Alex's smile froze. This karma came too fast.
"Pfft…"
Leyna failed to hold back the instinctive reaction of her body, even though she seemed to hardly try, because, really, no matter how much of a troublemaker a child was, if there was a bane he could never overcome, it was the mother who had fed him her milk and raised him for decades, seeing every inch of his skin, and witnessing every one of his darkest histories.
Alex glared at the black-haired busybody, then immediately gave his mother a smile as sincere as it was genuine:
"Mom, I seem to have forgotten something inside, and I am getting late for my promise to visit Ga-yeong, so I have to go. Please, do take care of yourself, and do not work too hard."
With that, he respectfully but decisively pushed the door of the car, and closed it under the calm green eyes of his mother. He threw one last glare at Leyna, smiled at the dark window before him, and turned around to walk back into the restaurant with purposeful steps.
Looking at his back, Leyna let out another muffled amused laugh, before she opened the door to sit beside her superior who turned away from her son to close her eyes and lean back.
"Let's go."
"Yes, chairwoman."
Even as she buckled her seatbelt and the car started moving, the amusement in Leyna's smile had still yet to fade.
A second later, Alex craned his neck out of the restaurant to look at the red light of the Mercedes slowing down to join the traffic on the road. Letting out the relieved exhale of someone who had avoided a catastrophe, he walked out of the restaurant, his hands empty as he patted his chest with a grin.
He had dodged the bullet. It had been one he had not been expecting at all, at least not today. It took some effort to calm his startled heart down as he breathed in the air of freedom. He let out another exhale, and tilted his head to think about what to do.
However, he didn't think for long. He seemed to have already found what to do with the rest of his day. He had spoken of a promise, and he would just make it a reality.
He took out his phone, and made a call that soon connected:
"Hey, Mark, come pick me up. I'm going to your place."
"You–"
"Alright, see you soon. I will send you the location."
*Beep*
Smiling at the speechless look Mark must be sporting on the other side, Alex took one last look at the Mercedes of Grace, and turned to walk in the opposite direction.
_ _ _
_ _ _
In the car Alex was hiding from, Leyna looked at his back dozens of meters away, then turned to face the front with her previous amusement replaced by an exhale carrying something akin to melancholic lament:
"He really has yet to recover. Is there really nothing that we can do to help him, chairwoman?"
Without opening her eyes, Grace replied with no fluctuation in her voice:
"Only what has caused the wound can heal it. He just has not found the right person yet. Until then, he can keep running all he wants, because even if he pretends not to care, he does, and he does deeply."
Silence fell inside the car as it moved with the flow of the traffic and went away. Leyna looked back again, and even if it was an illusion or her imagination, saw the back far in the distance, outwardly happy but inwardly suffering from a hole in the heart. She turned back and let herself sink into the backrest of the backseat, her heart sinking with the weight of an ache she could not do away with.
She muttered in a helpless tone:
"So there is nothing we can do."
There was a moment of silence, then Grace replied in a voice no louder than Leyna's mutter:
"Nothing, except for letting fate run its course."
Leyna glanced at the woman who was more than just a superior for her, then silently emptied her lungs.
"When we get back, find me K Group's movements. I want to know how they will react."
Taking a deep breath, Leyna looked at the woman stronger and more accomplished than most men in the world, and firmly nodded:
"Understood."
_ _ _
_ _ _
A black SUV slowed down and pulled over a few meters away from a patch of green sparsely populated by the few who found the time amidst the busyness of the hot season to get some air. In the driver seat, Mark didn't search the small park with his gaze for long before he paused and shook his head helplessly.
He found the one who had pulled him away from the comfort of his office, and he was not even surprised by what the man was keeping himself busy with.
*Beep~ Beep*
The low but deep sound of the car horn caught Alex's attention, and he looked away from the member of the opposite sex he had been charming with his smile. Recognizing the SUV, he raised his eyebrows with a grin, and pushed himself away from the tree he was leaning against for a relaxed and casual air.
Smiling with just the right degree of affectionate reluctance, he looked back at the redhead before him:
"I've got to go, my ride is here."
Tucking the hair with a light orangish tint behind her ear, the beautiful woman looked at the black SUV and smiled:
"Alright. Remember to call me."
The hint could not have been clearer, and the seasoned playboy did not miss it. He leaned in, a measured smirk playing at the corner of his mouth with just the right depth to portray charming confidence without being cloying, and whispered, his voice raw and his intentions naked:
"Not calling would be a sin."
Physically, Alex's breath brushed against the hand holding back the rebellious strand hair trying to gallop with the wind and teased the sensitive ear it was right next to into blushing further.
Emotionally, his reply was charged with all the unmasked tension that left no blur over his intentions.
Faced with that, far from being shy, the ginger-haired woman turned and looked into Alex's brown eyes, open, bold and unapologetic with the invitation in her smile to seal the deal.