Love Began with the First Meeting

Rolling her eyes and sighing in frustration, Ann sat next to Elsa, grinning like a loon. "Elsa, Umm... Could you do me a favor? Can you ask Charlie if he knows my eye candy? I want to get close to him!" Anna rolled her eyes and said, "Ann, now is not the time to talk about this."

Ann pouted her lips and scoffed, "Oh! All right." She sat up straight and faced Elsa. "I'll give you two choices. You can either ask Charlie yourself, or we'll help you?"

"Ask what?" Elsa had no clue what Ann was going on about.

Olivia helplessly sighed, "Ask about his family background, of course... You can't marry a person without even knowing who he really is, right?"

Elsa shied away instantly, lowering her eyes and mumbling, "I'm not marrying him. What does his family background have to do with me?"

Olivia, Ann, and Anna exchanged glances and suppressed their laughter unanimously. They knew what kind of person Elsa was. They knew that Elsa wasn't thinking about whether she and Charlie would fit each other, but how they could be together given the vast difference between their backgrounds. It was like thinking about how to run before even learning how to walk properly. Elsa didn't know what true love was or what it could do to a person. Nothing in the world could have prepared Elsa for it when her time came.

*

It was already quite late in the night when Charlie went back to the hotel. He opened the door to find Evelyn playing computer games in his room. Surprised, he asked, "Weren't you supposed to go shopping with Bess?"

"I did, in the morning..." With eyes glued to the screen, she continued, "We went to West Street and then had lunch at the Falloon Mall."

"You were at the Falloon today?" Charlie was taken by surprise because he assumed Evelyn and her friend were eating desserts at West Street. He coughed to clear his throat, making a big effort to be more exuberant, adding hand gestures and varying the pitch of his voice.

Not that Evelyn noticed anything as she was preoccupied with an important Boss Fight in the game. Suddenly, she jumped up and held her hands up in the air in a victorious motion. Having successfully killed the Boss, she collected all the items, but unfortunately, there was nothing of value. After groaning in displeasure for a bit, she turned to look at Charlie and said, "Guess who were there with me? Well, of course, besides Bess? Elsa and her roommates!" Needless to say, she completely disregarded the two annoying people, Allen and Rita.

"Elsa is also in T City?" The smile on Charlie's face faded, disappeared, and was replaced with a frown.

Evelyn's soft lips stretched into a playful smile, revealing her perfectly aligned teeth as she nodded.

Charlie started to look worried. He didn't expect Elsa to be here, especially to witness... As a matter of fact, Evelyn was deliberately waiting for Charlie in his room to tell him what had happened. He pulled the chair nearest to him and sat down, rolling up his sleeves and loosening his tie. "So she saw me at the Falloon Mall?"

Evelyn nodded. "Yes... She watched in awe as you behaved like a powerful man. You were so amazing! You really played the part of the young leader of Dragon Empire Group very convincingly. It felt like we were watching a TV show! It would be even better if there was a red carpet there. And the employees would line up at the two sides, greeting you together as you walked in, Mr. Long! That would make a perfect scene.

Don't you think so?" Charlie tutted, clucking his tongue in disapproval of her mockery, and asked, "Are they coming tomorrow?"

He was referring to the meet-up for the game of course.

"Olivia really wants to see Quiet Misery, her eye candy, so yeah, I guess all of them are going." Evelyn's eyes turned back to the screen. Before going offline, she made sure to return and temporarily retire her character to Dragon City. Evelyn had been the defender of the Dark Wizard City before the urban warfare. Now that she was defeated, she could only play in Dragon City under the protection of Silent Sorrow.

"All right."

Evelyn stood up and patted Charlie on the shoulder. "Take care of yourself. I will go back to sleep now." She grabbed her water bottle and walked towards the door. Before walking out, she turned around and said, "Oh I almost forgot. You don't have to worry about me tomorrow. Addison is going to take me to breakfast and then shopping. I will go there in the afternoon. Good night!"

After sending her brother a flying kiss, Evelyn closed the door behind her and walked away. Charlie's expression turned solemn as he took out his phone. On the screen, the wallpaper was a picture that Elsa slept on the desk while Charlie took a candid picture with her in the same pose as hers.

While neither of them paid attention, time flew in the fleetest fashion. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months and months to years. Although it was more than ten years ago, every memory of her had been deeply engraved in his heart, never allowed to escape. Then he clicked onto the special folder that had all the pictures of Elsa he had kept with him over the years. Sometimes, he was reluctant to look at the photos from the past because it brought him so much joy, and he feared he would start to miss it too much. It was hard enough as it was, considering how badly he wished he could see that same little girl and play with her without a care in the world, just like they did in the past!

Lazily resting his back on the chair, Charlie put his feet up and crossed his legs on the table. Every picture of her was vivid, taking him back to a trip down memory lane. He remembered every tiny detail. In fact, he treasured the memories so much that he was willing to spend years waiting for her patiently. He wanted to grow up to be a reliable man so he could protect her from the world. However, the funny thing was that his protective nature only made her feel more scared.

Mere minutes turned to an hour as he gazed at the photos in a pensive mood. Glancing at his watch quickly, Charlie exited the album and called the person in charge of Dragon.

"Mr. Long!"

"I will come to the meeting tomorrow!" Charlie flatly said.

The person on the other end of the line fell into silence for a few seconds. After a brief pause, he asked, "Mr. Long, do you mean the issue about the game design or the issue about the Long Family's person in charge?"☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