Chapter 394: Prisoner and Warden

Cylus pushed Mina into the classroom, and guided her to the front, where the tiny boys and girls stared up at her from their seats. He greeted the children and in a typical school fashion the children greeted him back in unison. Cylus then introduced Mina as an actress, singer, and model for Rouge Entertainment and the children's eyes lit up.

To them, Mina was what the future they wanted for themselves, and some of them recognized her from her past commercial. One of the children raised their hand to ask Mina a question about acting and Cylus was surprised when she answered it with ease. For Mina, acting played a vital role in getting her parents to trust her enough not to treat her like a monster, and she had learned from the best actress she knew, her sister.

"Goodbye Sister Mina," one of the boys called out and Mina felt her heart melt. She had not been around children in too long, and she was enjoying herself so much that she feared she would not want to leave. Cylus noticed how bright Mina's smile was, and he could clearly see she liked children, a lot.

----

After the small Q&A, Mina and Cylus finally made their way into the recording room, sans Vanya. Mina asked after the woman, but Cylus ignored her question, which made Mina giggle. She believed in monogamy, but she saw nothing wrong with dating before getting into a committed relationship.

"Vanya doesn't like me, does she?" Mina questioned, feeling as if she had asked that same question far too many times in her life. She took a seat at the small table that was covered in several types of food and started to eat without waiting for Cylus to join her.

"How she feels isn't important," Cylus responded, making Mina's spoonful of rice stop right in front of her waiting mouth.

"That is a horrible thing to say about a person. Especially one that you and I both know you have or have had dealings with." Cylus was taken aback by Mina's rebuke, but it did not change his opinion.

"You're only saying that because you and I are just friends, but if we were dating, how would you have felt about her actions?"

"I don't usually speak about these kinds of things because they make me feel uncomfortable, but I think you know me well enough now to guess how I would feel."

"Are you telling me that if you and I were a couple, and another woman did what Vanya just did you wouldn't feel the least bit offended?"

"I absolutely would, but my issue would be with you, not her. She only feels that she can do those things because you allow them. If you set solid and clear lines, people tend to get the point and move on. We both know that the lines you have set now are blurry at best." Mina went back to eating, feeling as though she had made her point, but she was unprepared for Cylus' rebuttal.

"Is that what happened between you and President Lee?" He asked, and Mina lost her appetite.

Cylus had wanted to wait before asking Mina about her relationship with President Lee, but the conversation they were having lent itself to him, and it gave him the courage to ask out of turn. Mina looked visibly disturbed by his words, and she put her fork down, pushing her plate away. He thought she would be angry with him but instead, she took a deep breath and began to speak.

"President Lee and I are not a thing. I actually do not know what we are, but if I had to choose a title, I would go with frenemies."

"How do you not know?" Cylus was confused by Mina's word choice, and he found it to be misleading. If they were not a thing, why would President Lee claim that they were intimate?

"Cylus, this conversation ends with us." Cylus nodded knowing that his words would not do him any good right now. "I tried to blackmail President Lee, I was caught, I was drugged, and when I woke up I wasn't the same." Mina had packed her statement so tightly that Cylus did not know what package to unpack first.

"Are you telling me that-" Mina cut Cylus off, not wanting him to use the words she knew he wanted to use.

"I'm telling you that I have no memory of what happened, and my relationship with President Lee is no different from that of a prisoner and warden."

"Why did you try to blackmail him? And why didn't you go to the police?"

"And tell them what? Even if I could remember anything, how many people would believe me?" Cylus looked at Mina with pity in his eyes, feeling a surge of hatred toward President Lee, but he knew she was right.

"The way he talked about you, I thought-" Mina cut Cylus off remembering the night of the charity event.

"He likes to mentally torture people. Do you know that he tried to take credit for saving me from that Antonio Sylvan guy?" Cylus tossed his fork to the side in anger.

"Did you sneak into his room on purpose?" He asked, feeling as though he was seeing Mina in a new light.

"I wasn't lying when I told you I was poor. I thought I was helping a private investigator catch a cheating husband, but I ended up getting cheated instead." Cylus reached across the table and squeezed Mina's hand.

"I shouldn't have asked," he said. Mina felt an overwhelming sense of glee from Cylus' words. He was unlike President Lee and he believed her without question.

"I would have told you anyway." Mina squeezed Cylus' hand back, and then tried to hit him with her own bombshell question. "Do you think you could possibly-" Mina was cut off when Vanya entered the room. She released Cylus' hand and both she and the man shot up in shock.

"Madam Rue was caught up with something important. She asked me to bring you the song lyrics and audio track." Cylus glared at Vanya, but Mina was right, he had blurry lines.

Cylus took the thumb drive and lyrics sheet from Vanya and handed them to Mina. He told her to finish eating and promised to send in someone to help her. Mina nodded, knowing that Cylus was planning on setting 'clear lines' with Vanya, and a part of her felt guilty for having stepped on the woman's toes.

----

Mina had finished eating and neatly cleared the table, she sat and waited for someone to arrive, but it seemed as though no one was coming. Bored, she started looking around at the expensive equipment and felt the urge to push the colorful buttons.

Unable to resist, Mina stepped inside of the sound booth that looked to have been set up for a band. There was a keyboard, electric guitar, bass and drums. Feeling as though the drums were something she would not be able to accidentally break, Mina sat on the stool, and picked up a pair of nearby drumsticks.

Mina rapped on the surface of the drums lightly, but after a while she started to get into it. She was not sure if she was good or not, but it was fun. She started to play louder and louder until she heard a throat clear and she fell backward, bringing the stool and cymbals with her.