Love Began with the First Meeting

It seemed as if time had stopped. Brian stood by the door coldly, porridge and soup in his hand while Molly and Spark stood across him by the ICU's windows side by side. They stood beside each other with their backs turned to him, and this did not spark joy in Brian's eyes. His intense stare sent daggers in their direction.

He turned around slowly and left as quietly as he came. When he ran into Shirley in one corner, he paused. She hadn't slept since visiting Mark in his hospital room. When he sensed that Shirley was looking at the food he was holding, he lowered his eyes by a fraction and said in a clipped voice, "Mol hasn't eaten anything for a whole day..." Then he raised his eyes to look at Shirley, "Shirley, please give these to her."

"What's wrong with you two?" Shirley asked with hint of a scowl on her face. They had been getting along well when they came back and even on the first day the accident had happened. She briefly wondered what had transpired that day.

"Please don't ask…" said Brian with finality in his voice. He handed the bag of food over to Shirley. She knew his temper quite well. He was so like Richie, who never wanted to talk about anything he did, even if he might be judged or misunderstood. She could only sigh, took the food he offered and went to the ICU.

Brian did not leave until he saw Shirley reached the ICU. He decided he did not need some rest yet, but instead went to the rooftop. Thick cumulus clouds obscured most of the moonlight. He leaned against the railing and fished out a cigarette from his pocket. He took out a lighter and lit it, its steel making a pit-pat sound as a reddish flame flashed by the side of his mouth.

Brian returned the lighter to its place and smoked silently, his other hand resting in the pocket of his trousers. The hazy cloud of smoke swirled and spread in the bleak moonlight. His face looked ethereal and almost unreal under the diffusing smoke, his handsome features enhanced by the gentle moonlight.

"Ding..." a beeping sound cut his thoughts. Brian frowned slightly and put one end of the cigarette between his lips, then took out his phone. He glanced at the name and number displayed on the screen before answering, "What have you found out?"

"Mr. Brian Long, just as you predicted," Vincent's cold voice came through the phone, "they may have tight deployment this time."

only to prevent me from returning to the

usual distant voice. He continued, "We weren't able to find out the details. Shawn hasn't discovered any very valuable information either. I'm afraid that they're really determined to disturb the regime of Dragon Island this time." He paused for a second and added,

The little sparks from the cigarette looked especially bright in the dark night.

as the person in charge of XK Intelligence Agency. If things escalated to unmanageable limits, Mark would have no choice but to inherit the candidacy for power holder and host the National Congress

that matter. If they did that, they would most likely to be exposed. However, in order to prevent Brian from finding out the truth,

was silent. He understood

in the same

and I think." said Vincent, barely showing any

one of his feet. Then he went back down to Richie, who was making a video call with Frank when he arrived. Richie glanced in his direction when he saw he came in, and returned to his video call. "Do you have to take the risk?" he said.

as blind because we haven't dealt with them for the past few years?" Frank said in a sinister voice on the other end. Although many years had passed, he still seemed like the young man back then who had enjoyed racing on the

He kept quiet for a moment and then unsympathetically said, "Now that

your support!" Frank said with

out at Frank for stealing documents in his study, but afterwards Frank said, "Well, it's actually great

at the memory. He said,