Passing Thought

"What. Is. It?" Alex barely managed to ask the question through clenched teeth.

This darn girl wanted to ask him a question, right? So ask it, already! Why the heck was she hanging on to his arm like she was some koala?

Granted, a koala would have its entire body wrapping around a secure tree branch or trunk, and this girl was only gripping his arm, but still!

It was bad enough.

Alex suspected that if he didn't curb this stupid behaviour of hers, she would be leaning on him more and more.

This could not happen.

"Alex…" Isaura began, while looking at him intently now - and still holding onto his arm, "What makes you happy?"

Alex frowned.

What sort of stupid question was this?

Unexpectedly, the little one reached out and tried to smoothen his eyebrows that were furrowed together in displeasure.

"I don't really see you smile," Isaura said, then leaned on his arm more, "But you have frown more."

Gently, but firmly, Alex took her hand that was holding on to him like her life depended on it, he then said, "I just don't smile even when happy."

He placed that sticky hand onto the table, and added, "But I frown when I am unhappy."

Isaura's mouth had an 'O' shape and then shook her head, "That's not right. You need to smile when happy."

"No," Alex said firmly.

"Yes," she said, equally firmly (or as firm as a seven-year-old can be as compared to an overly mature eight-year-old).

"No," Alex repeated.

"Yes," Isaura continued and was about to grab his arm again when Alex nimbly dodged it by going slightly to the side.

"Hey! It's my turn for a question now!" protested Annabell, "We're to ask 5 questions each and we've only managed two so far. Alex hasn't even begun asking us yet!"

"Okay," Isaura replied, settling down with a little dissatisfaction.

She couldn't understand Alex saying that he doesn't smile when he's happy. What? Is he unable to smile or is it that he doesn't know how to smile?

Isn't it only natural that one smiles when one is happy?

The thought puzzled her to no end and she started thinking of the next question, hardly paying attention to what Annabell was asking.

She just couldn't get that thought out of her head, 'why can't he smile?'

Maybe she should make it her mission to make him smile?

Isaura thought hard about it and figured that in order to do so, she would need to know everything that made him happy.

So her questions should be as such.

Having settled that, she sat down happily and started thinking about what else to ask.

"How about, I ask all my questions first, then Alex asks me in return," suggested Annabell, "Then it'll be you and Alex, Isaura. That way, we can finish faster."

"Okay," Isaura agreed, even though she had no idea why it would be faster. It was just that she didn't think too deeply about it and had no opinions about it.

Alex, however, felt that this was Annabell's way of monopolising him - but it would backfire when it was Isaura's turn. Perhaps she was easily satisfied, that is, she was happy as long as his focus was on her alone, even if it was for a few minutes.

"What sort of girl do you like?" Annabell asked.

Alex blinked at her, feeling like he just stepped into the world of Darkness, and groaned inwardly at where this was probably going.

To mask his irritation, he pretended not to understand her question and instead, asked, "Huh? What sort of question is that? There's no particular type I like."

Annabell nodded.

"Then, what do you like best in a girl?"

Alex shrugged, "Boy, girl. It's all the same. As long as they aren't annoying."

"What do you find annoying?" she asked.

'You' was in Alex's mind but fortunately, he managed to hold that back and chose not to answer. Instead, he merely stated, "Dunno. Can be anything."

To that, Annabell couldn't say anything else other than to end the session. She was eagerly waiting for Alex to ask her the same sort of questions so that she could drop huge hints to him that she liked him.

However, Alex never did ask anything personal.

Actually, he did, but it wasn't what she wanted him to ask. All of his questions were about her family: her parent's name, whether she had any siblings and then their names, and what her parents do.

Five questions went by so fast and there was absolutely nothing about her that she could tell him and that put her in a rather unhappy mood.

Why did he ask such questions that an old person would ask anyway?

But, no matter how unhappy she was, she could only keep it down.

She didn't want to be annoying.

Alex doesn't like annoying people.

By the time the ice-breaking session was over, Alex felt like he had gone through ten hours of rigorous training.

He was exhausted.

Annabell kept asking questions about his personal life and he was ready to jump up from his chair and run out.

But he endured it.

Fortunately, Isaura's questions were manageable and were simply about what was his favourite food, drink, cake, and chocolate (as in, the brand).

He asked her the same questions he had asked Annabell, but unlike the latter, Isaura seemed pretty happy to tell him.

Though she didn't really have that much information at hand, such as she had no idea what her parents did. They were just her parents.

Not that it mattered.

He wasn't truly interested in really getting to know them, but he thought it was at least prudent and useful to know their backgrounds.

What if one of them was MIB?

Or both?

Alex kinda of hoped they were, for that would mean that their 'adoration' was just work and not that they were truly interested in him.

So the entire time he was asking seemingly innocent questions about their families, he was also checking out their reactions.

What they said could not be true, after all, if they were MIB.

From what his father had told him, all MIB that were recruited when young were orphans, who were raised by other MIB agents.

When it had first been created, they were placed in a foster home that was managed by people hired for that specifically. To place them in one place and at the same time, receive training/

As it grew, the foster home became managed by MIB agents and eventually, at the present stage, some MIB agents who grew up (and some even got married to each other) would foster a young one that was identified as a potential MIB.

From this, Alex learned that no matter what you do, things should never stagnate. One should never stick to one method, no matter how successful it was, as things could always be improved.

So, Annabell and Isaura could very well be one of those MIB agents that were fostered by an MIB family.

His 'team' should be one that was older, though or at the very least, the same age, so he ruled out Isaura.

Both girls were from 'normal' families, as in, middle-income and not rich but not poor either. Annabell was the middle child, and the only girl whereas Isaura was an only child.

Annabell's father was the famous horror novelist, Stephan Kong while her mother was an English teacher. Isaura's parents ran a typical 'Mom-and-Pop' diner, which was basically a family-owned restaurant that sold simple home-cooked meals for breakfast and lunch.

Isaura was particularly enthusiastic for them to come over one day for a meal. She said her father made the best pancakes in the whole world.

'Pancakes' here though, did not refer to the typical round fluffy dough type that one usually ate with maple syrup but more of the crepe style that is the typical street food of Country Twn known as Jianjing.

The batter was spread out thinly on a huge round flat pan. One side had beaten eggs sprinkled with black sesame seed spread out and when flipped, the 'inner' part had a coating of two special sauces before the fillings were placed.

Alex found out more than he had asked, really, for Isaura was really proud of her parents' diner and how everyone loved her father's 'pancakes'.

Truth be told, he was curious upon hearing the description of the said item and made a mental note to try it out one day.

Better when Isaura wasn't around, of course, for that might make her become more excited than necessary.

Maybe he would even get someone else to buy it.

If it really was good as Isaura said it was, then would she be as good at cooking herself?

When Alex realised where his thoughts were heading, he mentally slapped himself on the head.

Before he realised it, he was already getting interested to know more about Isaura and her family; and he was never this curious with Shane or Shirley who had been at the same table with him for an entire year.

He sighed and just shook his head.

It was nothing more than just a passing thought as the food really did sound interesting.

That's all.