CHAPTER FOUR

"So tell me, Dante. What are you going to do?" 

Dante shrugged. He took a bite out if his hotdog and replied, "you've been asking me this since the beginning of this week. Let it go." 

Julie scoffed. She grabbed Dante's ear and pulled it. Dante cried out. He kept tapping Julie's arm, begging her to let go of his ear. 

"Will you answer now?" 

"Yes yes. Just...let my ear go!" Dante whined. Julie let go of his ear and resumed eating. Dante rubbed his red ears. He glared at Julie, "are you a witch? You almost punctured my ear with your fingernails!" 

"My fingernails are short. Just tell me already. What will you do after your residency. You're not leaving here, are you?" 

Dante sighed. He's thought about this a lot. His residency is ending in less than two months. Everyone has been asking him, not just Julie. They really want him to remain in the hospital. 

"I don't know. I'll probably go for fellowship. Or I'll further my education." 

"So in short, you aren't staying here? Can't you do your fellowship here?" 

Dante chuckled. He shook his head. Julie's face fell. She doesn't want Dante to leave. Dante was the first friend she made when she got here. Julie isn't the type to approach people first because of how introverted she is but Dante saw this and approached her first. Dante was in his second residency year when Julie resumed as an intern. He is the only one Julie is close to and if he leaves, she goes back to square one. 

"Are you...are you crying?" 

"Of course, I am!" Julie snapped, sobbing louder, "you're gonna leave. You'll leave me alone and...and...can't you just stay?" 

Dante left his seat. He went beside Julie and hugged her. He patted her back as he comforted her. The other people in the cafeteria mistook them for a couple who just broke up. 

"Julie, I'm leaving the hospital doesn't mean I'm leaving you, you know? We'll still be friends. You can visit me and I can visit you. I'm not dying, you know?" Dante teased, hoping it would make Julie laugh and she did. 

"You're right." Julie sniffed, wiping her tears with a napkin. 

"You're such a drama queen." Dante teased. 

"Whatever. Or you'll get lucky and get to be a rich family's personal doctor?" 

Dante found what Julie said funny so he laughed. "Personal doctor? Julie, I don't think you know the qualifications of being a personal doctor." 

"Of course, I do but you might get lucky. Just look at Doctor Angelo for example. When he completed his residency last year, he became a personal doctor for that CEO lady." 

Dante pursed his lips in uncertainty, "I don't think that's possible for me, I mean, who would want to have me as a personal doctor?" 

===

"Here it is, boss." 

Frank placed a file on Sebastian's table. Sebastian nodded and waved his hand in dismissal. Frank bowed and exited his office. Sebastian pushed his laptop aside and picked up the file. He leaned back as he examined it . 

"Dante Yolando, resident doctor in general medicine, Saint Hok's hospital. Age: Twenty-five years. Zodiaca sign: Aries. Height; 5'7. Has a single mother and a sister."  Sebastian read out loud. He thought their last meeting would be yesterday but he just couldn't get Dante out of his head. He wants to know more about him. For some reason, he is curious. 

Reading Dante's information file isn't enough. His eyes went to the last statement in the file. His residency is ending in one and half months? That was like good news to Sebastian. He suddenly had an idea of how to get Dante to his side. He picked up his telephone and put a call through to Frank. 

"Yes, boss." 

"I need you to prepare a contract." 

===

"And we aim for a twenty percent raise in this year's profit. As you can see here, most of our buyers are female at the ages of 20 to 50 and that's because of the mode of marketing and design of our product. To get to twenty percent raise in profit, we must aim for the younger mass. Teenagers. Men too...

Keane's mind was not in the conference room.  His mind was at the other day's incident. The more he remembered, the angrier he got. No one has ever dared to look at me straight in the eye but that 5'5 kid glared and emptied water on me? That little brat! 

"I'm gonna kill him!" 

The directors and employees were taken aback by Keane's sudden outburst. The loud sound that erupted when he banged his hands on the table almost made the presenter faint. 

"Sir, are you okay?" Director Brown asked. Keane replied with a glare.

"Director Brown, see to this project. I have something to get to." 

With that, Keane left the conference room. He stumped into his office. He met Drake, his personal assistant, placing something on his desk when he got there.

"What's that?" 

"What you told me to gather, sir."

"Leave." 

Keane sat at his desk and opened the file. The file contained Dante's information. He smirked evilly when he read the last statement. 

"Finishing residency, huh?" 

He put a call through to Drake. "Hello, sir."

"Drake, do something for me, would ya?" 

"What's that sir?" 

"I need you to prepare a contract."

Dante didn't expect to see his mother at his front door when he got home. She didn't tell him she was coming. 

"Mum?" 

"Oh, you're back." 

Dante went to her and hugged her. "but what are you doing here?" 

"Oh, I can't visit my son anymore?" 

"You know that's not what I mean. You always tell me beforehand."

"Well, surprise!" 

Dante shook his head. He opened the door and helped his mum in. 

