"Oh? Did I?"
The surprise was expressed so naturally that it almost felt real.
Looking at Alex pretending to be oblivious, Leyna asserted with a smile:
"Yes, you did. And it can't just be to make me 'go down' with you."
"Really?"
Alex asked again, an unreliable expression of surprise appearing on his face. Before Leyna could speak, he smoothly changed the topic:
"Don't think too much, sis. Let's go, we are making mom wait."
With that, he let go of her hand and hurried away. Looking at his back, Leyna shook her head with a soft chuckle, and went after him.
"Mom~! I missed you so much~~!"
Stepping into the car that had been waiting, that was what Leyna heard from the back as she sat beside the driver. Looking into the rearview mirror while buckling her seatbelt, she saw Alex embracing the chairwoman of Arland Group exactly as one would expect a loving son to do, his smile showing none of his previous reluctance, making her shake her head once again.
As Alex pulled back, his mother calmly looked at him, and asked in a tone devoid of any anger:
"Since you missed me so much, why have you been avoiding going home in the past few months?"
"I–"
Grace turned away and calmly cut off whatever Alex wanted to say:
"Let's go."
The driver wordlessly gave a respectful nod, and slowly pressed the accelerator while turning the wheel. Alex smiled at the display, and took Grace's hand from on the armrest between them, his expression placating but sincere:
"Mom, you know how much I like spending time with you. I simply wanted to go out and see the world to understand how great of a woman and a mother you are. You should know how high you have raised the bar for the female gender. I just wanted to see if I could find someone who can hold a candle to you in grace and elegance."
Grace didn't smile, but her face softened as she gave Alex a sidelong glance:
"So, you will still be avoiding home to continue your inspection tour?"
Alex choked, and his eyes went wide for a second:
"Cough! How could I, after you came all the way here to find me!?"
Taking a deep breath, he gave his mother a serious look:
"Seeing you has brightened my day so much that I regret not going back to see you earlier, mom. From now on, I will be going back often. You can trust my words, I have never gone back on them."
Unruffled, Grace calmly pressed on:
"What about the fun you seem to have been enjoying?"
Alex patted his chest and declared with conviction:
"It can never be as important as you, mom."
Grace gave her son a deep look, then calmly turned her gaze away, allowing Alex to exhale in relief. Looking up, he met Leyna's greyish-blue eyes in the rearview mirror. He flashed a grin, and winked at her. Leyna let out a soft chuckle, then turned to the road.
With the situation diffused, he exhaled, and leaned back into the comfort of the backrest, Grace's hand still clasped in his.
_ _ _
_ _ _
*Clink* *Clink* *Clank* *Clunk*
The sound of cutleries hitting plates in the calm dining hall was soft and discreet. Any softer, and it would be difficult to hear, turning the restaurant into the scene of a mute spectacle, and any louder, and it would have been annoying.
It was subtle enough that it created a symphony particular to a restaurant, one that set the atmosphere into a soft comfort that easily helped work up an appetite.
It was a high class restaurant, with everything, from tablecloths to napkins, from chairs to cutleries, having been chosen and arranged to present an understated feeling not of luxury, but of class. Its interior was painted and decorated to be comfortable not only for the eye, but also the mind, appearing just bright enough even with how much of the illumination from the sun it was welcoming inside. The place was full, given that it was the lunch period, but not crowded.
At one of the occupied tables, Grace, after gracefully lowering her head to free her fork of its burden, lightly let her hands rest on the table while elegantly chewing while looking at her son across from her.
Under her calm gaze, he swallowed the food in his mouth, and asked with a grin:
"It's not bad, right?"
The one dubbed by her son as one of the most influential ones in the world nodded, not hesitating to admit her change in opinion as the image of Leyna eating gracefully but with gusto at the side fell into her eyes:
"Indeed, it is not bad. But tell me, since when did you become a vegetarian?"
Her green eyes returned to her son as she posed the question. Alex's movements paused. He took a sip of the freshly squeezed juice that was the same in all the glasses on the alcohol-free table, and cleared his throat, something that made Leyna already start smiling as she watched from the corner of her eye.
Alex did not care, nor did he pay attention to the faint ghost of a calm smile that appeared at the corner of Grace's lips. Taking another sip of juice to ensure a well moistened throat, he adjusted himself, settling into a more comfortable position on his seat, and started to explain as he resumed moving his cutleries:
"You see, mom, you have three sons."
Putting a small piece of food in his mouth, Alex briefly chewed it and swallowed it before continuing:
"The eldest one is a pure carnivore, someone who eats people without spitting any bone. Really, brrr…"
Alex made a dramatic show of suppressing a shiver, as if beset with a sudden chill only he could feel. He paused his hands, and earnestly looked at his mother to exhort her:
"Mom, you need to ask First. What the heck do they eat in the military? And now, he went on and joined a secret, almost nonexistent department. What will become of him if he continues like that? Why make himself suffer like that? If he doesn't learn to enjoy life, one day, his own children will be afraid of him, and they will prefer their favorite third uncle Alex even more."
Suddenly pausing, Alex's expression turned thoughtful, then he muttered:
"Though, thinking about it now, that would not be so bad."
"Cough!"