Convincing her

Jen and Lucas finally arrived at the rehearsal and there was no one around yet. Since Lucas had nothing to do, he followed Jen like a lost lamb as she discussed the itinerary with the wedding planner. He would occasionally listen and sometimes fiddle with his phone when he became lost in thought. 

Whenever the company had events, his father would pass them on to him, then he would pass it on to Dave, then David would pass it on to either the corresponding department if it is a new venue or the hotel if they were going to use the company's hotel.

He would just follow up to check the progress, but rarely had anything to contribute. Lucas would often hear him say, "use the one we used last time." The only thing he would personally check and supervise is the guest list.

So, listening to Jen's conversation just left him in the dust because he just wasn't interested at all. Soon, Rachel showed up with Laura. She had planned to come even earlier but after Laura persuaded her; she ended up being late because she was waiting for her.

After greeting each other, they quickly caught on to the discussions and Lucas was pretty much tossed aside at this point.

He got up from his seat and told Jen he was stepping out for some fresh air and left them to do their own thing.

As he stood by the door, he watched the beautiful scenery outside. It was quite calm and beautiful if he had to say so, so much so that his hand had unconsciously slipped into his pocket to search for something before realizing he had quit.

As he stood there amused at his own actions, a celebrity van stopped a distance away and he saw his brother get off. Lucas' eyebrows furrowed as he watched Jason's thin frame walk towards him with his now black hair.

"You came early huh," Jason said in greeting and reached out his hand only to be glared at by Lucas. Looking at his perfectly styled hair, he instead patted his shoulder.

"You lost weight," Lucas said. He could hear a hint of worry in his voice. His brother who maintained a regular weight throughout the year because of his job suddenly had a smaller frame, even though his appearance gave the illusion that he was taller. Looking at his already sharp features looking sharper worried him.

"It's because of the job I'm doing, I'll gain it all back once I'm done shooting," Jason said as he leaned on the other side of the doorway.

"You take care of yourself," Lucas said as he looked at him again.

"Don't worry, it's not like I'm emaciated," Jason said with a smile. It felt good to have someone express concern for him once in a while.

"You didn't come for dinner on new years," Lucas said matter-of-factly.

"I had a shoot, I wasn't even in the country," Jason said as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"Wait till mom sees you on Saturday," Lucas said and immediately felt Jason's depressed mood. He knew that his mother would nag him to no end, and James might even get into trouble because of him.

"I don't want to think about it, it'll happen when it happens," Jason said as he peeked inside and saw that there were people.

"Is sister-in-law inside?" Jason asked and Lucas nodded in response.

"Why are you outside then?" he asked as he waved at the girls inside.

His three fangirls all waved back at him with wide smiles on their faces, seeing their enthusiasm he couldn't help but smile back at them, his one dimple making an appearance. Laura ended up smacking Jen's arm a few times in excitement, and even Lucas couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"What are you hitting me for? Don't you two work together?" Jen reprimanded as she rubbed her now sore arm. 

"I haven't seen him since last year ah, he is even busier than me so you can imagine how hard it is to see his face," Laura said as she looked at Jane with some remorse. Her actions were unconscious, she really didn't mean to…

After this, the girls' ruined focus was recovered. They continued with their discussions. Jason and Lucas finally went out for a walk and caught up to each other.

They didn't go far, so they saw when David and Nancy arrived. After this pair arrived, more people started arriving, including a few of Ethan's colleagues at work and Jason's old band members.

Most of the guests that arrived were already acquaintances, so the venue became instantly lively as they all caught up with each other.

James soon arrived, he didn't drive himself and got his driver to drop him off. He had been working on some contracts earlier, and he ended up running later than he had predicted. People's eyes were instantly drawn to him once he entered, and since he was used to it, he didn't have much of a reaction.

He walked towards Lucas who was chatting with Ethan's colleagues and smiled when Lucas noticed him. Lucas who was regarded as a child by the other helplessly smiled back.

James greeted him and the others as he patted his back only because he could not touch his head. After finishing his greeting, he walked towards another group of people.

As he was walking around he saw a familiar face staring at a table full of snacks and almost passed them by before stopping and turning around.

Two identical pairs of grey eyes stared at each other and Jason foolishly smiled at James, but James did not smile back.

"What happened to you?" James asked. He hadn't been hands-on with managing Jason for a while now, since he had been very busy expanding his company.

"Big brother," Jason said happily, as he hadn't seen James since the previous year.

"Is this why you've been avoiding me? Do you want to die?" James asked, his frown growing deeper as he looked at Jason's hollowed-out cheeks.

"It's for a role," Jason answered.

"What role? I still pick out your scripts… wait, so you're saying you've been like this for a while now?" James asked, anger finally appearing in his eyes.

Jason couldn't help but nervously gulp. Wasn't it just for acting? Why did his brother's momentum suddenly change? He even took two steps back because he knew that this was a prelude to a beating.

"This is just how I've interpreted the character, don't mind it too much," Jason said avoiding his question on how long he has been like that.

"I should fire your assistant," James said, his irritability going up. Even the surrounding people could feel the sudden tension in the air and backed away from him. 

"James baby, you're here? What time did you arrive?" Laura's voice was heard and before he could react she was already hugging his arm and plastered by his side. Completely oblivious to the current mood. Jason whose expression looked like he had just received amnesty quickly disappeared from his brother's sight and went to hide where his friends were. 

"Baby?" James asked with a raised eyebrow, pushing Jason's matter to the back of his head. Laura pretended not to hear him and pulled him away from the crowd to somewhere private. He decided that he will talk to him once they were alone and didn't have a large audience or distractions around. He planned to thoroughly educate his young brother on how not to get him in trouble with their mother!

"Did I see wrong?" one of Jason's old band members asked. The other one shook his head as if to confirm that he didn't.

"This development…" he said again in wonder.

"He would have half carried, half dragged Jason outside for a 'talk'," the other one mumbled to himself. As people who were once managed by James, they were very familiar with his temper.

"Where was she when we had started out?" the other one complained and his friends just laughed at him. Jason, who was also watching let out a sigh of relief. It was good that he had forgotten about the issue. He comforted himself, not knowing that his brother was already thinking about how he was going to educate him.

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