Turning Of the Tide by Diana Sander

At that moment. Leia was in the kitchen with her family, busy making bread for tomorrow's breakfast. Her phone, tucked inside her pocket, emitted a ding sound, but her hands were covered in flour. Her mother knew Leia's job was always busy and was afraid she would delay her work, so she reminded her, "Leia, just leave it toand your dad. Quickly check your phone, maybe there's swork-related message. Don't delay." Her father added, "That's right. It only takes a little while for your mom andto make the bread. Wash your hands quickly and go take a look." After washing her hands, Leia grabbed a tissue to dry them and walked towards the outside. She took out her phone from her pocket and glanced at it. There were many messages, but one of them was from an unknown number, which read, [Hello.] She was hesitating if she should reply. After sthought, she chose to leave the message alone and not reply to the message. If the other end had something important, they would message her without needing her to ask.

However, after a while, the other party didn't send any messages further. Leia found it a bit strange and clicked on the profile picture, but it showed nothing useful.

At Turner Manor, Frank and Trevon as well as their family, had taken their children for a bath. All the family members had returned to their rooms. It was getting late, and it was already 11 o'clock.

Chris lay on the bed, hands crossed behind his head, deep in thought. After a moment, he picked up his phone, gazing at the newly added contact. The chat interface was open, and he began organizing his thoughts before sending a message in his mind. He thought, 'How should | start up the conversation?’ He typed, deleted, typed again, deleted again, and several times over. Finally, in the chat interface, he typed, [I am Chris.] On the other end of the message, Leia never expected that the person adding her would be Chris. She thought it might be a client and replied politely, [Hello.] Seeing the word in response, Chris began to struggle again. After a while, he sent the message finally, [I'm Christina's brother.] Leia read this introduction and could not help but find it amusing. Somehow, she found this attractive doctor a bit cute, momentarily forgetting about Chris's family background, and replied, [I see.] ‘Another two words," thought Chris and felt if the conversation continued this way, it would be a dead end. After sthought, he asked, [When are you returning to Athana?] Leia replied, [Scheduled for the sixth of this month, the company resumes work on the eighth.] Chris suggested, [Let's go for a run when we're back to Athana.] Leia agreed and said, [Sure.] Chris replied, [Good night.] Leia was a bit puzzled about Chris's intention to text her. She wondered, 'Was it to invite her for a morning run? If that's the case, aren't they naturally meet when they are back in Athana? There's no need for an invitation." Out of politeness, she replied, [Good night.] Chris looked at the "good night" and felt it was indeed quite late. He lifted the blanket and lay down, but no matter how hard he tried, sleep eluded him. He tossed and turned on the bed, unable to find a comfortable position. A moment later. He suddenly sat up, ready to take a shower to clear his mind.

In another room, one person sat while three stood. After bathing, the children had already fallen asleep, and it seemed that they had played too wildly at night. On the table was an open laptop with a chat interface on the screen. Natalie stared at the screen, somewhat uncertain, and asked, "Is it really okay for us to do this?" The upper half of Ava's body was leaning on Frank's shoulder, all the weight pressing onto him. Her hands played with Frank's earlobes, feeling that what they were doing now was a bit inappropriate. "But if we don't help, | think Chris will continue to be single." As soon as Ava finished speaking, Natalie looked at the messages Chris sent to Leia. Indeed, the progress of the two moved as slow as a snail, and it seemed to be slower than a snail's crawling speed, making people worry.

Trevon, on the other hand, leaned lazily against the edge of the table as if he were watching a show. He curled his lips into a faint smile and said teasingly, "No matter how bad it is, it won't be worse than Chris's own message." He thought, 'I'm Chris? Why don't you say that you're alone?" Trevon looked at the laptop screen with an expression of strong disapproval and scorned Chris in his mind. He completely forgot about his own low emotional intelligence.

Frank's hands were already on the keyboard, ready to start. He asked the others, "What should | send first?" Neither Trevon nor Natalie spoke. For a moment, they didn't know how to embody Chris's character and chat with Leia.

Ava thought for a moment and spoke up, "Well, why not start with 'Are you still there?" Frank's slender fingers tapped the keyboard, and everyone stared at the screen, watching each word being typed. After sending it, they waited. A few minutes later, Leia replied briefly, [Yes. I've got something else to do.] Trevon embraced Natalie, and Natalie leaned to the side. Both of them focused on the screen, curious about the upcoming results.

