Thea flipped through a few pages of the line she last read with her forehead frowning. "Why does the story always end up here?" she muttered in annoyance.
For hours Thea forced herself to read a thick history book in the national library, hoping to get clearness about the legend of the curse from the prince; The Alpha who lost the war —entered into a painting. Instead of getting what she wants, Thea still gets what she gets in her life when she reads about or is told the story over and over again. A hanging end with a few blank pages afterward. It seems that there is no clear continuation, or it is purposely forgotten.
"Do I need to tell you the full story?" a voice echoed behind Thea's back.
Thea grunted, then laughed softly while shaking her head when she found the figure of her uncle. The blue-eyed man put his arms around Thea's shoulders, then seconds later ruffled his niece's long blonde hair until the girl spontaneously pushed Julien's tall body from her side.
"Oh, Julien!" she hissed in annoyance. "You messed my hair!"
Julien only laughed when he stood back in line with Thea who was busy tidying up her long blonde hair. Holding out a tablet in front of Thea, Julien said, "Your schedule today is very busy. But you can choose to run away at lunchtime, just for the sake of reading a tome containing the history and legend of Alras Island and its entirety. Instead of ordering food at your favorite Near and Far Joint."
"Uncle..." Thea sprayed her eyeballs lazily when she saw the annoying smile again adorning Julien's handsome face. "Stop laughing at me."
Julien immediately hid his smile at Thea's request. He again put his arms around Thea's shoulders while helping the girl put the history book she had read earlier to the place where the history books gathered where they should be.
"So, you are still curious about the end of the war story that you think hangs so much?" Julien again raised the initial topic of their conversation which had dropped because of laughter.
Thea nodded. On their way to the parking lot, hammering the tail of her eyes, Thea caught the old man's figure watching them from behind the large pillars of the library basement. She was curious but hesitant to waste time just investigating the peeping freak.
"Thank you," Thea told Julien as she sat in the passenger seat on the right side of the steering wheel, as Julien opened the car door for her.
"Put on your seat belt, Freibruck's beloved race driver!" exclaimed Julien as he sat behind the wheel and drove his four-wheeled vehicle out of the Freibruck National Library building.
"By the way, Julien, didn't you say Aunt Esme knew the true story of the war in the history book?" Thea sat on her side facing Julien who was behind the wheel on her left side. "Isn't all the history books that contain the legend's story containing hanging endings as well? How could Aunt Esme know the true events?"
"Hey, young lady!" Julien took the time to turn his head, looking at Thea for a moment while shaking his head. "When it comes to my sister, you call her aunt's extravagance. But you call me uncle only when you want something. What's the matter?"
Thea chuckled subtly. "Are you willing to be called uncle, especially in public places, the places where beautiful women of your age look at you with their eyes flashing because they are attracted to you?"
"Oh, it's better not to," Julien replied spontaneously. "It would be better if—"
"Please pull over, for a while." cut Thea while pointing at the shoulder of the road by her side.
Julien shook his head when he found something that caught Thea's attention until the girl suddenly asked him to pull over to the shoulder of the road in front of a gallery building containing various kinds of high art value objects.
Several giant people were busy back and forth in the Braun's gallery building, owned by an art activist who was so fond of Thea. The girl was busy scanning the entire tightly sealed canvas that the men were carrying from inside the container truck into the gallery.
"Does the damned painting really exist?" murmured Thea in between her reverie.
Although Thea didn't give him any attention, Julien gave the girl a nod full of certainty. "There is. it's just that it's not shown willingly in public."
"What's the name of the painting, Julien?" Thea again straightened her back on the back of the chair while looking up at the blue sky from behind the sunroof above her head.
Julien spontaneously drove back his car, when he vaguely heard the workers in front of the gallery take out a special painting that they were about to bring into the showroom. He deliberately let Thea who was engrossed in daydreaming while looking at the clean spring sky that day.
Julien took the time to turn his head, trying to dive into his niece's mind, worried that the girl was aware of his spontaneous actions. Because, he will usually say short pleasantries if he wants to continue to drive, not just do it like he just did. Julien looked at Thea for a moment while wearing sunglasses that originally only hung in the right pocket of the indigo blue shirt that perfectly wrapped his sturdy body.
