"Goodbye, Papa!"
Hannah gave her crouching father a peck on the cheek, smiling widely as she thought about the cookies in her lunchbox, the ones she baked together with her father. It was her reward for working hard to crack the eggs, stirring the flour, and making dough balls with her own hands!
Of course, her most important job was to watch over her father and prevent him from adding unnecessary ingredients! After all, the only acceptable topping for Hannah was chocochips. She could eat cookies and chocolate at the same time--how wonderful! There was no need for peanut butter--which, in her opinion, should stay on toast, or salt--which her father was trying to sprinkle on. How weird!
"Goodbye, Princess," Eugene patted her head carefully, so as not ruin the masterpiece he pulled on her hair this morning. "You'll go to Toby's house later, okay? I'll pick you up before dinner."
"Okay!" Hannah nodded. She had learned that her father had a new job where he spent a whole day outside--unlike the usual, where he would type away at home.
But it was okay, since it only happened once or twice a week. Hannah still had the rest of her Papa's time!
"Remember, you can't share the cookies with Toby, okay? He can't eat chocolate," Eugene reminded her.
"Poor Toby..." Hannah sighed. To have an allergy to such a delicious thing...Hannah would be heartbroken! "We should learn to bake something without chocolate, Papa!"
"Of course," Eugene nodded seriously, before bidding his daughter goodbye.
He spent some time talking to the teacher in front of the doorway and told them about Hannah's neutralizer--although he hoped she wouldn't have to use it--before heading to Seed Production for another discussion about the casts.
Thankfully for Eugene, the actor who fulfilled their criterion for Illian had a different physique from his. In the first place, Illian was a true omega, not a hybrid who was groomed to be an alpha like him.
As for the other casts...well, Eugene didn't care much as long as they could act well.
And when he entered the office that day, he was greeted with welcoming news.
"I heard Ashley will return next week," the youngest writer, Diana, told him cheerfully. "His wife had given birth, and everyone is healthy, so she'll start working again."
The producer would be back? That meant Arthur Crowley wouldn't be around as a proxy anymore?
Eugene made a fist pump in his mind, although his joy and relief seeped out a little bit through his smile. "Is that so? I'm glad."
"Yes, we're glad too!" Diana, on the other hand, did not bother to hide her joy.
Eugene blinked in surprise. He wondered if the writer didn't like Arthur, too. He glanced around, sensing the same relief in the other employees' faces. Hmm...
Why did he kind of pity the alpha? Eugene scratched his neck awkwardly. Realizing that Arthur probably made those faces because the alpha couldn't handle people's scent, he couldn't help but feel bad because he saw his daughter's future somewhat.
He was still happy that Arthur wouldn't be around during the pre-production, though--after all, his goal was still to avoid any interaction with the alpha.
Well, this and that were different matters.
And just as he thought about that, the door opened, and everyone suddenly tensed up, glancing at the door and each other while rolling their eyes as if conversing with their minds. Eugene wondered if they were receiving the grace of telepathy from Miss Aeroluya last night.
Of course, he also knew why they were suddenly acting so tense. Glancing back, he could see the unmistakable profile of an alpha walking in. The rich brown eyes were immediately focused on Eugene, although they lacked a pair of knitted brows.
Was he in a good mood? Eugene tilted his head slightly, watching the alpha open his mouth.
"Mr. Au--"
"Eugene! There's a part in the script that urgently needs to be changed--can you come with me for a minute?!"
Before Arthur could even utter the word author, Diana already drowned his voice with her own high-pitched, shrill invitation. Eugene blinked in surprise--because why did she ask it as if she wanted to fight with Eugene?
As bad as the acting was, however, Eugene could see her good intentions. Hiding his chuckle, he nodded and followed the writer's urgent tugging inside the small meeting room--which got locked afterwards.
Needless to say, Arthur was left speechless. He turned toward the nearest employees and spoke begrudgingly. "Please tell the author I would like to speak to him."
