Heise was stunned. Again.

    Wha—No, no, no, no!

Gritting his teeth, Heise rushed out, nearly crashes down the stairs, before pulling at the man’s departing back.

“Answer me!” A roar echoed throughout the villa.

No response.

The silver cat stares blankly for a moment before continuing his journey to the dining room. Heise followed, not missing a beat to jab as many ‘choice words’ as he can at the man. Unfortunately, all of Heise’s efforts were as effective as shooting a spitball at a brick wall.

From his reserved speech and behaviors, to his indifferent and aloof expression, the silver cat’s actions had somehow always eluded Heise’s. Like an icy and flawless immortal, impervious to all dirty slanders, Vali remains untouched by anything Heise could throw at him.

When the duo finally reaches the dining room table, Heise was frustrated to the max.

Just when he could bear it no longer and was seconds from reaching across the table with a fist full of wrath, the kitchen door opened, and an extreme fragrant smell waft through the air.

A handsome chef appears pushing a cart filled with all sort of wondrous cuisines, “Alright, dinner is served.” Despite just finished cooking, Alvy’s appearance was as impeccable as ever, without so much as a speck of dirt. “Since we have a guest staying with us, I reckon we might as well have a feast.”

Seeing Alvy cheerfully serving the dishes, Heise did not know whether or not he knew what had been happening. On the way here, Heise had made no attempt to conceal neither the volume nor the content of his voice. Though the villa was spacious with walls that had soundproof properties, if there was a large enough commotion, surely even the kitchen would hear.

However, regardless of whether he had heard, Alvy did not act the slightest out of order.

After the foods were served, Alvy sat down, his hands rubbed on the shoulder of a certain lazy cat. “Eat, ya. There’s plenty of your favorites.”

As if doused in hot water, there was a warmth that ran across Vali’s eyes, and his entire body relaxes as he digs into his meal. Content, Alvy turns his attention back to his own plate.

This whole interaction, lasting not even half a minute, was captured completely by Heise.

    So, he can make that can of expression, huh.

    And here I thought he could completely ignore everything.

    I suppose everyone’s got a weakness.

    …Wait…

    …That precious boy toy over there that can make him go weak in the knees…

Fiddling with his fork, Heise’s mind began to work. And truly an efficient worker he was. Within three quarter of finishing his food, Heise had already had a vague idea of what he needed to do next.

“How are you enjoying the food, Heise?” Alvy suddenly spoke, breaking the silence.

For the first time since a long time, Heise showed a genuine smile, “Very good. Extremely excellent. Though it’s about to get a whole lot better.”

“Ah?”

“Dessert, I mean. Surely you’ve not forgotten about that?” Heise’s smile became wider, his eyes squinted in delight.

“Of course not,” Alvy slowly rises up, “it’s the best part after all.”

Returning a smile, Alvy headed back to the kitchen. Opening the oven door, Alvy was about reach for the desserts when his hand slightly pauses.

A sudden feeling struck him.

    How odd.

Alvy was happy that his guest seems pleased with the meal, and yet…something feels amiss. Especially with Heise’s previous remarks…

Back at the dinning room, Heise did not continue to look at Vali, and resume cleaning his plate. By the time Alvy returned, both Heise and Vali had finished their food. They looked greedily at the dessert tray on Alvy’s hands.

On the tray was three bowls of snow tremella and lotus seed pudding. The light sweet taste, the crisp and springy textures, along with a hard-to-forget aromatic fragrance of the pudding was both nourishing to the body and refreshing to the mind. Compared to heavy and dry taste of cakes, or the fatty and bland taste of cream, the tremella pudding was truly an indulgence of gourmets everywhere.

Alvy places the tray down on the dining table before distributing the three bowls of pudding. The first bowl goes to the master of the house, who immediately raises his spoon without hesitation. The second bowl goes to the esteemed guest who was sitting on the opposite side. Naturally, the final bowl is for the cook.

Just as Alvy lifted the bowl of pudding, ready to place it in front of the guest, Heise unexpectedly rose up. He reaches out his hands and took the bowl directly from Alvy. Intentionally or not, Heise’s hands brushes against Alvy’s fingers.

A small and innocuous action.

“Thank you. This looks great.” Placing down his bowl, Heise looked at the pudding before looking back at the chef. ”You must have gone through a lot of trouble making it.”

“It was nothing, really. Please enjoy.” Alvy replied, his eyes crossed with Heise’s for a moment and a smile appear on his face.

While the three of them were enjoying their dessert, Heise kept maintaining small talk and a friendly smile at Alvy, who in turns return his conversations. From a normal perspective, Heise may have looked like he was focusing his all his attention on the chef, but the reality was quite the opposite. Heise was spending all his energy monitoring a certain lazy cat.

In this manner, dinner was finished.

Afterward, Vali silently slinked away into his room, while Alvy returns to the kitchen to clean up. Heise also slowly returns to his room.

Once the door to the guest room closes shut, a low chuckle rang out. Slowly the laughter became louder and louder. The person laughing had a demented expression on his face.

    Hahahaha So it’s like that. Haha, like that. Ha~

    The little experiment was a success. Oh what fun~!

Others may not have noticed it, but he had. When he brushes hands with that lovely cook, an anomaly appeared. That damned silver cat, who had been lazily eating without a single word from the very beginning, suddenly when stiff. It was a small reaction, and it only took the cat but a few seconds to quickly recovered, but it was enough.

More than enough.

For the rest of the meal, Heise had intentionally kept a more-than-friendly disposition toward Alvy. Sure enough, while Vali never downright expresses any discontent, or any real emotion for that matter, his movements seemed somewhat more sluggish than before and there were even times when he steals darting glances.

No matter the actions, no matter the magnitude, Heise missed none of it. Since the beginning he’s had ideas, but now, everything is confirmed.

Heise slowly walked towards the windows. Gazing out into the inky waves below, his eyes gleams in the dark. He has finally found it.

The chink in the armor.

The crack in that thousand years old iceberg.

The advent of his revenge.

Taking in a deep breath, Heise walked over to bed and threw himself against the soft comforter. Closing his eyes, Heise felt the events of the day slowly melting away. To normal person, the day’s events was like a torturous trial, leaving behind big emotion impacts, traumas even. However, to Heise, whose scars never truly healed, this was nothing to speak of.

    What is a few more boulders to a man already carrying a mountain on his back? They might as well not be there.

Rolling on his back for a while, Heise finally felt sleepy. His serious and sharp expression turns into one of languid and amused.

    You can’t blame me for this. You brought this onto yourself.

    I promised, it won’t hurt too bad. Well, I’ll try…

 

 

BTS Theatre

Heise: dinner was delicious

Alvy: yes

Heise: pudding was delicious

Alvy: yes

Heise: you're delicious

Alvy: ....

Vali: *uncomfortable shifting noises*