The Alchemists

After dinner, Caspar made coffee for them to neutralize the taste of food and then invited Finland to sit on the large Victorian couch facing the window he had shown to Finland at that time.

They were able to see Marina Bay Sands, Singapore flyers, and thousands of lights from the surrounding buildings.

Finland sipped her coffee and looked up in surprise, "This is Irish coffee! There is rum in it."

"You don't like it? I can use Baileys. Usually women prefer that."

"Oh, this is fine. It's nice." Finland sipped her coffee and enjoyed the unique taste. Not bad. Maybe after this she could get one with Baileys. That would probably also taste very nice.

"Finland... I have something to tell you." Caspar said suddenly.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Finland, who was taking her coffee cup toward her lips to drink, froze. The cup stopped in the air for a few seconds before Finland slowly placed it back on the table.

"Don't joke about things like that," Finland said with a frowned face.

"I'm not kidding." Caspar put his right hand on his chest and made a solemn statement, "I, Caspar, have never fallen in love like this."

Finland stared at her coffee and then shifted her gaze to the window. She did not expect that the most powerful and handsome man she had ever known would suddenly profess his love to her.

"Caspar, I have never had a boyfriend, because I am always busy working to make ends meet. I have no experience in this matter. While I am sure you have gone through this `fall in love – fall out of love – then break up' phase before, I have not. I don't know if I'm ready to go through those phases. Right now, my only focus is to fulfil my work obligations to Singapore for the next three years."

Finland's flat answer astonished Caspar.

"Are you not at all interested in me? What are my shortcomings that make you unable to accept my love?" he asked with a confused face.

"For me, you are scary. Two weeks ago, just because you were angry with my boss, you dropped our company's stock price overnight... You didn't think about the impact it may have on the hundreds of employees who relied on the survival of the company to provide for their families..."

Finland looked into Caspar's eyes bravely, "Now you say that you love me... but human feelings change. Nowadays there are so many people who fall in love, get married and then divorce on bad terms. Then, they try to hurt each other. You and me, we are not equal. If one day you are tired of having me around, or if one day you don't love me anymore, I'm afraid of what you can do to me."

"Are you afraid of me?" Caspar asked, barely believing his own ears. "That's a very weak reason... You'd better be honest if you don't share the same feelings. It's more honorable."

"No, you're wrong, Caspar. I've liked you since the first time I met you. When you pretended that you didn't believe I lived on Robertson Road and drove me home. That's when I know that you're a good person, and I'm fascinated by all your greatness. You are handsome, you are a famous surgeon, you have a large company group, and you are very rich... You are a perfect man for any woman. But when you shook LTX...I lost it. I am afraid that you cannot control your power well. " Finland sighed, "I saw the way you looked at Jean yesterday. I'm afraid you would bother my only friend just because you're jealous of our relationship..."

"I am not going to..."

Caspar fell silent. Deep inside, he acknowledged Finland's words. He was already thinking of a way to destroy Jean's career.

"You are right." He finally confessed, "I won't bother Jean if you don't give me a reason to be jealous. I fell in love with you since we met at the airport, Finland, and I have never been this patient with women. I treat you very well and look after you from afar. I was even willing to be kicked out of an event and get arrested by the police just to get a kiss from you..."

Finland smiled at the guy's confession. She moved closer to Caspar and touched his lips, "Jean is my only family in this world... if you touched Jean, I will never forgive you."

Caspar nodded. He stroked Finland's hair slowly and touched her cheeks, then brought the girl's face to his face and kissed her lips gently.

The girl was inexperienced, so she just let Caspar do the work. The man kissed her slowly, then passionately, and when his tongue ventured into Finland's mouth, the girl instinctively responded.

Her head felt very light and happy. The tinge of happiness Finland felt with the kiss felt foreign to her. She embraced the feeling in her head and gave in to Caspar's increasingly intense embrace and kisses.

Not bad for a first kiss, she thought.