NEW LIFE : A SECOND CHANCE

The rest of the Elite Five were busy with their own work as well.

? Xing Han ?

Xing Han was actually the only one among them that had the least amount of work. He stared at everyone in the class and sighed. All the other Elite Five were hunched over their respective desks, either reading files or clicking away on the keyboards while staring at the computer.

Xing Han felt like the school holidays is going to be a huge chore. He had already been separated from Kyle for almost the entire year and now, he's going to be separated again? Life wasn't fair.

Then his eyes lit up as an idea formed in his head.

The last time his father had been extremely happy when he followed Kyle along during the Purge exercise. Maybe ... just maybe ... if he gave the same excuse this year, his father would be more than happy to let him spend the holidays with Kyle?

No, not Kyle. The Smiths.

Xing Han grinned.

Now he had work to do. He had to come up with a foolproof plan and write up a report on why spending the next two months with Kyle would be beneficial to the Tan Family. He was practically jumping for joy now as he began imagining all sorts of things he could do with Kyle later on.

? Sam ?

Sam was looking at the schedule and appointment book in his hands. He was responsible to ensure that Kyle's timetable did not clash and he had to balance between Kyle's school, movie appearances, and the Smith Industries.

Even though Kyle was good in keeping track, it was Sam's duty to actually take that load off Kyle's shoulders. Kyle should focus on the work itself rather than figuring out what he had to do and had yet to do. At the moment, Kyle still did most of it himself but he was slowly letting the control go to Sam.

It was Kyle's soft way of letting Sam get into his duties.

At the moment, Sam was wondering how Kyle had done it all before he came along. He had a phone that could hold two sim cards: one for work and one personal use. If people knew the sort of contact he had in the 'work sim card', the phone would most likely be stolen.

He had all the personal numbers of high powered CEOs of the Smith Industries (and their assistants). The former was needed as Kyle would sometimes be required to attend functions and the latter to liase with the assistants to make it happen.

Luckily, Kyle didn't need to attent much at the moment but Kyle had warned him that it would increase once he reached 16 - and if he didn't have a girlfriend by then.

Sam understood then that all the dinner meetings were actually match-making sessions.

He also had the numbers of the John Wick production crew, from Chad, the director to the marketing agents. Sam had to be updated constantly on the promotional touring dates and when the trailers would be released.

There were also interviews planned and the schedules were arranged as according to when Keanu was free. Kyle, being a student - and one who didn't need his parents permission anymore - had much more flexibility.

Luckily Sam's parents had essentially entrusted him to Kyle, so he didn't need to worry about finding permission to tag along with Kyle.

Sam remembered thinking that when his parents had done so, he felt like they were giving him away as a bride to Kyle. He shook his head at that memory and got back to work.

? Kay ?

Kay's fingers flew across the keyboard while her eyes were stuck on the computer screen. Her eyes darted left and right as she focused on the littlest detail as much as she could.

Right now, she was busy observing the Cyber War Room. The screen was split in three. The main screen showed the background of the room itself while the smaller screens on the upper left and right showed the contents of two main computers in the said room.

She had to do this quickly before anyone in there found out she was there.

With one final tap of the key, she leaned back in satisfaction and quickly disconnected from the site.

[Ready for some intel?] Kay sent out to her brother.

[Shoot] Kyle replied, chewing on some chocolate nuts.

[Turns out when we shut down Richard's little kid factory, we made a huge dent in supplies]

[Great] Kyle replied with satisfaction.

[What's not great is that they are trying to fill in that gap with another of their suppliers]

[That's to be expected] Kyle replied [There's no way that we can get rid of it completely unless we pull it out from its roots.]

[Yes, and we don't even know who the Big Fish is] Kay said in frustration [They really are deep in the ocean for no one seems to be able to identify them. Not us, not the authorities.]

Kyle was equally frustrated with this but there wasn't anything he could do. Cut off one head, another grew up in its place. Like a Hydra though a Hydra would grow two in its place. So Kyle figured this was better.

