077 - Red string: Everyone wants the throne. Why don't you want it, Alex?

Lance's lips twitched at the light smile that remained strong until the door slid shut and hid it. He glared at the closed door of the elevator with hollow, hopeless eyes, before he abruptly spun to face Sharon:

"That guy is gone. Why didn't he give you any task?"

Sharon took a step back from Lance's intense expression, her hands tightening in front of her chest protectively. With a guarded expression that seemed to keep Lance's bad luck at bay, she replied:

"I already have the task to get familiar with my new position. He had no need to add more, for now."

Lance looked deeply into the blue eyes of the blonde, the fierce look in his eyes deepening, but looking more like hopelessness taking tangible form, like despair in another form. Then he deflated, his shoulders sagging as to make the fact more obvious. He wilted like a plant in an apocalyptic world, one who could only wait to die.

Sharon looked at him, unable to comprehend his reaction, with her expression saying it all, as she questioned:

"Is having lunch with your father really such a terrible thing to do in your mind? That is all Alex asked you to do, right?"

The seemingly normal question only made the man with dirty blond hair deflate further, the gloom around him increasing as his heart got pierced by an arrow, another arrow. He looked at Sharon, opened his mouth, then closed it, losing the drive to speak, and holding back a sigh. Well, he tried to hold it back, but in the end, had to let it out:

"Sigh, you don't know what you are talking about. My father… Alex… sigh…"

Lance lost all desire to continue. He turned around to walk away, his shoulders slouched as if pressed down by the end of the world, the end of his world.

Sharon looked at his back with a peculiar look in her eyes. He took out his phone, and spoke in the way of a convict sending out his will:

"Hey, guys, I'm being sent to my death. Party on me tonight if I manage to come back alive."

Sharon's lips twitched. Alex had such a peculiar friend, another fact that made the image she had of him at the beginning lose another piece of itself. She shook her head and spun around to take a path different from Lance's, to go to the office newly vacated for her.

Her amusement faded to make way for calm focus aimed at the task the size of a mountain waiting for her. Maybe… she might not be able to have lunch today.

_ _ _

_ _ _

Below, the elevator reached the ground floor of the landmark headquartering Lenner Group, and Alex stepped out to meet Leyna who was in the lobby, waiting with a smile on her lips.

"You are here. Did you wait for too long?"

Leyna softly shook her head:

"Not at all. I just got here."

"Let's go."

The dark-haired beauty nodded, and spun around to walk out with Alex. The Bentley was still where it had been left earlier. He opened the passenger door for her, before he took the seat behind the wheel.

With the ignition, the engine let out a soft, powerful rumble. Once Leyna was done fastening her seatbelt, he pressed the accelerator down, making his tires skive against the ground, before he jumped forward, taking off like a rocket.

With a deft wielding of the wheel and the speed clutch he was holding with one hand each, he swung himself onto the road after a fifty degree turn. Then he accelerated and went away like an arrow.

Leyna soundlessly exhaled. She adjusted the seatbelt which had shifted uncomfortably in the valley it was running through, before she looked at the relaxed younger man beside her with soft admonishment in her gaze. Nevertheless, she turned to the road without saying anything.

Alex glanced at her, smiled at her reaction, then raised his foot off the accelerator slightly, only slightly. The tension inside the car melted away, and calm settled down, one made serene with the isolation of the noisy outside.

After a while, Alex broke the silence:

"Have you checked with my mother the empress?"

Leyna looked at him with amusement:

"Actually, I want to know why you are so dissatisfied with the chairman."

Alex looked away from the road and gave her a flat stare:

"I am the chairman, now."

"Pfft!"

Indeed, he could not be dissatisfied with himself. But both knew exactly what Leyna was getting at. After holding back a chuckle, she still didn't let go:

"Don't circumvent the subject. Tell me why you are so against taking over the Group. If your reason is compelling enough, it is not impossible for me to help you."

Alex returned his eyes to the road. He didn't answer, letting silence blanket the interior of the car, and Leyna didn't press him. At some point, his focus stopped being on the road only, part of it seemingly drifting to memories of times past. He tightened the hold of the left hand he was holding the wheel with, before relaxing.

Seeing him still not saying nothing, Leyna stopped waiting and hoping. She turned to the front as she gave the answer to Alex's question with a calm smile:

"The chairman said she will be there on time, so you don't need to worry."

Alex nodded without saying anything, and the drive continued in silence, a serene silence away from the noisy restlessness outside.

_ _ _

_ _ _

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"...lunch with–"

Lance pushed open the door of the office to see the board director he looked like a younger, softer version of, raising his hand to interrupt the man standing before his desk, before looking at him who was timidly craning his neck to look inside.

He gave a sheepish smile:

"Hey, dad. I came to have lunch with you. Assistant Tyndall."

The second greeting got him a nod from the man about the same age as Leyna standing before the desk. Lotter senior gave a deep look at Lotter junior, before he turned to his assistant to instruct in a deep, mature voice:

"Tyndall, cancel my lunch appointment."

"Understood, director Lotter. I will rearrange your schedule."

Lance's father stood up, and left the office without so much as a glance at his son who deferentially held the door open for him. The young man's sheepish smile grew wider, and more awkward. He scratched the back of his head, then waved at assistant Tyndall before running after the older, different version of himself.