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"You told me the first thing you did when you came back here in Perlientas was to search for me. How did you do that..." Laurence trailed off, figuring it was stupid to ask a question to which the answer was obvious.

There were a lot of ways to find a person in a single city, even more so, for someone like Isaac who had extensive sources of information.

"No, never mind that one. What I'm actually curious about is how in the world did you know about the accident that night? Weren't you supposed to be at the party that time? You were the freaking guest of honor, after all. So what were you doing, watching me..." Laurence narrowed his eyes at the little baskets of waling-waling at the front posts of the pergola, as though the man he was talking to had transformed into one of those purple orchids. "How come you were watching me die instead of socializing with your admin officers then? Are you sure you haven't been stalking me? Because how the hell did the news even reach you?"

A shade of irony glazed Isaac's chuckle. "If I was indeed as brazen as those stalkers who have no qualms approaching the subject of their obsessions, I wouldn't have to wait until it was too late to decide to face you again."

The grim tone adding to the breathed words urged Laurence to return his eyes to the young boss. He didn't avert them, this time; there was not a need to when Isaac found his interlocked fingers and crossed legs more interesting to stare at.

"When Engr. Abel informed me in advance that he and your foreman wouldn't be able to make it to the event, so they were sending their proxies, I took advantage of the chance to tell him I would like to meet the two skilled laborers he often bragged about. One of them was you."

Laurence perked his ears up while he tried to connect Isaac's revelations to some episodes from his days in the Black Crystal Builders before that fateful night last year. He recalled their foreman had specifically asked him and Grey to attend the event and greet their new big boss, but Grey had an important appointment then, so Kian had been the next choice.

At the reminder that he had yet to know how his other best friend had managed after the car crash, doubts crawled back to gnaw at him. Laurence bounced his right knee, willing the uneasy sensations inside him to go away.

"I had finally mustered the courage to meet you again that day, and I thought of several scenarios of how our reunion would come to be. Would you be mad at me? Or would you at least be happy? Would you be proud that your hope for me to start a new life away from controlling people had been achieved? I was so nervous, but looked forward to your reaction once you saw me."

Isaac's soft exhale filled the quick pause.

"And yet, I never got the answer to what could have happened because you were not able to make it."

The young CEO went on telling how he'd become increasingly anxious the more minutes passed and Laurence had been nowhere to be found in the venue. Isaac's knowledge that his former high school senior had always been punctual magnified his worries. And then, he'd received news from one of the Black Crystal Builder's project manager that the people they'd sent in place of Engr. Abel had met with an accident.

Despite the other department leaders' insistence to stay and not to trouble himself too much about it, Isaac had left the celebration and driven to the site of the incident as fast as he could. He'd called the Aurora Medical Center on the way and ordered an ambulance service to be dispatched. When he'd arrived, the location had been bustling with both the AMC staff and another government agency's rescue team, and the responders had just gotten Laurence out of the car.

"I've always prided myself on being levelheaded in most situations. But the second I saw how severe your appearance..." A tight smile tugged at one corner of Isaac's mouth. He shut his eyes and heaved. "All rationality had instantly gone out of the window. I had an argument with some people in charge as I was demanding them to let me get near you, even when I'd always been well informed they had protocols to comply with. I could not remember what followed next, but somehow, I, or perhaps it was my people from the AMC who arranged for me to at least be allowed to get on in the ambulance with you and rush you to the hospital."

"Your hospital," Laurence muttered, more to himself.

The leaves all over the garden murmured as a gust of wind blew once again, but the warmth in Laurence's chest, after learning that Isaac could be disconcerted at the sight of him injured, offset the cold temperature around.

He intended to ask about Kian, but he couldn't get good timing with Isaac carrying on with the revelations.

"Having said all that, you can stop accusing me of being a stalker, Laurence. I will not hide the truth that I obtained some of your confidential information from the private investigator I hired to search for you, but I don't believe I ever used it to disrupt your personal life. If it makes you uncomfortable that someone had conducted a background check on you without your consent, I apologize, but I don't regret doing it. It was a way to find you soon. In any case, I would have still discovered some of your information after the acquisition of the Black Crystal."

Laurence sighed. No, the new knowledge didn't cause him any uneasiness. What top secret could be used against a mere construction worker buried in debt, anyway? However, that didn't change the fact that he was irritated because Isaac had been aware of what he'd been doing all along while he had remained oblivious about how his former underclassman had been progressing in life.

"Wait..." A sudden idea occurred to him and carved deep lines in between his brows. He pitched a suspicious gaze at Isaac. "You... you did not buy the Black Crystal Builders because you knew I was working there, did you?"

"Don't flatter yourself too much, senior." The quirk of the young CEO's mouth accentuated the teasing statement. "Before I had the ND Corporation, the old company already planned to absorb the construction firm. But, for sure, your speculation is not completely off the mark. You may have been the decisive factor for me to proceed with the proposal and sign the contract in the end. And while we're on the subject, when I told you before I was observing you from afar, I was referring to the few times I visited the ongoing project sites where you were part of the construction team to see how you'd been faring at work."

"You visited the sites?"

Isaac shook his head and let out a breath of amusement. "I'm not surprised you were not aware. You're still the same person, senior, always out of the loop about anyone you don't find interesting, even when everyone else around you has been making a fuss about that person."

Because he wanted to dive into the graver part of the inquisition, Laurence brushed off his former underclassman's remark. He blankly examined the wooden flooring of the pergola. "You have ways of saying some nonsense that it's hard to believe your words at times. The other week, you mentioned I was the reason you still have the desire to wake up and look forward to tomorrow, and I'm calling bullcrap on it. I supposedly died, Ice, and you were there to witness it, but even then, your world didn't stop, ain't it? You still seem fine. After losing what you claimed was your motivation to live, your days went on like usual, ain't it?"

