Sweeter than Cake [MxM] [English Version]

04 / Suspicion

The sun had just set when I turned off the stove as a sign to finish cooking. Realizing that the sky was getting dark, I closed the window blinds in the kitchen and went to another room to cover the rest. Just as I closed the curtains in the living room, I accidentally found a foreign car parked in front of my house. I peeked curiously out the window and waited to see if maybe the black sedan I saw had just happened to stop there or had it parked on purpose to visit my house.

If the car was accidentally parked in front of my house, I think maybe the guest was from the hotel where my mother worked. Several times my boss or work partner deliberately wanted to meet me to talk without my mother being at home. In my head I'd devised a scenario to have Lynx stay on the second floor while I entertained them.

After a while of waiting for the scenery that had never been changed, I finally saw a man in a suit and sunglasses coming down from the driver's door. Then the man opened the back door and a familiar figure came out the door. At that moment, my pupils dilated automatically and my hands spontaneously followed my instincts to close the curtains.

The atmosphere at night suddenly felt tense to me, especially after hearing the sound of Lynx's footsteps coming down the stairs in a hurry. I came out of the living room and ran into Lynx. Lynx looked at me for a moment then rolled his eyes toward the door.

"My dad's coming," said Lynx in a low voice.

"Knock .. knock .. knock .."

I took a deep breath while pressing the door hinge in response to the door knocking. The door opened and now I was faced with the figure of a tall man wearing a dark gray coat. Amber's eyes and black hair in a classic slick back style. Those two things could clearly describe the appearance of Reinhard Olivine.

Lynx's father, Reinhard Olivine, is the first child of the founder of the Olivine Hotel Group. His face is often displayed in various media with a pioneer status in creating a modern hospitality system. Reinhard Olivine, also known as a philanthropist, often donates to many parties, including Johnson High School where his son attends school.

Olivine Hotel Group manages three brands, namely Olivine Hotel & Resort, Black Amethyst Hotel and Constellation 69 Hotel with a total of forty hotels operating. Constellation 69 Hotel is a company created by Reinhard himself to introduce the Olivine Hotel Group to foreign countries. Since Lynx was a toddler, Reinhard had lived overseas to manage that company and only returned about once a year.

I've chatted with Lynx's mother quite a few times but I've only spoken to Lynx's father twice. Once when Mother was still working at one of the hotels owned by the Olivine Hotel Group, namely the Black Amethyst Hotel. At that time, I was introduced to Reinhard Olivine by his wife as the son of one of the managers at his hotel.

The second time I chatted with Reinhard Olivine was when Lynx got into a fight two years ago. From those two experiences plus the present, I can conclude that Reinhard Olivine has the same innate attitude as Lynx, which tends to intimidate people who are not close to him. Right now I can feel the same intimidation as when Lynx responded to Kai's actions this afternoon.

After a few seconds of being stunned by the figure right in front of me, my eyes turned to a beautiful woman behind Reinhard. Lynx's mother, Charlotte Amethyst Olivine, had jet black hair that fell straight and neatly to almost waist-length. The shape of the face is oval, the nose is sharp and the eyelashes are thick. Not only do beautiful words describe her face, but she is also elegant and charming. Charlotte smiled at me before I finished this moment of flash observation.

“Freesia still hasn't returned from work, you can wait in the living room,” I said with the thought that Reinhard and Charlotte were looking for my mother, Freesia Hemlock Oleander. Reinhard didn't move from his spot and chose to explore this house with his keen eyes. I can also see Lynx looking at his father the same way now.

"No need, Rui. We just wanted to visit you for a bit," said Charlotte, breaking the silence with her soft voice.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions. I hope you're not lying, because I can find out and the consequence will be much more dire."

In contrast to Charlotte, Reinhard's deep voice sounded harsh and uncomfortable. I returned Reinhard's gaze as calmly as I could, even though my mind really wanted to put on a questioning face.

"I'll try to answer that," I replied.

"When was the last time you came to our house?"

Reinhard's question made my brows furrow automatically. Coming to the Olivine residence? What happened at his house when a very busy businessman would sacrifice his time to meet a sixteen-year-old boy like me? Doesn't he know that...

“ I haven't even entered the Olivine residence.”

My answer left Reinhardt speechless for a moment. Reinhard's gaze drifted away from mine, which meant he knew I wasn't lying. Reinhard took out his cellphone from his coat pocket, fiddled with it for a while, then showed me the screen of his cellphone. A navy box that was on the table was displayed in the middle of Reinhard's cellphone screen.

"Are you related to the person who put this in our house?" asked Reinhard.

