“Huhh?” Markus asked, not understanding what Kizy meant.

Kizy thought that maybe she should talk about this later on as many people were still waiting in line to present the gifts.

Next came Nicole with a small box. Kizy opened it to find a coffee mug with a couple along with the child drawn over it. The man was looking affectionately at the woman, while the woman was looking at her sleeping baby.

And it took her no time to realise that the painting was done by Nicole herself.

“Thank you so much for this beautiful gift Nicole!” Kizy said happily.

“You most welcome-” Nicole was still speaking when Markus cut her off.

“What kind of gift is this?” Markus asked in an unhappy tone.

“Brother, do you have some problem?” Nicole asked.

“Yes I do. Why is she not looking at me and is instead ignoring me while looking at the baby?” Markus asked and all the members burst out laughing hard.

“How can you all laugh at this! You people are evil.” Markus said, especially looking at Nicole.

But Nicole just kept laughing before taking her seat.

Next was Jason who came ahead with a polite smile that was truly reaching his eyes.

“Congratulations.” He said before giving the gift to Kizy.

She knew that Jason would have thought deep before selecting this gift within such a short span of time.

And true to her expectations, there was a mini lamp along with a beautiful music player and a plant.

“Listen to these songs in your free time. The lamp adjusts its brightness with the type of song you play. And the plant grows in lamp light.” Jason explained before going back to his seat, knowing he would fail terribly at explaining the meanings of these things.

The music player and lamp were there to symbolize mother. The whole plant was representing the child. It showed that good growth of the baby depended on the mother.

“Thank you Jason.” Kizy said with a smile.

Next came Victor who unlike others, didn’t give the gift to Kizy but instead went towards Markus.

“This is for you.” Victor said while giving a book to Markus.

And yes, it was the same book that Anna had kept for Victor, when she wanted to surprise Victor with the news of their baby.

Markus accepted it with a smile, unknown to the dark times this book had witnessed, or how much the book meant to Victor.

But all others, including Kizy, BLACK COMMAND and Nicole knew the story behind this book.

This was probably the last thing left by Anna for Victor, especially the only thing related to their baby.

The burnt cookies and decorated room were gone ages ago, but this book, this single book was the last memory that he had been carrying about Anna and their baby.

But, just the way he had decided, he felt that it was better to let someone use it for real purpose instead of keeping it unnecessarily with him. He knew that letting go of someone or something was equally important as loving it.

Hence here he was, gifting the last memory from Anna to Markus.

“Thank you first brother.” Kizy said with tears threatening to fall down from her eyes.

“Anything for you.” Victor said with a smile, feeling light, as if some burden had been lifted off.

But the person who almost cried at this was none other than Nicole. Thankfully nobody was paying her any attention, resulting in no one noticing her little action of wiping tears, except one person – Grandpa.

Soon came Rose who had a frame in her hand, but the frame carried a picture of a baby seen by sonography. Kizy, who hadn’t seen the reports until now, felt immense happiness, especially while she was showing the picture to Markus.

Next came Harry, who was scratching his head.

“I know that I should have gifted you something related to your pregnancy to the baby, but I was unable to come up with something in such a small period of time. Hence this is what I bought.” Harry said while giving his gift, a notebook.

“What is this?” Markus asked curiously.

“How to hack top notch security softwares.” Harry said casually.

But both Markus and Kizy were delighted to know that.

“Thank you for the gift!!” Markus said immediately.

“This is for me. Not you. Don’t raise your hopes high.” Kizy said while securely keeping the book away from Markus’s reach.

“What use will you have of this book during pregnancy? Let me use it.” Markus replied.

“I will use this book to upgrade my rank from third best world hacker to second so that I won’t need to share my rank with some random person anymore.” Kizy said exaggeratedly.

“Why are you acting as if you feel that I am beneath your level? We both stand on equal footing.” Markus said, feeling sad.

“Yeah but not anymore. Just wait for a month, and you can keep the third rank for yourself.” Kizy replied.

“Let’s see who upgrades the rank. You wanna bet?” Markus asked, feeling that Kizy was looking down on him now that she notes from the best hacker in the world.

“Both of you stop now!” Grandpa exclaimed, not believing these were the same Markus amd Kizy who were being inseperable just last night.

And suddenly both Kizy and Markus were reminded of their old days, where no moment would pass without their bickerings. Remembering that, both of them first smiled and ultimately started laughing out loud.

The gift presenting event went by cheerfully, before it was announved that the lunch would be served within half an hour.

All the members engaged in small chats, talking about anything they could think of.

Victor was busy talking to Rose and Nicole when he felt a peircing glare being thrown at him. He turned back, only to find the owner of this gaze, still looking at him with the intent of boring a hole in his body.

———————–

Drink water and stay hydrated!!

– Kizy