The rest of the week wasn't as eventful as I hoped it would be.

Elian and I had an unspoken rule that no romance during work—free and break times were an exception. As much as I felt giddy to see him anytime, it was in our best interest to keep our work and private lives separate.

I made sure that spending more time in Elian's cabin didn't catch Anya's eyes. The last thing I needed was for Anya to get on my back actively, knowing that I was involved with Elian.

I wasn't afraid of Anya. Not that much, at least. After all, I had been secretly training under the personal trainer Lance sent for me every day after work. I now knew how to use more than three types of guns, how to get out of being captive, and a lot more.

Anya, for her part, had been acting like she usually does. But Elian found out a lot of information about her—like how most of the information she gave to the company was fake. She didn't even complete her undergrad and was a dropout from Arts, yet she had a job in this company that picked out employees like a needle from haywire.

We were even doubting how much truth there was behind her mother's illness, but we couldn't find out the hospital she was in.

Speaking of hospitals, I had another therapy session this week. Elian accompanied me, which was really nice. But he didn't come inside. He told me I needed to face this alone by myself. It was scary at first, but he was right.

I didn't tell him how much I remembered each time because I wanted it to be a surprise. However, during this session, I recalled how I and Elian started becoming close.

I was finishing up my makeup when the calling bell of my apartment rang for my date with Elian. I put down my eyelash curler and grabbed my purse before running to open the door.

"Hey," Elian greeted, looking more charming than ever.

I gave his cheek a kiss and said, "Hey, I have missed seeing your jeans."

My eyes trailed over from his head to toe, taking in his messily-brushed black hair, light blue shirt, dark blue jeans, and white sneakers. He looked so much younger and youthful than he did in suits. Casuals suited him well. I enjoyed watching him when we were staying at Lance's penthouse. Maybe because Elian in casuals was all I was used to before I lost my memories, that's why it was so fascinating to me.

"And I have missed seeing you at all," he replied, his green eyes hovering over my asymmetric peach pink dress that reached up to my mid-thigh. "You look stunning."

"Thank you. You look handsome as well."

"By the way, I didn't expect you to be up so early. I thought I would have to come to wake you up myself," he said, and I chuckled.

"Well, don't get too comfortable because I still hate getting up in the mornings, and in the future, you may actually have to wake me up on weekends. I guess I was excited for today, is all." I woke up way too early for a weekend, given that I had a hard time falling asleep last night as well.

"Well, that's great. Because I have lots of things planned for today."

I wore my white strappy heels and stepped out of the apartment and locked it. "What are we waiting for, then?"

He motioned to his elbow and said, "For this, perhaps?"

A big smile bloomed on my face as I looped my arms around his elbow and announced, "We are set to go then."

"You know, we never had a breakfast date," Elian mentioned when we were having breakfast at a cafe.

"For real? We never ate breakfast together?"

"No, we did. I actually meant outside like this, taking our sweet time. We were both students, you had a part-time job, and I was doing my internship, so we were always rushing to get to class after having late nights. Who had time to sit down and have breakfast in peace?"

I hummed in agreement. "But what about weekends?"

He arched an eyebrow in accusation. "Don't you know yourself?"

I chuckled. "Of course, I slept till late on weekends." I took a bite of my rainbow crepe cake and asked, "What about vacations, though?"

"You would always go back to Georgia," he said, and I got the feeling this was a topic we must have had a few fights over.

"What about you, though? Where's your hometown?" I asked curiously.

"Born and raised in California."

"Does that mean your parents live close?"

He nodded. "I just paid them a visit yesterday. My youngest brother called for a so-called family emergency, which was just basically having dinner together because we haven't for a while."

"Wait, you have another brother besides Lance?"

He nodded again. "His name is Eltan. He's four years younger than us. He's totally different from me and Lance. He's... how do I say it? Artistic and brilliant-minded. He already has his own art gallery."

I laughed and said, "You're not wrong when you say you guys are different. You're so awful at anything artistic, except music."

Elian looked at me in surprise. "Hey, did you remember that?"

I stopped laughing and looked at him softly, nodding. "I remember you giving me a letter, and it literally was just a white A4 paper written with a black pen. There was not a single touch of color in it."

"Black is a color, and I will have you know, I have gotten better at such things. I know how to use glitter pens these days."

I burst out laughing. "Please no. The last thing our company needs is our CEO signing the documents with glitter pens."

He took a sip of his espresso and said, "Would be interesting to see their reaction, though."

After having breakfast, Elian took me on a long drive through the mountains to the beach. We took brief breaks in the mountain area to click photos and just enjoy the scenario. The wind was so strong I regretted wearing a dress with a skirt, but overall, it was pleasant and soothing—just what you need after a whole week's labor.

During the car ride, Elian and I sang along every time one of our favorite songs came up on the radio. It was fun as we chatted; I got to know him all over again as he shared small things about himself.

I wanted to get in the water when we were at the beach, but I hadn't brought a bikini, so Elian promised he would bring me here some other time.

