Chapter 148 - A Lonely Place To Dwell

The next day, Sofia woke up earlier than the alarm that she set. It was 3:45 AM. And she set up her alarm to buzz at 4 AM. 

Whilst a person mostly returns to sleep given that the time was too early to do something, Sofia did not. She cancelled her alarm on the phone before she jumped out of bed and walked away from her bedroom.

"I've been drinking too much coffee lately. I'll just boil some ginger," she quietly thought while heading to her kitchen area.

On her way, she took a glance at her living room area and saw Stephen curling on her couch, covered with the blankets she provided.

Their empty mugs of coffee were no longer on the mini table as well as the empty box of donuts.

Sofia raised her eyebrow. "It turns out this man knew how to keep the place organize." she softly muttered.

Although there were two piles of papers on the carpeted floor, these papers were arranged neatly. This side of Stephen was something that she just discovered. It's not that she had prejudice, she just did not expect Stephen to take the initiative to clean.

She was too preoccupied to even bother with their empty mugs last night. She would have washed them after waking up.

The mugs were not also in the sink, which meant that Stephen really washed them before he slept.

Such a simple gesture had actually a great impact. Sofia could tell that Stephen was a reliable person.

Minutes passed like a blur and Sofia sat on her dining table, reading unread emails on her laptop. A fog of smoke coming from the cup of her ginger brew evaporated on the side.

Most emails came from their private press with the sender called Nathan Wang. She remembered that Jing Jing mentioned the name of her boss quite a few times as boss Wang. So, she easily identified the email had come from the personal email of Jing Jing's boss.

Several emails mentioned them about sponsorship and lists of brand deals that wanted the Chronos squad to be an endorser. Sofia examined the lists of products that were on the list before she gave her response.

By the time dawn breaks, Sofia completed reading all her emails. But she was not finished yet. She started typing three contract proposals on the word file. One contract was for a deed of sale of the property that she wanted to start their business. The other contract was for those fraternity boys, in case they would accept employment under her. The third one was for the Chronos squad and their future as the Chronos company.

If Sofia was in a company, these contracts should be prepared by lawyers. But, because they can't afford to get or hire a private lawyer yet, she had to make the contracts herself and notarized the documents in a public notary later.

Writing a contract requires a meticulous outline but because she had approved so many contracts in her past life, she did not find it hard to draft one. 

Her only concern was if her friends right now would ask her about how she came up with the documents, she had no alibi for it.

All she could do was pray that those teens won't be too curious. She was a gamer and is not supposed to be knowledgeable of these things!

Sofia was fully immersed in the documents that she was typing. Her fingers were nimble and the sound of keyboard keys was like a melody in the kitchen area.

In the living room, an alarm from Stephen's phone buzzed loudly. But the boy only hit the snooze and went back to sleep.

Sofia did not also notice the alarm and continued typing on her laptop. There was an urgency in her expression as if her brain was functioning at full speed while her fingers were interpreting and typing all the words in the file.

The second time Stephen's alarm sounded, he went to the side button and turn off the device before sleeping again. He buried his face on the pillow and comfortably laid on his back.

It was evident that Stephen did not want to wake up yet. He dozed off just a few minutes when Sofia woke up around 3:30 AM. The man was burning his midnight oil just so he could finish all his left behind activities.

He suddenly felt inspired to do better with his grades. He does not know exactly the reason where he got the inspiration. This man was ready to be expelled from his school. 

He did not mind for he knew that if his father would intervene, he would still be able to get into other schools. But now, he did not felt the need to depend on any intervention from his father. He felt that he could excel on his own.

Just that, he really exhausted himself that he just craved to sleep all day. He even forgot where he was. All he wanted to do is lay in there and take a rest.

Unfortunately for him, when Sofia finished typing all the contracts she decided to awaken Stephen. The ginger brew on her cup was already cold but she still drank all of it before she left the kitchen.

Her steps were fast that in the blink of an eye, she appeared on the side of the couch where Stephen was sleeping.

"Steph! Stephen!" she gently nudges him in the shoulder and shook him.

"Hmmn?" Stephen's groggy voice responded without making any moving.

"It's 7:30 AM! Steph, wake up now," Sofia whispered and continued to give him a slight nudge until he finally sat up. But his eyes were still close even if he was already in a sitting position.

"What time is it?" he grumbled. A deep frown creased all over his forehead.

"It's time to wake up," Sofia slightly stifled a laugh. Stephen's bed hair was in a mess all over the place.

As if the man knew the source of Sofia's amusement, he raised his hand and combed his hair using his fingers.

"Sof, I want to be absent from school and just sleep today!" Stephen complained in a tone that sounded more like a child asking permission from his parent.

"Oh come, on! You can even pull out an entire night playing online games and still go to school the next morning, what is a few activities?" Sofia said. "Ah, don't you dare go back to sleep?! Get off on the couch, you'll be late!" she added after noticing that Stephen was about to lay his back again.

Stephen scratched the back of his head and yawned. Then, he opened his eyes and smile sheepishly at Sofia. 

"Good morning, Sof!" he murmured while looking at her.

"Good morning, Steph. Now, start the day right by showing up in your classes. I have few errands to do too. I'm about to leave now," Sofia said.

This time, Stephen took notice that Sofia was indeed holding a laptop in her hand and a sling bag attached to her shoulder. She was already dressed in jeans and a white v-neck shirt.

"Where are you off to today?" Stephen asked. He stood from the couch and folded the blanket that he used.

"I have many routes to go. I'll meet a district councilor to complain. Hehe Then, the owner of the property that we looked at last night. Also, I might meet the owner of our private press for possible sponsorship and brand promotions," Sofia listed.

"Wow, you have lots of things to do for our squad. What can we do as members?" Stephen asked.

"Yeah, do your best in school so you'll be able to help me soon," Sofia responded. Her eyes were like twinkling that Stephen almost thought that she was speaking a joke at him.

"Ah, this is our company, but it feels wrong if you do all the job. We will be a useless partner in this business! Are you sure you don't want us to help?" Stephen inquired.

"Oh no! You guys are not useless in this business. All of you have tasks, but, right now, I'll have to finalize and secure a place for our business first," Sofia quickly corrected.

"Why are you doing this, Sof? I'm just curious because I could tell that you are very capable. If you can do this thing alone, why do you want us to join you?" Stephen inquired in a serious tone.

"Because we are friends. And if I do business alone, what am I going to do when I reached the top of the corporate world? It's a lonely place to dwell, so, I better bring you guys with me," Sofia casually answered.

"A lonely place to dwell?" Stephen paused by the idea. "How could you say that? Those business tycoons do not look lonely at all," he continued.

Sofia looked at him for a long time. She was tempted to respond something along the line of, 'Trust me, standing on the peak of the corporate world is the loneliest place I've been. There is no one that could celebrate with the sincere happiness for the triumph that I achieved. All of the people around me are just waiting for my feet to fall.'

However, Sofia only smiled at the boy and did not speak anymore. Stephen was born rich, he had his own view of the lifestyle that the upper class do.

She did not plan to convince him to believe her.

She knew that Stephen will have his time to figure this thing out when he grew older.