It'll Come Naturally

"Stop acting like you don't care, dude. You wouldn't have asked us out if you didn't feel upset about all this," Duke said, rolling his eyes at Rain. He had seen right through this friend, and he didn't think that he could maintain the pretence for long. 'Let's see you keep at it,' he thought.

"Why are you all ganging up on me? This isn't the first time we come out here for a drink. I don't need an excuse to get drunk. I'll drink whenever I want!" Rain refuted. What he was doing was what people called "to be more nice than wise". The throbbing pain in his chest wouldn't go away. Rain grunted, tightly gripping his glass. There was no chance that he would admit how he felt about Fred... how he felt about Annie. It would just hurt him even more.

"You are really something, eh? If you never planned on telling us anything, you shouldn't have dragged us out here to watch you sulk," Duke snapped at him. In truth, although Duke was getting angry at Rain, he was deeply concerned for his friend. 'Come on, Rain, 'he had wanted to say. 'Annie's just a girl for crying out loud!'

"Calm down, Duke. Stop putting him down. Let's just drink the night away," Edward interrupted. He had no idea what had happened between him and Annie. But right now, the best thing to do was to give him the company he needed.

"At least Edward gets me. Cheers to that!" Rain grinned. It was dim in the bar -- nobody had noticed that tears were already welling up in his eyes.

Edward clinked his cup to Rain's. He wondered what was going on in Annie's mind. He knew for a fact that Annie was hopelessly in love with Rain at first. What else did she want now that she finally won his heart and had his children? What was behind all her hesitation? They no longer touched on that topic for the rest of the night. The drinks seemed to flow endlessly, one bottle after another. It was no surprise that they all ended up extremely drunk. With a sigh, Luke called out the other bodyguards to help escort them back home. The next day, Annie showed up in the CEO's office of FX International Group. It was Edward who asked Anna to invite her there.

When she entered, she saw Edward gazing out the window. He looked up upon her arrival, and gave her a friendly smile. "Hey, Edward. What do you need?" Annie greeted him with a smile of her own. She walked across the room, and sat down on the chair in front of Edward's desk. She bit her lower lip nervously. She had no idea yet what Edward wanted from her.

"I heard that you are the designer of Doyce Jewelry? I was wondering if you would do something for me," Edward said slowly, pouting his lips at her with great interest. He leaned his shoulder on the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You want me to work for FX International Group? But why?" Annie asked in a surprised tone. She was very confused at Edward's request. After all, she was now working with YS Group. Was Edward trying to poach her from her current company?

"No, no. Don't worry. It's for non-commercial purposes. I was wondering if you could design a collection of accessories for my wife? The designs are completely up to you. My only request is that they're all one of a kind," Edward explained. In truth, he was trying to set Annie up with Rain. Edward just had to carefully bait her into the conversation. He waited for his opportunity to open up the topic. After all, he thought that he had to do something about it, for Rain's sake.

"Wow! Daisy is so lucky to have such a thoughtful and loving husband like you."

'Bingo, 'Edward thought to himself. Annie thought it over; she had a very busy schedule ahead of her, but wanted to make time for Edward's request. Not because Edward had asked her, but because she wanted to repay Daisy somehow for saving her life. "Well, you know you shouldn't be so jealous of Daisy. You could have had a loving husband as well. The only problem is, you don't seem to be that interested... unless, of course, you've already found your happiness in life," Edward chose his words carefully. He wanted to help rekindle Rain and Annie's relationship. As he saw it, there was no one else more suitable for those two than each other. And there was no one in the world that could truly make her happy, except Rain.

"I-I'm sorry, Edward, but I have no idea what you're implying," Annie stuttered, her eyes averting his gaze. She knew without a doubt that he was talking about Rain.

"Oh, but I believe you do. What you don't know is that Rain got very drunk last night because of you. He and I have been friends for a long time -- and I can say with confidence that I've never seen him that drunk. And it's all because of you. He's still in bed right now as we speak. How does that feel? You broke his heart, Annie. You already had his heart at the palm of your hand, and yet you still left him just because he didn't love you right away," he said coldly, his gaze piercing through Annie. Edward might have sounded rude, a bit too harsh even. But he had always been like that. Edward was never the type to beat around the bush.

"What? How drunk was he? Is he all right?" Annie burst out, meeting Edward's eyes. Her face was full of surprise and worry. It was as if she didn't hear everything else Edward had to say when she had learned that Rain wasn't doing okay.This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

"What do you think? How would you feel if you were the one who got rejected?" he asked. Edward had thought it would have been hopeless if Annie's first instinct was to defend herself. But here she was, asking how Rain was doing. It was obvious enough that she still had feelings for Rain.

"I'm so sorry. It seems that our relationship has caused a lot of people so much trouble. I'm really sorry," she replied. She didn't expect that she would be so transparent about her feelings towards Rain. She still loved him, but found it hard to bring herself to confront those emotions. And before she could, she found it hard to accept him frankly.