Alex gave Sharon a calm look. Slowly, a faint smile made its to his lips:
"I suppose you were about to say that my family is the cause of everything?"
Sharon didn't answer, but she held Alex's gaze, though not for long. She looked down and opened the box on the countertop. She took out the piece of hard paper inside with a red string running through the two holes at the top and tied into a knot, then showed it to him.
And for good measure, she showed him the two sides of the paper.
Alex raised his eyebrows, because the paper was white, and empty. The words that had been on it were no more, leaving the paper looking pristine, and forming a nice contrast with the red of the string running through it.
He couldn't help but remember the dream, or hallucination, he had a month ago. He kept quiet, and Sharon spoke:
"I tried to untie the knot, to tear the paper, to cut them apart. I even tried to burn them, but nothing worked."
Alex let his gaze linger on the white paper held by the slim fingers, then glanced at the owner of the latter:
"At least you didn't burn my place while I was asleep."
Sharon blushed, embarrassed. After all, the owner had gone to sleep while she had remained behind and rummaged through his things. But for the grand undertaking of finding a solution to the troublesome situation she had embroiled herself in, she forced back the warmth on her cheeks.
Alex looked away from the blonde, then walked out of the kitchen to reach the sports area of the apartment. He stretched for a bit to loosen his warm muscles, turned on the treadmill, and started running on it.
Sharon looked at him, and felt tired. She was the only one caring, the only one trying, and the only one failing. She really felt tired.
She glared at him, then got her momentum interrupted by a growl from her stomach. She looked at the empty paper with the red string attached in her hand, then at Alex. There was a slight anger in her blue eyes, but also, on her face, a subtle pout that she didn't even know she was sporting brought by all the annoyance of the situation, Alex's uncaring behavior, and her empty stomach since she threw up last night.
Her glare at Alex intensified, but at the same time, her thoughts moved to think about the reason for his behavior. At last, she gave him a deep look, took a deep breath, and turned around.
She left the wooden box with the paper inside behind on the kitchen countertop and walked to the door. She opened it, and without looking back, left the apartment.
The door clacked behind her, at which point Alex finally looked in her direction. But his eyes only flitted over for a casual glance, before he returned to focusing on his movements. They were standard, and they made the lines of his muscles look more distinct as they glistened with sweat under the rays full of vitality of the morning sun.
Unfortunately, there was no one to charm in the empty apartment.
Alex ran for almost an hour, before he slowed down, and started walking to let the tension bleed away from his heated muscles. He breathed in deeply and rhythmically, creating the only sound in the silence of the empty house, until the quiet serenity was broken by the front door getting unlocked.
*Beep– Clack*
Alex's calm brown eyes flitted to the side to discover the identity of the intruder in his moment of solitude among all those able to enter his house at will. He raised an eyebrow at the visitor, then suppressed a twitch at the corner of his mouth at the sight of what the latter was holding in hands.
He turned his gaze away, pretending to be unbothered, and asked:
"What brings you here so early in the morning? Don't tell me my mother doesn't let you rest even on weekends!"
Leyna smiled at Alex while balancing the cardboard box in her hands, and walked over to place it on the countertop of the kitchen.
"I thought you would be happy to see me."
Alex dryly snapped with a roll of his eyes:
"Yeah, I'm very happy."
Leyna let out a quiet chuckle. She was about to turn around when her eyes caught the small wooden box on the countertop she was standing beside. Her face flickered with surprise, and she picked it up to examine, before she turned toward Alex, looking confused:
"Is this…?"
With an exhale, Alex turned off the treadmill. He stepped off it and nonchalantly replied to Leyna's unspoken question:
"It is what you are thinking. If you want, I can give it to you as a gift. Help yourself."
Leyna's eyes widened and she looked tempted, not to accept Alex's proposition, but to throw what she could only see as a scalding potato away. With a difficult smile, she forced herself to calmly put the box down.
"Thank you for your generosity, Alex, but no. I'd rather make do with the smaller gifts you usually give me."
She turned Alex with a more natural smile at the end, her hands gathered in front at her waist.
"..."
The natural acting talent left Alex shaking his head, speechless.
His sweaty form walked toward her, but she didn't flinch even as he invaded her personal space, nor get distracted by his rather attractive physique.
Even as he kept his brown eyes on her greyish blue ones, she never shied away until he impassively picked up the box she'd rather not have, and moved past her.
Leyna's prim and proper appearance cracked. It was her turn to shake her head, speechless at his provocative behavior. She looked at his back with an amused smile until he disappeared behind the ajar door of his bedroom.
Her smile shifted from amused to genuine, and she turned back to the door she had left open when coming inside. She seemed to think about something amusing to look forward to as she walked out, making her lips twitch as she glanced at the door Alex had left half-closed.
With her high heels clacking against the floor and her hips swaying, she picked up another cardboard box in the corridor outside the apartment, leaving more boxes to pick up later and bring inside for the owner of the place.