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"You have all kinds of places and businesses in the city. Why don't you just buy the whole Perlientas then?" Laurence said with a tinge of sarcasm, while Isaac drove them to an eatery location for another dinner plan.

"I don't think the governor will allow me to buy the entire land. It's also too much work to go through every single resident to ask for their permission to have their home turned into a private property."

Laurence glowered, unable to believe how Isaac had implied that the purchase money was not a problem for him. "Hey, spill. Are you actually a secret oil tycoon or something?"

A brief head shake from his companion and a smirk bordering on a scoff negated his question.

He focused on the night sceneries and let his irritation at the subtle, if not unintentional, bragging wither away. His mind wandered while he regaled his sight with the dim view of the crop field and the fruit-bearing trees, like guavas and camachiles, on the side of the road. The lack of natural lights and the tranquility due to the absence of people in this rural-like part of Perlientas added to the surreal feeling he had for how fast time had flown these recent months.

They were now on the first day of March, and Laurence felt as if the string of his relationship with Isaac, which had once snapped when they'd parted ways a decade ago, was reconnecting again.

Since his birthday, the young boss had kept inviting Laurence to have a meal out after work. There were a few times Isaac had brought the other man to classy restaurants. Even then, all the places he'd chosen had cozy vibes that Laurence had not once felt like a commoner lost in a palace when he set foot in those eating houses.

This routine had started with Laurence humoring his former punk junior because he'd thought it would only be once in a while, and yet, Isaac had requested his company at dinner every single night on weekdays. So when he'd received another invitation earlier, Laurence had told the young boss he couldn't have him always taking him out for a meal and treating him.

Isaac was prepared with an excellent excuse, however, stating that Laurence could consider it as him doing some overtime and assisting him in his research for the ND Corporation's future project. The young CEO had revealed his plan of establishing another restaurant more diverse than the Renascence Café, and he'd been checking out different eateries to observe and get inspiration from the atmosphere and services they'd offered. He'd also shared some information about the concept he'd been envisioning: a garden restaurant that would commission startup bands to perform for the customers on the last Friday of every month and a few special holidays.

Without further argument, Laurence let his boss's offer reel him in. What could he say in his defense? He was just a simple human being who could not resist the idea of getting paid for accepting free food. Yeah, right, only an idiot would pass up the chance.

He propped his elbow on the car's window frame and caught his chin on his knuckles. "Gotta admit it's kinda amazing, though. No, you're the amazing one. Maybe I'm a bit jealous 'cause you've achieved this much at this age."

"Amazing," Isaac whispered as if testing the word on his tongue. The unnatural smile supplemented the pensiveness on his face. "Am I? Have you not heard of some people's beliefs about how I have accomplished all of it?"

"What beliefs? That your old man gave you a head start? That you'd be a nobody if ain't for his money, and you should be ashamed for betraying him? 'Cause he's the reason you're where you are now? Yeah, what bunch of bullshits told by bitter rats who'd never gonna get out of the sewer they're living 'cause they're too busy sticking their nose in other's business than focus on their own."

The silence hinted at Isaac's contemplation.

"But it's a fact that what I have at present are not things I have obtained through hard work alone. There's some truth in their claims that I wouldn't have gained all of it in a short period if I didn't have sufficient capital from the beginning. Even if it was me, such a feat is not achievable."

"Uh-huh," Laurence said, unconvinced, "pretty sure your old man didn't willingly give you the funds for your own startup company, unless he was that much of an idiot. So, did you save all of your allowances since you were young in preparation for zapping your father's organization? I'm gonna bet even if it was just student allowance for you, the amount ain't nothing to sneeze at."

Isaac's muted chuckle came off more genuine but had yet to be a merry one. "You got some of it right. I might have studied the art of stock trading and invested some of my pocket money in it. I have indeed earned quite an amount through that process, but it was still not enough to build a firm that was on par with the Fahlgren Company, let alone something that would outstrip it."

Laurence hummed. "So, what then? Wait, this reminds me of your story the other day about having a paid internship for a few years after turning eighteen. That was at your old man's office in Germany, yeah? Don't tell me you committed theft while you were there and robbed some of his company's money? What do you corporate people call that again?"

"Embezzlement. And in case you haven't realized it yet, you've been one of the corporate people for a few months now."

