Chapter 13 - Trial And Error

Meanwhile, a short while ago, when Ethan came down to eat dinner, his mother saw him come down and asked, "Did something happen, dear? You seem to be thinking about something serious."

Ethan quickly changed his expression and gave a hearty smile as he waved his hand, "Nah. I was just thinking about the frustrating college assignment I have yet to finish."

Lena shook her head helplessly as she tilted her head, "That was all? Are the assignments that tough? But don't worry. I know that all these things are a breeze for my son. Still, if you have any trouble, you can ask me. I was kind of a science nerd back during my younger days."

Ethan raised one of his brows as he was a bit surprised to hear that, "Really? I knew it. You brought me up as a nerd as well. Now I know how and why."

Lena covered her lips as she softly smiled and caressed his hair as she said, "And also why you grew up to be such a nice young man. I can't be more proud of you."

Ethan nodded with a tight-lipped smile as he felt sad looking at her gentle face, feeling guilty for not talking to her like he used to.

He slowly stepped forward and hugged her frail body and felt happy that he was finally able to hug his mother again after a long time. Because of the problems he was facing in college, he had unconsciously isolated himself from everybody else, including his mother, and only now he realized how bad it was for him and for others as well.

Lena had her eyebrows raised when her son suddenly hugged her when usually he had been quite cold to her for a while.

"This feels nice. Reminds me of the past when you always hugged me like this. After your college started, you stopped hugging me like this and even barely talked to me. I thought that maybe it was because of your hormonal changes, you know...something that adolescents like you undergo or that maybe I did something wrong to you without me realizing it..." Lena said as her voice became began to break.

Ethan immediately grabbed her arms and said as he looked at her, "Of course not, mom! It was not your fault at all. I was just being a jerk for stupid reasons. But don't worry. I won't act like that anymore, mom. I also want things to continue as they were in the past," Ethan said as his face seemed to shine by thinking about the days before his college started.

However, thinking about the past, his brows furrowed as he said, "But I wish I could really remember what happened five years ago. All I still remember is tiny fragments of memories of you and dad and…Haa…that is all. That accident really did a number on me, huh?"

Lena's facial muscles tightened a bit as she patted his back and said, "Don't worry about it. When the time is right, you will remember everything you need to know. It is by god's luck that you survived that accident. I only wish I had taken better care of you…hicc…"

Ethan's heart tightened up when he suddenly heard Lena break down in tears. He had no idea that she would still feel so bad about it and gently caressed her back as he said, "Mom, please don't beat yourself up for it. I know you must have done your best to protect me. My only regret is that I never got to spend more time with dad."

Lena slowly pulled back Ethan and wiped her eyes as she said with a narrowed gaze, "Don't think too much about the accident. It will only make you sad. Don't you remember the doctors saying to not force it? I am sure even your step-aunt will agree."

Ethan nodded as he gave a tight-lipped smile.

Lena's eyes suddenly became distracted, "Ah, talking about her, I was planning to tell you to pick her up at 6:30 AM tomorrow from the train station. She is back after her work trip. The faster you pick her up the better before she causes some trouble. You can do that, right?"

"Aunt is really coming back tomorrow? Great! I will pick her up. It is just as usual," Ethan said with a smile as the face of a thirty year old woman flashed in his mind.

"Good. Then go eat your food before it gets cold," Lena patted his cheeks before walking towards the kitchen.

"Okay, mom," Ethan said, feeling better as he sat down on the chair and began to gobble up his food.

Within just a few minutes, he was done with his meal and quickly ran upstairs in excitement to continue testing his powers.

He wondered what he should try next when his eyes suddenly lit up as he got an idea and quickly rushed out of his room again.

Not long after, he was already beginning to test his powers in his room by levitating the phone in his hand. This time he wanted to see how many objects he could lift into the air at the same time. He had already arranged some metal objects around him or things that had some metal in them, like a laptop, cooking pan, and even a large pressure cooker, by asking his mother to let him borrow some old ones for an experiment.

His mother had a puzzled expression wondering what kind of experiment it was, but since he had science to study in his freshman year, she thought it must be some pet project.

But the heaviest among them all was the pair of five and ten kg metal dumbbells he had in his possession since he was someone who was concerned about keeping his body fit and healthy.

With all these metal things arranged before him, he motioned his hands in the air as he momentarily closed his eyes to take a deep breath and focus.

He felt the humming sound of metals vibrating, propagating throughout his entire body as some of the metal objects he arranged before him began to levitate into the air, making him smile, feeling awed at the sight again.

But then his smile stifled when he realized something…

Nerves popped up in his temple and neck as his face reddened upon exerting all his mental focus and energy upon trying to lift all objects simultaneously.

But the only objects that levitated into the air were his keys, mobile, cooking pan, and a 5 kg dumbbell, while the rest of them were just visibly trembling on the floor without levitating into the air like he wanted to.

On the floor, the pair of 10 kg dumbbells was still resting on it, slightly rolling side to side, while his laptop and the pressure cooker were an inch above the bed but weren't going up in the air like the other metal objects he lifted into the air.

"Nnngh…come…on…" Ethan was trying his best to lift them all, but he felt as if his head was going to split into two if he kept this up and also felt fatigue settling inside his mind.

"Ha!" He stopped focusing as he let go of the metal objects, and they immediately fell on the floor except for his mobile, which fell on the bed.

"Dang…and here I thought I could move a big cupboard…pffft…things can't be that easy…" Ethan sighed, though he was still glad that he could at least lift heavy objects like those dumbbells.

He kept trying again and again as minutes passed into hours while he didn't forget to take breaks in between to recharge himself, though he was already feeling a bit dizzy and sleepy.

As he regained some clarity of mind, he looked at the metal objects before him and deduced something in his mind suddenly. In order to test his theory, he stopped focusing on finding out how many objects he could lift at a time but instead, he focused on lifting only the pair of 10 kg dumbbells.

"Phew…this is too draining…" Ethan blinked his eyes rapidly and drank some water before trying to lift these two dumbbells.

Before, when he tried to lift all the objects, he was never able to lift any one of the 10 kg dumbbells. At most, he could only lift only one of the 5 kg dumbbells.

Still, as he expected, both the 10 kg dumbbells were only slightly shifting side to side as he tried to lift them. He immediately gave up and decided to focus on lifting one of them only while gritting his teeth as he felt the energy from his body draining away like a broken faucet.

However, his brows raised when he saw the 10 kg dumbbell slowly levitating into the air just like he had guessed. He motioned with his hands around as he moved the dumbbell around the room while enduring the burden of his energy getting burned away.

By how fast his body was becoming tired, he felt as if he was holding a 20 kg dumbbell in one of his hands.

He finally let go of the dumbbell by gently placing it on the floor and slumped against the bed as he mumbled languidly, "It was never about how many I can lift…but how heavy I can…"

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