"Wow, this place is neater than I expected." 

"Seriously, mum. You know I hate being dirty." 

Mrs Yolando nodded. Dante has been like that since he was young. He likes things being orderly and neat. At first, she thought he had OCD because of his obsession with neatness and orderliness but that wasn't the case when they visited the hospital. He just naturally loves things being in order. 

"Here, drink water. Let me go change." 

Mrs Yolando was lost in thoughts the whole time Dante was in the room. She felt really bad towards him. He's such an angel and he loves his mum and sister but all he gets when he visits home is pain. She doesn't visit him often because of work and Rachel but she decided to today. At least to apologize for Rachel's behavior. 

"Are you hungry? Let me make you something to...

"No, Dante. Come sit. Let's talk." 

Dante took a seat beside his mother. Mrs Yolando held Dante's hand. She opened her mouth to talk but all that bursted out was tears. Dante's heart ached. 

"Mum, what's wrong? Did something happen? Are you okay? Is it work?" 

Mrs Yolando shook her head. Dante cleaned her face with his palm. She finally spoke when she calmed down, "I'm sorry, Dante." 

"Sorry? For what?" 

"For everything. For how Rachel behaved yesterday. She's my daughter but I didn't train her well. I thought...I thought...

"Mum, why? Why are you apologize? I'm fine, seriously and the person who should be apologizing isn't you but Rachel. You did nothing wrong and don't say you didn't train her well. You did. I'm your son too, you know? So I know very well how you trained us. It's not your fault, mum. Come here." 

Dante pulled his mum close, giving her a comforting hug. "it's okay, hm? I'm okay. We're okay." 

It took quite a while before Mrs Yolando stopped crying. 

"Are you okay now?" 

She nodded. "Yeah."

"But...mum. I meant to ask that day but I didn't get the chance. Was that the first time Rachel has been arrested?" 

Mrs Yolando sighed, "no. She's been arrested two other times before that." 

"What?! Are you didn't tell me?" 

"How could I? You'd leave your work and come here and...I couldn't. That would be selfish of me." 

"But that also means you'll suffer alone. We're a family and...gosh, mum, you shouldn't have done that." 

"I'm... sorry." 

Dante sighed. He shouldn't be mad at her. She looks emotionally and mentally drained already, he shouldn't add to it. 

"It's fine. Just tell me next time if something like that happens again. What if I wasn't there? Would you have beared the burden of $5000 alone? You're unbelievable, seriously." 

Mrs Yolando smiled. She felt so glad to have Dante as her son. "Are you staying for the night?" 

"Nope. I have to get back home to Rachel." 

"Okay. But eat something before you leave." 

Mrs Yolando ate, stayed for about one more hour, then left. After his mum left, he cleaned up the living room and retired to his room to study. About thirty minutes into it, he heard a honk coming from outside. He thought maybe the honk is from another place but it persisted. He then decided to check it out. He put down his book and went outside. 

He was taken aback when he saw a Maserati parked in front of his house. Who could it be? He wondered. Sebastian stepped out of the car. Dante was surprised to see him. 

                                

"Sebastian...I mean, Mr Javernick, what are you doing here?" 

Sebastian couldn't hear Dante's question. His eyes were glued to the shirt he gave hiim, which Dante was clad in. He almost grinned. Dante was wondering why he kept staring at his body.

He looked down and he realized. His face flushed red in embarrassment. Shit, why did I wear this today of all days? He scolded himself internally. 

"Um...I...I did my laundry and...and they are still wet so..so I...

Sebastian places his palm over his mouth, trying to cover the fact that he's smiling. 

"Don't take this the wrong way. I...I never wear your shirt regularly or anything. It's just...my laundry..." Dante paused when he saw that Sebastian wasn't believing anything he was saying. "I'm...I'm telling the truth you know?" 

"I never said otherwise." 

Sebastian closed the gap between them. Dante looked away, he doesn't want to meet Sebastian eyes. Sebastian held Dante's chin gently and turned his face towards him. 

"Are you shy?" 

Dante could feel Sebastian's hot breath on his face as he asked that question. 

"N...no." 

"It looks good on you. Wear it everyday, hm?" 

"Um...I...

Dante's breathing became unstable. I mean, who wouldn't forget how to breathe when their face is inches away from a literal Greek god. Sebastian found Dante's panic cute. It made him wanna tease him more. Their moment was cut short by a loud vroom. Dante recognized that car. It was the same car Keane was in the day of their encounter. It couldn't be him, right?

Keane stepped out of the car. His eyes went to Sebastian. A deep frown appeared on his face. What the fuck is he doing here? He wondered. Sebastian sight made him mad, Sebastian too was equally angered by Keane's presence. 

"Why are you here?" Keane demanded. 

"I could ask you the same thing. What the fuck are you doing here?" Sebastian threw the question back at him. Dante, on the other hand kept looking back and forth at the two men, glaring daggers at each other. He didn't need a psychic to know that these two men hate each other to the gut.