Chapter 6: "Luke"

Chapter 6: "Luke"

“You did what?!” Luke’s drowsiness slipped out of his body faster than he would finish a cup of ice cream. It was currently 8am and Ruben broke the “earth shattering” news to him in his bedroom. 

“F-father you-” 

“Son, there’s no need to be that surprised haha, father is capable of such. In fact, if you want, I can make sure no one comes 100 feet close to the location of the park,” Ruben boasted heartily. His eyes were clouded with pride. He didn’t see the darkening expression on Luke’s face the more he spoke. 

“Father, do you realize what you have done?” Luke’s voice trembled. 

Ruben’s smile faded gradually as he noticed the strange tone contrary to the one he was expecting. The reaction seemed off. 

“W-what’s wrong Luke, why are you crying?” Ruben panicked. 

“Father, are you trying to alienate me from other children my age? I just want to enjoy a good time with you, while having interaction with other kids like other young people would. Why won’t you understand me? I-I’m sure Mother would… “

At the mention of “mother” again, Ruben’s heart shattered with guilt and underlying anger. 

“I will cancel the payment Luke, I’m sorry, Father is still lacking.” Ruben pulled Luke into his arms. 

This time, Luke wasn’t putting on an act. Recognizing Ruben's strictness with security, he genuinely believed he couldn't exchange places with Luuk on his mother's side.

He got terrified and his heart broke at the thought. He cried in Ruben’s arms for about ten minutes and stopped after much coaxing. 

Ruben prepared a warm bath for him and headed downstairs to cook a light breakfast. 

Luke took a quick bath and suddenly remembered he and Luuk had fixed an appointment to chat earlier in the morning. He hurriedly grabbed his phone. He couldn’t afford to offend Luuk. 

“Hey Luuk, I’m so sorry I slept off! What’s the situation?” Luke sent the text in a heartbeat. His fingertips trembled when he remembered how Ruben almost sabotaged their plan.

“What situation? Did something happen?” Luuk’s sharp senses could discern something was indeed wrong. 

“No, No… I received a call from you and figured dad must have picked the call but he said nothing of it. I was just curious. “ Luke lied through gritted teeth. This brother of his was just too smart. 

“oh, it’s nothing. Do you have a password or passcode on your phone?” Luuk had to be sure they weren’t busted. 

“Yes, I had it specially installed by a tech guy after a nosy woman leeching off father tried to tap my phone.” Luke replied.

 

“Alright, my clothes just arrived, yours? “

“Oh my god, I forgot about those. I will make enquiries and get back to you,” Luke replied, praying silently that Ruben hadn’t received them for him. 

Luke dropped his phone. Stretching slightly, he continued coding. He was making a website for an artificial intelligence shopping assistant. He got an idea from watching Ruben’s interview. When he said his next project was that of a shopping assistant. 

The main features include collaborating with a shopping site and using this AI shopping assistant as an extension. It helps find products in various categories, such as the cheapest price, wholesale deals, fastest delivery, available sizes, and production materials.. 

It was indeed a challenging work, but Luke was sure he could pull it off. He worked for a few minutes more and called it a day. 

He walked leisurely into Tess’s room, only to find her sleeping. He was a hundred percent sure she forgot about their appointment. 

He sat by her bedside, nudging her with his little hands lightly. “Mother, mother, wake up.”

“ugh… oh son? What’s wrong? It’s the weekends. You know I sleep till noon. “

Luuk was dissatisfied. Just as he thought, she had forgotten. Where was the previous excitement and dotting gaze she showered him with when he suggested going to a park?

“Mother! How could you forget something so important? Maybe if you weren’t watching Korean dramas all night, you would remember you had an appointment with your son,” Luuk retorted with fake anger. 

“Oh my, son I-I didn’t forget hehe, I was merely joking with you. Come on, how could I forget something so important, huh?” Tess coaxed Luuk, pulling him into her embrace in a tight hug and an attack of kisses. 

“T-that’s enough mother, you should get ready. I will prepare toasts for breakfast“ Luuk finally escaped from her fluffy attacks. 

“My son is so reliable.” Tess teased with a huge smile. Her eyes had terrible eye bags from watching drama all through the night, but just one look at Luuk’s adorable face and all of her fatigue diffused into the air. 

Luuk took comfortable strides downstairs to make avocado toasts. He felt a bit sad to leave his mother for a week but the thought of the unlimited amount of rare books he would have access to and the amount of knowledge he could acquire from visiting Ruben’s workplace every day made his insides brim with excitement.

Tess finished preparing as soon as breakfast was ready.

She wore a casual outfit of a pair of blue jeans and a thin white shirt. Draped over the outfit was a warm pair of coffee-colored knee-length knitted jackets. After childbirth, Tess tends to catch a cold more often, hence the jacket.

“Eyyy, this is a feast.” Tess grinned sheepishly at the sight of the freshly squeezed orange juice, Sunnyside egg, scrambled eggs and well-seasoned avocado toast Luuk cooked single-handedly. 

Luuk shook his head and sighed inwardly, she didn’t know it was a goodbye feast from her unfilial son. 

