“I w-was joking. You told me that it was big!”
“What’s big?”
Vincent and Agatha’s hearts fell out of their chests as they turned around to Lanceil, who had just come back from work.
“What are you guys talking about?” Lanceil interrogated.
The two unconsciously looked at the thing that they were talking about. It is located at the lower part of Lanceil’s body.
“What’s big?” he asked again.
Vincent and Agatha diverted their eyes back to Lanceil’s face in unison. It’ll be a major problem if Lanceil finds out that they were talking about his thing. Therefore, Agatha thought of an excuse.
“W-We were talking about what to eat for breakfast tomorrow. Vincent said he wanted a big sausage.”
“Sausage?” Lanceil asked.
And it sank into her mind; that the excuse she made was ridiculous. Vincent quickly turned around and covered his mouth. He wanted to laugh so badly, but he needed to suppress it.
On the other side, Agatha would like to disappear into thin air.
“Then go ahead and have sausage tomorrow,” Lanceil replied.
His plain answer caught the two’s attention. Observing his face, Lanceil looks so tired.
“I am tired right now. Stop fighting, you two,” Lanceil said before he entered his room.
“He must be stressed at work,” Vincent mumbled, and Agatha heard him. “That’s the reason why I don’t want to work and just kept on playing.”
Hearing that, Agatha thought about the field trip. If Lanceil was so stressed at work, then it might be best not to say a thing about it.
**
The next day…
“I can’t go, Professor,” Agatha told Lawrence.
They were alone inside the study room in the review center.
“Why?” Lawrence asked.
“I have work. I can’t leave because of my work.”
“You mean as Lanceil’s maid?”
Her eyes widened as she looked around the empty room. “Can’t you please tone it down?”
“So, it is really because of him.”
Partly yes, partly no. Agatha did not have the chance to ask Lanceil about it because he seemed so stressed at work.
“Anyway, my decision is final. I won’t go on the field trip,” she dropped her remark.
“But how about the recommendation letter?” He asked, placing his chin on the back of his hands.
Agatha looked at the teacher, who faked his identity just to get inside this place.
“There must be a way to get it,” she answered.
“Well, it seems there is no way to convince you,” Lawrence murmured, heaving a sigh.
Agatha felt fortunate that Lawrence would not force her to go. And Lawrence knew that Agatha would not change her mind, so he didn’t say more.
However, that does not mean he had sealed the end of this.
“If I can’t persuade her, then let’s ask the boss.”
After a few days, Lawrence visited Lanceil’s condominium on the day when Agatha wasn’t at home. He heard that she and Sebastian would meet on Saturday, so he came to visit Lanceil on that very exact day.
“What are you here?” Lanceil asked when he opened the door and saw Lawrence standing there with a smile.
“Good morning, Mr. Grim,” Lawrence greeted.
Good? There’s no good in Lanceil’s morning, not when Lawrence came there. Lanceil felt as if he had a cola early in the morning and upset his stomach because of high acidity.
“If you come here for Agatha, she’s not here,” Lanceil said, scowling.
Even if he hates Lawrence so much, they are both businessmen. Who knows? They might meet in the business social someday. Therefore, Lanceil was trying his best to be formal, even if his mind flashed red.
“I didn’t come here for my fiancée,” Lawrence said. He said it so casually while his hands were inside his pockets and he had this fulfilled leer on his lips.
The red light in Lanceil’s head shone, and he was sure his expression would give away any time.
“Agatha said she would not marry you,” Lanceil said, his voice was razor-edged.
In contrast to Lanceil’s response, Lawrence’s dulcetly replied, “I didn’t know you have a close relationship with my fiancée so that she could share her love life with her boss.”
“Love life?” The guttural voice flowed along with sardonic chuckles. “How can you call it ‘Love life’ when there was no love?”
“One-sided-love is still love.”
Blue lines protruded on Lanceil’s neck. His opponent was good in verbal debate, he didn’t expect this.
“Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about love. I came as Agatha’s professor in the Review Center school.”
He was taken aback, aghast to know Lawrence was Agatha’s professor. How come Agatha didn’t say anything about this?!
‘Why would she? We’re not even in a relationship,’ Lanceil answered his own question and felt sad about it.
Still, he wanted to protect her from a weird rich man who was forcing his maid to marry him.
“Did you apply as a professor in her review center to meet her?” Lanceil asked, his voice icy-cold. “Desperate illness needs desperate remedies.”
“The desperate usually succeed because they have nothing to lose.”
“Or nothing to gain.”
Both stopped talking and looked at each other. There was silence in the hallway, they could hear a pin drop. The air between them could cut a stone.
Lanceil deciphered Lawrence would not give up.
Alternatively, Lawrence ascertained Lanceil’s relationship with his maid.
“Agatha needs a letter of recommendation,” Lawrence changed the topic when his voice returned. To get it, she needs to attend the four-day field trip with her group mates. Agatha said she would not go because of her work. So, I came here to ask for your permission.”
Lanceil’s face wrinkled. The coldness deepened and swirled everything about him, and through him, he was filled with tangible loneliness. Lanceil realized that Agatha was walking away from him as time passed by. He was eaten by work. And even if he hated to admit it, he was disappointed by Agatha’s weird confession.
“Wait a minute. Don’t tell me, she didn’t even tell you?”
Lawrence had a knack for rubbing salt in the wound.
Lanceil’s eyes toppled, and then he mumbled, “If she needs it, then I will give her permission. But…”
His sharp eyes scrutinized back to Lawrence. His gaze, critical, but Lawrence didn’t back down.
Then silence drew out and prolonged, rocking the placid place and sending a ripple of disturbance.
“Even if you spend four days with Agatha, that does not mean you’d win this. At the end of the day, she will come back… HERE. WITH. ME.”
A smile full of mischief erupted on Lawrence’s lips. He pondered if Lanceil could say the same thing once he learned everything.
Oh, he couldn’t wait to see the disappointment in Lanceil’s dogmatic face!
Palatably, Lawrence would show mercy.