I opened my eyes to the familiar black ceiling. My head was throbbing, so I tried to reach out my hand to massage my forehead, only to feel a weight on it.

I glanced down to find Elian holding onto my hand while he talked over the phone in whispers.

"—I don't want to take any risks, Dr. Hopkins. She is—" Elian paused when he realized I was awake. "I will call you later. She's awake." He put down his phone and brought his face to hover over me. "How do you feel right now, Alena?"

I tried to get up, and he helped me. "Get up slowly," he instructed.

When I was sitting up, I said, "I feel okay now."

"What happened? Did your blood pressure drop or something?" Elian inquired.

"I don't know. Did I faint in the gym?" I asked.

He nodded and asked, "Do you remember what happened?"

I tried to recall, but I just remembered walking away from Elian at the ab crunch machine. "I don't remember."

"Nothing at all?" I shook my head. "Nothing that woman said?"

"What woman?" I asked.

"No one. But if you do remember, just know that she's a crazy lady. She may seem normal, but she speaks nonsense. Don't pay any mind to her."

I only gave him a perplexed look in response.

"You should take some rest now. I will get you your breakfast," Elian said and got up, letting go of my hand.

I looked around the room and realized Elian must have carried me here all the way from the gym. I smiled at the thought.

Elian came back a couple of minutes later with a tray in his hand. "Lance made you a special breakfast," he announced.

"What is it?" I asked excitedly, but my excitement soon deflated when I saw what the contents actually were. "What the hell is this crap?"

"Whole-grain porridge with berries. It's very healthy," Elian advertised, and I shot him a death glare.

"Where is Lance? He made this, right? Call him here. I want to throw this at his face. People eat this crap? How?" I exclaimed.

"As fun as it would be to call Lance here and watch you throw this at his face, he already left for the airport," Elian said regretfully.

"What do you mean he left for the airport?"

"Did you forget he was only here until this weekend?" he reminded, and my nose flared in anger.

"How dare he leave without seeing me once? He didn't even mention it when I saw him the morning before heading down to the gym."

"It's nothing new. He always does that," Elian shrugged.

I took my phone from the nightstand and asked Elian, "Type Lance's number."

"Why?"

"Just do it," I ordered.

When he did, I instantly called Lance.

"Hello—"

I didn't give Lance the chance to speak as I started scolding, "How dare you leave without informing me once?"

"Who is it?" Lance asked, and I wanted to strangle him. I swear these two brothers were impossible!

"It's me, Alena! Did you already forget my voice?"

"Oh," he replied.

"What 'oh'? How could you leave like that?" I asked again.

"I didn't know I had to tell you. But I made you breakfast—"

"About that, what sort of breakfast is this? This looks like vomit!" I hollered.

"That's just the way it looks," Lance retorted.

Elian came to sit beside me and patted my shoulders in a comforting way which made me feel calmer.

I exhaled heavily and said, "Whatever. It doesn't matter. All I wanted to say was, have a safe journey. Thank you for letting me stay here, and I hope you will let me know when you're in town again so that I can come to visit you. It's also fine if you don't."

Maybe Lance and I didn't spend too much time or even talk that much for that matter, but I could tell he was a soft-hearted person, and I felt a strong connection to him—like a brother.

He was older than me by a year since he was Elian's younger twin, but I had a feeling I could treat him like the younger brother I never had.

"Um, thanks. I will let you know if you promise not to annoy me," Lance replied.

I grinned and said, "No promises there."

I could picture Lance rolling his eyes. "I will think about it. I have to go now. Bye."

"Bye. Take care!" With that, I hung up the call.

I looked to my side at Elian who was smiling softly, and I felt like my entire body was covered with tingles. I had no idea why I felt like that.

But the way he was rubbing my shoulders, was very familiar and relaxing, as if someone had done the same thing for me countless times.

However, when Elian took notice of my stare, he pulled away and stood up.

"You should eat the porridge. It's getting cold," he said curtly.

"But it's yucky."

"Don't be a child, Alena. Just eat it."

I pouted and picked up the spoon with disinterest. "Elian, feed it to me." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was shocked at myself.

Why the hell did I say that just now? It felt like a reflex or something. What the hell?

"Elian, I'm so—" He cut me off.

"No, even if I'm not your boss officially, I shouldn't." With that, Elian walked out of the room, leaving me perplexed.

After finishing the horrid whole-grain porridge and orange juice, I went downstairs to look for Elian but found no one.

I discovered a sticky note on the fridge, saying, "I will be back late tonight. Order some food for yourself. Don't open the door if it's not someone you know."

It was Elian's handwriting, which meant I was going to be alone for the next twelve hours or longer. What was I even going to do? It was going to be scary to stay here alone for so long.

I could video-call my best friend, Abigail, but she would ask too many questions. I was dead if she got to know I was staying with my boss. Because even if she was close to me, she was close to my parents as well. She literally lived next door to them. She was a blabbermouth and could spill my secret, and then Mom would waste no time coming here to bury me alive.

I was wandering around the house like a ghost until the doorbell rang up.

I went near the door and checked the video door phone screen to find it was Jace. I knew Jace was one of Elian's trustworthy people, so I opened the door.

"Hi, Jace. What brings you here?" I asked, smiling.

"Ash was supposed to come, but he got stuck in work, so I had to come," Jace informed.

"Come for what?"

"To give you company or keep you safe—however you want to think of it," he replied.

"Who sent you?"

"Elian."

I grinned, feeling happy, and asked, "Jace, how do you feel about binging movies?"

Jace smiled in return and said, "Considering I haven't had the time to watch a single movie for years, it sounds great."

Jace and I binged five movies, and our opinions matched like we have been friends forever.

Just like I expected, he opened up to me a little while into the second movie and started making comments freely. It was fun to watch the movies with him. Although I kind of wished Elian was here with me. I never thought I would miss that guy.

Although, I did get to know a few things about Elian as well. Surprisingly, Elian and I both went to Stanford University, yet I had never seen him. Was I living in a cave or had my nose in the book always? Because there was no way someone as handsome as Elian wasn't a hot topic around the campus.

After finishing dinner with Jace, I was feeling sleepy around the time Elian got back. Through my drooping eyelids, I noticed Jace leaving after a few minutes.

I was lying down on the couch, hugging a cushion and fighting to keep my eyes open to watch the current movie's ending.

"Hey, don't fall asleep here," Elian nudged.

I mumbled something gibberish, and he strained his ear to listen. "I wanna finish this," I said a little clearer.

"You will be out like a light by the time this movie ends," he replied.

"How do you know how long it will take for this movie to end?" I asked.

"I watched it before."

"I didn't know you watched movies."

"I don't. Someone made me."

"What?"

"Nothing."

I wasn't in a state to try to understand his mysterious words and mumbled, "Wake me up if I fall asleep."

"Alright." He sat down on the couch beside my head, so I crawled closer to him and rested my head on his thigh. "Hey, what are you doing?" he let out, sounding scandalized.

In my sleep-hazed mind, this felt comfortable, almost like home, so I didn't want to move away.

"Let me stay here."

Elian seemed like he wanted to protest, but he didn't in the end.

After a minute, I felt his hand on his head and his fingers slowly threading through my hair. I couldn't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.

I saw another vision, but this time, my head didn't hurt. It was like a hazy dream where a girl was lying on the bed and was hugging a guy's waist with her head resting on his thigh while the guy was caressing her head just like Elian was doing now, except the guy was smiling. I wondered briefly if Elian was smiling right now as well.

Before I got lost in my slumber, I heard Elian whisper in my ear, "I wish you'd remember..."