To Live Again, For the First Time!

"Yes, this lady over here will be joining us too." Lisa indicated, pointing at Emilin who stood right beside her.

Owen was slightly stunned at that moment. He hadn't noticed her right then even though she was clearly standing right in front of him. How strange...

Emilin, on the side, nodded in greeting.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Owen," he introduced himself.

Even though the female wasn't particularly noticeable, she was interesting enough.

"Emilin. Likewise."

It was then that 2 more presences made their way into the lobby room, which was by now, completely overcrowded.

"What are you all doing crowding here? Can't some of you wait outside?" Noah's eyes twitched when he saw the sheer number of people waiting here.

There should be over 20 people gathered around, and this lobby wasn't particularly big. It didn't have to be, after all, the studio was only that expanse and as previously mentioned, they didn't really even have a need for this lobby.

They weren't going to be going easy on his wallet.

"We can't let your wallet run off without us."

Someone in the midst of the crowd shouted before the person standing beside him covered his mouth.

The second guy smiled and said, "This guy means that we were just too excited to eat a meal that the great Noah is offering to pay for."

To be fair, that wasn't much better... still better, just not by a great margin.

Still, the mood was good and everyone chucked as people started teasing Noah one by one.

Emilin couldn't help but marvel at how great the atmosphere was, somewhat amazed at how everyone interacted with Noah.

The conversation just naturally seemed to revolve around him, and even when it didn't, people still gave Noah glances as if to ask him whether there was anything he would like to input into the conversation.

They were all at ease.

This went way beyond just his good looks, though it probably had some level of influence on his likability. Just the atmosphere around him seemed to allow for others to open up to him.

"All right, all right. Let's stop with these small games and get to the big tables. You can keep talking while we are eating, the sooner we get there the more time we have to take bites off of Noah's credit reserves."

Mason laughed. 

He was the one who knew how to really get on Noah's nerves, and the results were clear just from the nasty glare Noah shot at Mason, signally that he was ready to just bite Mason's head right off.

Mason ignored it all and promptly made his way outside, and the others followed suit as they all got into their vehicles to get to Carlson's, the seafood restaurant they were splurging at.

Owen, Noah, Emilin, Mason, and Lisa all got off a grey Rolls Royce in front of an inviting restaurant. From the outside, you could tell that there were two floors and the entirety of the filled up first floor could be seen through the window panels that doubled as walls.

As for the second floor, there were balconies and a proper wall and so the people from the outside couldn't really tell what was going on inside. However, despite there being quite a few of those balconies open, there wasn't much noise traveling to the outside.

Then again, it was quite early.

"How long will you be able to keep us company?" Mason asked Owen, who had come out of the car right before him as they had been sitting together.

"I won't stay too long, I have another appointment in around an hour, but thankfully it's close by," Owen replied as he glanced at his watch.

Unlike others, who mainly used their expensive watches as decoration, Owen used it to tell the time. 

It was quite convenient if he may say so himself, highly recommended.

Owen didn't want to comment on the number of times he had seen business partners who simply used their watches as decorations or a sign of prestige.

And how could he tell?

Well simply from the fact that the time on the watch was completely off. And let's not even talk about how the minute was so off that they wouldn't even be able to blame it on time zones if it were pointed out.

Which at some point Owen stopped doing. He realized it was just embarrassing for the other party if he said it out loud, and that even if he said it, it probably wasn't going to change their habits of reaching out for their phones to look at the time, and so he stopped bothering.

"Then you must eat as much as possible before leaving," Mason ecstatically said.

Owen was flabbergasted as he looked at this person, completely unlike the photographer he had met a few days back.

Mason acted like a friendly pauper and though Owen didn't know the exacts of his true wealth, Owen could estimate.

And let's just be frank here, no matter how low his estimate was, it was still in the millions, perhaps more.

If he were to compare they would be like 2 different species, the friendly pauper vs the rude, obnoxious, annoying, strict demon with a camera.

Though to be honest, Owen didn't really have the right to say that.

If any one of the workers during that photoshoot could read Owen's thoughts, they would probably say he was the pot calling the kettle black.

He shifted his gaze to Noah, who seemed to have finally gone numb from having all these money suckers around him and so when he saw Owen looking at him as if to ask for his opinion on the matter, Noah just lightly shrugged.

"Well, I would really love to, but it just so happens that my next appointment is a dinner appointment, so I will have to reject your kind offer."

"That's a shame."

"Well what did you expect old man, it's an appointment at 7 PM, if it's not to eat then what else is he going to do?" Noah scoffed.

"It's you who's abnormal, coming to eat at six," he continued to complain.

"Well the saying does go, the early bird gets the worm."

Emilin nearly staggered when she heard Mason talking.

'I don't think that's how you use that saying...' she thought, 'and this isn't really early per se either.'

"Let's go then, we should get in there as soon as possible so that we can get started sooner, eat more, and then get home before tomorrow comes!"

Emilin could see a small skip in Mason's steps, it seemed like he was truly quite happy.

As for Noah, he didn't believe a fart coming from Mason's mouth.

'Ha. Getting home before 12? I'd be lucky if you all stopped eating after closing hours at 4 AM!' Noah snorted at the thought.

"You've finally come! Let's go, let's go in then! Do you know how long we've been waiting here?"

Apparently, everyone else had already gotten here much earlier as they were all crowding at the entrance of the restaurant waiting for their boss's arrival, seeing as he was the one with the reservation.

"Sorry guys, we made you all wait," Mason smiled amicably.

"Since Mr. Noah and Mr. Owen were in our car, we weren't able to drive over the speed limit as you have. After all, we have an image to uphold do we not?" Mason continued in a polite tone.

"No problem boss, we could wait another 10 minutes!"

Everyone else burst into laughter, well with the exception of the group of 4 who had come with Mason.

"What do you mean 'our car', that's clearly my car," Noah jokingly complained, loud enough for everyone else to hear.

"Now now, don't say that." Mason waved his hand as if talking with Noah.

But that was not the case, in fact, he had completely ignored Noah, instead of waving at that employee who had previously shouted enthusiastically that they could wait.

"Of course you can't wait! You've all worked hard and you've all earned this meal, so how could we make you wait?" Mason smirked.

"That's why you should all eat till your heart's content!" Mason said as he led the way, moving through the crowd.

Emilin was impressed.

This man was a whole deal more shameless than her previous image of him, after all, he was able to talk as if he was the one paying for the whole meal, acting all generous when everyone knew that that was clearly not the case.

Thumbs up to him.

Mason told the waiter his name, which was also the one that he used for the reservation and a designated waiter directed the whole group to their table.

The tables were actually just tables for 4 all placed one after another, but they could hardly tell considering the great craftsmanship. It was as if the tables simply became one. It was good that there wasn't any leg that was too long or short.

Once everyone sat themselves down, occupying 3 tables, each seated with 8 people, the waiter immediately took their order. One would think that it would take long considering how much Mason had pushed them all to order more, but in fact, it really didn't.

That was because when the waiter came, he was given just one order.

"Just get 3 sets of the whole menu please."

Everyone was stunned, including the waiter who had been working at the restaurant for years now.

"Sir are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure, I'm paying after all, right?"