Twelve years ago

"Big Brother! Hey! Big Brother! Hello? Over here! Up! Above you!"

Young Arthur narrowed his eyes as he stared over the railing. Up there, a little girl with mushroom-like hair was sitting leisurely.

"Brother, can you scoot over? Or the mango will fall on your head!" The little girl said in a squeaky voice.

Arthur shocked. "What the ... are you a thief?"

"Ah?" The girl slapped her forehead as if she just realized, she chuckled a little with her innocent face. "Um ... Actually, I didn't really intend to steal, but since you're here now, I'll ask your permission. I want to shoot those mangoes with this doll. May I?"

Young Arthur did not answer.

"If you want, I'll get one for you too." The girl continued.

Arthur showed a face of disapproval. "Just ask permission from my parents. They planted the tree, so it's not mine."

"Haaah? What does that mean?" The girl tilted her head in confusion. "What our father and mother have is ours too, right? It means that it's fine for me to ask your permission, Big Brother!"

Arthur was eighteen years old now, he wasn't childish enough to serve a little girl. But he thought this girl was very cute. When she spoke, her small lips would sometimes pout, sometimes forming a small 'O' that looked like a jelly candy. Especially her reddish mushroom hair that was exposed to the sun. Very adorable.

Arthur's eyes traced the small feature above the railing. From her appearance, Arthur guessed the girl's age might be eight or nine.

"So, Brother can I take it or not?"

Arthur deliberately did not answer.

"Or put it this way, I'll take one mango. If I succeed, I'll go down and ask your mom and dad, okay? How about that? Is something like that okay?" The girl negotiated.

Arthur secretly wanted to laugh, but he only gave her a lazy nod.

"Yay! So, Brother, can you help me? While you're here, help me catch the mangoes that fall to the bottom, ok?"

Arthur sighed, but he agreed to the little girl's request. Maybe, if he had a little sister, it would be great.

As the girl prepared to square off, Arthur raised his hand in the air. The little girl narrowed her eyes as she aimed through some of her little teddy bears and she shot a few times.

"Suck," sneered Arthur whose head fell doll many times.

"One more time, ok!"

This time she became more serious and looking at her serious face was much cuter than Arthur had imagined. He really wanted to pinch her cheeks.

While Arthur was off guard, a mango fell to the ground unceremoniously. Arthur was astonished to find the mango had actually fallen because of a doll.

"Brother, you suck! You can't catch a mango! Hmph!" replied the girl grumbling.

Arthur shook his head and picked up the fallen mango. Wipe it on clothes. "It's still edible."

"Is it ripe?" Her little eyes twinkled.

"Half ripe, eat this with salt."

"???"

Seeing the girl's confused face, Arthur smiled. He placed the mango on a nearby garden table and looked up again.

"You've got the mango, now come down," he said.

"Um ........."

"What else? Is one still not enough?"

"Itn not that, but ..." The girl's face looked confused and dazed. "... now my skirt is stuck."

Arthur frowned. The fence of his house is a fence about two meters high, there are sharp iron bars every few meters after the wall fence. And the child was sitting right by the iron fence. Even though it wasn't obvious, Arthur could tell that her skirt was caught in one of the sharp places.

Arthur's expression turned worried. "How do you get up there?"

"My dad put the ladder over here. Look. You can see it through the crack in the fence."

Arthur peeked through the gap in the fence, right in the yard of the house next to him.

"Brother, help me down. Pleaseeee." The girl was almost crying. "My skirt is torn, if mom finds out, she won't buy me pretty skirts anymore."

This girl looked a bit tomboyish, but she turned out to be feminine.

And it's not about a torn skirt thing anymore, ok? If this girl's mother finds out she climbed this high of a fence, maybe she won't be allowed to play anymore.

Arthur was too lazy to climb up now that the railing was dirty, so all he could say was, "I'll help you. Follow my instructions. Now pull out your skirt that's stuck on the railing, slowly."

The small hand above him stretched out, the hand was very small and thin like a young cassava.

"It's out, Brother!" The girl was excited.

"Jump. I will catch you."

