By Zephyria 
So that’s why he went into the basement.
As if answering the hidden question, Grayson nodded.
“Well, it’s less boring than being alone.”
Dane fell silent again. His colleagues, having finished preparing to leave, were waiting behind him, as if he was lost in complex thoughts. He had noticed this fact a while ago, but Dane didn’t turn around. There were still questions left.
“Why can’t you get out?”
Asking why he didn’t bring the child out in the first place and instead went in, Grayson answered without hesitation this time as well.
“What’s the point? He’ll just get punished again, and it’ll only make the time longer.”
Soon after, he frowned and shrugged.
“I almost made it, but because you took Santiano, I had to stay there instead. I had to tell them that Santiano didn’t leave there of his own will. I’m a witness, you see.”
Again, Dane was silent. He looked at Grayson with a complex gaze that was hard to decipher, and after a few seconds of silence, he opened his mouth.
“So, you’re saying you’re proud of what you did?”
“I was just trying to help.”
Grayson responded without hesitation this time as well.
“I always do my best, but people get angry every time. Why is that? I don’t understand.”
Dane simply stared at him, at the expression on his face that was even more aggrieved. His face clearly showed the complexity of his thoughts, but Grayson didn’t notice.
Just then, Ezra, who couldn’t wait any longer, shouted from behind him.
“Dane! What are you doing? Come on, let’s go back!”
Looking over, everyone was already in the car, and only Ezra was left, waving his arm from the open car door. Dane didn’t say anything more and turned around. After taking a couple of steps, Grayson suddenly asked from behind.
“Do you also think I did something wrong?”
Dane turned around. The damn smile was gone from Grayson’s face. With a blank face that showed no emotion, Dane coldly opened his mouth.
“Don’t help.”
He muttered with a face as cold as his tone.
“Don’t do anything, you.”
With those words, Dane strode to the car and got in. As Ezra followed him into the car, he whispered softly.
“Why bother with that guy? He’s out of his mind.”
The other guys didn’t look much different. They probably heard the conversation with Grayson as a matter of course. Dane sat in the empty seat without saying anything. Grayson also got into the car a beat later, but he didn’t say a word until they returned. However, he occasionally turned his gaze towards Dane, but Dane stubbornly fixed his gaze on the opposite side and didn’t move at all.
-I love you, Dane.
In his memory, a red-haired woman hugged him tightly and whispered.
-My precious treasure, you’re the only one for me.
As the forgotten memory resurfaced, his expression naturally turned desolate. Frowning to shake off the unwelcome memory, Dane closed his eyes and thought. I was going to go to the club today, but it’s ruined. He doesn’t look for a sex partner when he’s in a bad mood, so even though tomorrow is his day off, he decided to go straight home after work. He’ll have to sleep with Darling tonight, he thought.
Desire Me if you can
That son of a bitch.
In the car returning to the fire station, Grayson began to seethe inside. What the hell was that look? What was he thinking when he looked at me? Why?
It was the first time he had seen such an expression. He couldn’t figure out what it meant at all. He groaned in annoyance.
From long ago, Grayson Miller had difficulty distinguishing people’s expressions. Perhaps there was a defect in his brain from birth. His father, Ashley Miller, offered him a way to help his son, who was struggling because he couldn’t read emotions, unable to tell if someone was smiling or angry.
-Learn how to read emotions.
After that, famous teachers specializing in acting and psychology frequently visited the mansion to teach him cold reading. At first, it started simply, like a raised corner of the mouth meant smiling, and a lowered one meant sadness, but later, he memorized everything, down to the innermost thoughts revealed by even the slightest movement of a finger.
Fortunately, Grayson had an exceptional talent for cold reading. He absorbed everything he was taught like a sponge, and quickly went beyond recognizing the other person’s feelings to even discerning what they wanted with just a glance.
Conversely, he was also excellent at using his knowledge to imitate the emotions that another person would feel in the same situation, pretending to be ‘that way’. Thanks to this, he used what he had read to perfectly create the image of himself that the other person wanted. So much so that anyone who didn’t know about his innate defect and acquired efforts would be completely fooled. The teacher who taught him acting even recognized his talent and seriously recommended it to him.
-Why don’t you consider a career in this field? I’ll talk to Miller, you definitely have talent! How wonderful would it be to stand on the red carpet with Chase? Huh?
The teacher was so sincere, but Grayson refused. He knew his limitations clearly.
He was only ‘imitating’. Because of that, he couldn’t do the deep inner acting like his younger brother Chase Miller, who was a top actor and recognized for his outstanding acting skills. In fact, even when watching Chase’s movies, Grayson would just watch with a feeling close to learning, thinking, ‘Ah, in this situation, they express it like this,’ and never admired the acting. He couldn’t feel the emotions. He could know if they were crying, screaming, or laughing through learning, but he couldn’t understand ‘why’.
Above all, he only ‘acted’ and matched to the other person in the case of someone he judged to be ‘destiny’. He put all his efforts into displaying what he had learned to more than 120 percent, and because of that, they, regardless of gender, fell deeply in love with Grayson. The problem was that he was ruthless when it came to abandoning them.
Anyway, for that reason, Grayson Miller had never failed until now. Even if the other person initially shunned him or had negative feelings, giving them expensive gifts and saying a few plausible words would make them fall for him as if they couldn’t resist. Conversely, he hated those who hated him terribly. A being who received both abundant love and intense hatred, that was Grayson Miller.
Of course, all those reactions were just ridiculous to him. Ultimately, whether they hated him or loved him, the fact that they couldn’t stand his existence was the same. Love and hate are one.
So, until now, he had lived looking down on everyone in the world.
What the hell does that expression mean?
He was going crazy with curiosity. Grayson had learned all the emotional expressions in the world and had perfectly mastered them. But this was the first time he had seen such an incomprehensible expression.
He needs to know what it is.
Grayson even felt impatient. There shouldn’t be any emotions he doesn’t know. He needs to know what it means, even if he has to strangle Dane Striker right now. Right now.