"I'm sure. She's not here, and she won't be. She hasn't been invited," Bastion comforted Ryder as he pulled him and Shu towards the lift.

All three of them got inside the lift, which took them to the second floor.

They reached room number 13. Bastion opened the door and entered inside.

The room was pretty large. It was a private room that was big enough for fifty people to stay inside comfortably.

There were couches for people to sit and a table in front of them.

A big OLED tv was fitted on the wall. There were speakers on all four sides of the room.

"Ryder, you're here. Man, I'm sorry for what happened." Dan exclaimed as he saw Ryder. He was the Club President of the Book Club. He was also the person that had the job of inviting people for the reunion. He had gone with Bastion to Ryder's house.

Dan walked closer to Ryder and hugged him.

" I seriously didn't know about her returning to the city, but I promise she won't be here. I haven't sent her the invitation. You can rest assured and have fun today," Dan told Ryder in a low voice so the others wouldn't hear.

"Hey, Ryder! Long time no see. What have you been up to, man?"

" Can't you see? He has been working out. He looks more fit now."

"Hahaha, Yeah. Ryder used to be less interested in his body and more interested in his laptop and in books. It's good to see that he has started putting the focus on his body."

"Come, sit, man. The food and snacks are already ordered. They'll be here soon. First, the celebration and then the party."

All the guys and the girls present in the room had a friendly relation to Ryder. They were all happy that Ryder was here.

Ryder couldn't help but smile as he saw the warm welcome. It had been so long since he met these people. Most of them had moved out of the city after graduating. They probably came the long way for the Reunion.

"Thanks, guys. You all are looking great as well. Anyway, this is my brother, Shu. He'll be joining us today. I hope you will welcome him," Ryder greeted them back before he introduced Shu.

"Ah, right. Bastion and Dan told us that you'd be bringing a friend. He must be a great friend for you to call him brother," One of the guys let out as he chuckled

"Hello, Little brother Shu."

"Hello."

"Good to meet you."

"How are you?"

One after another, everyone started greeting Shu.

"Hello Everyone, It's nice to meet you all," Shy replied with a smile on his face.

"Let's sit," Ryder told Shu and the others before he found an empty couch to sit on. Shu, Bastion, and Dan sat beside him.

" Man, Shu looks great. I want to have a healthy body like him. My wife keeps scolding me for being too thin. Brother Shu, please help me gain some weight." One of the men suddenly said to Shu.

Even though he talked about Shu's weight in some way, Shu and the others knew that his intentions weren't to insult him. That guy probably wanted to gain weight for serious.

"You idiot, Do you think he has opened a gym for you? Just eat and be happy. Don't worry about life and enjoy." another man replied before Shu could.

"If that was working, do you think I would ask him? I want to know about the secret of weight gain. The techniques of gym owners and the others were useless. This body of mine refuses to gain fat," The man replied as he sighed.

"That happens. My doctors told me about that. There are some people that have a different metabolism. No matter how much they eat, they don't get fat. Anyway, I would just tell you to keep eating what you actually like. Stop worrying about weight. You look perfectly fine just the way you are. You don't need to change yourself," Shu answered the man as he sighed.

"Yeah, Isn't this just your wife wanting a chubby hubby now? She must've seen some chubby actor or something that became her favorite. Don't mind the weight," Dan also chimed in as he laughed.

The others also started laughing.

After some time, there was a knock on the door.

"Looks like the food is here. Come on in!" Dan called out.

The door was open, and the waiters brought the food and the wine bottles along with the cutlery.

After setting up everything, they left.

" Man, this brings back memories. Do you remember how we all used to eat after our club meeting? Those were some fun days," One of the men let out as he saw the food.

" Yeah, those were some fun times," Dan chimed in.

" I agree. The club was the best thing about the college life. Reading books after and spending time together," Bastion said as he reminisced about the past.

" I would believe those words coming out of anyone's mouth except you. Do you really think we don't know that you joined the club to hook up with girls," One of the girls present in the room laughed as she looked at Bastion teasingly.

"Well, you can say hooking up was an advantage of being in such a prestigious Club filled with beautiful ladies. You can't say I didn't like books just because I liked women," Bastion chuckled as he looked back at the girl.

"Also, you girls were just so pretty. You can't blame me for falling for you girls," he added.

"Hahaha, here comes our flirting king, Bastion. Man, you were the exact opposite of Ryder. I still wonder how you two were best friends. You spent your college life with multiple women, and Ryder spent it after..." Another girl started saying something, but she stopped herself as she remembered that she made a mistake.

She had forgotten about Ryder's bad past related to that girl. She couldn't help but regret her words. She also saw a lot of the people in the room glaring at her.

Ryder, on the other hand, didn't look phased at all.

"It's fine. You can continue. I spent my college life chasing after a single girl only to then..." Ryder started replying. The only way to put this thing behind was to address it once and for all, but before he could continue, he stopped as he heard Janus' words.

' What the heck? Make the next girl who enters the room cry? Who is he talking about? The room service didn't have any girls. Also, all the girls from the book club are already here except..." Ryder thought till here and stood up shocked as he came to an assumption.

"What happened?" Bastion asked Ryder as he also stood up.

There was suddenly a knock on the door.

" Ah, it should be Maximul. He said he was going to be late. Come on inside, Max," Dan said as he looked at the door.

The door was open, and a man entered inside the room.

Ryder somewhat relaxed as he saw that it was a man and not the person he was thinking.

"Hey, guys, Sorry for being late but guess who I found on the way?" Max let out as he laughed.

He looked back and said to someone, "Come on inside."

Ryder saw another person entering the room, and it was the same person that he didn't want to see at all.

It was a girl who was wearing a beautiful red dress. The girl had beautiful eyes.

Ryder simply stood there with a blank look on his face. He looked to his side at Dan with a look that could kill.

Dan started sweating as he saw the girl. He didn't understand how the girl was here. He didn't even invite her here.

"I can't believe you guys forgot to invite her. I was coming here and saw her going in the opposite direction. Imagine my surprise after knowing that she wasn't invited. I knew you guys would make some blunder. Forgetting a member. Hah, I guess I should've expected that. Last time also, you forgot to invite a few people," Max laughed as he rubbed his head.

Dan wanted to kill Max for making such a big blunder. That Idiot didn't understand that it was intentional that they didn't invite her. Now, they couldn't do anything. They just couldn't tell her to leave outright. They had to be civil. Dan knew that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Ah, I can't believe I forgot to send her an invitation. I swear I remembered her. There must have been some mixup," Dan replied as he started sweating.

_____________________________________________________

{{ Announcement:IMPORTANT: Trick Or Treat Giveaway. (Halloween 2020)

As Discord is released a new fun bot for Halloween, we'll be using that for this giveaway.

To take part, all you need to do is join the Discord Server.

The winner of this will receive a Nitro as a gift and a Character named after them in this Novel.

Happy Halloween guys. Link to discord is in the synopsis of the novel. }} {Note: This won't increase the chapter cost}