He touched Germany!

The crowd and faces everywhere made Tom slightly uncomfortaby

Not only did he hate crowds, he didn't like most of the people gathered there. 

What was worse, the reporters had been taking different shots of him and every effort to escape from them proved futile, with his father urging him to smile at the camera. 

"Isn't this Amanda?" Mr Hwang asked when she came over to greet him. He had seen her earlier but had been too busy to ask any questions.

When Tim saw her smile brightly at his father, a tiny smile lit up his own face.

Amanda had been with that Selena girl the entire time, totally forgetting about his existence. He was not really pissed off by it but rather, he was a bit unimpressed at her lack of manners.

Before he could affirm to his father that it was Amanda, his stepmother suddenly appeared beside them and began to fawn over her. 

"Amanda my darling. How do you do? You look adorable!" 

Mrs Hwang quickly wrapped her arms around Amanda in a hug, with a big smile on her face.

"I am good. Hello Uncle. Hello Aunt" Amanda greeted Mr and Mrs Hwang with a smile.

"I heard you both went on a date yesterday. How was it?" Mr Hwang asked after the many exchange of pleasantries.

"It was nice. Tom is such a gentleman" She covered her mouth with a hand and began to giggle. 

"Is she Tom's girlfriend?" Anna's father asked with a smile as he approached them with a smile. 

Amanda's cheeks coloured when she heard his questions. She remained quiet and left Tom to give them an answer.

"No. We're just friends" Tom answered with a laugh before turning to look at Amanda whose lips were pursed as she stared at him with a straight face.

"It always begins that way. Hope we get to hear the wedding bells ring soon" Anna's father teased before be began to cackle loudly.

One would never imagine that such a short and bald man was capable of bringing forth an angel like Anna. 

He could easily be identified in a crowd full of people with his 'unique' traits. He wore a black suit with the blazer's button undone— of course he could not button it because of his potbelly which looked too heavy for him.

He had a big and round face, small eyes, large nose and a big mouth that always helped reverberate his laughter. 

The others laughed with him, but Tom was only able to give a tiny smile as he searched for a way to escape. 

"Joel is older than our Tommy. I believe it's proper he got married first" Mrs Hwang added as she turned to look at Joel's father, Mr Song. 

"Oh! He's only a few months older than Tom. You make it sound like my son is very old" 

Unlike Anna's father Mr Kang, Mr Song was a tall man with nice features and looked really fit just like Tom's father, Mr Hwang.

Mr Song and his wife maintained a large firm that sold building materials and equipments. It was the biggest of its kind in the country and would have been a pity that they had no one to hand over the company to if Joel had been the only child since he was not interested in business— thankfully, Joel had a younger sister who was currently studying business management in the university.

They all continued to laugh, much to Tom's annoyance.

This was one of the reasons he hated being around the elders. Their many laughs always annoyed him.

And what did his stepmother mean by 'Our Tommy'? He hated it whenever she called him that.

*******

As Lisa drove down the city to no particular place in mind, she received a call and connected it to her wireless earphone. 

"What is it?" She asked in her usual aloof tone immediately she took the call. 

"You're being followed." A deep masculine voice informed her.

"I noticed. Who is he?" 

"A private investigator."

Lisa's brows furrowed. 

"Who sent him?" 

"Hwang Thomas. I'm pretty sure he's curious about your private life" 

Lisa took in a deep breath. 

What was wrong with him? Why can't he just let her be?

"Since he wants a show, let's give him one then. You know what to do" 

She quickly disconnected the call and increased the car's speed.

                *********

Tom watched from the side as his father led a group of people to sing and dance for the residents of the nursing home. He only wished they were all as nice as they appeared to be right now. But he knew better.

"She looks nice" Joel mentioned as he looked towards Amanda who was also smiling 'happily' beside Mrs Hwang while clapping to the song being sang. 

"I wish. It's obvious she is pretending." Anna sneered.

"Like I said, she 'looks' nice" He stressed the 'looks'.

"She probably must have come here because of Tom" Anna noted before turning to look at Tom who had been quiet the entire time.

"Do you have any intention of dating her?" 

Tom remained quiet without bothering to answer her question. 

"What's wrong with you man?" Joel asked before placing a hand on his shoulder.

Tom sighed deeply before answering in a low voice that surprised them both.

"I feel sad."

"Why?"

"Why?"

Joel and Anna asked simultaneously with worry in their eyes as they waited for his answer.

"I— don't know." He answered while giving them both a confused look. To show that he really didn't know what was wrong.

He couldn't place the reason why he was suddenly feeling sad.

"Should we leave here then? Go get a few bottle of drinks or—"

"He can't leave now. What do you think people will say?" Anna quickly rejected Joel's suggestion.

They both remained quiet when they heard Tom's phone beep with a text notification. 

Once he took out his phone from his pocket, he opened the message to see a shocking photo that made his eyes bulge out. 

"Something wrong?" Anna asked as she moved closer.

Tom's gaze was still fixed to his phone's screen as he looked at the photo that his Private Investigator had just sent him.

Out of curiosity, Anna took the phone from him while Joel moved closer to look at the picture. 

"Wow! Isn't that Germany?" Joel asked first in surprise before zooming the picture with his fingers to look at it clearly.

"Oh my God! Isn't that guy Li Chen, the actor?" Anna asked with a loud gasp as she fixed her eyes on the phone's screen. 

In the picture, Li Chen and Lisa were both sitting on the hood of a red sport car that obviously belonged to Li Chen.

The car was parked by the side of a large river and the picture captured him tucking a few strands of her hair behind her ear while she stared at him.

"Germany is dating Li Chen? How is that even possible? How come no one knew about it?" 

"He must have hidden it really well. Wow!" Anna said in astonishment. 

Li Chen was a top actor in the country. And not only was he very good looking, he was single and the most desired bachelor among ladies and some guys.

"I knew it! If I had a boyfriend like Li Chen, I'd never look at anyone els—."

Before Anna could finish her speech, Tom angrily grabbed his phone from her hand.

His gaze was cold as he began to go through his phone.

They saw him dial a number and quickly connected the call to his airpod.

"Damn it! Why isn't she taking her calls?" He cussed angrily before dailing her number for the second time. 

This time, the call connected. 

"I want to leave now. Come with my car this minute!" He said coldly before hanging up. 

"Dude easy." Joel tried to calm him down but Tom was already beginning to leave the place. 

As Tom walked away, he continued to hear the notification beeps coming from his phone and had to use everything in him to not heave the phone against the wall.

"Be calm Tom. They are probably just friends" Joel tried to reason with him as he and Anna tried did their best to catch up with his large strides. 

"Just friends?" Tom stopped walking and faced Joel.

"He was touching her. He touched Germany!" He raised his voice in anger. 

"He— didn't actually touch her. He only touched her hair" Joel did not know how best to make the situation look lighter.

Tom looked at him like he was an idiot before asking "And who has the hair he touched?"

As he turned to continue walking, Anna suddenly reminded him.

"But you can't just leave now. What about Amanda?"