Morning at work.

Neville felt something was wrong the moment he stepped out of the anti-grav lift.

Not wrong like the normal workplace chaos, but wrong in the way that a room full of people who were clearly talking three seconds ago suddenly became silent.

These people turned their heads at the same time. He could feel dozens of pairs of eyes tracking him as he crossed the lobby. He even saw a woman from the logistics department actually nudging her colleague and pointing with her chin.

He blinked twice before picking up his pace. He headed straight for the secretarial department, keeping his expression neutral while he internally screamed.

He didn’t even make it through the door when Sarah hit him like a guided missile. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

She appeared out of nowhere and grabbed both of his arms. She hauled him sideways into the break area with a strength that was frankly alarming. It made him become conscious that Sarah was also an alpha.

"Hope."

"Good morning to you too, Sarah—"

"Don’t you ’good morning’ me!" Her eyes went wide, her floral pheromones spiked with excitement, filling the area. "Why didn’t you tell me?!"

Neville’s brain ran through possible interpretations of this question and carefully asked, "Tell you... What, exactly?"

Sarah looked at him as though he had asked what color the sky was.

"That you and Mr. Maxwell—!"

She made a sweeping gesture, and several things that he didn’t quite understand, but still tried to understand somehow.

"You and him! Together! Dating!"

Oh, so that’s—wait, huh?

The blood drained from Neville’s face so quickly that he felt lightheaded.

"H-how did y-you—" he stuttered as he asked.

"How did I find out?" Sarah’s grin turned feral. "Hope. Sweetheart. Everyone knows."

"What do you mean, everyone—"

"I mean, everyone. The whole company. Half the planet, probably. Most likely, also half the universe."

Looking at Neville’s disbelief expression, Sarah simply activated her light brain. The holographic display blooming between them, and flicked through several tabs. Even so, she found what she was looking for pretty quickly.

"It’s all over StarNet." She angled the display toward him. "Look. It’s your date."

He saw the headline first. It was bold and even shameless:

BACHELOR NO MORE? Maxwell Corporation CEO Grayson Maxwell Spotted With Mystery Companion at Xylos Aquarium — EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS

Below it, a series of images of Grayson and his back.

They were walking side by side through the dim blue corridors of the aquarium. Their silhouettes against the massive tank of bioluminescent jellyfish.

And the one that made his stomach drop was the one that had their hands caught, clearly intertwined, from around thirty meters away.

There was no way to explain that one otherwise.

The photos were everywhere. The original post had been shared and reposted thousands of times. Comments flooded in an endless scroll of speculation, excitement, and possessive fury.

"WHO IS HE??? Drop the name NOW."

"Grayson Maxwell really went and fell in love before me. I can’t breathe."

"Who is that?? He looks so good! Is he an artist?"

"He looks so small next to him, aklsdjfksd my heart."

"If he hurts our Gray, I will personally launch myself into the stars."

Neville felt cold sweat trace a deliberate line down his spine.

Back on Earth, he had been a normal person. So, getting this much attention for just holding hands with someone was really overwhelming.

To be fair, Grayson wasn’t even a person in the entertainment industry. So, he thought that he would only deal with rich people, the likes and their enemies. But now, it seemed that public judgment was even inevitable.

"If Grayson has sasaeng fans..." he muttered, more to himself than to Sarah, "I’m glad he gave me that gun."

"What?"

"Nothing." He closed his eyes and sighed. "Sarah, I—"

Sarah interrupted him and clasped his hands.

"You don’t have to explain anything. Holding hands in public like a couple of lovestruck teenagers..." Sarah was practically vibrating. "Ah~ you two look incredible together. That picture—"

Actually, Neville also thought that they really looked good together in that picture. But he absolutely could not say that out loud. Nope.

"I— it’s fine," he managed to say, not realizing the faint blush on his cheeks.

For a moment, Sarah’s warm gaze on him dimmed. She murmured to herself, "...someone’s not going to like this."

Neville frowned and asked, "Who?"

But Sarah just shook her head, the darkness clearing as quickly as it had come.

She patted his shoulder twice and straightened up. "Anyway. The boss has been waiting for you. He said he needed to talk about something."

"About the articles?"

"Probably." She gave him a gentle push toward the door. "And Hope?"

He looked back.

She grinned. "Congratulations."

Neville felt the sincerity, but he also saw that it didn’t reach her eyes.

Seeing that he was still standing there frozen, Sarah waved goodbye as she urged him to go.

"Go on." She said.

Neville nodded in confusion and went his way.

○●○●

Neville knocked twice and entered on the second. But hearing the noise, he didn’t greet out loud and just entered. He was about to walk to his table when he stopped mid-turn.

Grayson was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, his back half-turned, one hand resting on the edge of his desk.

A three-dimensional holographic display hovered before him, projecting the sharp, high-definition image of a woman who resembled Grayson a lot but with an expression that was about four hundred percent warmer.

Gloria was beaming as she continued to talk.

[—and I told Thiago this morning, I said, ’Thiago, did you see the news?’ and he said ’Mom, it’s six in the morning,’ and I said, ’I don’t care what time it is, my son is finally in love—’]

"Mother." Grayson’s voice was strained with patience. "I told you, the photos were taken without—"

[Without permission, yes, yes, very concerning, I’ve already contacted the legal department. But Eason.] Gloria’s eyes sparkled. Her holographic hand pressed against her chest. [You were holding hands. In public. My son, who once told a journalist that his ideal partner was ’irrelevant to the interview,’ was holding someone’s hand in an aquarium—]

Grayson pursed his lips a little.

It seemed that Gloria had been going on and on about this without a break, and Grayson was already losing it.

That was the moment when he spotted Neville a few meters away. The moment their eyes met, something changed in his expression.

"Neville’s here," he said.

Neville completely froze.