The girl's eyes narrowed in disbelief. But after Arthur reassured her while cajoling her repeatedly, she finally managed to comply and jumped. The sight of the slender little girl stretching her arms from above to jump, looking like a flying butterfly.

She was beautiful, stunning and shining.

As the girl jumped, Arthur caught her small waist easily.

.

..

...

"Arthur? Hey! Can you hear me?"

Arthur flinched at Evander's voice, as well as something being slammed against his desk. A bundle of documents had been put on purpose and Arthur knew that it was a transfer contract for the ownership of the new university he had bought to be transferred under Livy's name—because he had just asked Evander to take care of it.

"This has been completed?" he asked flatly.

"You can read it. See if there's anything missing in it." Evander said this while seeing Arthur's reaction.

"..."

"And put your signature on the bottom."

Arthur was expressionless, took a pen from his coat pocket and looked ahead silently. His gaze wasn't completely blank, but it was almost as if he was staring off into the distance without seeing anything. In the end he didn't make any movement after that.

Previously Evander had only thought that something had been wrong with Arthur these past few days, now he was certain that it was.

"Can't see anything?"

"I can."

"You think you can lie to me? Just by looking into your eyes I know it's not okay."

"I can still see a bit."

"But not more than usual, right?" Evander was immediately annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? Your eyes relapsed, didn't you?"

"It's not as bad as it looks. I can see a bit."

Arthur's hands fumbled on the table, looking for the paper he should have signed without realizing that it was placed quite far from his reach. He kept fingering the table under Evander's exasperated stare, until finally Evander pushed the paper towards him.

"Over here." Evander took his hand in the right direction.

Arthur guiltlessly signed.

Both were silent.

Arthur didn't want to say anything because his words would only become empty after Evander realized his lie. On the other hand, Evander must have been furious and was holding himself back from grumbling.

The sound of papers being stacked on the table and Evander's voice saying, "I'll take care of business. Go to the hospital to check your eyes."

Arthur was silent.

"Or would you prefer me to lock you in your office and bring Dave here?"

This time Arthur's lips twitched. "I will go."

Evander grinned, not expecting his threats to be quite as useful.

"You were drunk last night. Don't think I don't know. Dave warned you to stop drinking. Why did you do it?"

Arthur smiled sinisterly. "Why do drunks advise others not to get drunk?"

Evander perfectly understood this type of sarcasm showing that Arthur was still annoyed with the delinquent doctor.

"Okay. No need to bring it up." Evander sighed and looked at Arthur with a slight frown. "So can you still see now?"

No answer.

He saw the reluctance cross Arthur's face and did not chase after him. Arthur has always been like this; he always hid his predicament, not caring even if he would suffer alone for it. But it wasn't that Evander was completely clueless, he knew from a few days ago that Arthur's illness might relapse and it was also possible that he was pretending to be standing here fine, while in reality he was hiding the pain.

He sighed.

"Then ... is your little wife hurt? The salve ointment that you asked for it was for her, wasn't it?" He changed the subject.

"She bruised her ankle from the fall." Arthur leaned his head against the back of the chair, pressing the nausea into his head. "You take care of that guard lady, I don't want to see her at the university anymore."

Evander pushed up his glasses. "I told you, letting your little wife live in the dormitory isn't a good move."

Arthur didn't answer.

It was indeed his fault for giving her lavish facilities, after Livy was ridiculed and accused of being a bad woman, he was very sorry.

He wanted to take care of Livy but instead made her suffer all this humiliation. Plus, lately he couldn't stop thinking about the memories he had with Livy twelve years ago, the feelings he wanted to suppress, bubbling up from inside and forcing their way out. Arthur didn't just want to protect Livy, he wanted to have her completely.

But will Livy be happy living with a man ten years older than her?

***

At home, Livy sat relaxing in front of the swimming pool. She wasn't allowed to go to university today by Arthur because of a bruise on her ankle, if the bruise doesn't get better Arthur will take her to the hospital.

Anyway, since there was nothing else to do like this, Livy's mind was wandering far and wide.

And she accidentally remembered about the doll she suddenly found after missing more than ten years ago. She remembered that ignorant and arrogant older brother, but no matter how much she tried to remember his face, she couldn't.

