.."
He stopped and I already know what happened. I can hear the bitterness in his tone and the anger in his eyes. He didn't like what happened and he doesn't seem to have forgiven his dad after that.
"If I have gone back home a little sooner--"
"Don't blame yourself," I told him immediately. His eyes went from the glass of water on to mine. "It's not your fault. You didn't know." I told him.
It's cruel. And I feel very mad about it. How could a father do the to his own daughter? They knew she had asthma but locked her anyway. I don't know who else to blame about it other than the father himself, Liam Wong.
I want to tell him that so badly but I can't.
Suddenly, he chuckled and looked back to the glass of water again. "And everything went crazy after that, My parents got divorced and years later, my mom committed suicide."
I got even madder when I heard that. "I'm sorry."
The atmosphere went very awkward and sad. I felt very sorry for him losing 2 important women in his life because of his father's mistakes. If I were in his position, I would never talk to my dad again.
"But it's fine now," he said with a bright but empty smile. You'll already know that he doesn't mean it. "I just remembered her because you look like her. You'll look more similar if you'd put a red ribbon hair clip on your hair like how she supposed to." he smiled.
red ribbon hair clip? I think I saw one earlier.
The topic was changed, he asked a lot about my course and told me about how he managed to pass the course easily. That's when I found out that he was a very smart student. He's 7 years older than me but he talks to me like we were about the same age. He doesn't even look old at all.
He seemed to be a nice person to me now. Given that he suffered a lot, he can still put a smile on his face. But I am not really convinced it's a real one though.
After eating, he paid the bills and we went out. "Uhm, can you come with me for a sec?" I asked him. He looked confused for a second.
"Only if you can-- but if you still have something to do--"
"Alright." he smiled.
"No, you might be very busy, it's fine for me.' I lied though it's for him though.
"No, it's alright. I am totally free today," he told me.
We walked towards the shoes stall where I bought these customized shoes for Leigh.
The next stall is a hair accessory stall. I knew I saw a red ribbon here earlier and I am quite sure about it. I looked at him and he was looking at the other stalls. I don't know what he's staring at but I immediately looked for that red ribbon and finally saw it. I grabbed it and put it on my hair.
I don't know where to put it. Right or left? I sighed and chose the right side. I glanced at the mirror and checked if I look fine and immediately went back to him.
"Hey," I called him. He looked at something for a sec and looked at me. He looked as if his world stopped for a sec. He looked very surprised. I can see the longing in his eyes. "Is this fine?" I asked awkwardly.
I don't know why I am doing this but I just feel like I want to. I can treat this as a payback for the dinner.
I looked at him and his reaction was priceless. "You look exactly like her." He said and raised his hand and messed my hair gently. My heartfelt warmth about it. "Thanks," he said. And finally, I saw him smile for real for the first time.
"Lucas," the smile faded when someone called and my eyes almost popped out when I saw who it is.
Alexander?
This is not good. He saw him touching my hair just now. I stepped back when he started walking towards us. I pulled the clip off and hid it in my hand.
"OH, you came," Lucas said, His hands are in his pocket when he reached us. He looked at me and looked at Lucas.
I stepped back and acted as if I am going back to the stall to buy the ribbon. I already put it on my hair, it'd be embarrassing not to buy it now. "This is Sky," suddenly, Lucas introduced me to him.
"Alexander," Alexander introduced himself and raised his hand. I am supposed to take it.
"Sky," I said and took his hand.
'You're going to explain about this later' I heard him say in my head again.
Looks like I'm in trouble. But I just saw him here earlier, I never thought I'd see him here. We just ate dinner because he insisted and I was just giving him a little present. I wanted to explain it now but I know I CAN'T.
We shook hands and I immediately let go of my hand. "I'll go pay for this first, excuse me," I said and went back to the stall. The lady looked at me as if she just thought I'm going to go with the ribbon without paying. I smiled at her awkwardly and paid a dollar for the red ribbon.
I went back to them and Lucas is now on his phone. "Alright, alright. I'm coming now," he said and hang up the phone. "I really need to go. Let's talk some other time. Can you drop her off?" Lucas asked Alexander and pointed at me.
"N-no, I'm fine. I can walk home." ooops wrong choice of words.
"Walk? No, it's dark already. You can't walk alone. Let Alexander take you home." he insisted.
'I'm okay, I'll take the cab then." I insisted too.
