The next morning

Daniel Cho and his family, together with Oliver Su, were having their breakfast at the resort’s restaurant. Angela was still in her room fast asleep as she stayed up all night until morning writing her book. She didn’t usually pull an all-nighter but something just kept her going last night. So she ended up writing until four in the morning.

Oliver tried to wake his sister up earlier but she was knocked out cold so he decided to just let her sleep in. In the middle of their meal, Daniel Cho’s phone rang and he excused himself to answer the phone call. He was only away for a couple of minutes and when he came back, uncertainty was written all over his face.

“What’s wrong?” Samantha, his wife, asked.

“There was a construction accident in the Blue Diamond Project,” he answered and Oliver snapped his head upon hearing the name.

Oliver’s eyes widened in surprise. “What?! What happened? Why didn’t I receive a—” Just then, his assistant called his phone. He stared at the phone screen for a second before answering and received the same news that Daniel had just now.

Blue Diamond was the current project that Cho Corporation and Su Group were working on. Daniel and Oliver exchanged looks and the former immediately decided, “We have to fly out. I’m calling the plane to be ready to go in half an hour.”

“Yeah, I’ll go pack my stuff.” Oliver didn’t think twice and left the table, not even bothering to finish his meal.

As soon as Oliver got inside his suite, he gathered all of his things and dumped them all in his bag. He had just closed his duffel bag when his sister Angela came to mind. “Shît,” he cursed, scratching his head in frustration when he realized that his sister was still sleeping. In a hurry, he grabbed his bag after making sure all of his things were packed and headed to Angela’s suite.

He started knocking the door on his sister’s suite and pressing the doorbell but there was no answer at all. He even tried to call her phone but no dice. His phone rang and when he saw the caller I.D. showing Daniel Cho’s name, he answered right away. “I’m still trying to wake my sister up. She’s not answering the door.”

“The plane is ready. My assistant just informed me that there are casualties. Families are panicking and the media is all over it. We have to leave right now. Your sister can fly with my family later. They leave at noon,” Daniel advised over the phone.

Oliver stared at the door and closed his eyes for a brief second, letting out a sigh as he rubbed his temples. “Okay, I’ll just leave her a message. I’m coming. I’ll see you in the lobby.”

With that, he sent his sister a quick message before walking away.

…

At half past one in the afternoon, Angela Su’s eyes slowly fluttered open. She was woken up by the grumbling of the dark sky outside her room. She had slept for nine hours but after staying up working last night, her head was throbbing. She could barely see clearly due to the headache but she tried to get up from bed, took some aspirin, and downed it with water.

After taking the medicine, the first thing that she checked was her notebook and laptop on her nightstand. She quickly went over what she had written before going to bed and her mouth twitched at the pages. The productive night that she thought was a good thing for her after not being able to write for weeks suddenly became a waste. She couldn’t believe she wrote all those things! Her book was supposed to be an adult romance. Not a tragic love story for Christ’s sake! Now she had to start everything all over again.

One of the things that would affect a writer’s work was his or her mental health or mood. Give the writer a bad day and he or she might kill one of the characters in the story. Give her a reason to be happy even if it’s just a simple compliment like her hair or outfit looks nice and she’d probably write about a very fluffy scene that could cause one to gag from too much sweetness.

Last night was horrible but she kept going—writing like there was no tomorrow. At that time, she didn’t think much about it. All she knew was that after weeks of not being able to write, she was finally able to. However, after reading what she wrote, she was afraid she would turn into a suspense-thriller writer.

“Blah.” She rolled her eyes and closed her laptop.

To relieve her headache, she decided a nice warm bath would alleviate the pain and lift her mood. She spent about thirty minutes in the bathroom and when she was done, she did feel better. Wearing a white bathrobe, she rubbed body oil on her skin, taking her sweet time. The rain outside became heavy and she suddenly remembered the dress that she hung outside to dry yesterday.

“Oh no!” Angela rushed out into the balcony and hurriedly reached for the dress. The harshness of the weather already caused her dress to get drenched again. Just as her hand clutched the cloth, lightning and thunder clapped in the sky so loudly that it frightened her.

“AAAHHH!!!” she screamed so loud and ducked.

One of the things that Angela hated was thunder and lightning. It scared the shît out of her. The sound of her racing heartbeat thrashed her ears. She had her hands covering her ears, her eyes were squeezed shut, and her entire body trembled. She was truly terrified.

Angela started chanting the lyrics of Good Life by OneRepublic to herself. She couldn’t hear the words but the chanting was somewhat her way of trying to calm down.

She was so out of it that she didn’t even notice Gael had jumped over the rail that divided her balcony from his. He hastily went over to her, shaking her by the shoulders until he met her teary eyes. “Hey! Angela!” He narrowed his stare at her, wondering what was going on. He did a quick scan on her body but she didn’t seem to be hurt anywhere, so what the fûck was going on with her? “What happened?”

Angela was still in a trance and wasn’t even aware that her eyes had become watery from the fright. She didn’t even notice that Gael was only wearing board shorts and was shirtless in front of her. Without thinking, she abruptly threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly as though her life depended on him. The sudden movement pushed him backward and he landed on his butt.

Another struck of lightning flashed and thunder clapped in the skies and she shrieked once again, burying her head on his shoulder.

Gael, who was still in shock from earlier, had his hands suspended in the air, unable to move. He was trying to make sense of what was happening to her. But her sweet, powdery and floral scent that invaded his senses made it difficult for him to concentrate.

At first, he thought she was hurt or something because of how loud her scream was a couple of minutes ago. When she screamed for the second time as the thunder struck, he figured she must have been afraid of that. But how was he supposed to react?

Return her hug?

Push her away?

Pat her back?

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled softly and he thought he must have been asking himself that as he wasn’t sure if there was something wrong with her or with him since he wasn’t sure what to do. His instincts at the moment weren’t working for some reason.

He swallowed and just when he decided to comfort her, his arms were about to encircle around her frame, she suddenly pulled away—probably only realizing what she was doing with this somewhat stranger of a man.

The sudden realization made her brain register the fact that she was only wearing a robe with nothing underneath and this handsome jerk was totally shirtless and sweaty! What the hell was he doing before he came over anyway?! She clutched her robe tighter, trying to cover her chest.

With furrowed brows, she gave him a once over and without a word, she got up and entered her suite, leaving him out in the balcony staring at the air—confused and annoyed.

Gael’s eyes darkened and he scoffed as he turned his head to the glass door behind him where she disappeared seconds ago. He couldn’t believe he was actually worried there for a second. This woman just played him.