Tess sat down at her usual spot and ate to her fill. The dishes were properly seasoned and absolutely delicious. She had never properly sat Luuk down and taught him to cook, but ever since he turned four, he cooked sixty percent of their meals and 80 percent of breakfast.

She saw he loved doing it and she couldn’t be happier to let him. 

She detested cooking, although she cooked well. She was always reminded of the time she wasted on learning to cook just to please Ruben, her strict and biased cook tutor, the smokes from the kitchen that threatened to gut her sensitive stomach out, the cuts and burns she acquired during the process of the one year training and the heart wrenching memory of the time she cooked for Ruben for the first time and he didn’t even take a glance at them. 

She tried to coax him to eat, and that was the most horrible memory she had with him, one of them actually. He got angry because she touched the hem of his suit and he turned the entire table over. All the delicacies she prepared spilled to the ground, mixed with broken ceramics, a colossal mess. 

Her right hand holding a spoon trembled slightly and her lips quivered. She felt a gush of overwhelming sorrow. 

“Mother…” Luuk called after slight hesitation.”... Your food is about to spill.”

“Oh, hehe my bad.” A warm smile replaced her frown. 

The two ate dinner quietly and headed for the Park. 

… 

Upon arrival at the park’s main gate, Tess’s grip on Luuk’s small hand tightened. Being a person sensitive to her environment, Tess could tell something was wrong. 

Luuk narrowed his eyes. “That dumb bird brain,” he thought. He could tell that the highly protective Ruben surrounded the park with ghost bodyguards and the towering figure of the bodyguards lingering around the park in flashy clothes made them seem out of place rather than a carefree environment of a park. 

His left hand itched from the urge to face-palm. Luke had just one job, one job. 

“Son, I think this place is occupied today. Let’s find another park or come again another day.” Tess pacified Luuk, leaning closer to his eye level. 

“No mother, it has to be today.” Luuk pouted like a sulking child. 

Tess was unsure about what actions to take. She dragged Luuk ‘reluctantly’ to the car, then tried to place a call to a good friend. 

Luuk watched Tess, his fingers played along the lines of his thin lips in his usual thinking position as he thought of something to do. He devised a plan to stay away from the park for a few moments, hoping to contact Luke to fix the situation and have Ruben fill the park with people again. But if Tess had to call someone, it would be easy to discover that Ruben booked the whole park. 

He scolded Luke inwardly for hiding such a thing from him. 

“Luke.” Luuk sent him a text. “You… “

‘oh shit, Luke thought as soon as he saw the message notification. He could smell doom approaching. The word Luke reverberated in his head constantly. He felt slightly dizzy. 

“Brother I can explain, father decided to please me on his own accord, but failed terribly. I have the whole situation under control, just delay for ten- no, twenty minutes.“ Luke replied with the speed of light. Inwardly, he thought, “little brother is terrifying.”

“You have 15 minutes.” Luuk replied, giving no room for negotiation. 

“Okay, okay.” Luke ran to Ruben’s room, glaring at him as soon as he opened the door. 

Ruben felt a piercing gaze behind him. He turned to find Luke looking at him like a fiasco. “I- I already asked Thomas to get rid of the bodyguards. I just got off the phone with him. The park will be occupied in no time.” Ruben found himself to be stuttering a lot these days compared to his usual composed self. 

Parenting is hard, he thought. 

“Father, it’s 30 minutes to 11. Where would you find enough people to fill the park, enough so I don’t feel the void?” Luke was on the verge of crying. He doesn’t care about whether people are in the park or not, he just wants to spend time with his mother. He shuddered at the reminder of the threatening tone behind Luuk’s text. 

“I’m Ruben De Vries son. Anything is possible.”

Luke’s little nose squirmed distastefully, seemingly unfazed. He closed the door with a loud bang, rushing to reply to Luke. 

Meanwhile, Tess had already called a hotshot in the city. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t get the name of the person that rented the park. Fortunately for Luuk, Ruben had enough influence to keep his identity hidden and their stunt wasn’t busted. He heaved a sigh of relief and checked the text Luke sent him. “Done.” And truthfully, as soon as the text dropped, streams of people flooded the park gate and the bodyguards wearing flashing outfits like drag queens were nowhere to be seen. 

Luuk had a slight smile on his face. Ruben’s show of power tends to amaze him. 

Tess waited for the crowd to disperse before she alighted the car once again with Luuk’s hand in a firm grip. 

They took leisure walks into the breezy park, while Tess’s eyes greedily searched for an ice cream shop. 

Ruben’s polish Black Sedan car pulled up in front of the park. On Luke’s request to keep a low profile, he had a pair of sunglasses on and casual clothing to match the occasion. 

Tess had walked past Ruben’s car when she walked into the park with Luuk hand in hand, but neither of the two parties saw each other. 

Luuk, being highly observant, had a hunch. He urged Tess with talks of her favorite ice cream, and she ate it up. 

“I’ve sent my current location to you. Follow the map and meet me at the ice cream shop. Remember, mother and father must not meet.” Luuk sneaked a text to Luke. 

“Roger that.” Luke’s heart tingled impatiently.