New Life : A Second Chance

That night, Kay and Kyle were at Master Shifu's house, after submitting their notice that they were spending the weekend out of dorms. At the moment, they were busy helping Rheia in the kitchen as she prepared dinner.

Rheia tried to get them out of the kitchen, insisting that she was fine but the Smith Twins were deaf to her insistence. In the end, she admitted defeat and allowed them to help.

Otherwise, they would have taken over and chase her out of the kitchen! She couldn't have that. Rheia found that she enjoyed cooking, and her time in the kitchen gave her a sense of peace that she never thought possible.

Preparing, cooking and most importantly, seeing people enjoy her food gave her immense pleasure.

Nitocris had told her that Kazuya had met with an accident at the last business trip he had gone to. His body was never found so it couldn't be brought back for burial. Instead, they made do with a small ceremony and Nitocris took over his father's position.

Rheia was puzzled at first over the immense relief she felt when she heard the news until her memories of her life with Kazuya began resurfacing in her mind.

She was appalled. How could she have forgotten how he had been? Initially, she felt so bad that she started secluding herself in her room.

Until Nitocris and Shifu began coaxing her. She slowly realised that Nitocris was fine. Happy, even. Her guilt lessened and she slowly healed.

She smiled as she thought of her beloved son, who now lived in the same house. He appeared much calmer and at peace, and her heart was filled to the brim whenever she looked at him.

Rheia looked at the Smith twins teasing each other as they cut the ingredients as she had instructed them. Her smile grew even bigger. They somehow wormed themselves into her heart without really needing to do anything.

She also loved the way her son was whenever they were around. Perhaps he didn't even realise it himself, but she could see it. How his gaze would soften whenever the twins were around.

"Now, take the flour and add these to it," Rheia instructed Kay, "We're making dumplings tonight."

"Beef? Big Bro Nick loves them, right?" Kyle asked excitedly.

"Yes," Rheia said.

"I'll make the fillings," Kyle said, pulling up his sleeves and taking out the minced meat from the fridge.

"You know how to?" Rheia asked dubiously.

Kyle gave her a dazzling smile, "Of course I do, Auntie Rheia. I saw you make it once."

Rheia decided to trust Kyle, but she still warned him, "If you mess up, you are barred from my kitchen forever!"

"My Gosh, Auntie Rheia! That's such a harsh punishment!" Kyle said dramatically, putting a hand over his head, "I will just have to prove my cooking prowess then. After all, this is for Big Bro Nick!!"

Rheia just shook her head at Kyle's antics and went to prepare the soup.

At dinnertime, Kyle watched as Nitocris took a dumpling and put it in his mouth.

"So? How is it?" Kyle asked excitedly.

Nitocris frowned, suspecting something was up but couldn't quite figure what it was. He chewed slowly, and replied, "Delicious, as always."

"Kyle made them," Rheia declared proudly with a smile.

"Except it is a little salty for my taste, but it will do I suppose," Nitocris continued without batting an eyelid, "Could be better, but not bad for your first try. At least it is edible. Barely."

Rheia took a dumpling and tried it.

She hit Nitocris on the shoulder, "Oh you. Stop teasing him. The seasoning is perfect and you know it."

Nitocris didn't respond but kept on eating.

After dinner, they congregated in the living room. Rheia, Hawthorn, and May had already gone to their rooms to retire for the night even though it was still early.

Nitocris had gone up as well to make sure that his mother was settled in before he headed back downstairs to where the others were.

He sat down on the sofa, staring intently at Kyle who was joking around with Kay.

"What?" Kyle asked as he turned to look at Nitocris, "Has my handsomeness finally warmed you up or something?"

Nitocris didn't answer him but turned to Master Shifu instead.

"Sir, with your permission, I would like to put Kyle on missions once in a while," Nitocris said.

"What type of missions? Nothing illegal?" Master Shifu replied.

"Of course it is illegal. It's assassinations," Nitocris answered, "All mafia figures, I assure you. The small-time thieves that Kyle has been catching are not a real challenge for him. The higher-ups, however, would be."

"Yes, you do make a valid point," Master Shifu acknowledged, "He does need more challenges in order to improve."

"And avoid causing havoc elsewhere," Nitocris said wryly.

"Just what did he do?" Master Shifu asked.