"He should be so handsome. His tone is arrogant and sharp, but his actions are so kind." Livy recalled.

She met the older brother right before her parents died. They were neighbours, but it was the first time she had seen him after she had stolen mangoes from his house so many times. For some reason she was reminded of that elder brother recently.

There was the sound of a car horn outside and the sound of a gate being pulled open afterwards. Livy glanced at the wall clock, it was still three o'clock in the afternoon. Is that Arthur?

She scrambled to her feet, she hobbled her way back to the room, but she was too late because someone had entered and seen her upstairs. It really was Arthur.

"You've arrived." Livy greeted from above. Then she walked to the stairs.

"Don't come down." Arthur warned her.

After removing his jacket and giving it to the maid, Arthur went upstairs feeling his hand on the banister. He approached Livy while taking off his tie.

"How's your ankle?"

"Fine now. Swelling reduced."

Arthur rolled up his sleeves and crouched down, flashing the flashlight, examining her feet. "That's great. I'll just call the doctor over to the house."

"T-That's not necessary. Why overdo it for this small matter? It's completely healed, tho."

Arthur said nothing and stand up.

"Trust me, this time I'm not lying. Seriously."

This tone reminded him of the little girl who liked to pout twelve years ago. He subconsciously reached out to brush Livy's hair. Although his movements were gentle, his face was very straight, so his mood was not predictable.

"I'm going to the room."

Before she could say anything, Arthur had left her heading for the room. Livy was so embarrassed she almost screamed. His touch on her body always had a heating effect, somehow she always felt burning.

***

"I told you I don't want to meet him." Arthur pressed every word to his lips sharply.

Of course, Evander wouldn't care about that. "He should be at your house by now. He wanted to check on you."

"Don't care."

Evander laughed on the other end of the line. "It's up to you. I just wanted to tell you about it."

Arthur didn't reply and hung up the call unilaterally. Right after that, a horn sounded in front of the gate. It must be Dave.

"Tell him I don't want to meet anyone." He said to the maid who came to his room

On the outside, Dave had expected this to happen and smiled dryly because he knew he was right.

"Let me in first. You know I'm not a bad person, right?" said Dave.

"I dare not, Mr. Hummel. You also know my position," the maid answered.

Dave sighed exasperatedly. "Damn it! He just sulked like a child. It's really hard to persuade him again, isn't it? Hey, you, has he ever been mad at you to act like this too?"

The maid shook her head.

"You are lucky!" Dave patted her shoulder, pretending to be sympathetic. "If you cause trouble, he won't get mad at you right away, but you get fired without being told why."

"You fired, sir?"

"Hey, how dare you say I was fired? Boss loves me so much, how can I be fired?" Dave glared disapprovingly.

"But, he doesn't wish to see you again. Do you know the reason, sir?"

Dave rolled his eyes. Damn it. Arthur didn't tell him what was the reason either, he only knew because Evander had told him.

"Aish, never mind. You're interrogating me like this, are you a spy? Just be careful if I find out you're boss's enemy's spy!"

The maid was confused.

Dave's mood became even worse. He opened the car and took out the medicine packet, handing it to the maid.

"Then I'll just give you this medicines. Tell him to take it, ok. His routine medicine should be almost finished by now."

"Yes, sir."

"Is he okay? These few days, how's he doing? I heard he's having a relapse," Dave asked.

The short female maid was somewhat thoughtful. "Young Master looks tired lately."

Dave sighed. "Ok, I got it."

Dave said goodbye, but got into the car, he looked out the window of Arthur's bedroom on the second floor and was sure Arthur was in the room. He was driving a sports car today, deliberately pressing the accelerator hard and the car's engine humming loudly as it moved. Hearing no more of his car, Arthur closed his eyes, not moving.

But suddenly his phone vibrates and glows in the dark. There was a text and a photo post from Dave. Putting on his glasses, he read the text with some difficulty,

[Boss, don't be angry anymore. I've taken care of that guy. Here's a gift for you. I'm smart, right? :)]

Arthur zoomed in on the attached photo and sighed.

... to be continued ...