Laurence produced what sounded like a cross between a tired laugh and a sigh. "Don't get me wrong. It ain't like I was hoping for you to stay miserable because of my death. I wouldn't want that for you. I still meant what I told you when we were younger that your reason to live shouldn't depend on other people. I'm glad you chose to live for yourself..." He ran his hand through his hair, and a clip got caught in between his fingers. To settle his nerves, he removed the crescent hairpin and fiddled with it. "Just that, I guess I've had enough of people mindlessly spouting weighty words they can't carry in the end. Never say something that will give the other person expectations, if you ain't gonna be able to walk the talk, anyway."

"Will my words come off less of nonsense for you if I confess that it was around the same time last year when a few people had become utterly concerned for me because of my behavior then? Even Mr. Frias had told me many times to pull myself together because it was as if I was ready to throw everything, neglect even the entire ND Corporation, and I was convinced he believed I was acting like that because of Florence Villena."

Laurence didn't answer. He did not look at the other man either. There were a few personal stuff he wanted to ask. Ain't it right that Florence was the reason you'd been like that? Did you really feel only compassion and respect for him because you could relate to his situation? Was that it? Aren't I just the smokescreen for your actual feelings for the guy?

In the end, he shoved the subjects back into the corner of his mind, somewhere he could retrieve them once he was ready to confront the answers.

"This is not a way to trip you into feeling guilty, Laurence, and I can't fault you for remaining distrustful of my words. My devastation at your death was not a lie, but there's one thing even I can't deny: I didn't end up as shattered as I had thought I would be. Perhaps because, deep inside, I knew you were not truly dead."

"What?" Laurence jerked his head to his side.

Instead of elaborating, the young CEO asked, "What is the last memory you have of that last night? Do you remember anything after the car crash? Perhaps before you lost consciousness?"

"A li'l bit. When I woke up in Florence's body, the thing I immediately remember was a voice crying out my name. I thought it was Kian at first, and I just recently figured out it was you."

"So you don't remember opening your eyes a few seconds before the ambulance arrived at the hospital."

"No?" Laurence scowled, confused at Isaac's cryptic tone. "Or maybe my head was so muzzy back then to remember. Maybe I ain't totally awake even when I had my eyes opened."

"I figured as much. I reckoned you would not remember. How could you? I was fairly convinced the one staring up at me from the stretcher on that night was a completely different person from you."

As strong as the urge to ask what the young CEO meant, Laurence figured it would be a lot quicker to get his answer if he didn't interrupt Isaac.

"I had perceived the recognition in your eyes when you opened them to look at me while you were on the verge of death. Or at least, that person was. Do you want to know the first thing that guy did upon seeing me?"

Again, Laurence did not respond.

"He smiled," Isaac said with a brief, dark chuckle, which almost made his companion flinch. "That person smiled with this jarring eagerness in his eyes as if he was happy to die. Like he was relieved he was finally going to rest. That was the first sign that led me to suspect that the man who died on that night might not be the real Laurence Villegas.

"No, I was certain it could not be you. Because surrendering to his fate, let alone accepting his death without regrets, was not the style of the upperclassman who told me that only by staying alive could I get my greatest revenge against this cruel world. Someone who could say those words with conviction would not be easily deterred by the horrible things that had been happening in his life. That was not how I'd known you, Rence. Despite all those unfavorable experiences, I know you'd want to keep living and try to make everything better. You'd refuse to go out without kicking the rear of this world one more time. Yet, that person in the ambulance welcomed his death with a smile as if he'd been waiting for it for a long time."

As Isaac shifted beside Laurence, the chains of the swing whined.

"And even stranger regarding his behavior before he took his last breath was when he greeted me as if I was an old acquaintance and addressed me with something that would not make sense for Laurence Villegas to say that time." Isaac paused like he was gearing both of them for the bomb he was about to drop. "He called me 'sir' and 'senior' and told me he was glad he got to see me one more time, that he was thankful it was me instead of anyone else..."

Laurence's eyes widened. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck rose when he caught on to what Isaac might have been alluding to. "Do you think that person was..." he attempted but failed to get the name out of his tongue.

"I initially had no idea who could that person be, but when Florence came back to the office and he, or you, began acting different from how everyone knew him, it gave me the inclination to keep watch on you. Indeed, it was insane. I had a difficult time believing it could be possible, but regardless of how I viewed it, Florence's new behavior reminded me so much of you, senior."

"Is that why you brought me to see my former coworkers at the Black Crystals? And that night you joined us in the karaoke? Were you just testing me all those times?" Laurence asked with an undertone of bitterness.

The young boss permitted a soft smile to grace his lips. "I had no firm belief about it yet when I told you to come with me to the construction site, but it was you who started behaving strange when we were there and provided me more reasons to suspect you. You were terrible at acting, Laurence."

With his mind kicking a maelstrom of questions, Laurence could not focus on Isaac's quip. He could not tell how deep they were in the night, but crickets were now serenading the garden, and a sparkle of fireflies danced around the mangrove trees guarding the pathway.

"It's still hard for me to process all this," he said, sighing, "and I've yet to know the answers to some of my most important questions. So you're telling me my original body was really dead, but I did my search and could not find any sign that it was buried anywhere. Was it you? Was it you who managed my funeral?"

Isaac's silence was as good as a confirmation.

"Where is it? Where's my grave? And what about my friend who was with me that night? Did he survive the accident?" Laurence shook his head. "No, you hinted it was not an accident. That's another thing I want an explanation for. Who in the world would do that to me? What did they want?"

Looking his former high school senior in the eye, Isaac said, "There are two places that might answer those questions. Tell me when you're ready to face the truth, so I can come with you to visit the locations, Rence."