The moment Brent left, Leo opened his mouth in a silent scream. He gasped, like one choking and in deep pain. The agony of trying to bury precious memories that have turned into a searing pain was consuming him so bad that tears came to his eyes. He took deep breaths and held it back, he was too strong to be broken by something so measly.

Leo walked into the pent house suit attached to the thirtieth floor of his corporate building, one which was quickly turning into his lair. A place for the lonely wolf to lie low.

"How dare you remind me of it?" He muttered, tearing off his clothes with a crazed look in his eyes.

He walked into the shower, buck naked and turned the water to the highest pressure letting the hot water pour down on him. Steam was coming off the water, but he didn't seem to mind the scalding temperature, he liked it even. It was crazy how anyone could find pain comforting. After a while, he finally calmed down, his skin red from the hot water.

He slowly swiped his hand against the mirror and looked at his reflection. Powerful, yet pitiful. Strong, but absolutely broken to a mess. Beautiful, with a dark heart hidden beneath it. He placed his forehead against the mirror and inhaled deeply, letting the memories take him.

After a while, he looked up at the mirror again, watching his face which had quickly reverted to its expressionless nature that never revealed his true thoughts. But his eyes were that of a dead man.

"My sad dream." He whispered, wiping more mist away from the mirror to get a clearer view.

Leo turned off the shower and ran a bath in the huge tub, adding aromatic herbs with healing and calming properties to the lukewarm water. Once he was satisfied with the temperature, he went into the bath tub, totally submerging himself under it, as if he had a death wish and wanted to die by drowning.

At first, there were bubbles in the water from the times he breathed out, but the bubbles soon disappeared.

*****

"Young master." Fourteen year old Rona shouted mischievously, waving at Leo who had just finished giving a speech at the international youths tech summit where he was declared winner, after defeating two hundred other competitors with his tech product. Leo rolled his eyes and went down the stage to meet her. She waved a lollipop at him and grinned.

"Don't call me young master next time. So embarrassing." He muttered grumpily, going away.

Rona giggled and grabbed his arm enthusiastically, leaning against him as she hopped along full of happiness.

"What do you want me to call you then?" She asked, looking up at him with a smile.

Leo looked down at her, who was looking up at him with a huge grin, exposing her perfect bunny teeth, and rolled his eyes.

"Leo gege." She whispered sweetly and winked at him, making his heart skip a beat.

"Gross." He muttered and quickly pushed her away, walking faster. Rona giggled and ran after him, grabbing his arm again and pulling him to herself.

"Should I call you Shoye, or Leo gege. You better choose now." Rona said, making him roll his eyes again.

(Shoye means young master. Gege means older brother and can also be used by childhood sweethearts, or to address a boyfriend one has known for a long time.)

They soon arrived at the spot where he parked his motorcycle. Leo unlocked the trunk located beneath the motorcycle seat, and threw her pink helmet to her, and she quickly caught it. That year, she was obsessed with pink and white, making him change her helmet which he always carried to a pink one. Even at that moment, she was dressed in a pink tennis skirt, white sleeveless top and pink cardigan. Her hair was held by a pink and white polka dot hair band. She wore white socks and customized white sneakers with her name written in pink. (Her taste soon changed to more mature colors and she eventually settled on black as her favorite color.)

"You're always joking around, get a job." Leo said, climbing on top of the motorcycle.

"I don't need to work hard, Kaiser got me covered. And there's my amazing parents too; sweet mummy. Hahaha, I only need to work at my own pace and cheer you on from the background as you go higher."

Leo smiled and she cupped her mouth with both palms and looked up at the sky, shouting at the top of her voice.

"Leo is the best, Leo is awesome. He's amazing."

"Silly girl, stop shouting and get on the bike. You're causing a scene." He replied and rolled his eyes.

"I want everyone to know how amazing my Leo is. In the dragon clan, everyone talks about the top seven without including you, and it's so unfair. You're so talented, strong and handsome. Your brother Brent is not as good as you but he's in fourth place. Why isn't anyone seeing how amazing you are? You always hide your talent and cultivation level. In my heart, you're the best. They count my brother, Lord Frost, Brent, Yang Yang and Jian Yue among the best of your age grade. But you're only below Kaiser and Lord Frost. My brother doesn't count because he's not human. But based on talent, you deserve to have a place in the top four, but there's none. It makes me angry and I want to beat them up."

"I'm going to beat you up if you continue talking nonsense. Everyone deserves their current position as they have proved it numerous times through their hard works, and strength. Not being recognized is because of my inadequacy and incompetence. I'm simply not as good as they are. Besides, I'm not interested in anything concerning the dragon clan, or fighting for meaningless positions. Don't say such blasphemous things anymore." Leo immediately scolded her, trying to shut her up.

"It's a lie, it's not by their ability. I have seen Brent claiming contribution points for missions that were obviously done by you." She insisted stubbornly with a pout, stamping her feet.

"Rona." Leo growled, the warning in his tone unmistakable. He immediately tampered his angry snarl with a smile.

"Okay, if I was not recognized because I gave up a few contribution points, how about Kaiser? He didn't take missions for the dragon clan for a very long time, yet he's still at number one. Not being recognized is because I fall short."

Rona rolled her eyes.

"My brother doesn't count when comparing people. Which part of him looks like a human? Even I, myself, never dare to use him as a reference."

"If you don't get on, you're going to trek to the helipad. And Kaiser has gone AWOL. Do you want to try wandering around all by yourself?" Leo asked with a smirk, making her hit him and pout.

"You won't dare. Will you have the heart to leave me here? Even if you do, you know my brother won't let you off. You won't dare to abandon me." Even as Rona said it, she was quickly climbing the motorcycle.

"You should have waited and seen if I dare or not." Leo replied with a chuckle and suddenly sped off, causing Rona's chest to bump against his broad muscled back.

Rona encircled her arms around him, holding him tight.

"I'm glad you won. At least, with the prize money, you have enough money to support your start-up and the capital chain won't break from lack of funds. So mean! They gave you so little compared to what your brother, Jian Yue, and yang yang got. For a while there, I considered tricking my mom out of money to invest in your company and become a shareholder even though I have no interest in tech. But luckily, you've got it covered. I believe you will do something great with it, even though it's truly small."

"Your belief in me is overwhelming, don't you trust me a little too much?" Leo asked but only got a chuckle from Rona in return and she tightened her arm around his waist, relaxing against him.

"Leo,"

"Mmmm?"

"You're amazing, you did well today, the brightest star around. Good job." Rona whispered softly, making a bright smile of happiness and fulfillment spread on Leo's face as they sped along the highways in the dark night, the wind brushing past them.

On such an important milestone in his life, she was the only one from the dragon clan who came to support him —as always.

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