Chapter 180 - A Lovely Storm

With the help of everyone, Scarlet's assignment was a breeze. Within the four hours that they spent in the library, Scarlet was able to complete it in three. Alicia had to leave early because she had a party to attend and Mandy excused herself just as Scarlet finalised her report content. The writer didn't want to hold anyone back from what they had to do and appreciated how they took time out of their schedule to help her.

"Thank you, Mandy. I learnt a lot today," Scarlet smiled.

The bespectacled beauty grinned and patted Scarlet on the head. "It's no problem."

She packed and checked her phone for a bit then cussed. "Ah shucks! It's raining now... guess I'll be stuck here until it stops unless someone has a spare umbrella."

Edward who was looking forward to spending more alone time with Scarlet sighed. He threw his umbrella to Mandy who grinned.

"Return it to me tomorrow and go home now," he grumbled. Mandy only stuck her tongue out at him and waved goodbye to Scarlet.

When it was just the two of them again, Scarlet glanced over to Edward worriedly. "Is it ok to give her the umbrella? You don't happen to carry spares, right?"

The spy leaned on the table with his elbow and rested his chin in his palm. Scarlet thought that he looked oddly playful. "No, I don't."

Hearing that, the writer couldn't help but wonder why he would do such a thing. "How are you going to get home then? I don't think the storm is stopping anytime soon..."

Edward laughed. "Is it such a bad thing being stuck in school? I spend most of my time here or at a cafe anyway. Going back is a pain. Maybe it would be different if there was something to look forward to going home, like a cat. Sadly the apartment doesn't allow animals so it doesn't really matter how late I get back."

"Do you live alone?" Scarlet couldn't help but be curious. She knew that some students were living on their own because they travelled from far. Was Edward also one of those independent university students? He looked like someone who would take a part-time job to pay his rent and struggle a little with school fees with those dark eye circles.

Edward nodded. "My father travels often for work and my mother is in a different state. Thankfully, everything is paid for by my father so I don't need to work. I just don't like to go back to the apartment because it's empty and always quiet."

For some reason, he didn't understand why he was telling Scarlet all these. Things that were usually boring and insignificant were suddenly important enough that he wanted her to know. Edward was a private person. Even Alicia who was deemed his closest pal in the university wasn't about to weasel anything much out of him.

Feeling slightly sympathetic for the boy, Scarlet texted Claire that she would be back later than usual. Since they still had about an hour left before the library closed, Scarlet decided to create an excuse so that she could stay behind to accompany Edward for a little longer. "I guess I'll just wait for the storm to pass. How about some games or movies to pass the time? We have about another hour before the library closes."

Edward took Scarlet up on her suggestion and the girl grinned. After successfully having Edward open up more to her, she found out that the quiet boy had a lot of similarities with her. He shared the same love for mystery movies and had a tad dark humour sense with a lot of dry puns that were more intellectually engaging than entertaining. They theorised over the murderer's motives even before the movie started and spent half the time skipping through boring parts.

"I don't think there would be anyone else who would watch movies the same way I do," Scarlet admitted. "My sister often screams at me when I fast forward all the boring parts that are predictable."

The spy laughed. "I can understand that. I'd rather skip them to get to the interesting part to confirm my theory instead and then move on to the next movie or get back to homework or something. There's no joy in it for me to watch the actors do things that aren't important. Seeing them go through emotional distress and arguing is just a waste of time for me. I only watch what I need to know when they're finding clues and not observe how they form their conjecture amidst all the drama."

Elated that she finally found someone who could agree with her way of thinking, Scarlet beamed and Edward wasn't ready for the blinding smile. He knew that Scarlet had always been pretty even with her tacky thick-framed glasses and shabby sense of fashion. The nerdy look did look cute on the girl but she looked several hundred times cuter when she was all happy and bubbly. This child-like side of Scarlet was completely new to Edwar and he had never heard Elfie mention it. According to his hacker friend, Scarlet was always a very emotionally closed off individual who acts very cautiously with everyone.

The unguarded version of Scarlet before him was something Edward didn't want to share with anyone. He liked it when she was expressive without restraint even though Scarlet could be awkward about how to express it herself with words. He observed her in more detail as he listened to her babble about not liking how actors weren't able to fully portray the conflict of a character during a scene because the scriptwriter didn't give them the entire script to study it before the filming began.

The more Scarlet spoke, the more she forgot that she was a student in university as she went into details about some of the things she hated that went on behind the screen.

"And the one time that I requested for a completed draft of the script, they changed the shooting scenes without informing any of the stage actors. How unfair is it?"

Edward smiled. "You're very enthusiastic about the filming behind the scenes, huh? Never thought you'd be so knowledgeable about it. If I didn't know better I would have thought you were an actress instead of a stagehand."

Scarlet froze and laughed nervously. She felt a little too comfortable around the quiet boy that she forgot who she was pretending to be for a moment. She wasn't Liu Xiu Wen now, she was just an ordinary student called Scarlet. Why was she talking about her work frustrations when she was supposed to be enjoying her school life?

"Don't worry," Edward smiled. "I won't tell anyone about your part-time job. However, you might want to keep this secret to yourself and not tell anyone else, especially Alicia. That girl would demand to have you arrange a position for her so that she could meet famous celebrities too."

How Edward came to conclude that Scarlet was harbouring a secret part-time job as a stagehand through that conversation made the actress on hiatus puzzled but she wasn't going to complain. Anything was better than having the silent guy find out about her other identities. It would be bad if Edward came to know that she hailed from a rich family and was actually a famous celebrity in the East. It would be worse if Edward didn't want to associate with her after finding out. She liked the current friendship they had now, it was a very comfortable companionship.

Relieved that Edward wasn't going to go around telling everyone her secrets, Scarlet smiled. Not only did they have the same taste in movies, but they were also rather similar people. Scarlet and Edward both stood on the same side as justice even though they might differ in methods.

"The storm has mostly lightened," Edward said to shift the attention elsewhere and checked the time. 

"The library is about to close as well..." Scarlet said. "My big sister will drive to fetch me. Do you want a lift?"

Edward thought about it. Big sister? Didn't Scarlet only have a younger sister by the name of Alexandra?"

"You have a big sister?"

Scarlet nodded. Claire could be considered a big sister. Their ages weren't that far apart when compared to Jenna and Tina. The head maid was only ten years older than them.

"She's part of the family even though we're not related by blood. Claire takes care of me and my other sister really well when we're away from our parents. We go back every weekend to see mom but we haven't seen dad in years... I don't know how he is doing but we miss him a lot."

Hearing Scarlet's feelings about Wilmer's long absence, the spy felt bad for procrastinating on finding more clues in the lead that Scarlet got for Elife and him. He made a solemn vow to finish finalising the list for Elfie by the end of the week.

"It's alright. I'm sure your father has his reasons for not coming home in years. He must be doing something very important at the moment. Let's go before they chase us out of the library and let me know if you still need any other help when you get back. Also, I will be more than happy if we can talk about movies again since you're the expert."

Scarlet blushed at the reminder of her slip up and quickly packed before walking to the foyer to wait for Claire.

The head maid arrived with impeccable timing and silently chuckled when she caught sight of the boy beside Scarlet. This was definitely Scarlet's secret crush. There would only be good news and new gossip to talk about when they reached back. Alex would not let her sister go to bed without spilling details about her secret date today when Claire unleashed the bomb over dinner. The head maid waited for Scarlet to bid Edward goodbye before climbing into the car. Claire drove off quickly, he couldn't wait to hear the progress of Scarlet's love life.