"Even cabs are dangerous nowadays. Let him drop you off. It's okay. Right Alexander?' he asked and looked at Alexander who emotionlessly hummed 'yes'. "Alright, I'm going to leave her to you then. I'm going now. Goodbye, Sky. Thanks." he said and patted my head a little.
"Uhh-- goodbye," I said. He smiled widely, a real one, and left.
I looked at him as he disappear from my eyesight and when I looked back at Alexander, I already know he was going to ask me about what happened.
"I just saw him here, I promise," I told him before he asks me. "We ate and that's it."
"And what about that scene that I saw when I got here?' he asked me as if he's already judging me. I don't know how to explain to him why I did that.
"That's not it, It's just--" I can't explain. "Don't put malice on it, okay?" I told him.
"TSS," he said and started walking. I immediately walked faster to catch up to him.
'I'm going to walk home. It's fine. You don't need to take me home." I told him but he didn't even bother to answer. 'Hey," I called him.
I followed him and he lead me to a car. "You own a car?" I asked. A BMW? How did he get this?
"Get in, I won't open the door for you," he said. As expected from the Prince of Armania.
I opened the door on the backseat and was about to get in "Front seat, idiot," he told me. My mouth fell open. I immediately went to the front seat and opened the door.
"Did you just call me 'idiot'?" I asked him when I got inside. He sighed and started driving.
And he even know how to drive. There seems to be a lot of changes since 3 years ago. I thought the ride is not going to be long but the traffic made it longer. I sighed and opened my phone. A message from our messenger group chat popped out from my notification. I clicked it and Leslie sent a link.
A MAN WITH SUPERPOWERS? the article said.
[THIS LOOKS REAL OMG]
Leslie sends a lot of links in our group chat. Most of them are just random videos of stupid stuff. Since I don't know what else to do, I clicked the link.
There's a video. A video of a man in a black hood. It's in a silent place. It's from a CCTV camera. The man was walking on the streets and suddenly, he moved his hand and fire started to crawl all over the place.
WHAT? THEN THIS MUST BE EDITED.
["It all happened before the fire started, the man is the cause of the fire. That is the only thing that my CCTV has caught. There is no way it's edited, look at my shop and the shops around it, they're all burned down."]
What? If Blaze was on Earth, I would've thought this was him. But there were photos of a burned-out fire. The fire must be real.
The hand movements were accurate. But this could be just someone who took advantage of the fire to make fake news. I rolled my eyes and didn't believe the article.
I sighed and turned the phone off. I looked up at him as he drives emotionlessly. "Did you know about Lucas' sister?" I asked him all of a sudden. I didn't even think about it.
"Lara?" I was quite surprised that he knew.
"You know her?"
"Yeah, but I never saw her, they said she's always inside their house. She can't get out."
'What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"I wasn't even able to see her when I visited their house once. She's only in her room that time."
"Wasn't she dead?" I asked, confused.
"What do you mean?" he asked me, confused too. Was it another sister? he never told me whether he had another sister or something.
"He told me earlier that his little sister died when he was 12," I said.
"I didn't know about that, He never told me about a dead sister," he said.
"I-I see," I said resting my back on the backrest.
So he had another sister. Lara huh?
"Lara had asthma, it's bad that she can no longer get out."
I was confused again. "So Lara was the one with asthma? The dead on had asthma too." I said.
He looked at me and I looked at him confused. What does this mean?
---------------------
3rd PERSON'S POV
Lucas patted his sister's head and put the red ribbon on her hair properly. He smiled and looked at her sister's beautiful face. "I'll be back tomorrow. Don't try to go out of the house again, okay?" he told her. She's gone weak after going far from the house for a few minutes.
She can no longer stand or move her hand. She's lying on the bed looking weak and pitiful. It broke Lucas' heart. He felt like there was something in his throat that he can't even talk properly. He wanted to cry it all in front of her sister.
Lara smiled and felt the relief of her brother's hand caressing her hair. "I'll be back. I have a lot of work to do. Don't do it again okay?" he asked her sister. It's almost a plea. He kissed her on the cheek and she nodded slowly. Her poor sister cannot even talk.
He went out of her sister's darkroom that is only lit up by the light from a glowing stone that he had no idea where his dad got from.
He immediately barged into his father's office. He was greeted by the guards.
Anger at his father began to take over his whole body he went and tried to attach his father. But the guards stopped him. He began to curse his father on top of his lungs and scream with all that he's got. He's crying and begged his father to stop now.
But all Liam Wong did was to continue writing on his paper and ignored his son's plea