NOVPUBJun glanced back and forth between them again. "You watched two movies."
"Yes. Both were very heart-wrenching."
His brow twitched. For some very vague reason, Jun felt an urge to investigate her suspicious behaviour.
"Uncleeee!!"
Ailun came running and grabbed onto Jin's legs. "You finally returned! And the cats! I wanted to play with you all."
Ai shone.
Yes, my ray of hope and sunshine!
"Yes, yes, we missed you too. I was just about to call you. You go and play with Uncle Jin and the cats. I will freshen up in the meantime."
"Yay!"
The cats hopped from Jin's arms and Ailun dragged Jin along with him. "Uncle, Uncle, I have made the personal best score in the game. You have to see it!"
"Is that so?"
Jun frowned as he watched Jin leave and turned to face Ai again only to find her missing.
"Ai?"
"Hm?"
She was already at the stairs, sprinting away from him at an even greater speed.
What is up with these two?
His eyes narrowed.
Something is fishy…
—
Jin dazedly stepped out of his bathroom, droplets of water dripping down his hair tips. He stared vacantly at the floor, the entire conversation between Alix and him replaying in his mind.
"Uncle, Uncle! Come here!"
"H-Huh?" Breaking from his stupor, he looked at Ailun.
Happy face, happy face, he patted his cheeks and walked towards him with a smile. Grabbing him by his waist, he tickled him thoroughly, making him laugh hard.
"Stop, stop…" he giggled. "See my top game score!"
Ailun practically pushed the tab on the face with a grin. "I am at the top. But I don't know till when I will stay there," he pouted. "Pastry aunt is super talented!"
Jin stiffened. "...Why her? Wait, have you been playing with her all this time?"
He said, snaking and snuggling to the cats' side. "Uh-huh. Uncle, you should know this. Pastry aunt is a super super super cool player! She defeats the big baddie monsters in no time!" His eyes sparkled.
Jin looked at the player's name at the second rank. "Is this one Alix?"
Ailun took a peek and nodded. "But she won't be at second rank for long. I have to polish my skills!"
He stared at her name, slightly pressing his lower lip. He faintly hovered his finger over her name, bringing a tremble to his eyelash. Suddenly, Ailun happened to push him due to his wrestling with the cats and the in-game chat window accidentally opened. The pre-filled auto text suggestion of Hi got sent in the chat when his thumb pressed against the screen.
Ah shit!
Jin quickly searched for the delete message option but there was none. Then a ping chimed.
'Hey.'
He blinked rapidly at her message, his lips slightly parting. He contemplated for a few moments whether he should text back or not. By that time, another ping had dropped.
'I thought you had lots of homework to do today?' She sent, followed by a frown emoji.
Jin furrowed his brows and glanced at his side. "Did you have lots of homework to do today?"
Ailun stiffened, twitching his brows. He coughed. "I am halfway done already!"
His eyes narrowed. "Really?"
"Who told you?" He then gasped and took a look, his face beaming. "Pastry aunt is online? Yaayyy!"
He tried to take the tab back when Jin raised his arm high up in the air. "You should focus on completing the other half of the homework."
"Don't say that Uncleeeee," his face dropped pitifully and he grabbed his wrist, showing his max cute expression. "Let's play with pastry aunt together!"
He paused and looked at him. "...Play with her?"
"Yay!"
Another ping chimed. 'Are you there?'
Jin's eyes widened and he quickly started typing before she decided to go offline.
'Yes!'
'What about your homework?'
He cleared his throat and typed. 'He is halfway-'
He realized he used the wrong pronoun and quickly corrected his message.
'I am halfway done.'
'Really now?' she sent, followed by a suspicious emoji this time.
His brow twitched and he glanced at Ailun again. "See, even she cannot believe you."
He harrumphed. "You are not saying it with the right emotions, Uncle!"
"It's either you did the homework or not. There are no right emotions here."
"The right emotions to fool people."
"Who taught you that?"
"Pastry aunt!" He chirped.
"..."
What is she teaching him?
By that point in time, Alix had already played a few games and reclaimed her top spot at the leaderboard.
"Noooooo!" Ailun cried and took solace in the cats embrace. "She surpassed me again! I have a long way to go…"
Jin was new to the game hence despite his attempts to play and keep up with her, he kept failing and his rank kept dropping.
'What happened to your game? You were just now at the top but are making silly mistakes now.'
Shit, he panicked. I am making rookie mistakes!
'Are you depressed? Did somebody scold you? Maybe because of the other half of the remaining homework?'
'No, it's not the homework.'
A thought cropped up in Jin's mind and he slowly typed.
'Uncle Jin returned some time before. But he looks sad-'
Jin gave it a thought and rectified his message.
'Very very sad.'
He held his breath and waited for her reply, which didn't come even after three long minutes. He nervously bit down on his lip.
But she is still online…
"Ahhh! Why did my ranking drop so low?" Ailun burst into tears.
*Meow?* The cats glanced at him questioningly.
Jin coughed. "Ah my bad…I was just trying out the game. Alix is really good at it."
His face shone. "Yes! Pastry aunt is super cool! She knows lots of things. She can play games like a pro, she is super good with essays too, just like Aunt Xing Bi!"
That's her editor persona speaking, he thought.
"She is also a cool cupid," he sincerely nodded.
Cupid? He wondered. Ah, is he talking about her playing cupid for Shui and me?
"That day, she told me to sneakily give Grandpa's wedding ring to Grandma and pretend that it fell somewhere," he giggled.
He blinked twice. "My dad?"
"Grandpa Zhou!" He chirped again. "Grandpa and Grandma always bicker and fight even though they love each other so much. So pastry aunt stole Grandpa's wedding ring one day and asked me to give it to Grandma. I did not know what will happen but pastry aunt said that it will bring them together! And Uncle, she was right!"
Ailun eagerly switched to the gallery app in his tab and showed him a picture of Zhou Yichen and Xie Nuying out somewhere which looked like a date. The expression of a secret romance on their faces was all very clear.
"Grandpa sent me this picture," he beamed. "After so long, Grandpa and Grandma went out together and are not fighting anymore!"
