PAMPERED

317 Very bored

Penny and Hugo lingered in Atlas’s office for another hour before bidding their eldest brother farewell. Atlas still had a lot of work and a meeting to attend. N

In the parking lot where Hugo and Penny had met earlier, the two of them walked side by side. “Headed home now?” Hugo asked as he walked her to her car.

“Mhm. I think so. I don’t have any work today, I finished everything yesterday.”

“No wonder you were so tired.”

They stopped when they reached her car, with Hugo watching as she opened the driver’s side door. Instead of getting in, Penny rested her palm on the door and looked back at him. “What about you, Second Brother?” she asked out of genuine curiosity. “Are you headed home now?”

without

Among the Bennet siblings, Hugo was the most free–spirited, any work obligations. After all, the man was on vacation leave, so he had plenty of idle time.

“I’m meeting some old friends, Hugo said, leaning his arm on the door. “Want to come? I’m helping with the bachelor party preparations. It’s the least I could do. They’d love you to be there!”

“Hmm. Maybe next time.” Penny smiled. “I’ll probably just go home for now and rest.”

“Okay.” He nodded and stepped back, still holding the door as she got in. Before closing it, he bent over slightly. “Penny, take care, okay?”

“Yes. Second Brother.” Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

“If you change your mind, give me a call. I’ll pick you up.”

“Mhm.” She smiled and nodded, watching as her brother carefully closed the door for her. After buckling her seatbelt, she glanced at the windshield, only to see Hugo approaching the car parked across from hers.

“I’m glad he’s been meeting his friends a lot,” she mumbled. “Second Brother is always the nicest. Although… I wonder what kind of help he’s even giving for a bachelor party. It’s not like he’s ever had one or been to one.”

Shaking her head, Penny dismissed the thought as she started the car engine. Hugo beamed at her, signaling for her to go first. Without further ado, Penny drove out of the parking spot, with Hugo following behind.

The two of them went their separate ways after leaving the underground parking lot, with Penny heading home and Hugo taking the opposite road.

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317 Vir

317 Very bored

Penny drove quietly back home – no music, no calls, no work, no worries, no problems. Her fear this year, which she had tried to avoid at all costs, had been resolved more easily than she expected. Now, her mind was at peace, and she could probably get some real rest.

Deep down, however, Penny didn’t feel like resting. She had slept well last night.

“I’m… bored,” she whispered, tapping her finger on the steering wheel while casually driving on the highway. “Very bored.”

She pressed her lips into a thin line. A part of her wanted to do something else, or maybe she was so bored that she couldn’t shake a certain matter from her mind.

A matter that had been bothering her since early this morning.

[Miss Penelope, you didn’t see that coming, did you? That’s what will happen to Dean Pierson if [Miss Penelope, you didn’t see that coming, did yo he ever crosses the line.]

[It is not I who is walking on eggshells.]

[I hope outsmarting you once will add some credibility to the name Zoren Pierson.]

Suddenly, everything Zoren had said last night echoed in her head. Penny pressed her lips into a thin line, reminded of how his dark eyes had squinted slightly as he chuckled in a low tone. Though his voice carried softness, it also carried a weight that one couldn’t help but feel and

carry.

“I did underestimate him because he’s been sick all his life, she whispered. “I even pitied him – 1 pitied him for his family, his health, and I felt sorry that he has to camp there every Thursday”

But the more Penny thought about it and the events of last night, the more she realized something.

Penny, and perhaps everyone else who knew Zoren Pierson, often saw him as nothing more than his illness. Even Benjamin seemed to see Zoren only through the lens of his illness and the schemes surrounding him.

“But Dean,” she whispered and hummed. “He never said anything about his uncle that would paint him as pitiful. If anything, he was wary of him.”

Initially, Penny wondered why until that night when Dean appeared at Chunchun’s birthday party. Even though Dean was now under Penny’s suspicion, she also knew he was genuine when he warned her about his uncle.

“Renren said, “My illness is something I cannot hide,” she whispered again. “Does that mean that while everyone else saw his illness as a weakness and a disadvantage, he saw it as an

advantage?

Once again, she pressed her lips into a thin line, her mind stuck on the memory of last night. It baffled her. She didn’t know what she actually felt whenever she looked at the bigger picture. Did she pity him? Was the brief heart race from shock? Was the brief attraction worth dwelling

on?

It had been a while since Penny didn’t have an answer or a solution for something.

317 Very bord

realized that keeping everyone at arm’s length was actually pushing them away, albeit slowly. At the

Same time, if not for Grace, Penny would have known what to do with Renren and the tiny – baby allen emotion

in her heart.

After all, she was ready to deal with the strange feelings and kill them before they could even grow. But now, she was curious if they would die if she ignored it or simply spread its roots deeper.

Just as Penny’s mind was drifting while the other half of her focused on the road, she suddenly pulled over to the side. Blinking back to reality, she slowly shifted her eyes to the establishment on her right.

Mama.

The corners of her lips curled up as a shallow breath slipped past her nostrils. “I guess when I don’t know what to do, my body somehow knows where to go.