Laurence's fingers found the seatbelt's buckle. He toyed with it while a sense of guilt squeezed his chest. He didn't know how to bring it up to Isaac. That he never intended to stay forever in the corporate world. He'd been deliberating that once Marian returned from her maternity leave, he would hand his notice of resignation from the ND Corporation.

It was not because he didn't believe he would ever fit in that kind of setting; he was confident that with more training, and if he wished to make it his permanent job, he had the potential to become a competent office employee.

But that was not what he wanted. After all this time, he'd never given up his dream of setting up his own small business. A gardening and flower shop in honor of his real family.

Laurence stopped fiddling with the clasp of his seatbelt and released the tense muscles in his arms and shoulders. He promised himself he would let Isaac know everything once the right time came. There was no need to fuss about it for now.

"So you didn't do something like that, did you? That embezzlement?"

"I'm sort of offended you think so little of me that you'd consider I'd stoop that low to put an end to my father's reign. No matter how much I hated that man, I wouldn't resort to such a fraudulent tactic."

"I thought so..." Laurence wavered as his eyes darted to Isaac's tight grip on the steering wheel.

The subject was supposed to be something he'd mentioned as a sort of joke, meant for a trivial conversation to fill in the quietness of their short travel. But seeing as how serious the young CEO was reacting to it, Laurence suspected he might have touched a sensitive spot.

"Or so I wanted to claim I was that much of a noble foe." Isaac maneuvered the car through the junction.

In a minute, they were back to the bright and bustling part of the city.

"The truth is, there was indeed a time when I gave thought about sullying my hands to prevail over the old man. That perhaps I should take the easier route and steal an amount that would hurt his corporate account. In the end, I may not differ from present rivals who kept playing dirty to worst me."

Laurence kept quiet as he observed the people meandering on the street, uncertain of what response to give to Isaac's admission. He could not even determine the most acceptable stance regarding it, if there was one.

Any way one sliced it, theft of a company's funds was a corporate crime that deserved to be condemned, and no level of anger toward an employer or the owner would ever justify that.

That was how it was supposed to be. Laurence would have stood by that belief if the violator was a stranger he didn't have any attachment to. And yet, when it came to Isaac, he found himself desperate to rationalize the younger man's intention. He was willing to accept that a horrible father like Leonard Fahlgren had that kind of payback from his son coming.

Laurence leaned against the headrest. He shut his eyes, letting a quirk of irony invade his lips. Funny how people could easily twist their own principles based on what was convenient for them.

"Well, we're still humans, after all. We can't just expect ourselves to be virtuous all the time," he said under his breath, aiming the remark to himself as much as to Isaac.

The conflict in Laurence's head must have reflected on his behavior that the young CEO had to say, "Don't worry. I never put those despicable ideas into action."

The subtle vibrations in the car and the buzz of the engine died down. Through the glass window on the driver's side, Laurence made out the covered pathway with purple lights.

"Do you want to know the entire story?" Isaac asked, shifting from his seat. He unlocked the doors with the key fob. "We have plenty of time to talk about it over some soju and Korean barbeque. It's the weekend tomorrow, so I hope the Villena family will not mind you coming home a little late tonight."

"Yeah, sure, they'll be fine as long as I send them a message that I'll be out with a friend."

Laurence got out of the car after Isaac. As they took the covered pathway, he noted that the purple string lights hanging from the arch roof were in the form of wisterias.

The view of the flowers, albeit artificial, unveiled Laurence's first sincere smile for the night. He'd always wanted more establishments to have wisterias, a change from the angel's trumpets as the usual decorations in the stores like the Renascence Café and even his mother's old Hiraya and Gardening Shop. But it was understandable it could not be possible as the purple flowers were native only to a few neighboring islands.

The pair reached the Korean grill house. Aside from the wooden bungalow at the center, there were smaller bamboo cottages, which the customers could rent for more privacy.

After they talked to the counter attendant, Laurence followed Isaac to the cottage under a mango tree. A male staff brought their orders soon.

Laurence was about to pick up the tongs when Isaac beat him to him.

"Let me," the young CEO said, laying the slices of marinated beef and pork belly on the stovetop griddle.

