If it were Hayes Hughes she was going to see, then without a doubt, Mia Grant would have run all the way there!
The vice principal hadn’t expected her mood to change so quickly. At first, she had been so resistant, but the mont the elevator doors opened, she shot out.
At the door to the principal’s office.
Mia Grant stood before the door, hesitating. ’Why do I suddenly feel the kind of anxiety you get when you’re about to go ho after being away for a long ti...’
’I’ll go in, we’ll see each other, and then what?’
’What would I even say?’
’Hayes Hughes will definitely be surprised, won’t he? Does he still not know I’m alive?’
As she cald down, Mia Grant even started to wonder, ’Why is he the one who ca today?’
’When did he get back from abroad?’
’I hadn’t heard anything about him being back before this.’
’Was it today?’
’Did he rush over to back up Serena Grant the mont he returned?’
’Right, she’s his cousin, after all.’
’It makes perfect sense.’
But thinking about it, she suddenly felt that seeing him again wasn’t such a happy prospect anymore.
In the span of just six or seven minutes, Mia Grant’s anticipation had turned to numbness, and now she didn’t even want to face him.
Besides, Hayes Hughes was one of the male leads with the potential to turn villainous. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary, she felt it was best not to et him at all.
The vice principal had already raised his hand.
With a swift movent, Mia Grant grabbed his arm to stop him. "Sir!"
"What is it, Grant?"
"I... I suddenly don’t feel so well..." Mia Grant clutched her stomach and bent over in pain.
The vice principal let out an "Ah," and this ti, he didn’t bother knocking. He pushed the door straight open. "Well, that’s perfect! Isn’t her brother a doctor? We can solve this right here. Quick, have him take a look at you!"
"..." ’Smart as she was, it was rare to et such an evenly matched opponent.’
Her mouth twitched. She straightened up and practically spat the words through gritted teeth, "With your ability to improvise, it’s a real sha you’re just a vice principal."
The vice principal chuckled and adjusted his glasses, then turned and called into the room, "Dr. Hughes, is it? Co quickly! This student isn’t feeling well. Seems like a stomachache."
"..." Mia Grant silently placed her hand back on her stomach.
Inside the office, a man was sitting on one side of the sofa with his back to the door, speaking in a gentle voice with the principal opposite him.
The man froze for a mont when the door was thrown open. Hearing the call for help from behind, his professional instincts took over. He was on his feet in an instant, rolling up the sleeves of his trench coat as he quickly walked out.
He was a cardiac surgeon. While a stomachache wasn’t his specialty, he had rotated through most departnts during his residency, so handling a minor ailnt was no problem.
"Miss, are you..."
Hayes Hughes looked up, his gaze falling on the silent "little quail" hiding behind the vice principal with her head down.
She was hunched over, so he couldn’t see her face clearly, only that she was a girl.
And yet...
’Sothing about her seems familiar.’
His eyes wandered over her, eventually landing on her feet, as if searching for sothing.
As a doctor, he was intimately familiar with human anatomy, and he clearly rembered the structure of the bones he had touched.
In his mory, the girl had been forced by her family to study ballet for several years as a child. Due to the long-term confinent of ballet shoes, the shape of her feet was slightly different from a normal person’s.
By the bedside, he knelt on the floor, helped the girl take off her shoes, and rested her foot on his lap.
"Don’t... my feet are so ugly."
"How could they be? Every part of you is beautiful, Mia."
"Really?"
"Yes. Compared to other dancers, the shape of your feet is already quite beautiful."
"Hmm, maybe because I only studied for three or four years? I don’t rember exactly, but it wasn’t for a super long ti anyway."
"You don’t like dancing?"
"It’s okay, I guess."
"So you don’t like it. Why didn’t you refuse when you were little?"
"Because Mom and Dad liked it."
"..."
"Do your bones ache?"
"Is this pressure okay?"
He changed the subject, rubbing his palms together to warm them before gently massaging her foot.
"It would’ve been great if you could have massaged them for back then, Hayes. It doesn’t hurt as much now, but I was super ticklish when I was little, hahaha."
His movents paused, a pang of sorrow striking his heart. "When you were a child... you went through a lot, didn’t you?"
"It was okay. I only got hit because I wasn’t serious about my dance practice. It wasn’t Mom’s fault."
"If you don’t like dancing, then what do you like, Mia?"
"?" The girl looked out the window, not answering for a long ti.
It seed to be a very difficult question for her to answer.
"Piano?" he prodded gently.
The girl shook her head, then nodded.
"Painting?"
"That’s okay too, I guess."
He listed many things, but she seed to have no opinion of her own, saying everything was "okay" or "fine."
All these years, she had never been doing things she actually liked.
She was like an exquisite doll in a display case, to be positioned by others, with no independent will or thoughts of her own.
"Well, is there anything you want to do now?"
"Now?" The girl fell into deep thought.
"Mia, you don’t have to weigh your words or wrack your brain for a perfect answer. Any answer is fine, whatever it is. There’s no one else here."
"Aren’t you ’soone,’ Hayes?" she teased, laughing. It also felt like she was trying to change the subject.
"I’m not ’soone else.’ I won’t hurt you."
"Never ever?"
"Yes. Forever."
"Mmm... okay then! I want to go sailing! I want to be one of the Pirates of the Caribbean!"
Little girls always have such wild imaginations. It was truly a baffling idea.
But he still nodded in approval and chuckled along. "Sailing is fine. I’ll take you after you finish your college entrance exams. But being a pirate... that seems a bit dangerous."
The girl threw her arms wide and declared, "It’s fine! As a pirate, even if I die, I’ll have my ashes scattered at sea!"
—
The girl in front of him was wearing a pair of black tights; to the naked eye, it was impossible to see the traces he was looking for.
Hayes Hughes took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions.
As a cardiac surgeon, he knew all too well how abnormally his heart was beating right now.
It was a classic case of tachycardia brought on by emotional agitation.
When he spoke again, he struggled to keep his voice steady. "Miss, could you please co over here?"
"Mm..." Mia Grant was still focused on figuring out how to get out of this situation when a pair of leather shoes suddenly appeared in front of her.
Seeing that she wasn’t moving, the figure opposite her couldn’t wait any longer and approached her.
’Yikes.’ Mia Grant was still bent over, and the position was incredibly awkward.
As he got closer, Hayes Hughes could see the nape of her neck, exposed as she bent over. Her long hair cascaded down the side of her neck, and a few strands were tangled in her necklace, a ssy web just like the tangled, unsolvable thoughts in his mind right now.
He instinctively reached out, wanting to help her untangle them. His hand lifted but then froze, suspended stiffly in mid-air.
It was for no other reason than the girl had lifted her head. Those familiar eyes blinked, and she uttered a na that was, to him, both familiar and strange: "Dr. Hughes."
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