Silence. As Alex simply looked at the blonde, there was a moment of silence, with the only sound inside the apartment coming from the frying pan becoming the background of that silence.
Sharon held the gaze from the brown eyes, the determination amid the confusion in her blue eyes led her to stand firm and wait for an answer.
Suddenly, Alex smiled. He smiled, surprising the blonde, then indifferently turned away. Before Sharon could try to make sense of what was happening, his calm voice came with a smile:
"Since your plan has succeeded, you can leave now."
He turned his egg now that one side had turned an enticing yellow. The pan let out a louder sizzling sound as the soft aroma of the egg spread through the kitchen, but Sharon had no leisure to appreciate it.
Looking at the indifferent playboy, who actually possessed a different kind of charm as he focused on cooking with a smile, Sharon took a deep, frustrated breath, and silently exhaled. Clenching her fists, she recalled the painful sensation from the previous evening. That reaffirmed her decision, which she voiced with determination:
"I'm not leaving, not until you tell me what happened yesterday, what you did to me, and how to make sure it doesn't happen again. I don't want to feel pain that does not belong to me."
"Hehe."
Alex let out a soft chuckle. He focused on his egg and said no more, paying no attention to the blonde as he emptied the pan and broke another egg into it.
Far from feeling stung by the dismissive, almost mocking chuckle, Sharon's eyes brightened as her heart leaped in her chest. Holding tight to the hope she caught sight of, she looked fixedly at Alex and hurriedly asked:
"You must know something, right? You had an accident yesterday and didn't show any pain, or even any sign of a wound. Then the evening came with the moon coming out, and I suddenly started to feel pain where I shouldn't have out of nowhere. It was the red string, wasn't it? The red string in the paper in the box for the inheritance of your family. Since the box is with you, you must know something. That must even be why you brought me here and not to the hospital. Am I right?"
*Pssht*
The sound of the second egg being turned in the pan was the only answer Sharon received. She looked at Alex quietly, then, faced with his indifference, calmed down. Exhaling, she asked in a quieter voice:
"You might not care about the box or me, Alex, but you must care about yourself, right? Did I suffer misfortune with you, or rather, in your stead yesterday? Won't you also get into similar trouble because of me like I did yesterday due to you? I'm not asking for much, just that box. Let me see it, let me find a solution. Please."
Sharon's words might seem nonsensical, but as she spoke, after the first flash of insight at the sight of the video of Alex's accident, she recalled all that had led to this point. Facing the illogical, unscientific incident that had left her heart shaking even until now, she would rather exhaust the just as illogical, just as unscientific conclusion that might or might not have its roots in science, before looking for an answer and a solution elsewhere. She would rather be superstitious now than leave here and lose the opportunity later, only to feel something akin to the pain from last evening.
*Pssht*
Alex broke a third egg into the pan. Silence descended while Sharon refused to take her eyes off him, her gaze holding no intensity, just a quiet persistence.
She persisted until Alex turned the egg, then let it slide off the tilted pan and onto his plate. As Alex lowered the heat of the stove, he let out an exhale and spoke as he picked up a knife from the holder:
"If you want the box you came to look for last time, it is in the same place. You know the passcode."
Looking at Sharon, Alex added with a half smile:
"To avoid the next person who comes here getting the brilliant idea of cutting off my finger to unlock the safe, I have deactivated the fingerprint and biometry checks. So, knock yourself out."
Usually, Sharon would have felt embarrassed at Alex's words and under his gaze, but not this time. Her mind was too preoccupied to entertain that kind of emotion. She looked at the playboy, pursed her lips, then walked around him again to go to his bedroom.
With how things were now, there was no need to hide that she knew her way around the apartment she was supposed to be visiting for the first time. Behind her, the sound of the knife hitting the chopping board started up, rhythmic and piercing for her unsettled heart.
The door of the bedroom was not locked. It was not even closed. Sharon pushed it open and walked inside. The place was just as she remembered, only feeling strangely more familiar than it should have been.
The reason for the deep impression made Sharon press her lips together. She had had many of her firsts here. The red lips were pressed even tighter.
Her eyes lingered on the floor at the foot of the large bed. That was where she had found herself upon waking up after suddenly finding everything going dark following a harsh flash of white. And to this day, like with last night, she was still struggling to make sense of what had happened back then.
Taking a deep breath, Sharon regained her bearing and walked to the cupboard that had left her embarrassed during her first visit a month ago. Even as an actress, she wanted none of the memory of how the cupboard had made her carefully crafted persona collapse that night.
She tapped the top of the cupboard right where she had slammed down the knife holder that night, and like the first time, the piece of furniture split open in the middle to reveal the safe behind.
The code was something she had been laughed at for, so she still recalled it. And she recalled the thought she had had that day that if what the playboy said was the truth, then he must be a genius, a debauched one, or a hidden one. And now, after one month, she seemed to have found the answer.
*Beep- beep- beep- beep~ Clack*
The unlocked safe opened. Sharon, crouching before it, found herself in front of the palm-sized wooden box that had been the cause of everything, the very source of her troubles, again.
A flash of uncertainty later, she gingerly picked it up, and straightened herself. Recalling what had happened that night, she held back her nervousness. Slowly, and with apprehension, she pushed the lid of the small box up, then saw the paper she had caught a glimpse of a month ago. She picked it up, unfolded it, only to freeze in shock, and exclaim in disbelief mixed with a few other emotions:
"How is this possible?!?"