168 Acting on a Whim 2

"Presents! Presents! Presents!"

"Derek! Go wash your mouth first!"

As Mary said this to the little kid whose eyes were wide open with expectation, he ran like the wind to the sink before running back, almost as if he had superpowers.

Seeing this, both Mary and Keren couldn't help but chuckle, but the latter was still glancing backward at Luke,wondering what he was doing.

It was the evening of a Sunday, and it seemed that those pancakes had been snacks.

Sitting down at the kitchen island and first handing a cover over to the ravenous kid, Keren asked Mary, "Liz is doing great, I expect. So, that surprise. Liz and Will be coming back tomorrow, so I wanted to surprise her by having you all come to the tarmac when she lands. What do you say?"

Mary, who was deciding whether to scold Derek for being so shameless, absentmindedly nodded at Liz before saying, "Of course, dear. That's very thoughtful of you. Derek! Thank Sister Keren first!"

S-sister Keren?!

Badly startled by the sudden moniker, Keren didn't respond in time when Derek said dutifully, "Thank you, Sister Keren!" Before running off to his room to unpack the presents, like a squirrel which ran to hoard walnuts as soon as it found them.

As her eyes followed Derek, she noticed that Luke was striding towards her from the door with a determined expression on his face, as if he had decided something.

However, before he could say anything, Keren had a quick idea and said, "Hey Luke, do you mind showing me some pictures from Liz's childhood? I was planning to make a gift for her, so I wanted to take some clicks of those."

Luke had been planning on getting her alone somehow by saying some excuse, as he had a few questions to ask.

So, seeing her do the same on her own initiative, he couldn't help but sputter a bit.

"Don't be so shy, Luke! Take her up to Liz's room!"

Adding oil to the fire, Mary said this, and made Luke look at her with an appalled look.

Hey, I was going to do that anyway! Why would I be shy?

Grumbling this in his head, he said, "Come on," before leading the way upstairs.

Seeing Keren nod demurely and walk begin him, he reached the door to Liz's room upstairs and opened it before waiting for Keren to enter.

After she did so, he entered behind her and turned around to lock the door, so that no one else would be able to hear them.

However, when he turned around, he suddenly felt himself enveloped in a short hug.

What the…?!

Although it was very brief, that unbelievably soft and warm feeling that spread throughout his body when he felt her pressing her body against his lingered in his mind, refusing to be swept away by his tumultuous thoughts.

It didn't help at all that she followed up that hug with a kiss on his cheek, which made that spot feel slightly wet with moisture.

In a daze, Luke didn't even know what to say when he saw Keren, who was standing in front of him as if nothing out of the norm had happened, smiled sweetly at him before putting her hands behind her back, leaning forward and saying, "I missed you! Did you miss me?"

After taking a few seconds, Luke finally managed to muster the emotion that should have come the moment he realized what had happened: indignation.

"W-why would I miss you? And what was that!"

First, Keren innocently blinked her eyes, saying, "That's how I greet people I like!"

And then, a pout appeared on her face, which looked quite exquisite.

Just like Will, she had been blessed with the ability to make a room freeze when she entered it.

Where Liz's beauty lay in the realm of purity, Keren's was the smoldering type which would make a man, or a woman's heart beat faster.

In other words, she was much more experienced than Liz regarding how and what to do to make sure that her beauty stood out to achieve the desired effect.

In a 'hurt' voice, Keren continued, saying, "So you don't care about me at all, even though I helped you so much?"

This made Luke pause, as he realized that she really had helped him.

If it weren't for her, things might still have been awkward between him and Liz.

However, that was what he had wanted to talk to her about in the first place.

As for the pout, it only made him pause a bit, as he had never had a habit of giving any attention to that way to any woman other than Liz.

"How was that helping? You said that if we straightened things out, we wouldn't become worse! Instead, we've drifted apart more! She hasn't been talking to me like before! I had to resort to finding out more about her through Mary!"

As Luke rattled away his frustrations, Keren couldn't help but pout for real.

That strategy that she had just used usually had a 100% success rate over men.

However, this man had just ignored it, after being affected for merely a second.

That felt…frustrating, but in a good way.

Keren had always been someone who loved a challenge. Although she knew that her motive behind coming to Luke now must be more than the interest she had in him because she barely affected him which made him a novelty worth noticing, she decided to treat it as that for now, as she was not at all ready to deal with what really might be the problem.

Yes, although she was strong on the outside, she did have a habit of running away from problems, especially when they were her own.

So, losing the pout, she said, "It takes time, you dunce! You just told her that you have feelings for her. Of course she would hesitate to talk about Will with you!"

Right then, Keren got a brilliant plan.

Without hesitating, she spoke it out.

"How about this. If she sees that you can be with someone else, she will definitely completely go back to normal with you. Why not act like you're my boyfriend?"