Ava continued, "I want to tell you something important." After Ava finished speaking, Frank began typing, the crisp and loud sound of the keyboard filling the room. On Leia's side, there was a moment of silence. Her response wasn't very prompt, which read, [Go ahead. Is it about the company?] Frank disguised as Chris and texted, [No, it's not about work. | want to tell you that | seem to have developed feelings for you, and | plan to pursue you.] Tpassed minute by minute, and Leia's side fell silent. She had heard in the afternoon that Chris didn't have a girlfriend, but she never expected him to confess to her tonight. For a moment, Leia didn't know how to reply to Chris. Her mind was a bit blank. During their morning run, Chris occasionally looked at her, and she felt it. Before Leia could react, Chris sent another message, [I'm serious. When | was in Athana, | realized | had feelings for you. | cto Sapphire City this tto confess to you in person, but there were too many people during the day, and | didn't say it after all.] Looking at the long message, Leia compared it with the previous self-introduction and wondered, 'Why is there such a big difference? Is it the sperson who sent both messages?’ She was skeptical and replied, [Are you Stella?] Seeing these words, everyone laughed. Each person had a different degree of amusement on their faces, laughing at Chris. Ava reminded, "Frank, type the self-introduction Chris just sent earlier." Frank quickly sent, [I am Chris, Christina's brother. Do you have feelings for me? | am very aware of my feelings for you and am sincerely telling you about this.] Natalie stared at the screen, feeling a bit nervous. She thought they were taking it too far. "Are you sure this level of directness won't scare her away?" Deep in her mind, she thought, 'Won't she block Chris?" Frank appeared confident, smiling lightly. "Let's bet on whether the bachelor becomes a married man." Natalie was speechless, whereas Trevon pulled his lips, creating a beautifully curved smile, a playful look in his eyes.

"Let's bet on him becoming a priest and never get married." Standing on the side, Ava was amazed at the two's imagination.

After about ten minutes, the interface showed that the other party was typing. Natalie guessed. "She must be preparing to reject him." Sure enough, Leia sent a short message, [Mr. Yamin. First of all, | thank you for liking me. However, | don't want to be in a relationship right now.] Frank typed, [Is there something you don't like about me? I'm a doctor, you like doctors. I'm not too old, | have money, looks, and more than enough in every aspect. I'm wondering which part ofthat you are dissatisfied with?] Ava praised, lifting a big thumbs up in front of Frank, saying, "Frank, your tone sounds just like Chris." Leia replied, [You are fine. However, our family backgrounds are simply not on the slevel.] Frank texted, [So you're saying you don't dislike me, it's just that I'm too wealthy. As for family background, you don't need to consider it at all. My mom would only think I'm not good enough for you. After all, I'm not a young lad anymore but still have no girlfriend.] Leia looked at the received message and couldn't help but smile. She didn't feel awkward and recalled what Quinn said during the day, how Chris's mother even placed the Bible in his room and threatened him to beca priest and practice celibacy for a lifetif he did not try harder to get a girlfriend.

Frank continued, [You can think about it. Whether you agree or not, | will pursue you. | will make you my girlfriend.] From the choice of words, it was clear that Chris wasn't joking. Leia responded, [I'll think it over.] Frank replied, [Okay, rest early. Good night.] Leia didn't reply anymore. Frank also closed the chat interface, saying, "I've given him wings; whether he can fly or not is no longer up to me." Trevon led Natalie out of Frank's room. "Let's go to bed." In another room, Chris had just finished showering and cout of the bathroom. He was about to check the twhen, at that moment of picking up his phone, he almost had a heart attack. The phone shook in his hand and fell to the ground. He wondered, 'What? Why so many unread messages? Was my phone hacked?’ In a panic, he quickly opened his phone to check, logged into online banking to see his account balance, and found no missing money. He pondered, 'Except for... what was the deal with these messages?' He stared in horror at the messages between himself and Leia that seemed to appear out of nowhere, thinking, 'So, | just confessed my feelings to her? And now | am waiting for her consideration?" Chris was utterly confused. He took a shower, and a virus helped him confess? He didn't even have a chance to use the lines he had thought about in the bathroom just now. Sliding the phone screen, he re-read the dialogues that were not sent by himself, trying to gain sinsight, and commented inwardly, ‘More than enough in every aspect? What the hell is this?" A few minutes later, Chris had a suspect. He found Frank's contact and sent a message, [Did you steal my account?] The message went unanswered as if it had sunk to the bottom of the sea. In the other room, Frank was engrossed in his intimate twith Ava, with no tto pay attention to Chris.

They all stayed in Sapphire City until the fifth of the month before returning to Athana. During this time, Leia never replied to Chris's messages. As for Chris, he didn't dare to push too hard, fearing it might backfire.

In the meantime, Christina had the idea of having Leia interact more with Chris. She arranged several meet-ups, but Leia always made excuses, claiming she was busy with something. Christina couldn't force it, so she gave up. Later, she learned from Quinn that her brother had confessed. Of course, Christina and Leia had no idea that this confession was not from Chris but a collaborative effort by Frank, Ava, Natalie, and Trevon.