“Why would I…”

Before I could continue, Reinhard cut my words off by gripping my right shoulder and his eyes bulged. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lynx approaching us and, before things got any worse, I quickly answered what Reinhard wanted to hear.

"No..no," I answered briefly and replied with glaring eyes.

Reinhard removed his hand from my shoulder while smiling sinisterly. "If what you say is not true, you and your mother..."

"Will have the consequences. You warned me from the start, Mr. Olivine."

I challenged Reinhard with following his way of cutting my words off and plagiarizing his cynical smile. Reinhard chuckled with a smile at my behavior, then he looked at Lynx.

“We have something to talk about at home,” said Reinhard before he turned around and walked towards his car without speaking a word.

Meanwhile, Charlotte approached me and gently patted my cheek. Even though her hands were cold, the coldness was overcome by the warmth in her eyes when she said with a reassuring tone, "Don't worry, I trust you and your mother. It's just that there was something so shocking today that we suspect everyone." Then Charlotte positioned herself towards Lynx and her voice became firmer than when she spoke to me. "You'd better go home today. Jonathan will be here in a minute."

I closed the door after the car that had been parked in front of my house was out of sight. Turning around, Lynx took a deep breath while looking at me with a furrowed brow.

"Your shoulder is okay?"

Lynx was asking without taking his eyes off me as I approached him. I smiled and nodded slowly.

"I don't understand what kind of shocking thing it is to suspect someone who can't even go against your family's words. Well... you know what I mean," I said, trying to remind Lynx and myself of the enormous disparity between his family and myself. Lynx didn't respond to my words at that time and suddenly my intuition wanted to ask him something. "You're not hiding anything are you?"

"About what?" asked Lynx.

"I don't know. I just feel awkward," I replied, waiting for Lynx's expression to change.

And yes, Lynx's expression changed to that of his mother trying to calm me down before. This was not the kind of change I had been expecting though. Not an answer like this that can calm me down. "C'mon...don't tell me you want to tell me to believe you again."

"I don't have to say it twice like my father, do I?" said Lynx as he pinched my cheeks and tossed them up and down like an excited child when he got a new doll.

Am I like a toy in Lynx's eyes right now?

"Hey, Lynx. What do you really think of me?" I asked in an annoyed tone.

Lynx's eyeballs spun 360 degrees while protruding his lower lip. From his demeanor it seemed that Lynx would not take my questions seriously. I sighed in annoyance as I tried to get rid of his hands that were still on my face and then walked towards the stairs.

"Ah, never mind. Keep it a secret for the rest of your life. I'm nothing after all. Hurry up and pack, your car is already here."

This is not what I want to say. Why do I get emotional over trivial things like that? But it's also quite natural, isn't it, that I get angry when my best friend is hiding something? Reasonable? Unreasonable? Wait... what is he doing down there?

I was about a quarter of my way up the stairs when I realized that Lynx had just been watching me from where he was last standing with me. When I looked down, Lynx smiled mischievously at me.

"I already said this afternoon that you are the one who accompanies me beside me." Lynx knew I was dissatisfied with what he said, so he went on to the next sentence. "I'll always give you a seat beside me. At least that's what I've believed for the past nine years."

When heard at a glance, Lynx does not seem to make a significant difference between the first sentence and the second sentence. But for me, the affirmation in the second sentence means a lot.

"Wow.... you still remember it," I said, raising the corner of my lips. I unconsciously responded to Lynx's words enthusiastically.

Right now I'm like a child being toyed with by a magician. I always guessed wrongly which glass contained the ball and the magician kept me guessing. In the end, I couldn't guess any of them correctly, but at the end of the magic, the magician had prepared a gift so I wouldn't cry.

I'm like a little boy. I always try to guess out of curiosity but never get the answer. And Lynx is like the magician. He was just silent as I tried to think about something to do with him. But in the end, he always managed to divert everything I was worried about and made me accept what he said at the end of the conversation.

"Then... now you're Juliet and I'm Romeo?"

In an instant, my enthusiasm disappeared because I watched Lynx's behavior on this stair step like the balcony of Juliet's house in William Shakespeare's fictional story. However, that smut from Lynx before he came home made me realize that he had just played his magic trick on me. It's possible that I keep questioning my worries over and over because I haven't gotten the answers I want from Lynx. But right now, I'm actually allowing my mind to remember what Lynx said nine years ago.

I will never forget the beginning of our friendship when Lynx and I were seven years old. I can't mention that it was our first meeting because both our moms insisted that we couldn't get along when we were toddlers, so we should have met a few times before. And even on the day that our friendship started, we met because when I was a kid I opposed what little Lynx did.

