31 Relief

A few minutes prior to Ensen's arrival, Julia and her daughter Ada were both in the living room. Julia was sitting on the rather large, light blue couch whereas Ada was resting on a nearby light grey armchair.

"Ensen will be here soon won't he?" Ada said anxiously while turning her head towards the front window which overlooked the driveway.

"He'll probably be here in a few minutes Ada," Julia replied, doing her utmost to try to hide her nervousness from meeting Ensen for the first time in so long.

After their brief conversation, silence engulfed the room once again.

Looking down at her hands, Julia felt the next minutes slowly go by although they felt like hours.

In an attempt to distract herself, she began to idly talk with Ada. This worked slightly but not much.

As their talk progressed, Julia had found that it did not distract her at all anymore.

She began to second guess if Ensen would even come. While he messaged her saying that he would earlier, it was a big step meeting with her.

Falling deeper into her thoughts, Julia noticed that she had accidentally been ignoring what Ada had been saying to her.

"Oh sorry dear, what was that?" Julia said, feeling awkward about ignoring her daughter.

Looking weirdly at her mother, Ada asked in concern "Are you okay mom? Your acting a little weird."

As Julia was thinking about how to respond to the abrupt question, they heard a knock on the door.

They both became silent as they looked over towards the door. After a moment Ada nearly leaped out of the armchair she had been sitting in and launched herself towards the front door.

Unlike Ada, Julia slowly got up from the couch and began walking slowly towards the door with nervousness filling her heart.

Ada quickly arrived at the door and unlocked it with haste. Opening the door with a large smile plastered on her face, she said "Welcome, Ensen!"

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Seeing the excited Ada greeting him so energetically, Ensen was a little thrown off. He had forgotten about how cheerful she was. Instantly, he began to feel slightly less nervous about dinner.

"Long time no see Ada, how have you been?" Ensen asked in a genuine fashion.

But without a response, Ada quickly opened her arms and walked forwards. Noticing her haste towards him, Ensen brought his hands back towards the front of his body. Briefing glancing down at his hands, he had realized they had stopped shaking at some point.

Feeling Ada's arms wrap around Ensen in excitement from seeing him again, Ensen asked teasingly "I was only gone for a few weeks. How has the school been?'

As if waiting for the question, Ada withdrew her hug and stepped back a few feet before continuing their talk.

"It's been horrible! I've corrected more mistakes from the other students than the teacher!" Ada said in obvious annoyance.

In gentle contemplation, Ensen opened his mouth to respond only to be cut off by Ada continuing to complain.

"Plus they still can't find anybody to take over your position, so it's still the secretary holding the classes. I think it would be better even if the gym teacher took over the class." She declared in an aggressive manner.

Noticing movement behind Ada, he turned his gaze towards the direction to see a 25-year-old woman with blonde hair and silk-smooth skin. She wore a white sundress that had various designs of flowers scattered around the fabric. She had obviously dressed up quite a bit for the occasion.

Looking at his sister, Ensen thought that she had changed quite a bit during the past few years. He couldn't really put his finger on what changed, she just seemed more… mature. She had always been the outgoing type with a bad streak of annoying people which wasn't too bad in itself, but she simply did not understand where to draw the limit.

Noticing Ensen stare at her in seemingly deep though, Julia shifted slightly uncomfortably before speaking "Thanks for coming over Ensen, it means a lot." She said while trying to mask her emotions.

'I guess people really do change.' Ensen thought to himself as he slowly lost more of his nervousness.

"Come on in Ensen!" Ada said in excitement. You couldn't blame her, after all, Ensen hadn't been in this house before.

Ada grabbed his wrist and began to walk towards the open doorway. Noticing what was happening, Julia wore an awkward face as she moved out of the way.

Shaking Ada's hand off, Ensen turned his gaze towards Julia once again, lost at what to say to her.

"I'm going to go finish dinner, it will be ready soon," Julia said suddenly. She began walking off towards the kitchen without waiting for even a moment.

Ensen spent the next little while in the living room with Ada, simply discussing events at school and whatever else she wanted to talk about.

