Monts ago, when the ga finally ended with both teams displaying sportsmanship by shaking hands, everyone returned to their previous spots. Others, anwhile, changed seats and joined different groups.
As for the De Luca family, along with Julius and his son, they stayed together to snack and hydrate.
"I guess he’s not that irritating," Ashley humd as she glanced toward Raka’s new spot with his team before turning to Julius beside her.
Primo and Elliot sat a few seats away while a small group from the Pink Team distracted Primo. They were distracting him so they could get small pieces of his snacks.
Lucian sat quietly on Ashley’s other side, watching Primo subtly hide his reluctance to socialize.
"Haha!" Julius laughed, catching Lucian’s attention. Lucian glanced toward his wife, then at the empty seat between her and Julius, before finally looking at the man himself.
"He is annoying," Julius admitted with a nod. "But he’s not that bad. He just got mixed up with the wrong people, so he turned out like that."
Curiosity flickered in Ashley’s eyes. "Do you know him?"
"I’ve known him since college, though we were in different departnts. He was in the dical departnt, while I was sowhere else."
Ashley’s lips parted slightly before she nodded. "So you really did know him. Wow... he went to d school?"
"It doesn’t look like it, but he’s actually a doctor," Julius remarked. "His family used to sit on the board of one of the country’s hospital chains."
Hearing that genuinely surprised Ashley. Raka didn’t seem like the type at all. If anything, she only knew him as petty, annoying, and a complete waste of oxygen.
"He’s that rich, but he still made a big deal out of a car dent he caused himself," she muttered, earning another chuckle from Julius.
"It’s not like that," Julius replied, shifting his gaze toward Raka. "He wasn’t like this back then. I don’t know the full story, but... I do know a lot of things happened to him that contributed to how he treats other people now."
He shrugged. "He was already annoying before, but now he’s just more insufferable. Even so, I don’t think he’s a bad person per se."
Ashley blinked, quietly studying Julius’ reaction. At first, she hadn’t thought much about him at all. She appreciated him for helping earlier before she could rip Raka’s tongue out herself, but the man had practically sewn it shut for her. Aside from occasional small talk, they hadn’t interacted much until today’s ga.
"Maybe. Maybe not," she muttered. "I don’t really care about the guy, but what I do know is that you seem like a good person."
Julius chuckled softly. "Not really. But you guys seem like very nice people."
Ashley smiled before replying with the sa honesty.
"Not really."
As Ashley continued chatting with Julius, Lucian leaned back in his seat.
Earlier, before the final ga, he had sohow forced himself to keep going. But now that they were resting, the tightness in his chest slowly returned.
His vision blurred while staring at Primo, and he suddenly felt as though he might pass out at any second. The top of his head felt cold, along with the tips of his fingers and toes.
Cold... yet drenched in sweat.
When he turned toward Ashley, his vision tilted violently, nearly making him collapse had he not already been seated.
"I..." he exhaled softly.
Ashley imdiately turned toward him.
Lucian forced a small smile. "I’ll go to the restroom."
Ashley studied him briefly before humming. "Sure."
Lucian gripped the side of his seat and pushed himself up, straightening his posture.
Even though his vision spun hard enough to make him nauseous, even though he felt like throwing up, he still forced himself to walk as naturally as possible.
Go, he told himself.
Go... away.
Lucian widened his eyes slightly as he continued forward with practiced ease. He kept repeating to himself that if he were going to collapse, it had to happen sowhere else.
He had already pushed himself just to finish the ga.
So he could probably push himself all the way to the parking lot and ask soone to take him to Doctor Wesley.
Just not here.
Ashley already felt guilty enough for "ruining" their first family date before. That was why she had worked so hard to make today special for Primo.
Lucian didn’t want to ruin that.
"Just... wait," he whispered after accidentally bumping into a few students near the exit. "Till... I leave."
The students frowned briefly at him but didn’t dwell on it. Others naturally stepped aside to avoid colliding with him again.
But Lucian could barely see anymore.
It wasn’t rely blurry now... until his vision had gone completely black.
Even so, he kept moving, relying entirely on his mory of the school’s layout to figure out where he needed to go.
His chest tightened painfully while his heart pounded wildly in panic the mont his sight disappeared.
*****
anwhile, Ashley watched Lucian walk away.
"Hey," Julius called, making her glance back at him. "Is your husband okay?"
Ashley didn’t answer imdiately as she looked in the direction Lucian had gone.
A part of her already felt that sothing was wrong, even though there wasn’t anything particularly obvious. Even after Lucian reassured her, sothing at the back of her mind kept screaming at her.
Still, she didn’t want to entertain the feeling.
Why?
Because she feared it was simply her anxiety speaking again.
After all, she wanted to stop believing that whenever she beca too happy, sothing bad would inevitably happen afterward.
She didn’t want that mindset ruining the mont.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy any of this with Primo and Lucian. And she was certain Lucian would only bla himself for it.
Ashley smiled faintly at Julius. "I don’t know."
"I see."
"Why?" she asked. "Do you think sothing’s wrong with him?"
"Not really," Julius shrugged. "But Raka asking that question earlier made wonder."
"Huh?"
"Raka’s a doctor," Julius explained. "And he’s also an incredibly good diagnostician. If he asked that question, then it ans he noticed sothing."
He paused briefly before adding,
"Though he could also be wrong. I heard he switched specialties and has been losing his mind lately over so crazy research."
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