Remember Me, Baby.
Deja Vu's?

Andrew was still hanging with his head down while doing sit ups when suddenly there was a knock on the door. His forehead wiggled. As he recalled, not a single person of his family or acquaintances knew of his whereabouts in the city of Dinan, except for Clark, his best friend who understood his madness the most. Did that crazy young man come to visit?

“Wait a minute!” andrew shouted as he turned and rested on the pedestal, then jumped and landed on the floor.

He grabbed a small towel to dry the sweat on his neck and face before walking towards the front room. Again his forehead creased deeply when he realized who was standing at his door. Obviously that man was not Clark, but Old Alfred, as Andrew called out to the man now standing on his porch. The old man was the right-hand man of Marco Roux, his father.

Alfred has worked for Marco for almost his entire life. He has been taking care of Andrew since he was a baby. The old man with thin silvery hair seemed to realize Andrew was staring at him through the keyhole. He waved his hand while grinning widely.

Andrew turned the key and pulled the doorknob open slightly.

“Alfred? What are you doing here?” ask Andrew without widening the gap on the door.

Alfred opened his hat and barged in, ignoring the stern gaze of Andrew holding his arm against the door leaf to block him.

“Serve your energy,” Alfred said as he walked to the living room.

The old man spread his gaze across the room, examining with a judging look at every piece of furniture and ornament that was within that Tudor-style building. Then, as his gaze fell upon a painting of a girl in a white dress against the backdrop of the twilight sky clinging to the fireplace, he turned to Andrew with squinting eyes.

“Still coming to you in a dream?” he asked with curiosity. As he remembered, the last time the young man before him made a confession that he had not experienced those strange visions again.

Andrew snorted and went to the pantry to get some drinking water. “Not your business,” grunts.

Alfred's presence is usually a signal of something he does not like. His father must have sent the old man to do something. Take him back to Paris, for example. The city was too crowded and noisy. Andrew doesn't like that kind of mess. Especially with the pressure to continue the family business that has been done for generations. Really boring.

“How can you find me?” asked Andrew with a look of annoyance. He really felt he could not live quietly.

Alfred chuckled softly before replying, “Do you really think you can escape or hide from your father, Young Man? He just purposely let you have fun for a while.”

“The old fox really won't let me go, huh?” gerutu Andrew then looked up and drank the water in his glass.

“Who do you call an old fox?! Brash kid!”

“Pufft!”

The water in Andrew's mouth gushed when he heard the familiar baritone's voice. He wiped away the water dripping on his chin and chest. Nervously he put the glass on the table, then turned to the door.

“Dad?!” he screamed with glaring eyes. She did not expect the man to come alone to look for her. If it gets like this, it means that something very serious will happen.

“Why didn't you tell me my dad was coming too? You deliberately wanted to frame me, huh?” accuse Andrew of looking at Alfred with narrowed eyes. If he knew it would be this chaotic, he would rather escape through the window when he heard a knock on the door.

“What if I come too? You want to escape through the window? Or chimney?” marco Roux asked sarcastically, making Andrew suddenly shut up.

Just like Alfred earlier, Marco also circulated his gaze throughout the room with a judging look. However, when his gray iris finds a portrait of a girl by the fireplace, he behaves as if he did not see her and chooses to take his eyes off.

“I give you a decent life, a comfortable residence and all the access that makes your life easier. But look ... You would rather hide in this remote place like a rat!” his grunts without trying to cover up his discomfort.

“You have not made it easy in my life at all, Mr. Rouxes. You just want to keep confining and restraining me, forcing me to do what you want .. something I obviously don't like,” Andrew said. He returned his father's sharp gaze without blinking a single bit.

“You're getting brazen! Dare to argue with me!” denounce Marco after successfully controlling himself.

“Dad ...” Andrew sighed softly and restored his hair. “I don't want to argue with you at all, but try to understand .. I'm not at all interested in continuing the family-owned company. I love art and—“

“Marquess of Alrico just met me yesterday,” Marco interrupted without regard to the dark look on his son's face, “You remember Cecille? The youngest daughter of the Marquess .. she has already agreed to get engaged to you. You know, with your marriage, Phoenix.Co will be able to spread its wings across Europe. My hard work and your grandfather will be recognized by the world. Is that reason not enough to make you an obedient child and make me proud?”

“My age is 21, Dad. I had no interest in getting married at such a young age,” Andrew replied slowly, desperately trying to contain the bubbling anger in his chest.

I don't know why, this whole thing feels like deja vu. The scene that was happening now was as if he had experienced it before. Maybe in a previous life? A fatal error ....

Andrew's instincts rebelled wildly. It seemed like back then he made the mistake of accepting that damn matchmaking, but now .. he would fight back and reject all of this with all his might.

Marco looked at his son with an intimidating look. He leaned back on the sofa on his feet, thinking of threatening words that might make his son wither.

However, in the end he could only sigh softly and say, “I married your mother at the age of twenty. You were born two years later. Back then, the family business that your grandfather inherited grew fivefold. But now ... you are not even the slightest interest in what I have painstakingly built.”

Andrew ruffled his hair violently when he saw the look on his father's face that had turned sad and seemed to lose hope. He took a deep breath and exhaled it hard. He could never see his father sad or disappointed. One of the reasons why he always ran away from the man was because he could not see the expression of his father's sadness when he heard the rejection from him many times.

“Give me ten years, okay?” bargain Andrew, “Let me do what I want. Later, if after ten years I still cannot prove that I am capable of success with my own abilities, then I will go home and obey all my wishes. Deal?”

The cloudiness in Marco's face slowly dissipated, changing with a grin full of satisfaction and victory. He turned to Alfred and asked, “You recorded it all, Buddy? Ha ... ha .. ha .. I told you, I'll win it!”

Andrew looked at his father and Alfred took turns. Then, when he saw Alfred reach into his wallet and pull out the Euro sheet with a little unwillingness, the young man realized he had just entered into his own father's trap!

“You made me a bet?” his sizzle with disbelief.

Alfred shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sorry, Boy ...”

Even so, his expression really looked flat and indifferent. While Marco Roux still restless because he managed to get what he wanted.

“Only once did I find out that you two were tracking my whereabouts or monitoring what I was doing, then this agreement is off!” he exclaimed in annoyance before walking towards the room and slamming the door with all his might.

Again he was fooled by his father! Really shit!

***

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