While watching Isaac turn the bulgogi over and cut the samgyeopsal with the kitchen shears, Laurence thought back to the one or two times when this punk had invited him to his house for dinner and offered to fix him a meal. But he'd declined with the excuse that he didn't want Isaac to bother, knowing he was already swamped with responsibilities as a conglomerate head. Laurence had told his young boss that if he had the time to play chef, he might as well use it to take some rest instead. Isaac had backed down, but he might not have completely given up on the idea.

The meat sizzled. A smoky, piquant smell permeated in their little cottage.

"It was my mother's will," Isaac then murmured, his voice blending with the soft crackles from the cooking, while he kept his gaze on the grill.

"What?" Laurence asked, unsure where his statement had come from.

The young CEO picked some slices of the cooked pork belly and placed it on Laurence's plate. "That stuff I was telling you earlier about how my efforts and savings alone did not suffice to achieve everything that I presently have."

"So, how come exactly?" Laurence mimicked Isaac's actions of putting the chili paste and meat together before wrapping them with a green leaf lettuce and eating it whole. He repeated the same process, favoring the spice of the food.

Isaac began his story by going back to the time when a man had visited him a month after he'd turned eighteen. It was a lawyer who'd revealed that Isla Ruiz had left her last will and testament, which stated that her only son would inherit all her remaining assets once he was of legal age.

Savings account she'd opened as soon as she had the baby boy. A few real estate properties she had purchased through her humble earnings from being a band vocalist and songwriter. Mutual funds and bonds. Fifty percent partnership equity of the Fahlgren General Hospital. And the right to receive the royalties for the couple of music pieces she'd created. The total amount might not be as hefty as her husband's riches, but it was still more than enough for Isaac to start his own company.

"I allotted a certain portion of the cash in various investments. While I was waiting to complete my business degree in Germany, I contacted some professionals here in Perlientas who could manage the development of my mom's properties. I also researched the prospective partnerships in the city and some enterprises I might acquire for a fair deal, so almost everything was set when I came back here."

Clinks lingered across their table as Isaac topped up their shot glasses with the soju.

Laurence took a swig of the drink, reflecting on how someone who was barely an adult could have dealt with all of those complicated affairs on his own. Did Isaac even get the chance to have fun and enjoy his life in college? Things had been rough for the younger man, and he was too young when he'd begun working hard for himself. Maybe even twice or thrice harder than those people who still thought he'd always had it easy, that a child of a wealthy family like him never had to worry about tomorrow because his brilliant future had been long set in stone.

Laurence lowered his shot glass to the table with more force than he'd intended. He guessed he and Isaac were not much different from each other in the way they both had to struggle to survive since they were only eighteen. It gave the realization that perhaps the universe didn't discriminate between the rich and poor when it came to flinging its shits; it would just mess with whomever it chose to land its crap.

"So, that Fahlgren General Hospital is now the Aurora Medical Center, right? I'm surprised your old man let you buy out the rest of the ownership."

"He didn't sell it to me," Isaac said, staring at the glass of soju in his hand.

Laurence wanted to know what the young man meant by the statement. There were other questions he wanted to ask about Leonard Fahlgren. Where was the man now? How did he take it when his son had toppled his organization?

He found it hard to believe that such a proud businessman had remained passive even after the boy he'd tried to mold into a perfect successor had rebelled and become the cause of his company's ruin. It was almost suspicious that the old Falhgren man had never made a move to take everything back and exact revenge on Isaac.

Laurence's curiosity was strong, but because his understanding of the young boss was bigger than the answers to his questions, he did not push the subject.

Isaac swirled his glass. "So perhaps some people are valid to believe that my accomplishments are not that impressive. I did not work hard to get my hands on the capital for my corporation. If it had not been for my mother's will, I would have been nothing compared to my father until now."

"I don't think so. It's fine if you had some backing. You're amazing either way. You were great for managing well the resources that your mom entrusted to you. Capital isn't all about money, after all, yeah? You've also gotta have the knowledge and skills to handle it, or else you ain't going somewhere with it, no matter how huge the amount. Worse, everything would disappear into thin air before you even realize it." Laurence sampled the kimchi, then the fresh cucumber slices to wash away the tanginess of the fermented vegetables from his tongue. "And, of course, a single person can only do so much on their own. So what if you had help from your late mom? It ain't gonna change that you're impressive for growing the assets she'd left to this point. If she was seeing this, I'm sure she'd be really proud of you."

