“Excuse me…where is Celine?” I asked immediately. “Oh…I don’t know but she seemed to have left…” the teacher replied with a stunned expression. “She…left?” I asked, unable to suppress my shock. Although Reiner did come to this conclusion already, it just felt more real now that I was hearing confirmation from someone else. “Yes…we couldn’t find her this morning…so…” the teacher replied before trialing off. I looked at Reiner with a troubled look before turning to see the confused children who were standing around us. We better leave before we start freaking out the kids and making them panic about this. “Where are the other teachers? Apart from Celine, who else is missing?” I asked in a hurry. The situation seemed much worst that I had anticipated. I was aware that Celine must have known that we were on to her and have successful exposed her wrong doings because it wasn’t that hard or complicated; however, I never counted on her vanishing into thin air the day after like this.
“Firstly, please rest assure that King fully intends to continue supporting and even expanding this orphanage. There are no plans to shut this place down or cease operations. Secondly, we will be working with King to put in place a new manager and management team as soon as possible. Thirdly, a lot of help is needed from everyone of you here. The worst outcome that we want to avoid at all costs is for this disruption to impact the lives of the children living here and their classes and studies. So please, I need all of you here to continue teaching and doing what is best for the children while we quickly sort things out to ensure smooth operations for this place,” Reiner continued to explain as calmly as before.The teachers watched Reiner with intense concentration as they nodded their head along in agreement with his words. After Reiner’s clear and reassuring explanations, all the teachers seemed calmer than before. Not only that, but they also all seemed motivated to continue teach
“Sure, I’ll do that. After that, we can discuss how we sort out the other tasks that Celine and her team had been covering behind the scenes,” Reiner suggested.“Ok, let’s meet up back here when we’re done. Maybe in like 30 minutes? I might take a little more time in the kitchen,” I told Reiner while I tried not to sound too stressed out.“Don’t stress, Natalia. This isn’t even close to the end of the world,” Reiner said jokingly. “I know that…” I mumbled in reply. Reiner smiled at me before he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my forehead as his large hand patted the top of my head lovingly. I looked up at his face when he stood up again as a feeling of pure thankfulness flooded my chest with warmth. Thank you for being here with me, R…It was fully because of my own selfishness and stubbornness that Reiner was stuck here running an orphanage for kids with me. When Reiner took me on a holiday to help me on this project, he probably never anticipated that we would end up taking
“R…” I whimpered his name as I turned around in his arms to face him.“Go to sleep, Natalia…” Reiner whispered to me before he kissed my forehead. His arms wrapped a little tighter around my body before I felt the pressure from his hand behind my head. With slight force, he pushed my head to burry my face against his chest. It felt so good and so secure to be held in his arms like this. It was like he wanted to shield me from all my troubles with his large body. I breathed in his familiar scent as I nuzzled my face against his hard and muscular chest. “I love you…” I whispered. I felt Reiner nodding his head above me as his large hand stroked along my back in a slow and steady motion. When I woke up the next morning, I was still wrapped up in his embrace. For the many nights that followed, he held me just like that until sleep claimed me. …When the help that we were waiting eagerly for finally arrived, I was disappointed beyond measure. I stared at the lone figure of a young man
Maybe because he was new, Nick worked harder than any of us. Reiner and I worked long hours, but Nick worked even longer hours. He basically slept in a room in the orphanage and worked first thing in the morning until he went to bed at night. “I like this place. I think this is a good orphanage. The kids are good kids too. The teachers are kind and the food tastes great,” Nick complimented everything like this was a real paradise on earth. “You’re right,” I agreed with him before I started laughing quite loudly. Reiner approached our table before taking the seat next to mine. He gave Nick a brief smile of greeting before he got straight to business.“Natalia and I are flying back to the main island tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice but I think it would be better for us to talk to King as soon as possible and King agrees. We’re leaving this place in your care until we’re back. Ok?” Reiner asked without giving Nick much of a choice.This was the first time that I was hearing about
There’s got to be another way, right?“I’ll do it. If you’ll let me, I’ll like to move to manage the orphanage full time,” I blurted out before I could stop myself. I’m sorry, Reiner, but I just can’t think of another solution that it better than this. If no one else is going to take it on, will you please let me do this? King’s emotionless face transformed into a look of frank surprise while I felt Reiner stiffen next to me as he turned to glare at my face. After saying that so boldly, I had no other options left but to hold my ground. I am not going to back out of my words. Although my idea was crazy at best, I didn’t regret my proposal at all. “Will you…allow it, please?” I asked King when he failed to give me a response. “Interesting. Very interesting…” King commented as he rubbed his chin in thought.“I cannot allow it. We’ll find another way,” Reiner spoke up before King could come to a conclusion.My head whipped around to face Reiner as my mouth hung open. What did he just
“I’m sorry for proposing something crazy like that without consulting you or getting your permission first but I didn’t have any other choice. You heard what King said about shutting down the place and moving the children to other places…” I explained. Reiner didn’t reply and that confused me even more. What more am I supposed to say? “Can you please say something…?” I begged against his back. Reiner was silent for moment but then I heard him let out a long sigh. Maybe just like me, he had been figuring out what he wanted to say. I felt his hands on my wrists before he began gently removing my arms from around his body. I let him do what he wanted and soon he turned around to face me. His face was solemn, and I knew that I wasn’t really going to like what he was going to say. However, I was prepared to compromise so that we could both move on happily with our lives. “Do you even understand what your proposal means?” Reiner asked accusingly. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to ge
Reiner went completely silent as his blue eyes stared deeply into mine. He’s so tall and the way he stared down at me made me feel so intimidated…but not this time…“If I told you that this might be my dream, would you still stand in my way?” I asked although I knew that I was being unfair. Please answer me before I start crying right in front of you.Instead of replying to me, Reiner reached out and grabbed my wrist firmly before he tugged on my arm and pulled me into his arms. “R…” I whispered his name in surprise as I felt the familiar warmth of his embrace surround me.His arms tightened around my body before his large hand held the back of my head and pressed my face closer against his chest. I could feel the strong beat of his heartbeat against my ear and before I knew it, I had wrapped my arms securely around his naked upper body. “I can’t let you go…” Reiner muttered softly, and his arms tightened again around my body. “Then…can you find a way to come with me?” I asked bef