Watching the sunset as he walked home, Adrian felt bleak.
His first day home had been quite an eventful one. He had thought of ways to give Noelle a big surprise but he didn't expect to end up receiving a big shock from her instead.
Thinking about Noelle's attitude toward him throughout today, he felt a headache coming on.
'Did I do something to her that I somehow forgot about?' He thought.
He shook his head in frustration as he really couldn't think of anything.
Sino High School wasn't that far from his home, so it didn't take him that long to walk home.
When Adrian was walking past their neighbour's house, he saw someone opening the gate to enter the house and judging from the long dress it should be a woman.
Normally, this wouldn't be anything to bother about but Adrian just got a familiar feeling from that back view.
"Strange, even if it's just the back, I feel like I've seen her before," Adrian muttered to himself.
The gate had already been closed so he couldn't see the woman anymore.
Unable to make any proper connections at the moment, he shook the thought as he arrived in front of his home.
After going through the gate, Adrian pushed the door open to find two people in the living room.
Besides Noelle, these two were the most important women in his life.
Estelle, who was busy playing a video game on her phone, didn't even spare him a glance.
However, the other woman sitting on the opposite couch looked up at him with a warm smile.
Looking at her face it was obvious where Adrian got most of his looks from.
His brown hair was something he inherited from her, except hers was a lighter shade of brown; those green eyes were also gotten from her.
This was Adrian's mother, Mira Lawrence, a mother who on many occasions had been mistaken for his sister.
It was good that they resembled each other quite a lot or the incorrect assumptions of people wouldn't be limited to that of a brother and sister.
"Mom." He greeted before turning to Estelle. "And the sister who is pretending not to see me."
Estelle raised her head to glance at him and then snorted before turning her attention back to the game she was playing.
Adrian didn't take her reaction to heart and only shook his head with a smile before turning back to his mother.
"Where's Dad?"
"At the research institute, we probably won't be seeing him for a while."
"You're probably one of the few women in the world who can handle their husband being away for so many months in a year."
Mira was about to reach for the mug on the table when she heard that, and her hand suddenly stiffened.
Still, she regained her composure fast enough and picked up the mug which had warm milk in it.
"Compared to what I put him through in the past, this is nothing." She said before taking a sip.
Hearing the melancholy in his mother's voice, Adrian suddenly regretted what he had just said.
From what he knew the relationship between his parents had always been good…great in fact.
However, there seemed to be something else there, his father doted on his mother so greatly that sometimes he and his sister wondered if they were accidents just as those uncles and aunties had said.
Then there was his mother, he didn't know why, but she felt like she owed his father too much and would always do his best to satisfy any of his wishes, no matter what it was. Except his father would never make things difficult for her.
In a normal situation, this would look like two normal people who doted on each other, but in his eyes, it looked like his parents were in a competition to see who could be more subservient to the other.
Sigh…he really wanted to know what his parents had been through in the past, but he couldn't ask because he knew they wouldn't tell him.
"Mom…."
"Did you get on the team?" Mira asked.
Adrian knew she was deliberately changing the topic but he still played along.
"Mm, I also trained with them."
"Well then, you'll have to work hard. This isn't Ravenwood, so you'll have to work much harder."
"It's not like getting into that team was a challenge to him to begin with." Estelle chimed in.
It sounded like she was saying it casually but only those who knew her well could hear the smugness in her tone.
'This girl. Can't you just be straightforward and praise your brother if you want to?' Mira thought in exasperation.
Adrian could also see through his little sister's thoughts, but just like his mother, he also wouldn't expose her.
"I will be heading upstairs now."
"Second one on the left," Estelle said just as he was about to walk past her.
"Huh?"
"That's your room, Mom chose it herself."
"Oh, okay."
"Also, there's dinner for you in the kitchen."
"Mm, got it."
She was about to speak again when Adrian beat her to it.
"I know, Mom also left for it."
'This sister of mine.'
With that thought, Adrian quickly disappeared upstairs.
The moment he started walking upstairs, Estelle turned around to watch him until she could no longer see him.
Mira watched the whole exchange with a subtle smile on her face.
Estelle could no longer see her brother and sat down properly on her seat, and at that time, her mother's voice rang out.
"Are you sure I did all of that?"
"You did help me choose the room.".
"Yeah, because you wanted to give your brother the master's bedroom," Mira said in exasperation.
"But that was the biggest bedroom," Estelle argued.
"So?"
"Big brother deserves the best things."
Looking at her stubborn expression, Mira couldn't help but chuckle in amusement.
"Listen to the way you're calling him big brother now, but the moment he's in front of you, you'll start acting like he stole your favourite cake."
"Why does he need to steal it?" Estelle pouted. "I'll give it to him anyway."
The second part was said in an almost whispering tone but Mira still heard.
'Who does this girl even take after? It's okay with his brother, but if he treats other people like this, then…"