The Alchemists

The kiss lasted more than two minutes, leaving each of them wondering how the other had not run out of breath yet. Marion was accustomed to free diving and Jean had practiced holding his breath for one of his action movies. The two were not aware of this.

As Jean and Marion broke away reluctantly, they looked at each other with admiration. This was their third kiss after the ones in Switzerland. The first one was when Jean drank most of the glow wine and Marion was feeling vulnerable. The second one was at Marion's home, when she was feeling grateful to him.

This was their third kiss. It felt more pleasant than the first and second ones, as it was done with both people conscious and willing.

"Most men don't like aggressive women who kiss first," Jean commented quietly. Seeing Marion frowning, he laughingly added, "but fortunately I'm not one of those men."

Marion smiled at that. She patted Jean's shoulder and then returned to the study to continue her delayed teleconference.

"Hey ... you're leaving just like that?" Jean chased after her and caught her hand before she could walk through the doorway.

"What's the matter?" Marion asked, frowning.

"Jeez ... you kissed a man and then you just left him? You're an irresponsible woman," grumbled Jean. "At least promise you'll drink with me once your work is done. I miss talking to you."

Marion rolled her eyes. She flung his hand away and stepped inside. Upon returning to her chair, the girl turned to the door and exclaimed, "Hey, I want Black Russian. You can order it for me, I'll join you in 10 minutes!"

Jean, who was almost disappointed, smiled sweetly and nodded. He then took a hat and a pair of glasses from the shelf to hide his identity and then walked out of the penthouse. He would wait for Marion at Sky Bar until the girl finished her meeting.

"Are you two really dating?" Petra asked attentively as Marion returned to their meeting. The girl put on a scary expression and Petra didn't ask again. The man then continued his report. "Uhm ... okay. So we finally found Takeshi's tracks and concluded that he is heading to Singapore. Lauriel and I will catch up soon, but before we arrive I hope you can watch him."

"Okay, just send me the details," Marion wrote something in her notebook then looked up at Lauriel. "Is that all? I'm off then. If there's nothing else, I want to get a drink."

"Hmm ... yeah, that's it. Have fun," Lauriel finally said. He threw Marion a complicated look before disconnecting the call.

Marion immediately jumped to her feet and stride out of the penthouse. She knew that Sky Bar was just next to the penthouse. She could save a lot of time by jumping over the wall that separated the two, she didn't need to go down the 99th floor and enter through the Moonshine Restaurant. So that was precisely what she did.

She managed to land safely without being seen by anyone. She then quickly moved away, looking for Jean's figure among the guests at their tables.

Darn it! Why can't I find him? Jean must be on his disguise again, Marion complained irritably.

For some reason, she did not like meeting up with a disguised Jean in public places. When in Switzerland, he was also hiding his face with a hat, glasses, and a scarf.

[Where are you?] Marion sent an SMS to a contact number named MARION IS A FAN OF THE ADORABLE ACTOR.

As she waited for the reply, she finally noticed that the username had not been replaced. She chuckled... it's time for her to change Jean's username into THE MOST ANNOYING NARCISSISTIC ACTOR.

Before Marion's fingers could touch her cellphone's keyboard, a call suddenly came from the darn username that she had not yet replaced. Three seconds later, an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Here you are," from where the girl stood, Jean pulled her toward his table which was situated not far from there. It was near a glass wall overlooking the whole view of Singapore 100 floors below them, a very beautiful scenery.

"Ish ... I was about to change your username on my cellphone," Marion grumbled while taking her seat. She was surprised to see Jean moving his chair and sitting next to her. Now they were no longer facing each other from across. "Eh, why did you move your chair? If you want to sit in my spot, just say so, we can just exchange seats."

Jean shook his head, a broad smile hung on his lips. "No, I always sit like this. I only sit face to face in business meetings. When with friends, family, or dates, I always want to be next to them. This feels more familiar."

Marion was amazed by his reasoning. Her cheeks flushed red, "That can't be. But I am not your friend or family..."

"Is that so?" Jean pretended to be disappointed. "Alright. If you think this is a business meeting, I'll move my chair back."

Marion smacked his shoulder hard, "Dammit. That's not what I meant."

Jean laughed and then complained because his shoulder that had been hit just now hurt, "Gosh ... I thought I have already told you that guys don't like aggressive women."

Marion scowled. She grabbed the glass of Black Russian already atop the table and immediately gulped it down.

"Hey, drink slowly! Even though it is sweet, the alcohol content is still very high. You can get drunk! I don't want to take advantage of a woman who is not in her right mind," Jean grumbled as he pulled the glass from Marion's hand, which unfortunately was already empty, " Ish ... are you half fish? You drank a lot. "

Marion looked at him while narrowing her cat-like eyes. Jean did the same. Both of them looked very funny, like a couple having a stare-down contest, just that it would be about squinting-their-eyes contest. The winner would be the one who could last longer under the cynical gaze of the other.

"Ahhhh ... you won!" Marion exclaimed after two minutes. She felt very helpless.

While staring at the man, she couldn't help but admire the handsome face in front of her. She loved how his face was adorned with soft fine lines which showed that he was fond of laughing.

Jean was a warm and carefree person, far different from Lauriel. As she observed his features, Marion actually started imagining various dirty things she wanted to do with him and all the pleasant things that they could go through together.

Those thoughts embarrassed her. Why did she think of those? They had been acquainted for a dozen years, but they were never close.  They only started to interact more with each other last month. That was also when they first kissed.

Jean nodded. "Thank you for letting me win the squinting contest just now. Even though you can be very aggressive and stubborn, you're still quite nice. You let me keep my ego as a man by allowing me to win."

He then giggled and patted Marion's head.