399 The Things You Can't Unlearn

November 13

Tuesday morning's weather forecast said that it was going to be a sunny day—but lowkey, Damien predicted for another heavy rain to fall somewhere in the late afternoon to evening—the sudden ache in his left ankle told him. He just couldn't trust the weather nowadays.

He had only slept for four hours or less and he was already awake at quarter to seven in the morning. Katherine was still fast asleep to his right with her back facing him. He rolled towards her, pulling her so that her back was pressed against his chest and they were spooning. 

She stirred in her sleep and mumbled, "Mm… Is it morning yet?"

"It's still early. But I need to leave already. You can go back to sleep," Damien whispered above her, his hand slipping under her top and caressing her tummy.

"Do you need to go? Let's just stay in bed today. I don't wanna do anything." Katherine's eyes were still closed, not wanting to fully wake up as her whole body ached from everything that happened to her yesterday. She leaned against him even more, liking the warmth that surrounded her.

Ah. Bed weather. Something that Damien would actually prefer to do with Katherine right now. He was already regretting that he couldn't stay. "I'm sorry, baby. I have an important meeting today it has been scheduled six months in advance. I can't miss this." He kissed her hair.

She spun around slowly, her eyes trying to open as she looked up at him. "Meeting?"

"Yeah. Mr. Richardson. Do you remember? You scheduled it."

"The acquisition?" She was fully awake now that she remembered the very difficult appointment she set half a year ago. "Has it been that long already?"

"Mm. Thanks for setting this up."

"I guess I can't convince you to stay today then…"

"You have me any other day. Just not today. I'll make it up to you. I'll see you after dinner?" A smile painted his face as he swept her hair away from her face. When she nodded, he rained kisses all over her face and neck before he got up and left her bedroom. 

"Wait—" she called but he was already gone. She wondered where he was going given that he hasn't washed up and changed yet. She guessed he had a mobile closet somewhere. With so many surprises he has, she probably wouldn't even be surprised if he lived in the same building. The thought made her laugh. 'Why would he be staying here? Damien doesn't like huge houses.'

Her train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She answered the call as soon as she saw that it was her grandfather. Grandpa Theo asked if she was going to work today so they could meet. She had to show up for work today as she already missed a lot in her first week. Not exactly the kind of impression she wanted to leave on the executives. Deciding to leave for work, she washed up and got ready.

…

Young Corporation

But when she started working with him, as much as she could, she adjusted his schedule in a way that he wouldn't end up overworking himself. Being his secretary taught her a lot of things. Although she was still learning the ropes about her department, she could say that the workload was manageable. 

But if someone would ask her if this was what she really wanted to do—she would have a different answer compared to what she wanted back when she was still a child.

She was once an innocent child who saw her parents as her role models. But all of that disappeared after that tragic night. Then she came to face the darkness when she was in Shadow. And everything she learned and knew in the organization, she could no longer undo. 

There was just so much evil in the world that she didn't think sitting in an office would keep her sane especially knowing that out there, there were people like Parker. People who were serving the country, people whom the citizens look up to, and people whom they think were good were actually criminals. People just like her—at least, what she was before. An assassin who was following orders from the likes of Parker.

No matter how much she disliked it, she already knew about its existence. So running their family business—Young Corporation—suddenly became the least of her priorities.

The day darkened so fast even when it was still twenty minutes to six. The sky growled and the rain poured once again just like before. Katherine was inside her office when her grandfather called her to come up to his office when she was done with work.

After a long day of reading a bunch of documents and familiarizing the work process in their department, she was spent. She hadn't heard from Damien since the morning. His last text message was still sitting in her inbox since that morning after he left.

[Baby Bear: I have a feeling it might rain today. If you're heading out, bring an umbrella. I'll make it up to you, I promise. Think about me from time to time even when you're busy.]

Katherine forgot to reply to him and when she remembered, she was afraid she would disturb his meeting so she decided to wait until he contacts her again.

She cursed herself for not listening to Damien. It really was raining… but she didn't bring any umbrella.

When she arrived at her grandfather's office on the top floor, she found him watching a variety show on TV. He was laughing and stomping his feet in amusement, making his laughter so contagious that Katherine started smiling as soon as she saw him.

"Oh, good you're here! I found something for you while I was in the study last night. I thought you might want to see it." Grandfather Theo got up and retrieved something from his desk.

"What is it?" Katherine walked up to him, curious as to what he was going to give her.

"I don't know if you remember this, Pumpkin… But when you were younger, we used to record videos with your mom and dad. These are very old but I had Frank check it for me last night and it still works." He handed her an old video camera—the one that uses tapes to record.

Her heart sunk upon seeing the very familiar-looking object. She hesitated but eventually received the camera and held it like it was a treasure. "Grandpa…"

A faint smile formed on Grandfather Theo's face and he ushered her to sit on the sofa. "I don't know how to put that thing on TV. Frank's not here at the moment but he made sure that thing has a battery, so if you can figure it out, you should try to see what's in it."

With slightly trembling hands, she stared at the video camera. She was half excited and partly nervous as to what she would see because she was sure that whatever was in there, would break her that night. "I… I…"

"I watched some parts of it and it was on your eighth birthday. It's a pretty good clip. You looked really happy."

"Grandpa… I'm not sure if I want to see this…"

"Sure you do," he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "It's been so many years. I'm sure your mom and dad want you to."

Katherine hesitantly turned on the device and it came to life. A small screen lit up, showing faces that she hadn't seen in a while. And with a shaky finger, she played the video.

Only a second had passed and a tear already rolled out of her eye.