It was a good thing that Wendy was in a dimly-lit restaurant right now.
It meant that she didn’t have to reply him with a flushed face.
Seeing as she didn’t say anything, Henson raised an eyebrow. “You’re always avoiding my questions, but you know that your problems don’t just magically disappear when you decide to hide from them, right? I’m sure you know this already,” he said.
“Then… Let me ask YOU a question,” she asked sheepishly.
“Ask away,” he said.
“Do you love me?” she asked while biting her lip.
“More than ever,” he laughed.
“Then… Who do you think is more important to you, Daisy or me?”
Her question managed to shut him up.
“Why are you comparing yourself to her?” he asked after a while.
“Is it that hard to make a decision?” she shot back.
“Of course you’re more important to me,” he answered in a hushed voice after a while.
“Henson, the fact that you hesitated already tells me that you’re still unsure of who’s more important to you between the both of us. So, after weighing all the pros and cons, you thought that since Daisy already has Mason, that meant that now I’m the one who should be important to you, is that right?” she probed.
“Everyone has a past, Wendy. I don’t think it’s a good thing to hold on to the past when dealing with things in the present,” he explained.
“You’re not wrong. I have a past too, albeit an ugly one at that, which is why I refuse to be swept away in the heat of the moment for a man who’s still hesitating to make a choice between me and another woman.
What I want is not for you to be infatuated with me, but is that you love me back even if it’s just a little, and it would be best if that love eventually grew over time. I don’t want to be unsure about the fact that… I don’t feel safe around men, which is also why I don’t trust men as easily as I used to anymore.
And it’s precisely because of this distrust that I felt so much anguish when Gorman stabbed me in the back. But instead of confronting both Gorman and Gill, I decided to hold on to the pain all by myself and to shut him out, never giving him the chance to explain himself before eventually breaking up with him. He said that I was stubborn, but only I knew that the reason I became the person I was was because he, who’d once given me a sense of security, had destroyed it with his own hands.
I know I’m not the wisest person when it comes to my emotions, but I don’t think you can fathom how frightening the trauma Ken left me was. All I can say is that if it weren’t for the fact that I’d already put all my insecurities and fears behind me, I wouldn’t have moved on so easily after falling in love with someone.
This is why I’ve always treated you poorly even though you’ve been good to me all this while. It isn’t because you’re not good enough for me, or that you loved someone else before. It’s just that I feel extremely insecure knowing that you had someone else in your heart before me and that you’ll never be able to forget about her completely.
Everyone’s selfish, Henson, but I’m even more so. Yesterday, you said that I didn’t know how to love myself, but I’ll tell you now that you’re wrong because I love myself a lot. And because I love myself so much, I won’t give myself up so easily to any man, because I’m scared of any uncertainties that might pop up in the future. I’m scared that if I give you my heart, you might shatter it into tiny pieces one day,”
After she finished her speech, he fell silent for a long time.
He had an inkling that she always felt insecure, but he didn’t think that the fear in her heart would seep in so deeply…
While looking at her in the dark, the lights suddenly came on.
She’d closed her eyes before this, so when she opened them again, she’d already adapted to the bright light.
She glanced at him and slowly put down her cutlery. “So, I’ll make the choice you couldn’t make just now for you,” she declared and got up from her seat. She then picked up her handbag and left.
…
……
Henson had come back later than usual.
Wendy glared at the door to her room while sitting up on the bed.
There wasn’t so much as a peep from the door even after a long time. It appeared that Henson had already retired to his room.
“He… must be angry,” she thought.
After all, a man of his status would never have been rejected by a woman so many times before, right?
When he saw that she wasn’t there after going downstairs the next day, he immediately turned to Donald the butler and asked, “Where’s Wendy?”
“Miss Evans left half an hour ago. She said that there would be a basketball match going on in the university in the next couple of days, so she had to leave early,” he replied curtly.
His expression turned chilly and he didn’t say anything as he strolled up to the dining table to have his breakfast alone.
She still hadn’t returned when he arrived home from work in the evening.
His face turned icy cold. “Did you call her yet?” he asked the butler.
“Baron had phoned her and got news that she needed to work overtime and had to stay back until quite late,” he declared.
A hint of annoyance flashed across his face. “Tell Baron to come back,” he ordered.
“Noted, Mr. Charles. Do you want to have your dinner now, sir?” Donald asked politely.
“Not now,” he said and left without even changing his clothes.
After what she’d said last night, was she planning on never meeting him again?
He then hopped into his car and sped off in the direction of the university.
After polishing her dinner in the university’s cafeteria, Wendy headed back to her office right away.
All the other teachers had already clocked out at the time.
She’d planned to stay in the office for the night then head back to Big City tomorrow, seeing as there weren’t any paparazzi there.
She planned to continue staying at her place if they stopped lurking there, but she also decided to hunt for a new place entirely if they hadn’t.
Since she’d already poured her heart out to him, it would definitely be inappropriate to continue staying over at his place willy-nilly.
It was a particularly chilly night in early November,
so Wendy stopped by the washroom to wash her face. Upon exiting the room, the lights in the corridor flickered all of a sudden. This made her anxious.
Back then, Judy had often told her scary stories that happened in this university when they were room mates.
The story they kept coming back to was coincidentally also the most famous story circulating on campus… There was no doubt that the female teacher in red from twenty years ago had decided to make another appearance in the middle of the night in the office building once more.
Previously when she told the story, she’d brushed it off as a joke.
But… she was standing in the corridor near the offices now.
Judy’s voice suddenly rang in her head.
“Twenty years ago, there was a female teacher who got into a relationship with one of her students. After she was caught by the university, the student refused to admit that they were in a relationship in order to secure a good future for himself and even went so far as to accuse the teacher of seducing him. Back then, she couldn’t bear the stares of the masses so she hung herself in her office on a dark, windy night, while clad head to toe in red.
Rumour has it that if a person hangs themselves at midnight while clad in red, they’d turn into an evil spirit. So after her death, she turned into an evil spirit and went to harass the student every night. In the end, he had a mental breakdown and had to leave his grand plans behind, and he dropped out after that.
From then on, there had been many reports from teachers who’d worked overtime about them seeing a reddish shadow lurking in the corridors, coupled with the clattering sounds of a pair of leather shoes… This is why there’s a tradition in the office at the North Wing of the university – that nobody does overtime.”
Wendy started shivering. “Judy, you rascal! Why are you so good at telling scary stories?!” she muttered under her breath.
She then took a deep breath and stepped towards the door of the office.
However, right at this moment … She heard the sound of footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs.
Her heart instantly dropped and she could feel all the hairs on her body stand for some reason.