"Mmm…" Vale groaned when he slowly began to wake up. He had stayed up late to work on some tasks and must have fallen asleep right at his desk some time later.
Vale massaged the back of his neck which understandably hurt after sleeping in an awkward position for hours. As he stretched and straightened up in the chair, a blanket slipped off his shoulders. Noticing it, Vale smiled.
'Jeremy must have put it on me when he woke up.'
Seeing that his desk was a mess, Vale began to stack up and keep away the notes he had made the previous night into one of the drawers of the desk. In some ways, he was old- fashioned; for he preferred hard copies of the stories he worked on rather than having the digital copies. To Vale, the ability to flip through and feel the texture of every page was always satisfying. Thus, for a couple of the stories that he was working on, Vale has begun writing down notes and even drafting out simple storyboards to keep track of the plot and character development.
He then reached for his mobile which was close to the edge of the desk and saw that the time indicated on the device was eight in the morning. The cafe would be opening up for its first customers in two hours' time. On Sundays, it is half an hour later than the usual 9:30am opening time.
Vale yawned and slowly shuffled to the main area of his room. Glancing towards the left side of the room, he noticed that the bed had already been made and a red knapsack was leaning against one of the legs of the bed. Jeremy must have woken up early to pack up the little luggage he had brought with him to prepare for when he returned to the university dorms later that day.
Placing his mobile on a coffee table nearby, Vale proceeded to roll up the soft mattress that was placed next to the bed. It was where he would sleep whenever Jeremy visited. Initially, his brother refused to sleep on the bed but Vale stood firm and insisted on taking the spare mattress.
Besides, it was not often that Vale actually slept in his own bed. On most nights, Vale would either fall asleep at his desk- as he did this morning- or on the couch that had a coffee table in front of it. In the latter case, it was not that Vale disliked sleeping in his own bed. The reason was simply that he had the habit of working for most of the night and in his groggy state later, he would lay on the closest bed- or in this case, a couch- that he could find.
Once that was done, Vale then freshened up and put on his black apron that he must have left hanging on the couch the previous night. He grabbed a fistful of mint sweets that were placed in a 4-inch wide glass bowl on the coffee table.
'Ah, there aren't many left... I should buy some more soon,' Vale thought to himself as he kept away the sweets in different pockets on his apron. It would have been funny to see a huge bulge sticking out from all of the sweets being shoved into only one of the pockets.
***
Jeremy was already on his way out at the entrance of the cafe when Vale had descended the stairs.
"Good morning, Jeremy," Vale called out.
Turning back, Jeremy replied, "Ah. Good morning, brother. Do you need anything? I'm going to buy some groceries for the cafe. There's nothing like picking out on your own food and ingredients."
'At times like this, Jeremy sounds a lot like Derek,' Vale thought to himself.
"Oh? That would be great. Do you have the list Derek had stuck onto the main fridge in the kitchen?"
"Yes, I have it with me," Jeremy said as he showed the long slip of paper that was filled with thick, bold scribbled handwriting.
Vale smiled slightly, 'That guy really needs to improve on his handwriting.'
"Do you need help with the groceries? It's a very long list and you're travelling by public transport, right?"
"No, I'm good and don't worry. I'll just carry the lighter items and have the store deliver the rest. So, is there anything else you want?" Jeremy asked.
"Hmmm... Just sweets but it's not important. So don't worry about it. I'll buy some when I go out for a meeting later during the week. There is a sweet shop close to that place that has just opened and I'd like to check that out."
"Okay then. Well, I'll see you later, brother."
"Okay, take care."
***
[1.05pm, at the cafe--]
Since the news broadcast about certain alphas having the capability of changing the betas to omegas, the number of customers that come to the cafe has noticeably decreased. The weekends were usually the busiest of the week and most of the time, all the tables would be filled with customers. However, today-- as well as the previous day-- there were only a handful of customers.
Understandably, many people were afraid of being in public. Everyone seemed to be affected by the news. Even a number of the cafe's staff were uncomfortable coming to work and have requested to work from home on the comics. However, the ones that were most affected by the whole thing, were the alphas. Since a majority of the population were of betas, for the first time ever, the well- revered alphas were shunned by the public as if they carried some sort of disease.
Vale sighed softly and proceeded to clear up empty plates and glass from a table that a customer had just left. As he was just about done with the task, he overheard two female customers from a couple of tables away.
"Mindy, what do you think of the whole beta being changed to alpha matter?"
"Hmmm... That the betas who change are lucky? It is after all because of a soulbond," a brunette with highlights shrugged as she replied.
"Really? Wouldn't it make a person feel that their whole life was nothing more than a lie? Think about it. If a person had been living as a beta all this while and had suddenly been changed to an omega, their life would turn upside down… Not to mention, they will be suddenly burdened with having to deal with their heat cycles. It's not like they got used to having their heat growing up."
"Sara, you're thinking too much. They already have a soulbond mate. The heat cycle issue will not be a problem."
"Ah… I forgot about that… Hmmm…"
"Well, I'm more interested in knowing what the CEO of AO Company looks like. According to rumours, he is extremely hot and is single," Mindy said in a rather dreamy expression.
"Mm~ That sounds good. If it is a hot and rich alpha, I wouldn't mind being changed to an omega," Sara giggled.
"Too bad that there has never been a photo of him taken in public. Well, at least, never a clear shot."
"Yeah, too bad," Sara nodded.
"Maybe he is just camera shy~" Mindy joked and the girls laughed.
Vale just shook his head and chuckled softly as he carried the empty plates and glass away. The girls had pointed out a fact that he had unconsciously overlooked.
'Why would the CEO of a world renowned company wish to keep his image private?'
For such a big person, there would have been many ways his photos would have been taken yet nothing can be found. Clearly, Vincent had gone to great lengths to ensure that his appearance would remain a secret.
'Hmmm… Either way, the rumours are true. The man is indeed very good looking,' Vale thought to himself before his eyes widened in shock that he even had such a thought.
'Whoa. I guess that is what I get for being single for so long,'
"Earth to Boss! He--lloooo?!"
Vale blinked in surprise and realized that Ellie had been waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention.
"Ah, sorry. Lost in thought…"
"It's okay~ It's cute when you're like that~" Ellie teased.
"Haha. Is that so… Hmm… What were you saying earlier?" Vale asked awkwardly.
"I was asking if we should make an announcement on our website that we will be slower to upload chapters seeing that most of our staff are now working from home? Since we tend to release the hard copy and online versions of the chapters on the same day, it will no longer be possible for the time being… There's basically no one working in the printing department right now…"
"Ah, that is true. You're right about that. Please give me a day to think about it. I need to check on our projects' statuses and the current situation with readers and staff."
"Okay, sure~" Ellie replied and skipped away.
Right after that, Vale's mobile vibrated. Fishing the device out, he saw that there was a message and instantly smiled upon seeing the name of the sender. It was from Josiah-- the person who had guided and supported Vale when it came to building the business.
The message simply read as, "Hey, Vale. How have you been? Yousef and I will be coming to town later this month. If you're free, let's meet up."