"You dared to trick me again?" The Old man roared and Lina hid behind the woman.

Seeing the old man who seemed to be Mr. Hitoshi, Leon leaned towards Anthony and whispered in his ears.

"They seem to have a very good relationship. They look like they've known each other for a very long time." Leon said and Anthony nodded his head.

"But then again, Lina is such a friendly and sweet girl. She became such good friends with the grumpy you in just a week." Anthony patted on his shoulders and Leon was stuck.

'It is true. Maybe I am just thinking too much.' He then looked at Lina again.

She had now calmed the old man down and had moved to greet the rest of his team members.

"Hey, guys? Come let me introduce you to LY's super special team." Lina announced and the others got up from their seats and stood in a row opposite to Lina and the new people.

"As you might have guessed, this is Mr. Kousuke Hitoshi. He is the head craftsman and the man in charge of this team." Lina gestured to the old man whom she had tricked earlier and he nodded his head in greeting.

Kousuke Hitoshi was a man in his late sixties and had a hunched back. He might look like a feeble old man but he was more than capable of chasing Lina around to beat her with his cane.

Then she went to the two men next to him and introduced them.

"This is Mitsuo Hitoshi and his son Naoki Hitoshi." The older man bowed his head while the younger just waved his hand at the others and was hit on his head by his father.

"Bow to show your respect and sincerity." Mitsuo taught his bratty son and Lina just smiled.

'Nao's body has grown but not his brain. Idiot!'

She then moved to the woman standing beside him and smiled widely at her.

"This is Ayano Ichihara, a close friend, and colleague." She hugged her and Aya smiled at the others.

She then turned to Leon and his group and introduced them to Aya and the others.

"Now that everyone knows each other, let's eat?" Lina suggested and saw how thankful Leon and Aya looked.

'These two foodies!' She gestured to them to take a seat at the table and they all sat down.

It was a huge table and everyone sat down with whoever they wanted.

Old man Oswald went and sat next to Mr. Hitoshi, while Mitsuo sat with Stuart Bai. All the oldies sat together while the youngsters grouped up next to each other.

Lina sat between Aya and Leon with Julia sitting next to him. On the opposite side sat Anthony and Irene on either side of Nao.

Today Lina wasn't the youngest one in the room because they had Naoki here. He was just nineteen and was learning from his elders on how to carry on the family's secret skills.

"Lina? You said that they all belong to the same family, but Ayano's surname is Ichihara and not Hitoshi." Leon, the ever-curious guy asked out loud.

"Let me explain." Aya patted Lina's shoulders and turned to him.

"The Hitoshi family had three children, Nao's grandpa, Granduncle and my grandma." She pointed to Nao and then to Mr. Hitoshi and then to herself.

"My grandma married a guy named Ichihara and so my surname is Ichihara and not Hitoshi." She explained and everyone else made an 'Ah' sound as they nodded.

"That explains it." Leon's curiosity was curbed and he was happy.

"One day this curiosity will get you in some deep shit. You better watch out." Julia sneered as she warned him.

'What did I do?' He looked at Aya and Lina and they just laughed looking at his pouty face.

A grown-up man with such an unkempt beard would definitely look funny when he pouts.

"Mr. Hitoshi, did LY send the drafts for the designs that will be auctioned?" Director Bai asked the thing that he was most concerned about.

Mr. Hitoshi looked at Lina and when she blinked her eyes in approval, he nodded his head.

"I will get it to the office tomorrow." He spoke and Stuart happily nodded.

Soon the head waiter arrived and took their orders. Everyone ordered whatever they wanted on the menu, especially Leon who ordered everything exotic.

Lina wanted to control her bad habit of ordering excess stuff so she waited until everyone was done and then ordered something for herself.

"Please get us four bottles of your best wine." Lina said and handed back the wine menu to the waiter.

"The food will soon be served, I will get the wine right away." He bowed before leaving the room.

"Wow, is VP Wade willing to spend so much money on us? I always thought of him as a stingy guy." Leon spoke and everyone else just paused and stared at him.

