….

  [Few Minutes Before]

  ….

  "I am hungry." Stephen Jr. blurted out, reag for the door handle. Without hesitation, he ya open. "I will grab something from the store."

  Stephen Sr. watched in silence as his grandson stepped out, w if the sudde was an excuse to avoid traveling with him. Had the request made him unfortable?

  Unaware of the misuanding his as had caused, Stephen Jr. tioward the venieore.

  It wasn't an unreasonable assumption on Stephen Sr.'s part - this was the first time they had spent more than five miogether in close quarters.

  …Despite how they spoke with a certain ease, it wasn't born of affe. It was simply the result of familiarity, one shaped by indiffereher than warmth, and by the little regard Stephen Jr. had for his grandfather's work.

  Still, Stephen Sr. wasn't oo jump to clusions. He chose to observe instead, watg every movement with quiet scrutiny.

  Under his gaze, Stephen Jr. abruptly halted his walk toward the store, shifting his attention to a small group of three individuals.

  From afar, the exge seemed valued - but the details remained obscured by distance.

  heless, he tinued passively, his face betraying no particur emotion.

  !!-Then something ged.

  "...." His eyes narrowed sharply, his focus drawn to one individual in the group - a young man.

  A flicker of discovery stirred within him.

  For the first time in years since his retirement, his gaze sharpened, slig through his usual stillness.

  Holding onto that feeling, he finally spoke.

  "Jacky…" His voice is almost inaudible, more like a thought esg rather than a questio to be heard. "Why do you think Stephen Hawking became who he is today?"

  Anticipatedly, Jacky, the driver - and a skilled bodyguard - certainly heard it, and in response, his back stiffened, startled by the question and the timing.

  He swallowed. "...Because of your talent?"

  Stephen Sr. he fai glimmer of expectation crossing his face.

  "True." He admitted, his tone carrying both pride and a certaiability.

  Talent had indeed been a defining factor - a gift he had refio its peak, ohat required her modesty nor pretense.

  He had reached a point where humility was unnecessary, if not ht disho.

  Genuine humility had its pce. But not here. Not now.

  But there was more to it, wasn't there?

  He knew better than anyone else that talent alone was not enough.

  His - Eyes.

  They had always sought the light, relentlessly drawn to brilliance wherever it shohrough those eyes, he judged people, pces, moments - anything and everything.

  They had never betrayed him. No, it was always the other way around.

  Opportunities are always around the er - he often told himself.

  All one needed was the vision to seek them out, to search for the fai glimmers of light.

  But as the years passed, his o search had faded.

  His eyes no longer roamed iless pursuit.

  There was no longer a reason to chase fleeting sparks because, in doing so, he had bee something far greater.

  He had bee the light itself - a Sun.

  Yet yesterday, after so many years, his eyes caught it once more - the light.

  At first, he thought it was just another flicker, a fleeting spark buried within the clips his grandson had shown him.

  But Stephen Hawking had been mistaken.

  This wasn't just anht.

  No.

  This was something else - something with the potential to grow beyond mere sparkle.

  Potential to reach him… or perhaps even surpass him.

  It was a refle of the self he had once been - a younger sun, burning with uing brilliance, with an insatiable huo defio shape, to illuminate.

  The truth settled over him like aability he had long refused to aowledge.

  His time had e.

  The light he carried had bzed a path, but the world was vast, unyielding.

  It would not wait for an aging sun to burn indefinitely.

  Now, his own glow was fading.

  …and before him now stood the new sun - a star so brilliant it left him awe for the first time in decades.

  The world had already chosen.

  There could only ever be one sun in the sky.

  And today, he bore wito the dawn of the .

  Drawn by an undeniable force, Stephen Sr. stepped out of the car - he o see it up close to firm what he already knew.

  And then, their eyes met.

  A beat of silence.

  "...." - "...."

  For a fleeting moment, it felt as if the sun itself had turs gaze upon him.

  He had been seen.

  "Wanna talk?"

  The young man's voice cut through the stillness, steady and fident, effortlessly reag Stephen Sr.'s ears.

  He gestured casually, adding. "It's a det pce. Trust me."

  Stephen Sr.'s lips curved ever so slightly in a wry smile.

  An etric type, huh?

  He murmured the thought to himself. This kid was going to cause a lot of trouble. The kind that rattles the industry, shakes the foundations.

  Then again, trouble had always been the birthpce of brilliance.

  "Sure. Why not?"

  With that, he started walking.

  Uhe stunned gazes of Seren, Keanu, and Stephen Jr., the two men, Regal, and Stephen Sr., moved in sync, heading toward the venieore.

  Regal, utterly unfazed, slid his hands into his pockets.

  "So, what's the deal? You like the movie or something?"

  Stephen Sr. let out a small, amused exhale at the direess. "I did."

  A few steps behind, Seren leaoward Keanu, her voice barely above a whisper.

  "Is that… really him? Stephen Sr.? As iephen Hawking?"

  Her eyes never left the two figures walking away.

  Keanu gave a slow, stiff nod. "Yeah. No doubt about it. I just… I didn't expect to see him here of all pces."

  Seren blinked, struggling to her head around the gravity of it.

  "I mean, it's not every day you run into a celebrity."

  Kea out a short chuckle, shaking his head.

  "Yeah… It's even crazier if it is Regal."

  Seren smirked. "This feels surreal. I mean, Stephen Sr. He's, what do you even say to someone like that?"

  Keanu shot her a dry look.

  "Apparently," he said, deadpan. "You say, 'So, you like the movie or something?'"

  Finally, Stephen Jr. snapped out of his stunned daze as he noticed the two nearing the entrance of the venieore.

  Immediately he hurried forward, exasperated.

  "What are you doing out here?" He asked, his voice a bit higher than usual. "If anynizes you, it's going to be a nightmare to handle!"

  Stephen Sr. g his grandson, his expression unreadable. He was calm, almost too calm, as if this was just another day.

  "He's got a point," Regal added, nodding thoughtfully as he held the door open to the store. "Let's head inside. Easier to talk when we're not causing a se."

  Stephen Sr. gave a small nod of agreement at the suggestion.

  Stephen Jr. stared at them, his fusion mounting by the sed. "Wait… that's it? You're just... going along with this?"

  Before he could get an answer, Stephen Sr. was already iepping casually into the store, with Regal following closely behind him.

  Moving ahead, Regal called out to the person behind the ter. "Yo, boss! Think we close up a little early tonight? Oh, and we will need extra chairs."

  The cashier, who was mid-shift and clearly unprepared for this sudden turn of events, blinked in stunned silence. "Uh… what?"

  Stephen Jr. stood frozen, his mind struggling to catch up with what he was witnessing, a cocktail of disbelief and frustration painted across his face.

  Behind, Keanu leaoward him, whispering. "Does this happen a lot, or should we be ed?"

  Stephen Jr. shook his head. "If you are looking fic with that old man, you're in the wrong pce."

  ….

  .

  [To be tinued…]

  ★─────??★??─────★

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