Chapter 115 - Chatting

"Oh my dear Gray!" Gray's mother, Melanie, stood up to hug her eldest son. She had not seen Gray in person for a long time. "How have you been?"

"Good good." Gray reciprocated with a warm hug. He too missed his mother. Ever since he started work as a Major General, he did not have any time to travel overseas to find his mother. Not only that, when he managed to get back Sato into his life, he did not want to leave him once again.

Melanie caressed Gray's smooth face. Indeed, my son looked much happier and lively around Sato, thought Melanie. She knew that everything up to now were as a result of Sato. She wanted to get to know Sato. No she must to get to know him.

"And you must be Sato." Melanie smiled warmly, spreading her arms, she hugged the young man. "It is nice to finally meet you."

"It is nice to meet you too, Ms. Tobion."

Sato greeted back politely. He was stiff to the bones when he had realised that Gray's mother was in the house. But after the hug, he had loosened up. Melanie doesn't put up a front, showcasing her friendly and uplifting personality.

"There's no need to call me Ms.. Just call me Auntie. If you want, you can call me Mother too." Melanie spoke straightforwardly, to which Sato was speechless.

"Mother.. Don't put Sato on the spot." Gray spoke tenderly. Though in his heart, he did not actually mind Sato calling his mother, mother.

"Um.. Auntie it is nice to meet you. Gray has spoke about you before." Sato settled for auntie as he spoke to Melanie with an amicable tone.

"Oh, has he been badmouthing me?" She glanced at her son, looking surprised. Sato quickly cleared up the misunderstanding.

"No no. In fact, he told me how affable you were."

"Oh really? I guess I did not love Gray for the past 28 years for nothing."

The newly met pair sat down on the living room sofa, chatting up a storm. Gray left back to his room for a conference call, leaving the two alone.

Melanie first asked the typical questions that an acquaintance would. Questions like what do you major in school, where are you from, what are your hobbies, etc. Although most of it, Melanie could have hired a private investigator to find out. However, respecting his son's boyfriend's privacy and to also leave out the spoilers, she asked Sato personally.

Of course, Sato answered honestly. As good as he looked on paper, whatever that was kept inside Sato were also squeaky clean. He was a genuine kind gentleman and Gray saw that many years back.

When the starter questions were finished, Melanie decided that Sato should get a turn too. After all, a one way conversation was never fun to begin with. "Go ahead. Ask me anything."

Sato thought it through. There were things that he was curious about, like the Tobion family's background, but that was secondary. Sato wasn't a materialistic person and so, knowing that will not change how he perceived things. Instead, Sato asked what he had always wanted to know.

"Can you tell me a story about Gray's childhood?" It was the same thing he had asked Pete and Marion before. He could never know too much about Gray.

"Oh? Mmm let me think about it." Melanie raised her eyebrows when she heard the question. As expected, Sato did care about Gray a lot. She gave it some thought before settling for this story.

"Well, I am sure you know about Gray's family situation. From young, Gray was a quiet boy. He never once complained about anything. He never needed to ask questions or request for anything as he was resourceful. But, there was one time that he complained."

"What is it?"

"On his 7th birthday, Gray had requested for a dog. However, his father, Alex forbidded him. No dogs were allowed in our household because of my allergies. My husband did not want me to suffer in any way, so he had declined Gray's request. Gray complained nonstop for the first time that day, to which he was grounded by his father for his attitude."

"As a result, the poor boy sulked for three days and three nights, not wanting to come out of his room. He simply would not budge and stayed deathly silent in his room. Or so we thought."

"By the fourth day, I simply could not stand seeing Gray this depressed. Not listening to what my husband said, I headed for his room to check up on him. And when I opened up the room quietly, I realised Gray was not in his bedroom. It turned out that he was hiding in his closet. And in that closet, he had been hiding a puppy in a box!"

"It was then I realised why Gray had asked for a dog that time. He had picked up a poor stray outside our house and secretly brought it into the house. Unluckily, he wasn't granted permission and so he had hid it in the closet out of sight from everyone."

"Aww.. So what happened to the puppy?" Sato responded endearingly. He thought about how cute young Gray looked, taking care of the puppy.

"Well, as a result, Gray was once again grounded by his father. The puppy, however, got to stay, but it was not allowed to be kept in our home. The puppy was only allowed to stay in the guest house."

"Every morning, Gray would run out of the house and through the gardens to come to the guest house to play with the puppy. He named him, Shiro because of his snow white fur. It was one of the few times you would get to see Gray smile and play happily."