“Why are you crying?!” shouted Sophia. She looked up and was shocked to see the other person was Benjamin.
“Owie... It hurts!” cried Benjamin, holding his scraped knee.
‘When did he come out?’ thought Sophia with bewilderment. ‘No, that can’t be right. Even if he followed me out, he would’ve
bumped into me from the other side.’
In other words, the kid who bumped into her was the real Benjamin. Of course, she had no way of knowing that.
Benjamin had run out of the restroom to escape notice from Joey and Edmund. He was in so much of a rush that he did not look
where he was going, and thus he knocked into Sophia.
The little kid immediately stopped crying at the question. “I... I came out from the restroom and... And...” he tried to explain
guiltily.
‘He came out from the restroom? But how could that be when I was the first one out of the room? I didn’t see him walking past
me at all...’ thought Sophia, puzzled. She looked to the front, then to her back. ‘I guess he could’ve made one big round to get to
the restroom, but... Could he really run that fast?’
Benjamin started crying from the pain again. “Sob...sob...sob... I want my Daddy...”
It was eerily quiet on the second floor, so Benjamin’s cries sounded particularly loud. The patrons from the other private booth
poked their heads out to see what was going on.
Embarrassed, Sophia had no choice but to pick Benjamin up and said, “Shh, be quiet. The auction is about to start soon. You’re
going to bother other people if you don’t stop crying.”
She was worried that a crying kid would affect the auction.
Even though Benjamin did not reject her carrying him, he did not particularly show that he liked it either. He simply let her carry
him back to their private booth.
...
Jeremy was sipping his coffee quietly and thinking about something when they went in.
He turned around when he heard the door opening. Frowning, he asked them, “I thought you just went out. Why are you back
here so fast?”
Sophia sighed and was just about to explain what happened to him when Benjamin broke free from her and ran crying to
Jeremy. “Daddy... Waaa...”
Jeremy looked down at his son, who was crying pitifully, with a frown. “What happened? Didn’t you say you were going out to
say sorry to Sophia? Why are you crying now?”
Benjamin did not know what his father was talking about. He had only just seen him, so when did he tell him he was going to say
sorry to Sophia? Plus, what was he saying sorry for?
Moreover, why did not Jeremy seem at all worried that he did not go home for the whole night?
Sophia was a little taken aback by their conversation. “Zachary, are you saying that Benjamin went out just now so he could
apologize to me?”
Jeremy looked up at her and nodded slightly. “I spoke to him after you went out, and he said he’ll apologize to you after knowing
what he did wrong.”
‘That makes sense!’ Initially, Sophia thought it was weird to bump into Benjamin, who came from the other direction, but after
hearing what Jeremy said, she was sure Benjamin must have accidentally taken the wrong way and made one big round to
bump into her.