If the weather was still sunny after school hours, little Rui would walk from school to his mother's workplace, namely the Black Amethys Hotel. Of course, during the day was not the right time for a front officer manager like Freesia to go home. So little Rui would wait for his mother on the hotel lobby sofa while reading the book he brought.

On the other hand, several times a week the youngest child of the hotel owner would visit the same place as little Rui. The difference was that little Lynx always sits on the restaurant sofa to eat dessert and goes straight home after he finishes eating. Usually little Rui only glanced at the arrival of the VIP guest and went back to reading. But little Rui couldn't sit still as it happened.

"Prang!"

Little Rui closed his book when he heard the sound of plates breaking. Little Rui's eyes searched for the direction of the voice and soon a maidservant was crying in front of little Lynx's table. At first, little Rui didn't want to interfere, but seeing the maidservant kneeling down, little Rui spontaneously ran over to little Lynx's table.

"I beg you, young master... pardon our employee. She has served in this hotel for more than eight years," said an old man dressed in a restaurant waiter's uniform but who seemed to have a higher rank than the kneeling female waitress.

"My apologies, young master Lynx... Next time... I will be more careful. Please give me a chance," said the woman who was now on her knees, bowing to little Lynx.

Little Lynx just looked at the woman with a sharp and cold gaze while wiping the part of the body that was affected by the spilled drinking water with a napkin. Meanwhile, little Rui, who had been running to the incident area, stopped his footsteps because right in front of him there was broken glass scattered on the floor. Then little Rui concluded that what happened earlier was that the maid accidentally dropped a drink on little Lynx's body so that little Lynx got angry and threw the glass on the floor. Then he thought that little Lynx intended to fire the woman from this hotel.

Little Rui, who thought it was unfair, especially because he couldn't bear to see a woman kneeling, spat out words of defense to the maid. " Do you never make a mistake?"

At that time, little Rui did not know that his words could bring disaster to his mother, who also worked at the hotel. Little Lynx, the maid, the maid's top and body guard Lynx. The four people who were enlivening the atmosphere in the hotel restaurant spontaneously turned to little Rui, who was glaring at little Lynx.

A maid who was watching the crowd from quite a distance suddenly called out Rui's mother's name. "That's Mrs. Manager Freesia's son!" And the voice of another servant answered. "Call Mrs. Freesia right now!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked little Lynx coldly.

"Lynx Olivine, the youngest son of the owner of this hotel," said little Rui confidently and full of emotion. "I'm asking, do you never make a mistake?! Even if you get all of your test scores wrong, you won't be expelled, right?!"

Hearing little Rui's voice, which was getting high, Little Lynx's body guard approached little Rui to take him out.

"Stop," said little Lynx as he stuck his right hand out to his body guard. "He's still here. All of you, just leave," said little Lynx, telling the two waitresses to leave.

"Young master... but..." said the superior servant, looking scared but still trying to defend his subordinates.

"Remedial."

Little Lynx just said one word and slightly looked at the maid, then Lynx looked at little Rui. The maid was confused by Lynx's words, but her boss told her to thank little Lynx and they agreed that little Lynx's words were an apology.

While the two restaurant waiters thanked him continuously, little Lynx kept looking at the confused-looking little Rui. Then little Lynx told little Rui to sit next to him with a flick of his eyeball.

"Young master told you to sit down," said the body guard to little Rui.

Little Rui slowly approached the sofa where little Lynx was sitting while still looking at the little Lynx. "Are you not angry?" asked little Rui, still with a confused face.

"No. Why am I angry?"

Little Lynx's answer made little Rui sit up but still with a wary face. It wasn't long before Freesia ran to where Lynx and Rui were sitting and stopped short of breath.

"Rui, are you all right? The maids say you're in trouble," asked Freesia, while examining her son's face and body with both hands.

"I'm fine, Mom," said little Rui, looking at his mother's face and then at little Lynx so that Freesia also looked at the other figure sitting next to her child.

"Ah, your clothes are so wet. I'll get a towel for your temporary change of clothes."

Freesia, feeling sorry for little Lynx's condition, which has been messed up by the incident. Little Lynx only answered with a shake.

"Well... are you going to wait here, Rui? Looks like I can't go home early today," said Freesia as she patted little Rui's head lightly.

"It's okay, Mom. I can still study here."

Little Rui and Freesia were smiling broadly at each other. Meanwhile, little Lynx just watched little Rui and his mother in silence.

"He will accompany me every time I eat here," said Lynx expressionlessly as Freesia got up to leave. Little Rui and his confused mother glanced at each other but didn't get an answer. "I'll give him this seat... beside me."