The silence seemed to stretch in the wide office where Alex was looking at the fidgeting Jenny, waiting for her answer to his question. The slight, barely perceptible hum of the computer started obvious as time went on, and the atmosphere kept being pulled down by the lead seemingly coming to fill the previously bright clouds.
Alex's brown eyes remained calm, even as Jenny kept her head low, unable to look at him in the eyes, even as she struggled with the knot in her stomach. Finally, when she seemed about to pull one of her nails out of just to distract her mind from the slump it was falling in, his voice pulled her back, calm, steady, but questioning:
"Tell me, Jenny, why? What happened to your passion? I thought that was what you wanted to pursue, and majoring in business management was just to help you build a future where you will be going after your dream. Or, will you tell me that I would find no trace of it if I were to go through your computer right now?"
Jenny raised her head, her fingers still intertwined on her lap, then lowered it again, as she admitted:
"I have been studying about it too."
Alex's face mellowed slightly, and his voice softened as he pressed:
"So?"
Jenny glanced at him, hesitated, before she surrendered to the warm calm of his brown eyes. Her voice low, she muttered:
"Mom used to like it too…"
No response came, as if Alex didn't hear her words. But she knew he heard her, and the silence only waiting for her gave her the strength to raise her head, to look at him in the eyes, and speak clearly this time:
"Mom used to like designing too. She used to like fashion too, but you know what happened, brother Third. The family never accepted that, and she was in pain, until she died. I don't want to end up like her. I don't want to feel the pain I remember in her heart. I don't want to relapse, brother!"
The sob at the end made Alex's heart clench. And the fear in the usually bright voice tied a knot on his stomach. He clenched his hand on the desk into a fist, before relaxing it. The image of an aunt he had all but forgotten flashed through his mind, followed by the image of a younger Jenny, one that was a pallid, trembling mess as she suffered through the symptoms of a withdrawal.
He took a deep breath, then turned to his computer to pull out the interface he had reduced earlier. He spoke dismissively as he focused on it:
"I've changed my mind about your surprise. Since you like making me wait, go back and wait too. You will hear from me in the coming days."
Jenny's paused, surprised by the sudden change in tone, before she smiled while wiping the tears on her face:
"Really? What are you giving me, brother Third? I have barely driven the last car you gave me. Will you give me another one? Custom-made? It won't be another apartment, will it? Or will you give me a race track? You never made good on your promise to teach me how to race. Will you teach me this time? I saw the video from when you saved that little girl not long ago. It was so cool. I want to be able to do it too. Will you teach me? Or–"
The corner of Alex's eyes twitched in annoyance at chattering. It seemed endless, even worse than the chatterbox of a blond friend who always accompanied him. Without turning his head, he cut Jenny off, his voice full of the patience barely hanging on by a thread that could snap at any moment:
"Just go, Jenny. Get out of my office and go away."
Unfortunately, his annoyance was not met with the due seriousness. Instead, it elicited a laugh, bright, happy:
"Hehe… You sound like a true chairman, brother Third."
"Tch."
Alex scoffed, and he shot a glare across the desk:
"Interim chairman, temporary chairman, acting chairman… Damn it! Anything but chairman! You are lucky you didn't put any make-up on after taking a shower. Crying so much despite being so old."
"But I'm still a mess. Hahahaha…"
Seeing how Jenny took the jab in stride, Alex rolled his eyes, his rising annoyance settling down in a flat curve. He took his eyes away from the younger woman, and dismissed her:
"Now that you are done pretending to cry, stop laughing and go away. Your gift will be at your door when it is ready."
Now that she was laughing as brightly as before, Jenny really looked like she had been pretending. She shot up from her seat and ran over to Alex's side instead of moving towards the door, and leaned in:
"Hehe… Brother Third, you are the best."
*Mwah*
The kiss on his cheek made Alex's lips twitch, before he suppressed the smile that almost appeared:
"Humph! At least you are aware. Now go away. You have made me waste enough of my emotions. Your aunt Grace has nothing to do now. Go and bother her. And you can even find your secret bearer a few floors below. Go and bother her too."
The bite in his tone when speaking about his idle mother was not lost on Jenny, but because she found that normal, she focused on the last part of his words instead:
"Huh!? Who is a few floors below?"
"Count those who have helped you keep the secret of your return and you will find out who it can be. Now go, go, go. Scram."
Without giving her the time to think, Alex pushed Jenny away. She laughed brightly, hugged him, and skipped toward the door, then out of the office, after one last upbeat wave when she saw Alex looking at her.
"See you later, brother. Love you~"
The door closed behind the energetic girl, because for Alex, who was shaking his head with a smile at the corner of his lips, she would ever only be a little girl, one who refused to be anything other than his spoiled little sister. But thinking about her tears just now, a flash of dark gloom fleeted through his eyes, and he took his phone to make a call.
It rang only twice, before Mark's voice came from the other side:
"Alex, I was just about to call you."
Alex paused, then composed himself:
"What is it?"