However, at the beach, he arranged a dessert fest. I got all the sugary goodness he promised me. Naturally, I didn't hesitate to eat, and I was satisfied when we were done.

Elian didn't tell me the next location after the beach. It was late afternoon when we passed by a few familiar lanes that I recognized immediately.

He parked in front of the huge gate and got out of the car to open the door for me. I hopped out, grinning.

"I can't believe we are back here," I breathed out, bouncing with excitement.

He interlocked our fingers and said, "Yes, the place where 'us' started."

Our university campus.

After Elian gave the guard his identity, we were let in, and I was mesmerized by the beauty of the campus like I had always been. Stanford was as gorgeous as ever.

I got a few flashes from my past, which made my head hurt a bit, and Elian draped an arm over my shoulder to give me support.

We walked around the huge campus, tracing the memories.

Elian wasn't saying where exactly our memories were, afraid to confuse me, but I somehow knew. Coming back here was bringing back a lot of memories. Even if I wasn't sure they were correct memories, I could visualize them.

I could picture Elian and I sitting at the fountain, bickering about something or studying together for some tests. I could picture myself riding on his bike around the shaded path of the entire campus. I could picture me hitting him with a book because he failed to save me dessert in the cafeteria, then him treating me to it on our way home.

When we reached the library quad, Elian said, "Do you remember this place?"

I smiled, looking around the beautiful garden. "How can I forget?"

"Technically, you did forget, though."

I jabbed him in the side. "That was rhetorical."

He chuckled, rubbing his side.

"This is the place where we first met," I said and closed my eyes, reminiscing about that late afternoon from six years old.

"It was snowing."

"It was. The first snow in Stanford in years," I uttered, and suddenly I felt tiny flakes land on me. Was I so immersed in my memories that I was actually feeling snowfall?

When I felt more cold flakes fall on me, I opened my eyes and saw it was actually snowing.

But that's impossible. It's the middle of the summer and it's a miracle for it to snow in Stanford in the first place. It has to be artificial snow—I snapped my head at Elian who was grinning.

"I thought it would be nice to recreate that day," he murmured. "The day I wondered how could someone be so stupidly happy to slip on snow and play with it."

"And the day I wondered how could someone hate the snow so much," I responded.

"But I would put up with any snow if it's to be with you. Even if that snow is my own self-doubts and guilt." I gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. "I'm willing to overcome that. Just to be with you. Because it's hard... it has been so hard to be without you," his voice cracked a little due to overwhelming emotions, "and honestly, I never want that ever again. I was stupid to think I could distance myself from you when I'm still so madly in love with you."

He turned to directly face me and took both of my hands in his. "I know that I might bring dangers for you in the future, and I'm sorry in advance for that. I can't leave my mafia life, nor can I leave you. It's probably selfish to keep you both. I just can try my best to protect you and leave it up to fate to not be this cruel to us again. That's why I'm willing to give 'us' another chance."

I continued smiling, my eyes a little misty, and reached up my hand to cup his cheek. "So this is your final decision?"

He nodded firmly. "I won't back off again. Cross my heart—I will never give up on you, come what may. I will stick with you like super glue."

I chuckled. "Well, you'd better." He was about to lean in to kiss me when I held up a hand and said, "But no PDA in the office. You made that rule, so you have to follow it from now on." Even though we weren't at the office now, I felt like making our unofficial rule official.

"We are going to be discreet about it like others," he said mischievously, and I arched an eyebrow. "What, you don't think the employees do office romance, despite the rule against it?"

"If their boss is going to be like this, then you'd better remove that rule because you have no idea how many curses you have earned from your employees just for that. Plus, Mr. Storm, you are the possessive type. You would never be satisfied just behind the doors. You have a natural instinct to show the world that I'm yours."

He looked thoughtful for a moment before he said, "Well, then, I should make a mic announcement tomorrow at the office to let them know of our relationship."

I cocked an eyebrow and asked, "What relationship? You still haven't asked me the question."

"Oh, right." He took a deep breath and tried to sound as sincere as possible. Though, the complete shift in demeanor was a little funny. "Alena, will you be my girlfriend?"

"No."

"Huh?" he let out, absolutely baffled.

"No."

"What? Why?"

I laughed and said, "Remember you rejected me twice?"

"C'mon, don't be like that. You rejected me once too."

"Huh? I did?"

He nodded, but I didn't buy it. He had to be lying.

"How?"

When he took more than a second to start answering, I became sure that I never rejected him.

"You liar." I smacked his chest and stepped away from him. "I don't date liars." I started to run around the courtyard and hollered, "However, if you can catch me, I might be willing to give you a chance."

As soon as I said that, he quickly ran to me and tackled me on the grass. The grass was already covered in white due to the artificial snow still falling.

"Well, that was easy," he said, smirking as he pinned my hands to either side of my head.

"Ugh, fine. Since you caught me, I will date you," I said in mock disappointment.

"Hey, stop making it sound like it's a punishment to date me."

"Prove me otherwise, then," I challenged.

"With pleasure." With that, he connected our lips.