Song: One Eye Open - Lola Blanc

(edited)

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Adelaide —-

"It may be a little earlier than expected but it's time to put the wheels in motion."I nodded again.

"Yes sir, what do you need me to do?"

—- "Another day?"

Jamie nodded and grinned as he took another bite of his toast, making me almost believe that last night was a dream.

"I mean, why not? Our business is taken care of, one day can't hurt right?" He said, an unrelenting grin on his face as if he wanted to smooth things over from last night.

Did he believe my lie?

"I guess," I said, suspicious of his jolly attitude.

I glanced over at Mano who seemed to be so invested in cracking open a hardboiled egg that he hadn't heard our conversation.

"Mano? What do you think?" I asked him, amused by his childish antics.

He looked up from his egg wide-eyed, clearly not expecting to be interrupted.

"I, uh, what?"

"Jamie was talking about staying here one more day," I replied, barely holding back a chuckle.

He glanced in between the two of us and slowly nodded.

"Okay, we can do that."

Jamie's face broke out into a grin as he turned his face to me and started rambling about all the things he had planned for today.

I nodded absently as he went on, only talking when he asked for my opinion, my mind instead wandering to everything that happened the night before.

I caught Jaekyung's gaze as she sat next to her brother, silent as ever.

"Are you going to stay?" I asked her, cutting off Jamie.

"No."

She looked down at her pancakes and covered them in syrup, not elaborating.

"Why not?"

She looked back up at me, her face impassive as ever.

"I need to get Haneum out of the country and to my aunt's house. I'll be off for the next week."

I nodded at her words, they made logical sense but something seemed off. She always acted detached, and silent but this time felt different, as if something was wrong.

Something that I couldn't place.

I glanced at Haneum who seemed to be in his own world, oblivious to the conversation taking place and the food on his plate, staring into space.

I briefly wondered what it was like to have your sister kill your father.

With a shrug, I turned back to my empty plate and stood up to wander the breakfast buffet. Counters were piled high with any type of food that a person could want, so much food that it made my stomach hurt just by looking at it.

I turned the corner and into the healthier section of the buffet, spotting the wide array of fruit and rushing over to shovel kiwi and mango on my plate.

"You really like fruit, huh." A low voice interrupted from behind me.

I whipped my head around to see who the owner of the voice was, surprised when I saw that he towered over me, reaching over my shoulder for a small bowl.

His midnight dark hair flopped over his left eye obscuring it from my view, though this close, I noticed the end of a scar nasty scar that seemed to cut deep. Not wanting to be caught staring, I turned my head back to the fruit piles.

"Yeah," I said dismissively, hoping that he would turn and leave without any more words said between us.

My hope was short-lived though as he stood right next to me, putting some yoghurt into his bowl before he, too, started to pile fruit on it.

"What brings you to Portugal?"

I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, sizing him up.

Something about him seemed familiar.

"Work."

A small smile etched itself on his face, "A workaholic, are you?"

I turned back to the buffet, placing some pineapple on my plate already full to the brim with different sweet and sour fruits.

"You could say that."

He hummed as he poured honey all over his yoghurt and fruit, so much so that he probably wouldn't be able to taste anything else but the honey.

"And you? What brings you here?" I asked as nonchalantly as possible.

"I suppose what I'm doing here is classified as work."

I put the spoon back into the pineapple, turning to face him completely.

"You suppose?"

He turned to face me, "yes, I suppose."

I raised an eyebrow, sceptical with his answer.

"You're not sure if you're working or not?"

He looked at me for a few minutes, his eyebrows pulled together and a small smirk on his face.

"In my line of business, it's hard to draw a line between work and pleasure."

I hummed, nodding at his answer, slowly digesting it.

Would it be possible that he worked in the same line of business as me? As Mano? If he was then why was he here? Was he supposed to meet with Jaekyung's father?

Most importantly, why would he be talking to me?

"And what line of business is this?"

His dark eyes seemed to sparkle and I couldn't help but feel as if I had met him before. Before he could answer, a hand pressed itself into my shoulder.

"What's going on here?"

I turned around to be face to face with Jaekyung who seemed to be staring at the mystery man as if he were the dirt on the bottom of her shoe.

The man clicked his tongue in annoyance as he took in Jaekyung.

"I guess our time is up."

He looked me dead in the eye as he spoke.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Adelaide."

I stood rooted to the ground as my name slipped from his lips. A name I didn't tell him and a name that seemed so familiar on his lips.

Sounding just as Silver had said it all that time before.

"Do you know him?" She asked, nudging me out of my shocked state.

"Uh no," I replied before I could stop myself.

She raised her eyebrows, .

"Don't worry, just some tourist trying to make conversation." I quickly covered up before she could question me any further.

My mind wandered to the list of guests at the ball that Jamie gave me, trying to place the face that I had just encountered to no avail, Silver was a ghost. I couldn't help feeling that this was him, coming to find me.

But for what reason?

She nodded slowly, "okay."

"Did he ask you anything weird?"

I furrowed my eyebrows together, "no, why?"

She stared at me for a few seconds before letting go of my shoulder and turning to the fruit.

"No reason."

I took a moment to gaze at her, trying to identify something, anything, before turning away and walking I slowly turned to the table. Questions spun in my mind like a tornado, too many to digest.

Was I missing something?

---

So this may or may not be two and a half weeks late but um yeah I don't have an excuse.

Vote, comment, follow and please please please give feedback.

The story is going to be wrapping up soon so after it's all finished I'm going to go back and edit everything bc theres loads of plot holes and bad character development so I'm gonna go in on the editing.

i've said too much lmao,

okay bye.