"Hey! They were the ones who started it!" Kyle defended himself, "It was self-defense."

"In a Fight Club?" Nitocris said with a raised eyebrow, "Taunting and crippling nearly over 30 people in 2 hours?"

"And that the number would have been higher if I didn't intervene?" Nitocris continued impassively.

Kyle grinned, "30? Really? Nice. I could have beaten my record in 1/3 the time!"

Master Shifu looked at Kyle then back at Nitocris, saying, "Yes, it does seem like someone has excess energy to burn out. Apparently, normal training isn't sufficient.

"Can't interfere with my schooling though," Kyle pointed out, "I'm still a student. And I reserve the right to reject it."

"I will vet it first, so you don't have to worry about that," Master Shifu said.

Kyle sighed, defeated.

"Yes, Master Shifu," he replied obediently. Looks like he now has a new role to play. Smith Heir, MIB co-founder and leader, Sage Class Leader, President of Student Council and now, secret assassin. That certainly spruces up the CV!

The days passed by uneventfully after that for Kyle. He was more relaxed now, despite having more work.

First, he had to go through all the progress reports of the Sage Class members and make recommendations for further improvement, before seeing Principal Godric to discuss it. He would then need to implement them.

For him, personally, it was Sam's file that was of the utmost importance. Kyle needed to groom him and introduce him to MIB's work soon, without Sam knowing MIB's involvement. It wasn't time yet. The recommendation report on Sam had to look innocent enough for ordinary people to look at so Kyle was taking his time to tweak out the kinks in it.

Secondly, Valentines' Day was approaching fast, and he had to double-check everything to ensure that things were in place. The decorations, the budget, the 'proper behaviour and etiquette' rules to be disseminated to everyone, the punishments for going overboard. Those were mainly dealt with by Beatrice and Sam, but he still had to double-check everything since he was the President.

Lastly, there were the emails and phone call logs of the top management of Rex Industries to look at. He only perused the summarised reports of it, but it was still quite a huge workload every night. Kyle was thinking that he was working harder as a 14-year-old than he ever did as a 40-year-old.

Yet, he wouldn't have it any other way.

Sam, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky.

?? Student Council Office ??

It had been several days since he decided to 'go for it' yet ... he had absolutely no idea how to do it. If she was his classmate, he could simply get to know her better and help her all the time. If she was in the Student Council, he could spend everyday after school with her and help.

The problem Sam had right now was to find ways to somehow 'bump' into her.

But he was in Sage Class, which was in an entirely different building. He stayed out of the dorms so bumping into her during breakfast or mealtimes wasn't plausible. Anyway, even if he did go to the cafeteria to eat, he would be hanging out with Kyle at 'their' table.

His bunny notebook was full of big X across pages as he tried to lay out plans and quickly discarded them. He was so paranoid about people finding out what he was trying to do that he didn't dare rip the pages out and throw it, in case it gets picked up by someone.

If he was to tear them to pieces each time, people would start to wonder what was going on and perhaps ask. He didn't want to talk about it or reveal it. Everything had to be top secret. It was so embarrassing to be struggling over something that other people appeared to do so easily.

Beatrice was at her desk, looking through the files as usual and noted the look of frustration on Sam's face as he kept writing in his notebook. Finally, he threw his pen on the table in disgust as he closed the book, running his hand through his hair.

Beatrice found that, despite the obvious agitation Sam was under, he looked very cute. Sam was always so well groomed, with not a hair out of place, that this type of Sam appeared more human. She wondered what sort of problems he was having that would affect him so.

"Are you okay, Samuel?" Beatrice asked softly.

"Huh?" Sam answered distractedly, bringing his head up to look towards the direction of the voice, "Oh, yeah."

"Anything I can help you with?" Beatrice asked, pointing at his notebook with her pen.

Sam looked down at his closed notebook and shook his head, "No, but thanks."

"Okay," Beatrice replied, "Here's the list of rules for Valentine's Day."

Sam got up to take the paper from Beatrice. As the PRO, he was in charge of disseminating the information and ensure that everyone understood it. It wasn't simply about putting up the notices but he would need to explain it as well.

"Has Kyle looked through it yet?" Sam asked, looking at the list.

Just then, a knock on the door got their attention and Betty's head popped in, "Am I disturbing you? Can I come in?"

Sam gulped. He wasn't mentally prepared.

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