Kyles P.O.V.
"Hello, Cleo. Thanks for picking us up," Pollen said, her voice instantly switching back to its usual cheerful, polite tone as she stepped toward the vehicle.
I stood back, watching her slide into the front passenger seat next to Cleo.
How could I have been so incredibly stupid?
How could I completely forget that Pollen already had a boyfriend waiting for her back in the city?
Whatever she did or whoever she called had absolutely nothing to do with me. I genuinely felt like I was losing my mind, getting stranger and more irrational by the hour.
"Zachary," I whispered under my breath, the syllables tasting bitter.
So that was her boyfriend's name.
Pollen's P.O.V.
I sat in the front seat of the golf cart, entirely at a loss for what to say to Kim. He had gone completely cold out of nowhere, and the sudden shift was so dramatic that I wondered if it was just my vivid imagination playing tricks on me.
He spoke to Cleo with absolute calm, yet his voice carried an icy, commanding undercurrent that made the air feel heavy. Deciding it was safer to stay quiet, I simply focused on the view as the golf cart glided through the beautifully lit resort pathways. Kim sat entirely alone on the rear-facing bench behind us.
We remained trapped in that stifling silence until the vehicle finally pulled up to the grand, lit entrance of the luxury hotel tower.
"Thank you, Cleo. Have a good night," I said, offering a warm wave as I stepped down onto the polished marble driveway.
Cleo smiled back at me warmly, and for a fleeting split second, her peach thought bubble popped up into my field of vision before fading away:
'She's more cheerful than the other day.'
I was? I wasn't even aware of myself changing. The sudden revelation left me slightly startled, but I kept my polite smile in place as the golf cart rolled away.
I paused on the pavement, waiting for Kim to get off the cart behind me, but he merely gestured toward the automatic glass doors.
"Go ahead. Just wait for me at the entrance of the hotel," he directed quietly.
As he stepped down, he reached into his pocket for his phone, his thumb already scrolling through his contacts as if he needed to make an urgent corporate call.
I walked toward the side of the grand entrance, leaning back against the sleek glass paneling to wait for him. Watching him pace a few steps away while speaking low into his receiver, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
'That's probably his girlfriend,' I told myself with a small shrug. A remarkably handsome, wealthy guy like him was bound to have someone waiting for him back home. It was just like Zachary having Leo; pretty people always drifted toward each other.
I stared at his profile under the bright, unobstructed moonlight. Standing there against the backdrop of the dark sea, he looked entirely untouchable—his sharp features perfectly illuminated by the white glow, his dark hair rustling slightly as the ocean breeze swept past.
He finally ended the call, his gaze shifting across the plaza until his eyes locked onto mine. He raised a hand to give me a brief wave and walked over.
"Did you wait for too long?" he asked.
"No," I replied smoothly.
"Let's head inside."
The uniformed bell staff immediately opened the heavy glass doors for us, bowing low as they welcomed us back into the lobby. I really didn't want to get dizzy due to some staff thoughts, but I knew I couldn't avoid this forever. Looking in the direction of the staff, they were just bowing their heads, and I was so lucky that no bubble thoughts popped up at all. They just kept their heads bowed deeply as we passed by, leaving my mind in absolute peace.
We stepped into the private elevator corridor and rode it up in silence. When the doors slid open on our exclusive top-tier floor, we walked down the quiet, carpeted hallway until we reached our neighboring doors. His luxury suite was positioned right next to mine.
Before he could pull out his keycard to slip inside his room, I turned around to face him.
"Goodnight, Kim."
He froze, standing perfectly still in front of his door for a long, heavy second before he slowly turned his head to glance back at me. I blinked twice, catching the strange, intense hesitation in his eyes.
It felt as though he desperately wanted to say something, but the words were sticking in his throat.
"Zachary... is he your boyfriend?" he finally asked, his voice dropping into a rough, quiet rumble.
'Zachary... is he your boyfriend?'
My mind repeated his words in a daze, my jaw practically dropping.
"Huh?" I breathed out, completely unsure if I had even heard him right.
Did this man actually think Zachary was my boyfriend? Why on earth was he suddenly concerned about something as deeply personal as my relationship status?
Before I could form a coherent sentence, Kim looked away, his jaw tightening in visible frustration.
"Never mind me. Why would I ask something so obvious?"
He turned back to his electronic lock, looking completely annoyed with himself.
'Oh no, did I just start another massive misunderstanding between us?' I panicked internally.
Realizing I couldn't let him walk away thinking that, I blurted out the truth before he could swipe his card.