Relief overwhelms Julien when he finds out Thea's heart rate sounds stable. Even when he didn't feel any suspicion in Thea, Julien slowly flashed a smile.
Thankfully, she didn't ask if the painting would go inside Braun's Gallery when it was about to enter the building. Julien said in mind.
"Julien?" whined Thea when she did not get a reply from her uncle.
Julien shook his head with a chuckle at the spoiled whimper. He knew what the girl wanted. However, he deliberately did not say it while they were still in front of Braun's gallery. It would be dangerous if Thea mentioned that name when the painting was around her.
"Alpha Marc: The Prince Who Was Cursed For Losing The War," Julien replied.
"Alpha Marc?"
Julien nodded. "Yes. it is."
Thea just nodded. Don't know what to discuss more, because, she has so much curiosity, it's just that Julien let alone Esme never really gave her a definite answer to everything. She chose to be quiet, closed her eyes, and let Julien breathe a sigh of relief while driving to various places on their work schedule that day.
When at the end of the day, when Thea hopes to finish her work that day, her ex-boyfriend appears on the set of the photoshoot. She wanted to take some photos with some kind of wear pack race from her flagship brand, her ex-boyfriend; Hugo, a motocross freestyle rider whose has his career on the rise, appeared to even approach Thea with the flirtatious pleasantries he used to do when he met the girl who caught his attention.
Thea massaged her temples as Hugo unceasingly minced small talk and even teased her on several occasions, such as when they became lovers, a few months ago.
"Don't you want to give me a warm hug, Thea?" said Hugo as he spread his hands, as Thea finished raising the wear pack zipper that wrapped her beautiful body.
Hugo smiled watching the Wearpack they were wearing for the photoshoot this time look similar. The magazine and brand really fulfilled his request, allowing himself and Thea to still look like couples even though the news of their relationship had not yet risen to the public,
The white wear pack with a palm-wide black and gray stripe became the main decoration around the chest and the right side, as well as the left of the waterproof, fire-proof clothing, which was also said to be difficult to tear even when hit by the scratches, wrapped Thea and Hugo's body into the first of three clothes they needed to wear until the series of photoshoots ended.
While folding both hands in front of her body, Thea looked at Hugo from top to bottom with a murderous glare. "Get out of my way!" she hissed full of emphasis.
Treated like that, Hugo chuckled subtly. He approached, erasing the distance between them, then without hesitation stared straight into the blue irises belonging to the girl before him.
Hugo took the time to sweep his gaze around the shooting venue, looking for Julien's figure, in case the man who was Thea's uncle and manager caught the familiarity he was trying to do to the girl in front of him. "We can still make up before Julien sees you and I chatting this close, Thea," he said with sparkling eyes accompanied by a smile.
Thea shook her head softly when she began to feel the sensation of Hugo's flirtatious smile, which Thea had liked when they were still in a relationship.
Let's play hard to get till he runaway, Thea Ilaria Maven. She thought.
Thea opened her mouth but immediately pursued it, as Julien came with a helmet in her right hand, standing between herself and Hugo behind her towering tall body.
Thea opened her mouth but again pursed it, as Julien came with a helmet in his right hand, standing between her and Hugo behind his tall body. Slowly Julien put the gray helmet on Thea's head, so that only Thea's eyes, nose, and forehead could be seen by Julien and anyone who looked at her at that time.
"They want to take a picture of you with your helmet and your new car that the team just parked there," Julien poked his head to the left side, where Thea's new car that will accompany Thea on the racetrack next season has just been parked perfectly by the team in charge of taking care of the property.
Hugo's brown iris slowly transformed into the color of his wolf's eyes, glowing yellow, as Julien turned around and returned the intense gaze that Hugo only showed when he was about to get angry or bring out the wolf figure in him.
"You don't really like my niece, Hugo," Julien rebuked with an emphasis on every word he said. "You think I don't know, you made Thea summon the spirit of your late father who was in the place where you kept his ashes?"