New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 817 Hope Still For Gu Fang

"Huh? Oh… Sorry. I haven't seen her in a month. Let me have my eye candy," Alex said, snapping out of his staring.

David shook his head despairingly.

"Why am I even helping you clean? I have nothing to do with how your apartment got tossed."

From the kitchen, Kary replied, "If you want breakfast, you gotta earn it."

David looked at her incredulously.

"I helped you already, haven't I? What does cleaning have to do with earning a few crepes?"

"Stop complaining, you undead prick…" Alex grumbled, shaking his head.

They finished putting back the furniture that wasn't busted and piled up what was. Alex looked at it with anger.

"Now I have to get a new TV, coffee table, and a few other things… These idiots kept crashing into shit as I tossed them around. Couldn't they have been more graceful?"

David snort-laughed at his comment, realizing the irony of his statement.

"You threw them and you still blame them for the broken shit? You are hopeless, man."

"What?! They shouldn't have been here at all. Isn't it still their fault if some things got destroyed?" Alex rebuked.

David looked at him, thinking about it, and shrugged.

"Eh. Whatever, man. At least they're gone, and no one died."

"Tch!" Alex clicked his tongue.

Kary chuckled alone in her corner of the kitchen, finishing up the first batch of crepes.

"Come eat, boys," she called out, putting the plate with the crepes down, before pulling out three other plates and utensils for them, as well as cups for coffee and maple syrup for the crepes.

David sat down in front of the food, wondering when the last time he had a decent meal was. He poured maple syrup on his crepe and started eating.

On his first bite, he closed his eyes in delight.

"Mmm. The little taste of saltiness and vanilla. Man, you eat like that every day?" he asked Alex.

Alex looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't cook, I take it. Kary doesn't always make breakfast, no. Sometimes I do it. But, yes. We always eat well. Don't you?"

David shook his head, shoving another bite into his mouth.

"It's not that I can't cook. I just don't have the time. Getting stronger takes priority. Not everyone gets to cheat their way to power with demons and divinities, dude."

Alex chuckled at his statement.

"You should take the time. I don't know when the last time I'll eat a good meal will be. So we might as well enjoy the privilege while we still can, no?" Alex argued.

David shrugged in response, his mouth full of food.

Kary looked at him with a smile.

"I'll take you eating like an ogre as a compliment. But I'm still mad at you for letting them go," she pouted.

"What?!" David asked, his mouth half-full.

"I asked you for help, and all you did was talk. You didn't throw a single punch. How did that help? Plus, you let them go scot-

free…"

"Your boyfriend let them go. I was handling this until he got tired of waiting. How is that my fault? Plus, if you want to blame someone, blame that dumbass still sitting in front of the patio door," David complained, feeling wronged.

"Oh, he's not out of the woods, trust me," Kary said, giving a scornful look toward Mr. Gu.

He lowered his head, not daring to hold her gaze.

He hadn't moved an inch since the situation died out. He wasn't sure what to think of this.

Should he defend the honour and position of his old organization? Should he hide from them that Jack asked him to call them?

The situation had layers they weren't even aware of, and he didn't know what angle to play here. A single wrong step, and he would end up on the wrong side of their mood, and he had seen what that entailed already.

Alex looked at him with empathy.

Rising from his chair, he grabbed an extra cup from the cupboard and filled it with coffee.

"Grey, right?" he asked, looking at Mr. Gu.

"Huh?" the assistant asked, raising his head.

"Your coffee. You take it grey, right?"

Mr. Gu looked at him with a strange gaze.

"Uh… Yes. Grey."

Alex nodded, putting a tinge of milk in the coffee and bringing him the cup.

"Cut him some slack, you two. This isn't entirely his fault. And which one of you would say they wouldn't have asked for help keeping an element that can be as dangerous as a demon in check? I doubt any of us would have acted differently in his shoes."

David's face scrunched up.

"I wouldn't. I would have killed the threat directly," he mumbled.

"Oh, but he tried," Alex replied, sitting back at the kitchen island to eat.

"In any case, I'm sure Jack is the one who asked him to contact them. And I doubt either of them imagined asking for a surveillance team would result in this. You didn't tell them I was a demon, right? Only that it was a possibility?" Alex asked, not looking at Mr. Gu.

"You were a wild card, Mr. Leduc. We were afraid you might turn on us. But I didn't tell them you were a demon. We weren't certain yet."

Alex nodded.

Kary looked at Mr. Gu, her face still showing anger.

"Couldn't you have warned me, at least? Instead, you kept me in the dark, and people invaded the sanctity of our home. The last people who did that got burned. Tell me why I shouldn't do the same to you?" she asked, her tone burning hot.

Mr. Gu's head lowered once more.

"I… I'm sorry. Things got out of control… The Zhong Kui didn't respect my demands at all…"

David glanced at him, feeling his misery.

"He did say your name meant nothing anymore. You should have known leaving them would mean revoking your privileges, Son of the Gu family. You're lucky they let you keep your family name, the way I see it," David said, looking back at his plate.

"I…" Mr. Gu muttered.

"Alright, knock it off, you two. Mr. Gu. I don't want apologies. I want the issue to go away. Deal with that, and I'll consider us square. Can I ask you that?"

Gu Fang's eyes lit up with a glimmer of hope.