Siana

While this group of people were racking their brains in order to appeal to the eccentric number two, the person in question got quite bored after waiting for ten minutes. So without any qualms, she put her laptop aside and left for the kitchen to cook though it was 11pm.

She was immersed in cooking when she was hugged from behind. Her body stiffened and she froze for a moment, however, the next moment all the exhaustion and worries just washed away by themselves and a brilliant smile bloomed on her face She really couldn"t stay angry with the guy despite being worried to no ends all this time.

"You gave me the fright." She said while leaning in his safe embrace with much ease.

"Seems like you are lacking some training," he seemed to have disregarded her previous statement and instead sounded extremely serious.

Sia was a bit confused at his words,

"How so?"

"You couldn"t notice my presence even when I was right behind you. Kalix will be back by the end of the week." He sounded a bit cold as only he knew how much he would wish to teach her himself rather than asking Kalix to do so.

His words initially bothered Sia, but upon hearing that her instructor was coming back she was more than happy. After all, all these years Kalix was one of the solid connections she had with the hiding King.

Despite being extremely happy, she wasn"t going to take things lying down:

"Firstly, it"s just that your martial arts level is too high for someone like me to notice your presence," she retorted with a sullen expression. Nonetheless, the next moment she exclaimed with excitement, "When exactly is master Octopus coming?"

"When is she going to drop those horrible nicknames? Hmm, at least I am King, otherwise, if she named me similar to Kalix... poor guy..."

"Siana?"

"Hmm?"

He took a look at the table that was covered to the brim with a variety of food. It was already 1am in the morning, but she didn"t seem to want to stop cooking.

"You seem out of sorts," he said pointing at the table with his chin completely disregarding her previous question. Even if it was Kalix, he hated it when she was interested in other men, however childish it was.

Sia followed the direction he pointed out only to be greeted with all sorts of heavy meals she had cooked in her cooking spree. Seemed like she lost it for a bit.

"Umm, it"s all your fault."

Cain was taken aback, but chose to not retaliate and simply asked,

"How did this measly King manage to anger his high and mighty Queenie?"

"You disappeared," she paused, "again," she said in a quiet voice, but it was still audible to the two of them.

When she came home she was angry at that manager, however, when she was cooking all she could do was worry about Cain. She knew he had stuff to do, but given the dangerous life he was living, she couldn"t help but worry about him all the time.

Though all of these thoughts were left unsaid, Cain could easily understand them. He felt warmth surging into his body from the little woman in his arms: she was worried for him and it meant the world to him.

"Sorry. I will try not to repeat it again."

She smiled at his promise. Others might have thought that he wasn"t sincere enough towards her, but she, on the other hand, appreciated that he gave her a feasible promise rather than a promise he couldn"t fulfil. And this small promise was enough to dispel all the worries from within her.

They dined in silence that concealed millions of words that were said in between the two. Sometimes a glance spoke louder and more clearly than a many words. And the glances and the smiles exchanged between them belonged exactly to this category of expressions.

As they returned to the bedroom, Sia started recalling the incidents from when he had left her, including the call from the manager of the Complaints and Improvements department and the messages from the hackers.

"Maybe her boyfriend has a crush on you or something of sort?"

Looking at his squinted eyes and wide smile, Sia felt chills down her spine.

"My G.o.d, how did he even come to that conclusion and even if that was the case, which 99.9% isn"t, how is that even my fault!?"

She cleared her throat awkwardly and immediately hugged his waist,

"How could it be so? My value can be seen only by you and I don"t come across men other than my patients that often. So it definitely isn"t the case. And even if it was, who cares. Do you dare say that you don"t have any admirers, my dear King?"

Cain was stumbled for words. He had to accept that her comeback was really strong whether he liked it or not.

Hugging her back he said in a self-righteous tone,

"Of course I do. I am the man you chose after all, how could I be unpopular?"

Sia gave a sidelong glance to the hypocrite in front of her and said with a smirk,

"So it is fine for you to have admirers but it isn"t fine for me? Are you s.e.xist or what my dearest?"

Cain felt a headache coming. It had been a while since she argued back so, so he seemed to have forgotten how sharp tongued his own Queenie could be. But worst of all, he had dug his own grave this time!

"It"s not the case. It"s just that I can easily protect myself from those annoying flies while you cannot and you might get bitten by them."

Yep, that was it. That was how it was and she truly couldn"t say anything to refute his argument.

And that was truly the case: if she said he wasn"t right he would bring up the previous incident. If she said he was right he would appoint even more hidden guards to her. Seemed like she had to eat a loss this time as the best course of action was:

"Shall we check to see whether there are new messages from those guys?"

Without waiting for a reply she picked up her laptop and opened the hidden interface. And sure thing, there was a new message for her.

"It"s fine if you don"t want to work for me, but how about you consider getting to know more about me before rejecting?"

Before Sia could process the implication of those words or decide how to answer to get more information on the other party, her laptop was s.n.a.t.c.hed from her hands. It took Cain a few seconds to reply with a message of his own: a message that almost cost the lives of many.

Looking at the message Luke felt like smashing things. He had never had to compromise with anyone, yet here he was being all nice but the guy didn"t know better and chose to ignore his good intents. It seemed like it was time for more forceful approaches.

He took a final look at the message, etching the two simple words in his mind to make use of them when the time came:

"Not interested." - codename Q