Despite the fact that it felt like they were doing useless work, Kyle knew that when he shut down Richard's operations, he had saved all those kids that were already in his clutches. To those kids, it wasn't useless work.

[But why do I get the feeling that's not really the bad news you were referring to?] Kyle asked.

[It's not. The really bad news is that the supplier replacing Richard ... is Rex Industries]

Kyle grabbed a pencil and started breaking it into little pieces to release his anger.

? Ali ?

On his table, were pictures of ten girls, all arranged alphabetically according to their names - which were also pasted on the pictures.

Ali was in a dilemma.

His parents told him to either choose one girl, or shorten the list. The girls couldn't keep on waiting for him to make up his mind for they would need to find other husband candidates.

So here he was, doing what he should have done a long time ago. Really decide. He looked at each and every one of them seriously, bearing in mind what he had learned about them and how he felt about them.

The first: Aisha whose name means 'having a favourable outcome. A petite girl, with dark hair that fell just above her shoulders. She just reached up to his shoulders and he felt that he could break her in two if he just hugged her.

She was a nice girl. Nothing fancy. Nothing fake. Always accommodating. Always listening to him. Always agreeing with him. Urgh. Like, really?

He wasn't a masochist to want a woman who would fight with him but at least be one that had a mind of her own. Everytime he talked to her, he felt like he was going to war. Trying to pull out information from her about her, was like trying to get blood from a stone. It wasn't that she was stupid but she just wouldn't contribute to the discussion at all.

If he asked her what she wanted to eat, she'd answer whatever he'd like. If he asked her what she liked to read, she said anything was fine. If he asked her what sort of things she liked to do in her spare time, she'd answer it wasn't anything in particular so long as it was spent with him.

Drove him insane, it did.

If it was Sophia, she would not hesitate to say what she wanted to eat that day. The sort of books she read that they would then discuss - or he'd diss her choice and she'd argue with him. She told him of her dreams and what she liked to do in her spare time.

Was that so hard to do?

Ali flipped the picture to face down, effectively eliminating one from his choices.

Second girl: Aliyah which meant the 'exalted one'.

Ali laughed at that. She really did live up to her name. Haughty, arrogant and expecting people to serve her. Granted, she did have the looks and abilities to back it up but he found such behaviour off-putting.

One should be more humble, even if one did have the skills. To keep pushing it to your face was rather ill-bred, really. He couldn't help but think of Sophia who was soft spoken and didn't really showcase herself.

Sophia may not be a 'genius' like him or 'skilled' like Aliyah but she had her own charm. She was kind and loving, always helping out people without even asking for anything in return. She didn't make it seem like it was their honour to have her help them but that it was her happiness at being able to help.

Now, that was something. Ali flipped the picture to face down as well.

Third girl. Aminah, meaning trustworthy. An average girl with average looks, who was almost the same height as him. Again, another nice girl. There was nothing really that he could say was negative about her. Yet, nothing really interesting either.

To say that she was boring wasn't really true but they didn't have much in common. The only thing they could talk about was business. Both were learning, and if she was his chosen one, she would need to know the things he would be involved in as well.

But there was just something lacking ... maybe it all started when she had come across him with the Elite Five at the mamak store a year ago. She hadn't even been interested in knowing his friends (even though he didn't really offer) and just focused on him. She didn't even look like the type who would sit in such a place and try the food.

If she couldn't be bothered with his life, would she really be suited for him? Sophia hardly hung out with him and the Elite Five but she knew all about them. Okay, maybe that wasn't fair since they were all in the same school but it couldn't be denied that Sophia wasn't really part of the 'gang' yet she wasn't an outsider either.

She would fit in quite well with the people he mixed with and what he liked to do. Unlike Aminah. Ali flipped the picture to face down as well

As Ali kept flipping the pictures, he never quite realised that he was comparing each, and every one of those girls, with a certain someone.