"No! He is not my boyfriend," I stated clearly, the words echoing down the quiet hallway.
"He is my brother."
Kim's entire frame instantly froze mid-motion, his hand hovering inches from the door handle.
Kyles's P.O.V.
A sudden, overwhelming wave of relief crashed through my chest, shattering the heavy tension that had been building since the observatory. My grip on the keycard loosened.
"Oh," I managed to say, forcing my voice to sound completely level as I pushed my door open.
"Goodnight, Pollen."
Clack.
I stepped inside, closed the heavy mahogany door behind me, and simply stood flat against the wood, staring blankly at the dark interior of my suite.
Why the hell did I just ask her that?
A slow, uncontrollable smile curved the corners of my lips upward in the dark.
'No, he is not my boyfriend. He is my brother.'
Badum. Badum.
Fuck. I had been completely terrified asking her that question. Now, my heart was racing so violently against my ribs that it felt like it was going to explode any moment.
"So annoying," I muttered to the empty room, letting out a sharp, exasperated breath as my pulse refused to slow down.
Desperate for a distraction to clear the sudden rush of adrenaline, I pulled out my phone and dialed Xyrus's secure personal line.
The line rang twice before a groggy, irritated voice patched through.
[Xyrus speaking. Hello?]
"From now on, call me Kim," I commanded, my tone completely switching back into its cold demeanor.
There was a long pause, followed by the sound of sheets rustling on the other end.
[Huh? What the hell is going on with you?]
"I instructed Cleo over the phone earlier," I explained flatly, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the moonlit ocean.
"Make sure to do that whenever we're in public places and remind the staffs."
[Alright, fine, whatever. Just let me sleep n—]
I pressed the red button, cutting him off mid-sentence.
Tossing the phone onto the nightstand, I walked over to the massive king-sized bed and threw myself down onto the mattress. I stared up at the dark ceiling, my heart still thumping with that ridiculous, racing beat as the echo of her voice replayed in my mind.
Dahlia's P.O.V.
It was Tuesday morning back in the city office, and Pollen had just sent me a beautiful, crisp picture of the night sky from her vacation island. I was still admiring the photograph on my screen when I caught a shadow shifting out of the corner of my eye. Mr. Henderson was walking past my workstation. Acting on pure reflex, I quickly put my phone away, lightly dragging it across the polished desktop to hide it behind a stack of corporate folders.
"Ms. Rinston, you do know that using a cell phone during office hours is strictlyprohibited, right?" he noted, stopping right beside my cubicle with a stern look.
I nodded quickly in polite response, feeling a rush of guilt. I was just about to hand the device over to him as an apology, but before my fingers could slide the phone across the wood, it suddenly vibrated and rang in my hand.
I looked up at Mr. Henderson, silently asking with my eyes if I could answer it. He simply gave me a brief nod to go ahead. Relieved, I stood up from my chair and walked a few paces away to take the call.
The screen displayed an unknown number, leaving me completely unsure if it was an emergency from Pollen or perhaps my parents calling from a business trip.
"Hello—" I began.
[How are you, my precious little sister?] a playful, familiar voice boomed through the receiver.Ugh, of course.
It was my incredibly annoying older brother, Zendrick.
"Did you change your phone number again?"
I sighed, rolling my eyes at the ceiling. I shouldn't be shocked by this; it was a completely normal habit for him to swap sims whenever he traveled.
[That's how you greet your big brother?]
"Ugh, why would I greet you warmly in the first place if I always see you around the house anyway?" I said, my voice dropping into a slightly irritated whisper so my supervisor wouldn't overhear.
The reality was that we still lived together with our parents in the family home, though our parents were mostly gone overseas these days to manage their international business holdings.
[You're still annoyed with your big brother? Come on. Pick me up at the airport later.]
"Why wouldn't I get annoyed?" I countered dryly, stepping closer to the office window.
"We talk to each other every single day, even when we are miles away from each other."
That was just my brother Zendrick for you—annoying me at every possible opportunity. But since he was the older brother, I still maintained a healthy level of respect for him, even when he was driving me completely up the wall.
[Hahaha, fine. Let's have dinner together later tonight,] he proposed, his boisterous laugh echoing through the speaker.
[I'll pick you up from the office, so you better text me the exact company address.]
"Whatever. I'm hanging up now," I muttered, though a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips.
I hadn't seen him in almost a week. He had flown overseas to help our parents manage a massive new corporate deal, and the house had been surprisingly quiet without his constant teasing.