Inside the private room,
After Lina had left using the excuse of freshening up, Wayne glanced around and tried to sneak a peek at the man beside him.
Reuben could feel the two curious gazes on him but he did not bother looking up or acknowledging them.
Instead, he acted as though he was the only one present in the room.
He then unlocked his phone and typed a message which was meant for his faithful eunuch, Assistant Mathew Kim.
*Push back all my afternoon meetings. I will be late.*
No explanations, no excuses. Just plain and straightforward commands.
No matter how docile he pretended to be in Lina's presence, he still was the business tycoon who had a share in almost all the major sectors of the economy.
Not being able to bear the awkward silence, one of the twins decided to do something about it.
"How long do you plan on giving us the silent treatment?" Wade whined when he saw that Reuben had no plans of conversing with them.
Facing those accusing words and those wronged eyes, all Reuben wanted to do was to roll his eyes and that was exactly what he did.
"Not only do my best friends in this whole wide world accuse me of raising my hand on a woman, they even assault me physically." Reuben reminded them in a calm tone.
The exaggeration of the events that had occurred and the blame of being falsely accused was accomplished seamlessly all while sipping his iced tea.
"So tell me why exactly should I talk to two such hooligans who do not know how to control their tongues and their emotions?" He scoffed and placed his phone face down on the table after sending the text to his assistant.
The twins groaned in unison when they heard his stubborn and unforgiving words.
"My parents taught me proper manners and I would never hit a woman." He finished his piece and then went silent mode on them once again.
'However, some women deserve to be thrown in prison for what they do!' He gritted his teeth when he thought of several women who tried to get a few minutes in the limelight by misusing his name.
Thinking of this issue, he suddenly realized something which made his eyes widen.
'I need to make sure that such a scandal never occurs again or else Kitten might not hesitate to chop me up into little pieces!' He shuddered when he recalled the incident where they had caught that man named Mr. Long cheating on his wife.
Her strong and violent reaction was proof enough of how much she despised infidelity.
'She loves romance and hates cheaters.' He summarized everything he had learned about her personality so far.
Not satisfied with the sparse knowledge he had about her, he looked up at the two best sources of information he could find.
'A good businessman makes use of all the resources that might profit him.' He smirked when this brilliant idea popped up in his mind.
The Luo twins had caught a glimpse of his sparkling dark eyes and felt an ominous feeling in their heart.
Reuben cleared his throat and sat up straight with his elbows resting on the table, fingers interlocked, and placed his chin on them.
"Want me to forgive you two?" He raised a question with his signature sweet smile gracing his face.
Looking at how relaxed his body language was and the smile that appeared on his face, Wade and Wayne were dreading what he might ask of them in exchange for his forgiveness.
"Y-yes?" Wayne replied in a doubtful tone.
The twins glimpsed at each other and gulped in their saliva when a certain establishment came to their mind.
'Blue Heaven!' They uttered the name at the same time.
"No! I'm not going back there ever again!" Wade cried out as he shook his head furiously.
Just the thought of the things he experienced in Blue Heaven was enough for him to loathe that place. So the idea of doing something in that place even if it was to gain Reuben's forgiveness was out of the question for him.
'I can stay without talking to him for the rest of my life!' He declared ruthlessly and hardened his heart to not go weak in the name of friendship.
Wayne however, was not feeling the same pain and trauma that his twin was undergoing at this moment.
In fact, his shoulders were trembling as he tried his best to hold in his laughter.
'Reuben shouldn't have taken things so far that day.' He shook his head and wiped a tear that had formed at the corner of his eye because of the laughter he had held in.
Wade shot a furious glare at his brother and then glowered as he faced Reuben with courage that had surged in his body.
However, before he could say anything further, Reuben raised his hand and stopped him.
"Keep your stupid thoughts to yourself. I just want to know more about my kitten so that I may be a better boyfriend." He disclosed his condition for forgetting all about their demeaning actions from earlier.
