Chapter 124: It made her furious
They had no specific destination and were simply walking in short and long strides.
Michael was up front and ten feet away from him were Doctor Ro and Alyssa. It was cold.
The ground was filled with snow since it had snowed that morning, and it was nearly night as well.
Michael would probably eat outside before they returned to the house.
They kept their eyes on him as they watched his weighed down shoulders as he dragged his feet in his slow yet heavy steps.
Each step he took made it seem like he was forging a new path. A very cold and hard path.
Well, it was true. With the load on his shoulder, he would have to start a new life, one in which the one who was supposed to carry the load with him was absent.
It was quite a painful path.
They walked for about an hour before Michael stopped, staring at the sky and breathing heavily.
He was tired.
He needed to sit a bit.
He turned his head and found a bench covered in snow.
He walked towards it and then cleared out the snow before sitting down.
Once they saw he had taken a seat, they also stopped in their tracks and watched him from there, inconspicuously.
"He’s tired." Alyssa muttered, but Doctor Ro discarded the cigarette he had finished, throwing it on the floor and hanging Alyssa’s step on it because he could easily start a fire with that thing. "You need to be conscious of your actions. You can start a fire with that."
"Last I checked, snow can’t burn." Doctor Ro said, taking out another and she trembled in anger.
"That aside, you’re just littering the place." She complained.
"It’s not my fault they don’t build cigarette dumps all over town." He said, lighting up the cigarette. "I heard Korea has cigarette dumpster cans all over. They know what they were doing when they thought of something that innovative."
"And why are you bringing this up with me?" She argued and he rolled his eyes towards her. He rolled them away and took his cigarette out of his mouth, blowing out the smoke into the air.
"Because you keep whining about me littering the place. If you’re so concerned then submit a petition to the government to have those cigarette dumpsters built." He said.
But Alyssa felt he wasn’t making sense. He was just giving an excuse to make up for his cigarette-dumping habit.
It made her furious.
Michael watched them from where he sat. To think the ones who were supposed to protect him would be bickering every five minutes instead of keeping their eyes on him... It was funny.
He turned his gaze towards the sky and watched as dark clouds covered the sky.
The time was only about 5pm, and yet it was already so dark, and the street lights were already shining.
Guess this was how cold winters were supposed to be. Cold and dark.
The sun could only come out for a brief moment before it got covered up by the jealous dark clouds.
His stomach growled and he realized he was hungry again.
"Let’s eat something with a lot of protein this time." He said to himself and got up.
He looked towards the two who were bickering and wondered if they would notice if he started walking and surprisingly, they did.
As soon as he stood up, they turned serious and turned towards him.
So, were they able to bicker like some couple so carelessly because they were confident in their instinct to catch his every action, or was the bickering part just them whiling away time?
Whatever it was, they were an interestingly chaotic pair.
They began walking again, taking the route they had walked from.
Michael had seen a fine restaurant on their way so he decided he would have dinner there.
They walked till they got to the restaurant and then Michael sent a text to Alyssa.
’You guys can order whatever you want. I’ll pay.’ He wrote to her but she was taken aback.
Why would he pay?
If they wanted to eat something, they should foot the bills by themselves. Well, she didn’t exactly have a lot of money so maybe she wouldn’t be able to foot the bills.
But for someone like Doctor Ro who took quite the sum from him earlier, why would he foot his bill?
Michael watched her reaction from where he was sitting. They both sat at one table and now it really looked like they were a couple.
He guessed it was mean of him to put enemies at one table and watch him eat, so that was why he decided to foot their bill.
Seeing Alyssa’s reaction, he knew what she was going to say and sent another text,
’Don’t be stubborn.’
It was a text that related how he didn’t plan to drag the topic further and she nodded.
She sighed and turned to Doctor Ro.
"Why aren’t you ordering anything?" She asked.
"I’m not hungry." He said with a serious look on his face.
"Ah, that’s nice to hear. Mister said we could order whatever we wanted but since you’re not hungry..."
"Ah, he did?" Doctor Ro immediately changed his stance and raised his hand, signalling the waiter over.
"What are you doing? I thought you said you’re not hungry."
"Yeah, broke guys can’t be hungry." He said, taking a look at the menu and this ticked Alyssa off.
What did he mean by ’broke guys’? He was loaded.
This cheap stake money grubber.
He was taking Michael’s generosity for granted.
Michael watched this and shook his head.
Maybe this lonely journey would not be so lonely if they put up a show he could watch for each day they spent together.
He ordered his food and ate slowly. The food had a hard time passing through his throat, not because it was hard or not properly cooked, but because the taste was very familiar.
It was similar to the meal he had with Noah on one of their nights out.
It took a lot out of him, and he didn’t cry but swallowed it all with a heavy heart.
They returned to his apartment and there, he curled himself on the bed, crying quietly till he fell asleep.
