Mark and Eric were all smiles until they stepped out from the large sloping hallway and into a large room meant to hold balls and parties only to suddenly stop in their steps.
"You are back." A slim woman in her late 50s dressed in a silky emerald green dress and a pair of black kitten heels acknowledged as her gaze moved between the two brothers.
Her neck was adorned with a white pearl necklace, and her hair was held up in a high bun with twisted hair wrap and a graduated side bang. Not a single strand was out of place.
"Ma." Eric was the first to smile. "How come you are here?" he asked.
Mrs Wang let her gaze hover around her boys once more before replying, "I learnt that you two were coming back and thought I should welcome you."
"You didn't have to do that." Mark brushed the tip of his nose with his index finger.
It didn't matter that her sons were much taller than her, Mrs Wang didn't feel any kind of intimidation from them. After all, she was their mother, and she raised them.
"You are both right on time for dinner, come with me," she said to them and turned to leave, but she was stopped by Mark's next words. "Ma, I don't think I can join you for dinner, I already had something to eat. Goodnight."
Having made his stance clear, Mark didn't waste a second before taking a turn and walking away. Eric let out a deep breath as his gaze followed him.
Their mother stood at the same spot until Mark completely disappeared from her sight. "Has he had dinner or is he avoiding sitting with everybody in the dining room?" she inquired, averting her gaze from the distance.
"He has eaten, there is no need to bother." Eric hooked his arm around his mother's and led her away. "How am I not sure he did that on purpose? I mean, you two partied at the same place yet, he is the only one that had something to eat."
Mrs Wang was concerned. And she, without a doubt, had every right to be worried about her son, Mark. He was the weird one out of all her children.
"You are thinking too much, Ma. At least he is eating." Eric couldn't reveal that Mark left to dine at a restaurant, whether alone or with someone else, therefore, he could only hold the rest of his words.
"I should be glad," his mother replied.
---
Mark went up to his room and only let out a sigh after he had shut the door behind him.
He went straight to his dressing room while taking off his suit jacket without feeling remorse for refusing to go down to the dining room with his mother.
This was not the first, and it wouldn't be his last.
Before throwing his jacket into the laundry basket, he first brought it to his nose to sniff the remaining scent left by Elena. "She has changed a lot," he mumbled to himself.
Mark could still remember what Elena used to look like and smell like in the past but now, things were different.
From the cloakroom, Mark went to his large bathroom to freshen up. He had a long shower before deeming himself clean enough to lie on his king-sized bed.
But just as he picked up his phone, a stray cat wandered in.
"Please tell me that you cleaned up before changing into new clothes." Mark shut his eyes and opened them again to see Eric making his way towards him with a smile.
"Relax, I did take a quick shower," Eric assured him before jumping on the bed. "What about dinner? There is no way you would be this fast." 'Or did I spend over an hour under the shower?' Mark probed while thinking about the second part in his head.
Eric shrugged, "I took a bun and ran out. Father was at the table. I didn't want to become an object of ridicule for the night."
"That was so smart of you," Mark teased as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He seemed to have suddenly developed a good sense of humour for the night after dining with Elena.
Eric waved the matter off. He didn't want to go into details since he was there for a more important and interesting subject. "How was your date with Elena?" he inquired with an expectant gaze.
"It was wonderful. We talked about a few things and most importantly, I'm glad she doesn't bear any grudge against me for that night."
"Why would she bear a grudge against you? You two only had fun because you both wanted it." Eric was confused because he didn't see any reason for Elena to hold the one-night stand against his older brother.
From what he learnt, they both got together with their sound mind even though there was a little mix of buzz. If one of them hadn't consented, they would have confronted each other the following day, so what was his brother talking about?
Mark thought back to that morning he woke up to see Elena gone, that stain on the sheet and then to the deep conversation he had with her a few hours earlier and shook his head. "What do you know?"
He was speaking from that knowledge of what he had taken from Elena, but his brother would never understand since he didn't plan to expose that part of the story to him.
"I certainly do not know everything," Eric responded. "Well, I am going to keep the remaining details between Elena and me. What else do you want to know?" Mark inquired, leaving the floor open.
Eric didn't mind that his brother wouldn't give him the full details of his story. He was already aware that not everything had to be said or exposed to a third party. Still, he was a little dissatisfied.
"What are your plans with her? Are you two going to date?"
Mark was a little hesitant before replying. "I am not sure about dating, but I like her and will be around if she wants me to. For now, I will stick to being a good friend to her."
"Can a man ever turn out to be friends with the woman he has slept with? I doubt that." Eric asked and answered while adjusting his sitting posture.
For him, it will be difficult to maintain a friendship with a woman he had slept with. It's either they break up for good and pretend to not know each other, or keep the relationship going.
"What I mean is, you can choose to not sleep with a woman you have once bedded," Mark explained. Friendship was very deep, so he had to make his statement clear.
"Better." Eric nodded in understanding, but then a thought came to his head, prompting him to ask, "You heard Elena say she was also looking for 'Mark Wang' just like the others. Are you not curious to know what her reason is?"
"I am curious," Mark admitted. "But for whatever reason she was looking for me, I will have to let her reach out on her own, and I perceive it won't be long."
Both brothers were sure there was a reason behind Elena being interested in Mark, but they had to exercise some patience and let her reveal it on her own.
Most importantly, Mark was playing a hunting game. He wanted Elena to come to him by herself and that was the reason he dropped a hint with her at the restaurant.
With this new motive in mind, he was going to wait for her to reach out to him first.
"Remind me never to offend you," Eric said while getting off his mattress with a proud smile. He didn't want to use the word 'crafty' on his brother, but he would love to borrow some of that wisdom.