After learning from her that the parents seemed regretful about their pressure on the school to fire him, and some were even wanting to rehire him after seeing the horrible state the math class was in. Ensen laughed at the absurdity of the situation without any regret, it wasn't like he would go back there even if they gave him the entire school.

After they had talked for a while longer, Julia entered the living room to tell them that dinner had been finished and it was ready at the dinner table.

Getting out of his seat, Ensen slowly stretched as he began to walk towards the dining room with Ada by side.

After entering the closed-off dining room, he noticed that there was an impressive amount of food laid out on the table. There were mashed potatoes, medium-sized steaks, and an assortment of vegetables.

Looking at the food in suspicion after experiencing his sister's cooking years ago, Ensen slowly sat down at a nearby chair and waited for Julia to arrive.

Ada quickly sat down next to Ensen, seemingly acting like his shadow for some reason.

After a few moments, Julia entered the room and promptly sat down at the opposite side of the table.

Without saying a word, both of the women began to grab food and transfer them to their plates. Not wanting to be left behind, Ensen slowly grabbed a steak, potatoes, and a few vegetables.

The dinner that followed had a very odd vibe. Ensen felt too uncomfortable to properly speak to his sister. He didn't know almost anything about her life after these years. On the other hand, Julia could not think of anything to say.

While Ada didn't know exactly what was going on, she picked up on the awkward aura that surrounded the table and decided not to speak.

"I thought your husband was going to be here," Ensen said, trying to think of anything to start a conversation with.

After a few moments, Julia replied in an awkward tone "James was going to eat with us, but there was an emergency at work so he couldn't make it."

Without knowing where to lead the conversation, silence once again took over the dining room. The only sound being made was forks gently tapping plates.

Silence reigned for a few more moments before Julia had seemingly made a decision.

"Ensen, are you working right now?" She asked curiously. Although Julia knew he had been fired recently, he was a good teacher so it wouldn't be too hard to find another job.

"That's right, I'm unemployed right now," Ensen stated after pondering for a moment, hiding the fact that he was in the process of setting up his own private academy as he decided earlier.

Julia sighed in relief as she continued talking after a moment of hesitation "Do you need a place to stay? There's a guest bedroom we don't use, you can have it if you'd like."

Afterward, when Julia had finished speaking everybody in the room had different thoughts. Julia was praying that Ensen would accept to use this as a chance to repair their relationship. Ada was nearly bouncing out of her seat in excitement, whereas Ensen had completely different thoughts from the two of them.

'She really has changed.' Ensen thought to himself. While he didn't need to move in, it was a nice offer that she would have never spoken about if it was who Ensen knew previously. Although he wasn't going to take the offer, he could tell she was being sincere and was purely worried about him.

Julia's eyes never left Ensen, waiting to hear his answer. When a gentle smile emerged on Ensen's face, she believed that he was going to accept. Trying to hold back her excitement, she put her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand, covering her expression.

However, when Ensen opened his mouth to speak it broke all of her assumptions.

"Thank you for the offer, but I actually have something in the works right now so I will be fine," Ensen said. He decided to vaguely give an idea that he was working on something so that they wouldn't feel as worried.

Looking into Julia's eyes, Ensen noticed there was something off.

'Wait, she's… crying?' Ensen asked confused, not understanding what was going on.

While Ensen thought that he was simply rejecting a kind offer from his sister, it meant much more to Julia then he thought. Julia believed that he had simply made up an excuse for why he didn't want to live here. Although it seemed far-fetched, Julia still genuinely believed that Ensen's hatred towards her had not faded throughout the years.

Beginning to panic from her tears, Ensen opened his mouth to explain himself "I have a lot of money in my savings and I'll have my own business pretty soon so It's unnecessary for me to stay here. Although I really do appreciate it."

Trying to calm herself down, Julia looked at Ensen and asked with sadness, and desperation to reconnect with him in her voice "Then, can I talk to you more?"

Although Ensen was still slightly uncomfortable with the idea, he could see how much effort Julia was putting in to try to make things work.

After pausing for a moment, Ensen said with a smile "Yes, we can talk more from now on."

Although Ensen didn't realize it, a heavy weight had been lifted from both of their shoulders.

Tears began to pour out of Julia's eyes once again. But it was different this time, they were tears of happiness.