He looked around and saw Anthony glaring at him and realized that he was a little too loud just now.

But the awkward air dispersed when Mr. Hitoshi started laughing heartily.

"That is so true. That stingy bastard once made me pay for his lunch when he forgot his wallet." He clutched his stomach and laughed.

'That was just an excuse to not pay the bill. Why is that guy so stingy?' Lina shook her head in disapproval.

"He made me buy him ice cream!" Nao spoke begrudgingly.

When Lina looked at him as if he was the stingy person he puffed his cheeks.

"I was out on a date and he third wheeled me! I had to buy the cheapest flavor just so that my date could buy whatever she wanted." He shed unseen tears thinking of that incident.

"Aww… What a perfect gentleman!" All the women gushed and Irene who sat next to him pulled his puffed-up cheeks.

Everyone laughed looking at poor Nao who tried his hardest to get away from her but failed.

They soon forgot about Wade's thriftiness and moved on to get to know each other.

They all told what they liked doing in their free time.

Leon and Lina both answered eating and playing DTD and everyone else rolled their eyes.

Lina then learned a lot about her new friends, Julia loved reading fashion blogs, Anthony hit the gym in his spare time, Old man Oswald enjoyed gardening and Stuart liked playing with his cats.

'Cats? How many does he have?' Lina wondered and she would know that the answer to that question is six cats, in the future.

Mr. Hitoshi liked playing chess and Mitsuo grew bonsai while Nao liked hanging out with friends.

But the most shocking one she heard was Irene's.

"Wow! You Livestream Mukbang whenever you are free?" Lina exclaimed and Nao looked at Irene with sparkling eyes.

"That is so cool!" He shouted excitedly.

"She streamed one last night. It got 10 million views." Julia proudly declared and Irene blushed.

They quickly searched for her online and found her latest video. It showed Irene sitting in a panda onesie with her hair pulled back with a cute blue bow headband.

It was a two-hour long video of her eating jumbo pizzas. She constantly drank cola to help finish her food and after she was done she even emptied the entire bottle of soft drink.

"Amazing!" Lina was fascinated by seeing someone she knows on an online platform admired by millions.

"Can you let me accompany you for the next Livestream? Please….!" She pleaded and Nao too joined her.

Irene felt like she was assaulted by cute puppy rainbows and could only nod her head.

All this talk about food was increasing their appetite.

"Finally the food is here!" Aya who was watching the door like a hawk announced when she saw the waiters bringing in their food.

They all began eating when the waiters left and made light conversations in between.

*Bzzt…. Bzzzt….*

Irene's phone rang and she picked it up.

"Yea, we are on the second floor…. Hello? can you hear me?" She repeated twice and then hung up.

"What's wrong?" Julia asked and Irene just waved her phone.

"There's no reception. Ivan called to ask which room we are in but he couldn't hear anything I said." She rolled her eyes and put her phone on the table.

"I can go get him!" Lina eagerly offered and everyone looked at her, intrigued by her sudden enthusiasm, especially Aya.

"That is if none of you want to." She completed her sentence and jabbed Leon straight in his ribs when she heard his snicker

She glared at him and he hurriedly looked at his plate.

Seeing no one's objections, she excused herself and walked out of the door.

She checked her face using her front camera and entered the elevator.

----

Back in the room, Leon finally burst into laughter when Lina exited.

"So this Ivan guy? He must be good looking right?" Nao looked at Irene and asked but she just vaguely shrugged so he turned to the others.

He saw everyone else indicate yes with a nod and Leon looked curious once again.

"Yes, but how did you know that?" He questioned Nao and in response, Nao gave him a smug look.

"She does that when she sees hot guys. I'm just glad she doesn't drool." Nao cringed and Aya glared at him.

"Nana is not like that! She just likes beautiful things." She defended her friend and Mr. Hitoshi nodded his head in agreement.

'That girl will get in trouble someday because of this.' He shook his head and continued his conversation with Old man Oswald.