"I hope that is indeed the case. That she's proud of what I've achieved with her aid," Isaac muttered, a wistful smile tugging on his lips. "When she died, I was convinced she never cared for me and she was selfish for leaving me without considering how her death would affect me. How would I survive without her? For some time, I resented her for that."

Laurence's gaze flicked to the brief rise of the younger man's Adam's apple when he swallowed.

"And yet it turned out she had been thinking about my future all along. She had not forgotten about me even during the times of her battle against her mental health, against her mind that was trying to murder her. She made sure I would be fine even when she wasn't physically with me anymore." Isaac emptied the content of his shot glass. He let out a chuckle, quiet, but the rue echoed in the night breeze. "It seems like even when she was gone, she had left a significant part of her in me."

Silently, Laurence pushed the bowl of braised baby potatoes to Isaac's corner of the table. "Here, have some of these. My mom used to tell me that potatoes are good for boosting your happy cells," he said awkwardly.

He didn't know if there would ever be any words that could cheer someone in this kind of conversation, but Laurence was relieved to see Isaac offer him a slight smile as thanks.

"Isn't that something she told you only to encourage you to eat your vegetables?" Isaac said in a tone that lightened the mood even a bit.

"I was never a picky eater as a kid."

"I can see that. And, right, I suppose I should stop dampening the atmosphere and ruining our dinner."

Isaac added more of the marinated beef slices on the griddle, and the two continued to eat. Just as they were grilling the last batch of the meat cuts, Laurence's phone buzzed and distracted him from the food.

He grabbed the device, his heart springing at the sight of the same number, which had been sending him occasional malicious texts about Isaac. It had been more than a week since the first one. Laurence had tried to block the number before, but he'd found it was not possible for some reason.

He gripped the phone like he was seeking to bust the screen when he read the new message.

Do you know? Isaac Ruiz would use any means necessary to achieve his goals. He doesn't even mind sleeping with others if he wants something important from that person. Information, investments, anything he wishes to obtain. It doesn't matter who you are, if he's getting close to you, it only means you're holding onto something beneficial for the advancement of his business. Even now, who's to say he's not taking advantage of you?

"Are there some issues at the Villena's place?"

Laurence jerked his head and gave Isaac an innocent look. "Huh, why'd you think that?" he asked, tucking his words into the cloak of casualness, wishing the daggers he'd shot at his phone a second ago did not give his apprehension away. He subtly shifted his arm and slipped the device into his pocket.

"I have noticed you've been checking your phone a lot these days."

With an easy smirk and a carefree tone, Laurence put in more layers into his cool mask. "Oh, how the tables have turned, eh?"

The young CEO inquired, not with words, but with his eyes, which earned him a shrug from the other man.

"Just that you used to be the one always glued to his phone. I'm kinda surprised you ain't doing it right now. Hm, now that we're talking about it, I haven't seen you like that recently. Why were you always obsessed with your phone anyway? You playing Candy Crush or what?"

Isaac appeared like he had a harder time processing Laurence's inquiries than usual before he answered, "I see. That was nothing special. I do it mostly to ignore people and to avoid them talking to me. When they see me preoccupied with my devices, it often issues the false message that I am doing something important and business-related, so they would think twice before bothering me. It is also a great way to put on the pretense that I don't care about what is happening in my surroundings when, in fact, I am furtively observing everyone."

Laurence creased his brows, not expecting such a reason for Isaac's habit. But he understood. If he'd learned anything from his pops, who was also a man of few words, it was that a lot of quiet people were keen observers, contrary to the impression they gave that they were indifferent to what was going on around them.

"I don't do it while I'm with you since you're the last person I want to ignore. I love talking to you, no matter how trivial the topics are. And even if I would rather just observe, I can stare at you without being discreet about it."

Perplexed, Laurence dumbly looked at Isaac. He gave himself a moment to absorb the implication of the younger man's words. When it clicked, he grumbled, "Where'd you ever learn to spit embarrassing crap?" before stuffing his mouth with the grilled pork belly dipped in gochujang.

He coughed as the spiciness of the chili paste hung back in his throat.