The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

293 Surprising Appearance

“Tough childhood, huh?” Levi chuckled and took a deep breath.

“When I think about it now, it does look like that. But back then, we didn’t really think about it. We just did things that made us happy. At that time, maybe our standard of happiness was that simple.” He continued.

Emma smiled faintly. “Now I understand why you put a lot of effort to guard what you have now.”

Levi nodded. “A person’s mindset is formed from what he has been through in his life.”

“Back to the original topic,” Emma took a deep breath as she looked back at the surroundings in their steps. “What are you going to show me?”

“We go up one more floor. Then you will know.” Levi smiled excitedly.

Finally, they arrived at the second floor. Now, it seemed that Emma knew what Levi meant when he was little. The second floor was like an arcade game heaven. Not surprisingly, Levi and Lukas came to this place every day, even though they couldn’t play a single game.

The colourful lights from the various game machines and decorations reflected on Emma’s face.

Levi turned to Emma. He smiled at her reaction. From the start, he had been confident that Emma would love this place too. He felt that he knew more or less about her likings.

.....

“Although most of the games here are old games, the machines are still good and well maintained. This place used to be very popular.” Levi said while directing Emma to walk to the ticket counter.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you used to love coming to this place,” Emma said.

Levi nodded. “At that time, this place was a paradise for children and teenagers. Not, a few adults also came to play.”

After arriving at the counter, Levi bought lots of coins. “Unlike the old me, now we can play as much as we want.” he winked at Emma.

Just like what Levi had planned, Emma looked so happy that she forgot her worries. They played in that empty place for three hours – Tried various games and laughed as loud as if the place was their own. It was as if in this huge world, the two of them living it alone.

Time would pass so fast when you enjoy it. They stopped their game when their stomach growled.

Emma glanced at her watch. “Looks like I should be back soon. I have some things to do.”

“Oh, all right then. Do you still have time to eat?” Levi asked.

Emma shook her head weakly. “Sorry. I didn’t think we’d been here this long,”

“Then let’s just buy snacks, shall we? So we can eat them on the way home.” Levi said.

“That’s fine too.”

Then Levi took Emma to another floor where many shops there. And one of them was a small shop that sold tacos.

“Do you like tacos?” Levi asked.

“I’ve had it a few times. It’s not my favourite food, but I think it tastes quite nice,” Emma answered.

“Maybe you can try this one,” Levi said again as he stepped into the shop.

“Boss,”

Seeing a man with a face they recognized suddenly enter the shop where they worked, all the shop employees greeted him even though their surprised faces couldn’t be hidden.

This was a miracle. Levi had only ever come to their shop once, when the opening day only.

Levi raised his eyebrows briefly. “How is it today?”

“G-good. Just like any other day.” answered the manager who happened to be behind the counter. Their boss just nodded curtly.

Emma looked a bit taken aback. She looked at Levi questioningly, “Boss? Are you the owner of this shop?”

Levi smiled faintly then nodded. “This is my business. I have several taco shop branches. This is one of them.”

“Oh...” Emma nodded.

So, this was a business that Levi ran. He had a Food and Beverage business. In fact, Emma did not expect that the business Levi was running turned out to be a business like this. It didn’t match his gloomy style.

“What would you like to order?” Levi asked, showing the menu to Emma.

“Since you are the owner, give the favourite menu here,” Emma answered with a big smile.

“Sure,” Levi said. Then he asked his employees to prep two of their signature taco menus and two soft drinks.

While waiting, Emma glanced at Levi and cleared her throat. “To be honest, I didn’t expect your business to be a food business. I thought I’d heard that you’re running a service business,”

Levi nodded. “I am. I also do a service business as the side one.”

“Oh, I see,” Emma muttered.

“All the taco recipes here are from my mother because she is so good at making tacos. Therefore, Lukas and I were thinking about opening our own shop.” Levi said.

“Wow... Nancy is awesome.” Emma muttered in amazement.

“The tacos are ready,” Levi said while taking the big tacos and soft drinks he ordered.

After that, the two of them came out of the shop. When they had just walked a few meters from the shop, suddenly, a ringing tone was heard from Emma’s cell phone.

“My phone is ringing,” Emma said, stopping her steps. With both hands full of tacos and a glass of soft drink, Emma asked Levi to hold her food while she picked up the phone.

It was Rachel. She told Emma not to forget their plan to go to Ostuka’s house. They plan to leave in about an hour and a half.

Unlike Emma, ??Levi’s hands were big enough to hold two tacos at once, although he was having a bit of trouble eating his own tacos while waiting for Emma to answer the call.

“Ok, bye,” Emma said before putting her phone back in her purse.

“Sorry, let’s get back walk,” Emma turned to Levi with a hand ready to take back her tacos.

But what Emma saw made her laugh out loud because Levi’s mouth was messed up by the red salsa sauce.

“My face is messy, isn’t it?” Levi could guess what was going on. He was starving after playing earlier and he couldn’t resist devouring the taco that was already in his hand even though it was difficult.

Emma nodded as took out several sheets of tissue from her purse. Then, she wiped the sauce around Levi’s lips with a giggle.

The tall man had to lower his body in order to receive that warm treatment from Emma. He glanced at the position they were standing which was quite far from his shop. Actually, he did not want his employees to see him in this state.

Levi was known as a cold boss. Actually, with Levi bringing a girl there alone, it made the employees shocked. But only to that extent, Levi decided to ignore it. But now, he was in a position where he looked like a child being taken care of by his mother.

“Hey, are you done?” Levi asked, noticing Emma’s hand had suddenly stopped moving around his mouth.

He returned his gaze from his own shop to the girl standing in front of him and realized that Emma was staring pensively elsewhere. He frowned and then turned to what Emma was staring at.

Two meters from where they were standing was a man who was about the same height as Levi. The man stood still, staring at the two of them with a stunned face.

Emma lowered her hand slowly from Levi’s face while gulping down hard. She turned to face the man. “C-Calvin,”