"S-sure," the employee smiled nervously, before busying themselves with a random task on their laptop.
With a sigh, Arthur left the office to handle other tasks Ashley had given him. He didn't really need to ask as a proxy if there was no meeting, anyway.
But Arthur, with a new mission to pursue a confirmation and an explanation from Eugene, never thought it would be so hard to see even a strand of the omega's hair. Despite giving a message to the employee, he never heard back from Eugene.
Later that day, he gave up on waiting and asked the other employees for Eugene's number. Unfortunately, they said only the scriptwriters knew Eugene's contact, and when he managed to corner one of them, they told Arthur to ask for Eugene's permission first.
If he could talk to Eugene, would he be running around asking for his number?!
No--if he could talk to that man, he would have just asked for his number directly!
Frustrated, Arthur tried to catch the omega during lunch, but the director asked him to have lunch together instead. Arthur didn't want to have a bad rapport with people who was in Ashley's side, so he had no choice but to follow the director and had lunch outside.
That wasn't the extent of his effort, however. He loitered in the coffee shop beside the company, since he heard Eugene usually went there. Nothing. He was waiting in the lobby to catch the omega clocking out, but the security guard told him someone had given Eugene a lift in their car, so Eugene went through the basement instead of the lobby.
"What the fuck?"
Arthur was in a daze. Is this man a celebrity or something? Why is it so hard to just see him?!
Frustratingly for Arthur, the same thing happened every time Eugene was in the office. When he went to the office, the omega was gone with someone for some reason. When there was a meeting, he would come right just in time, so Arthur had no chance to engage in a conversation with him. And once the meeting was over, he would be dragged somewhere by someone else.
Really. What kind of outsourced staff was busier than the director?!
In conclusion, Arthur failed to find a chance to even ask for Eugene's phone number. On the other hand, Eugene himself was getting quite confused by this development.
For some reason, he was getting dragged here and there by other people. Sometimes it was the scriptwriters, sometimes it was the director, sometimes it was the assistant director, and other staff members he wasn't even close with. Sometimes it was a legit business, but sometimes, he could tell that they didn't have anything to discuss or do with him, just awkwardly making up stuff and random conversation.
It was quite confusing, but he glimpse on what might happen accidentally when he overheard some staff of Invisible Scent talking in the toilet.
"He won't be here much starting next week, so we only need to keep at it for a little bit more."
"We're getting pretty good at sensing his presence and avoiding him naturally, huh?"
Eugene heard their whispers and arched his brows in intrigue. Since it was about someone who would be absent starting next week, it was clear that they were talking about Arthur, who would no longer act as a proxy for Ashley Wynne. But...
They really hated him that much? Eugene raised his brow. He had his own reason for avoiding the alpha, but why would the other staff avoid Arthur, too? Hmm...maybe they didn't want to get dragged into office politics?
But, well--whatever the reason, it aligned with his objective of avoiding the alpha, so...he just shrugged and enjoyed a peaceful office life.
And a peaceful office life meant he could come home with a good mood, smiling joyfully at his daughter. With the tension disappearing from his face, the slightly aloof persona shedding, and the other employees could enjoy a work benefit of seeing Eugene's rare, bright smile when he bid them goodbye.
"Phew..."
A collective sigh of relief filled the office once it was Eugene-free and Arthur-free. The hardworking agents in a secret mission wiped the invisible sweat away from their foreheads.
"Tsk--I told you to just shove them inside a room and lock it," the senior scriptwriter scoffed. "Let them unravel their tension once and for all."
"Shut up! What if they fight even harder?"
"Even better!"
The director smiled charmingly and snapped her fingers. "Lock her inside a room to unravel stuff with herself."
"Roger that!"
"What? No--aaaaghhh!"
And thus, the band of employees once more succeeded in their mission to separate the two and avoid more cold wars exploding in the office.