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"I see…" I whispered.

"Let me make a wild guess…" Hayden said with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"About?" I asked, not quite following.

"One of the things you like about Ethan is his good sense in art, right?" Hayden asked so abruptly that all I could do was blink a couple of times at him as his words started to sink in.

Ok. I didn’t not expect Hayden to bring Ethan up. Neither did I expect him to get that right. It was true, I did like Ethan because he seemed to have a very sharp eye for art. His artwork isn’t half bad but I’ve always thought that he had a talent for appraising and commenting on art rather than creating one himself. Obviously, I have never told Hayden that before so how did he figure it out?

"How did you figure that out?" I asked suspiciously.

"Not hard. One of the main businesses of Silva is trading art and artifacts in the black market, after all. Ethan’s been dealing with stuff like that since he was a kid. I have to say he’s quite good at it," Hayden said like it was no big surprise.

Since he was a kid? I didn’t know that…

"I never knew that. He…never mentioned it," I replied quietly. I guess I didn’t know much about Ethan after all.

"I’m not surprised that he didn’t. As to why I’m bringing that up…" Hayden said as he tightened his hold of my hand.

Suddenly, he took my hand and placed the book that had just been delivered to him into it. I looked at the book in my hand with confusion. Why did he give this to me?

"Tell me which artwork in there interests you the most," Hayden ordered.

"Huh? Why?" I asked in confusion.

"Just do it," Hayden said curtly.

Not quite understanding what was going on, I opened the book and started flipping through a couple of pages. Each page contained photos of artwork followed by a short description of its history and estimated value. Of course, most of the estimated value were left blank because most of the works were not available for sale or couldn’t be priced.

While I was busy looking at content of the book, Hayden was looking at his watch.

"It’s about time. Let’s go…" Hayden said softly as he took my hand in his again.

"Where to?" I asked intriguingly.

Suddenly, he was walking a little faster than before and I struggled to keep up with him. We wove through a group of students who were on their school trip before Hayden made a sharp turn. Since he was walking so fast, I was beginning to lose track of where we were inside the building. Why does it feel like I’ve never been down this path before?

Before long, we were standing in front of a seemingly very isolated elevator. I didn’t know that there was an elevator here. Frankly, I didn’t even know that this hallway existed in the first place. Hayden seemed to know his way around pretty well too. Perhaps, he’s been here before?

"What are you spacing out for?" Hayden asked before he pulled me into the elevator with him.

The elevator automatically descended. It seemed like our destination was already decided for us. I sucked in a breath when I realized that this place wasn’t supposed to have an underground floor. Hayden seemed very relaxed next to me and that made me believe that we’re going to be just fine.

"Have you decided?" Hayden asked just before the doors of the elevator opened.

"Huh? Not yet. How am I supposed to decide so fast? There’s so many artworks in this book…" I replied, slightly flustered.

It was true, the book was thick and so much information was packed in. So far, I haven’t seen anything that caught my eye. Flipping through the pages rapidly, as I walked along at Hayden’s side, something finally caught my attention. This is it! I knew it the moment that I laid eyes on it. If I had to choose my favorite art piece from this entire book, this painting would be it!

"I guess you’ve decided. Show me," Hayden said, and I found out that he had been staring at me the whole time.

"Here…" I mumbled as I showed him the page of the book while Hayden leaned closer to me to better see it.

The artwork that I had chosen was an oil painting of a field of flowers. I’ve appreciated this piece for a long time, but I have never seen the painting in real life. Actually, no one has seen it for over a hundred years now since it was stolen or lost. Well, rumors says that it was stolen. Officially, it was declared missing or lost.

The story behind the painting was a sorrowful one; however, the beautiful play of colors on the canvas was truly captivating.

"Hmm…interesting choice, I would say. You’ve never seen this painting before, have you?" Hayden asked.

"Never. I’ve only seen photos of it and recreations of it," I replied truthfully.

"This way," Hayden said as he led me down a narrow and empty hallway before we entered through a double door.

The place we entered was dimly lit but it was full of people. The atmosphere was joyous as many people chatted and greeted each other like old friends. Looking around, I could tell that the place resembled a theatre. There was a stage at the front and rows of chairs for the audience to observe the performance. I followed Hayden obediently as he led us to our seats.

"Why are we here? Are we going to watch a performance?" I whispered close to Hayden’s ear so that he would hear me above the loud chatting of the people around us.

"Sort of. Pass me the book," Hayden said as he held out his hand.

I nodded and returned the book to him. Hayden flipped through the book before taking something out and sticking it on the chest of his shirt. While I was wondering what he was doing, the light on the stage turned on and a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a bright red dress walked onto the stage.

--To be continued…