Wade's jaw dropped when he heard this and the fear and anxiety in his heart slowly faded away.
Taking a deep breath he clutched his chest in an attempt to regulate his erratic heartbeat.
"Scratch that! Not a better boyfriend, I want to be the best and ONLY boyfriend she ever has or needs!" Reuben's strong declaration somehow brought a smile to the twins' faces before they even realized it.
They glanced at each other and then turned to Reuben before giving him a firm nod.
"Ask away." Wayne waved his hand and gestured to him to put out whatever questions he wished to ask about her.
Reuben was pleased with this outcome and he planned to ask the questions that had been circling in his mind every time he met Lina.
Before he could ask his first question, Wade remembered something which needed to be paid attention to.
"We will only answer the questions that she has told others. Which means that anything she considers a secret will not be revealed to you. Even if it results in us not being forgiven." He announced and glanced at Reuben for his acquiescence.
"Fair enough. If she is uncomfortable with certain things being known to others then you can skip answering such questions." He readily agreed.
Wade was happy with his acceptance and nodded to give him the green signal.
"Why did her family move away and what made her return after so many years?" He stated his first query.
"Uncle Simon never gave us a reason before relocating his family abroad." Wade answered truthfully since even Uncle Pat was kept in the dark about this big decision.
"Nana came back because her mother sent her to sort out Uncle Pat's scandal with that woman and her daughter." Wayne completed the answer and cringed when he thought of the two pests living in Yang Manor.
Reuben was busy nodding at Wayne so he failed to notice the nervous sweat forming on Wade's forehead.
'And because she wants to increase Obsidia's fame in the Eastern Hemisphere!' He blurted in his heart since that was still a heavily guarded secret in their family.
"What is the story behind her fear of speed?" Reuben posed a serious question after he recalled Dr. Su's warnings when they bumped into him at the banquet.
'She spent three days in the hospital because she was in a coma.' He gritted his teeth thinking of this tragedy.
While she was in the hospital, laid unconscious on the bed, he had been sulking that she was ghosting his texts.
Remembering that, Reuben felt ashamed and remorseful for not trying hard enough to get in touch with her.
Wayne, who had spent more time with Reuben, was the first to catch the guilt that had flashed in his eyes.
"There was nothing you could do even if you were there." He consoled and extended his hand out to pat Reuben's shoulder.
Reuben gave this kind gesture a nod but the guilt he felt did not diminish.
"She wouldn't tell us what exactly made her fear cars or speed to the extent that she loses consciousness but we think that something big must've happened." Wade explained about everything he was aware of regarding her tachophobia.
Reuben found it strange that even when her condition was this serious, she refused to let her family know about what had caused this mess in the first place.
'Something doesn't seem right to me. I need to try and find more clues.' He decided as he rubbed his chin in contemplation.
Not wasting much time, he jumped to his next question.
"When Lina had punched me, I immediately used a cold compress on her injury so why exactly did the swelling return in the span of a few short minutes?" He tilted his head as he laid out what had been swirling in his mind since their trip to the hospital.
Wade chuckled when he heard this question before sheepishly scratching his cheek.
"Nana always had a delicate body to begin with. You hold her wrist too tight and she would bruise in an instant." He revealed this anomaly about his little sister.
'I need to be extra careful and I cannot just grab her hand or pin her against the wall like I did today. What if she already has bruises on her back?' Reuben wondered and worries about her injuries increased in his heart.
Now, knowing that she had such a fragile body, Reuben decided to treat her like glass which could shatter at any moment.
But his kind thoughts were bound to misfire and shoot him in his feet because that was exactly how Lina did not wish to be treated.
'Now that I think about it, hasn't Kitten been gone for too long now?' Recently dubbed worrisome grandmother Reuben turned and glanced at the door.
The twins followed his gaze and understood what he was thinking about.
"Should we go check?" Wade polled and in response, he received two bobbing heads.