As You Wished

Reunion

The airport parking garage hummed with expensive engines and designer luggage wheels clicking across polished concrete. Julian stood beside a black Rolls-Royce Phantom like he'd been carved from the same expensive material. In his thirty years serving the Arvenhart family, he'd perfected the art of appearing both invisible and indispensable.

"Ju, take Rui back to the house," Kael said, accepting the keys with the casual authority of someone born to command.

"Of course, sir." Julian's handover was seamless, practiced.

"Rui, you're going with Julian."

"Wait, where are you..." But Kael was already sliding into the driver's seat, the engine purring to life before Rui could finish his protest.

"Kael!" Rui shouted at the retreating taillights. "I hate when he does that!"

"Let him go," Julian said with the patience of someone who'd weathered decades of Arvenhart drama. "The young master has business to attend to."

"What business? He just got back." Rui followed Julian to a second car, his investigative instincts prickling. "He was acting weird the entire flight. Especially when he saw that banner about Asia Pacific's most handsome actor."

"Banner actor?" Julian asked while opening the car door with practiced elegance.

"Elior Veylan," Rui said, watching Julian's expression carefully. "Kael completely changed when he saw that photo. Not like him at all."

"Perhaps the young master is simply tired from the long flight," Julian replied neutrally, though Rui caught something in his tone.

"Tired?" Rui slid into the passenger seat, still studying Julian. "This isn't about being tired, Julian. Kael is like a machine. Everything planned, scheduled weeks in advance. But just now he abandoned us without explanation. And the strangest part is, you're not surprised at all."

Julian started the engine with a slight smile. "I've worked for this family for a long time, sir. I'm accustomed to the unexpected."

"That's a lie," Rui accused directly. "You know something about Elior Veylan, don't you?"

Julian didn't answer directly, instead saying, "We should follow Young Master Kael."

"Follow?" Rui straightened. "You mean we're stalking him?"

"Not stalking. Ensuring his safety," Julian replied with that meaningful smile that suggested he knew far more than he was saying.

"Julian, how long have you worked for the family?"

"Nearly thirty years, sir."

"In all that time, have you ever seen Kael like he was back there?" Rui pressed. "That smile wasn't his business face. It was genuine."

Julian was quiet for a moment, as if weighing how much truth to reveal. "The last time I saw him smile like that was perhaps eleven years ago."

"Eleven years?" Rui leaned forward. "Before he left for Europe. What happened then?"

"There was someone important to him."

"Someone?" Rui's curiosity sharpened. "Who?"

Julian pulled into traffic with the efficiency of someone who knew every shortcut in the city. "Someone who made it necessary for him to put an ocean between them."

"And now he's back to see them again?"

"Love," Julian said simply, "is complicated."

Rui settled back in his seat, mind racing. Julian might look like an ordinary employee, but his calm demeanor and cryptic responses suggested he was the keeper of significant secrets. Whatever was happening tonight, Rui had the feeling he was only seeing the tip of a very large iceberg.

Meanwhile, Kael drove through Noverra's transformed landscape. The city had grown vertical in his absence, glass towers reaching toward a sky painted in shades of amber and rose. But muscle memory guided him away from the new developments, toward the older parts of the city where time moved more slowly.

He parked outside a café that looked exactly as he remembered. "Whisper & Notes" still had the same weathered wooden sign, the same large windows that glowed warmly in the evening light. A few customers sat on the terrace, lost in books or quiet conversations over steaming cups.

Piano music drifted from inside, accompanied by a voice that made something in Kael's chest tighten with recognition.

You are a distant road

Lights in the mountains and fog

I am a child, walking in your eyes

He sat in the car for a moment, hands gripping the steering wheel. Eleven years. Eleven years of trying to forget, of building walls, of convincing himself that some chapters were meant to stay closed.

He stepped out and stood before the café entrance, breath catching in his throat. Through the window, he could see him. White shirt, dark hair falling across his forehead as he bent over the keys. Elior moved with the same unconscious grace that had captivated Kael when they were both young enough to believe in forever.

Their eyes met through the glass.

The music stopped.

Then Elior smiled, and it was like watching the sun rise after the longest winter of Kael's life.

"You came back," Elior said when Kael finally found the courage to walk inside.

It wasn't a question. It was recognition. It was forgiveness. It was an invitation to remember who they used to be, before the world convinced them it was impossible.