The next morning, Charlie had a run in the community as usual. Soon, he noticed that someone was stalking him.

He looked back, saw Maggie, and furrowed his brow. Maggie persuaded him to speak, "Charlie, this garden runway is about 800 meters. How about a race? If I win, you'll hear my speech. If I lose, I won't disturb you again."

"Why should I race with you? And, how did you get in?"

"That doesn't matter, as for the reason…" Maggie looked at him and continued, "We had a promise."

Charlie was dazed, and a few images flashed across his mind.

In the school infirmary, Maggie's knee was injured, and he promised her a race…

"You'll have a morning jog anyway. I won't hold you up. More importantly, you should keep your words." Maggie added.

"You're really exhausting your means for the sake of your KPI."

"Frankly speaking, I don't want to, but an employee has to obey her boss, otherwise, I'll lose my job." Maggie said seriously, "If you refuse, I promise, you'll see me at various places in the upcoming fortnight. If you want to see me every day, I'm fine."

"You think I like to see you every day?" Charlie asked back with a poker face.

Maggie looked into his eyes and read something. A flash of embarrassment crossed her face, "If you want to get rid of me, race with me." She then reached out her arm, "Sports bracelet, we'll time ourselves, no cheating."

"One last time." Charlie sighed lightly and looked away from her face.

The stopwatch was pressed, and the race started…

They were on a par. Even their paces were similar. In the blink of an eye, they were near the finishing line.

Out of the corner of his eye, Charlie had been looking at her.

He saw the sweat on her forehead, her swaying ponytail, and her effort to prevent herself from panting…

'She hasn't changed a bit.' Charlie thought to himself.

As he was distracted, his pace slowed down. Maggie took her chance and overtook him by quite a bit.

Following a sprint, she went past the finish line.

"I won." Maggie turned around excitedly but suddenly tripped, "Ahhh... huh?"

Charlie scooped her up and pulled her into his arms. Their eyes met. "Extreme joy begets sorrow." He said, following a daze.

"You excel in idioms." Maggie glared at him, stood still, and pushed him away, "Anyway, I won, and you'll listen to my explanation about our partnership."

"I agreed to make up the race and nothing else." Charlie cocked his brow.

"Charlie! Argh!"

Seeing that she was fine, Charlie turned around and headed back to the apartment building. Maggie tried to catch up. "Don't follow me, or I'll blacklist Red Maple," Charlie said without halting his steps.

Maggie stopped and looked at the obnoxious man in a huff. "Pfft, flatter yourself as a domineering boss!" She shouted at him, but there was nothing she could do.

Charlie went home, washed up, changed into a business suit, and came down. Maggie was seen sitting on a bench by the road.

"You're still here."

"Mr. Wilson, I'll ride you to work." Maggie immediately got up, grinned, suddenly felt dizzy, and slumped back down.

"Hypoglycemia again?" In reflex, Charlie put his hand in his pocket and asked.

(To be continued)