Kai had no idea what was going on with these two but quickly summarized that this was the girl Qian had mentioned in passing a few days ago. The girl he wanted to date from the convenience store and felt shitty for his cousin’s bad luck. That stupid nickname he had since he was a kid because he was always put in the corner for naughty behavior. A joke about wearing a dunce hat with a D for his entire life.
Who knew it would cause this kind of confusion?
Suying couldn’t stop staring at Qian even though it was killing her. Searching for the soft kindness of the boy who had kissed her last night and getting a shut door instead. He wasn’t even reacting as though he knew this moment would come and had prepared for it. No hint of care about hurting her.
Her gorgeous, sweet, funny, confident possible boyfriend was standing as still as a statue, eyes on her, yet there was nothing on the surface except a closed-down persona and no hint of emotional turmoil.
Qian swallowed to push down the throbbing lump rising in his throat and concentrated fully on his breathing to ensure he didn’t betray how much he was aching. He didn’t know what else to say because he knew it was pointless and not defending himself was the better option. He couldn’t lie to her and therefore couldn’t say a word. It was better if he let her think whatever she wanted to and believe a lie, and at least it would spare him the hell of breaking up before they even started. He didn’t think he had it in him to be the one to do it.
She would have a reason to cut ties this way and end this, a reason to hate him, and then she would move on faster. They would end before they started, and with their little contact, she wouldn’t dwell on it for long.
That’s what he told himself.
They couldn’t be anything when they were on two sides of this mess. Qian had always been this person who completely dedicated himself to someone he cared about and was staunchly loyal to this point. Kai was his cousin, like a brother, and this situation was already messy enough. He had to be the realist here and know the conflict it would bring them if they went past today together.
They had no future.
She was the best friend of a woman who hurt his family. Camp Meilei while he was Camp Kai, and that would never change.
He kept repeating it to himself and knew it was kinder to stop before she got really hurt. He didn’t have the ability to tell her it was over because he didn’t want to say those words to her. He couldn’t. Silence was his only tool, and he could bear the weight of her loathing him.
“Don’t you have any explanations?” Suying was wavering, unable to stop the tears from forming fully.
Qian wracked his brain for any words. The family poker face was strong, and he prided himself on having the same ability as Kai to keep everything hidden from view.
Ripping his soul to shreds as that genuine open face pinched up into almost doll-like despair. The wounded expression, her large damp eyes, and her slight lip wobble broke him in two. He knew he was being a giant asshole, and all he wanted was to go back to last night and wrap his arms around the girl in the car park. Not the Doctor standing in front of him that he could never be with.
Kai remained silent, letting Qian deal with this how he saw fit, yet he could tell because he knew him so well he was struggling to act this way toward her. Qian had always been easy-going and warm-hearted; this face and manner were reserved only for handling business, and he had never used it on any girl or woman.
He knew Qian had decided to end things and intervened instead of watching this excruciating scene.
Suying spun on Kai, blinking at him like he were an equal conspirator to her pain, and hit him with that same wounded face. Poised and ready for a verbal attack on his lowlife methods.
Qian heard Kai, yet he stuck to his onward path. Drowning their voices out with his deafening heartbeat as blood rushed through his ears. Marching at speed to the main door, he pulled out his family card and scanned the infrared panel beside it before letting himself out without looking back. He let it swing hard behind him and turned left into the empty corridor before letting out the breath he had been holding and slumping against the nearest wall. His legs gave out on him, and now he could release all the effort he had been using to get him out here. Clutching his chest where immense stabbing pain was kicking his ass.
He slid down and sat on the floor, ending in a haphazard heap, and his expression gave way to one of devastation as his eyes misted over. Fighting himself to keep on top of his emotions and not cry. Deliberately banging the back of his skull against the wall and screwing up his face hating himself for what he just did to her. Feeling a regret he had never experienced.
His cousin died. She was like a sister to him.
He could never put that aside and be with someone who could love, live with, and defend the person who hurt her.
Ling read the text and slid her cell away, heading to her meeting with a mixed mood. She was pissed about discovering what happened last night but was also satisfied that Suying would watch over them today. Simmering with pent-up anger, making her forget about her aversion to this first meeting of the day.
Back at work, finally, after that dumb convention, she smoothed down her pencil skirt, adjusted her blouse for cleavage-popping vavoom, and lifted her chin higher as she tossed her long wavy hair over her shoulder and adjusted her large bag. She had come ready for battle today. Dressing for maximum sexy to show that idiot she was no man’s throw away one nightery. She had chosen to dismiss him and not vice versa.
She pushed open the boardroom door, knowing she was ten minutes early, but she wanted to be seated and engrossed in her laptop when Tian walked in to avoid that awkwardness. They had this uncanny knack for always arriving simultaneously, like somehow their thoughts always lined up, and it was annoyingly hard to dodge him. She had been purposely late to avoid him in the car park and the elevator today, knowing that man would never be late for anything in his life.
Strolling into the empty room, she almost tripped over her stilettos when she came face to face across the wide table with him standing there, setting down his laptop and a file on the surface before him. Ling’s heart jumped into her mouth as they connected, and they had a moment of extreme tense weirdness. She quickly averted her eyes as shame drenched her and pasted on a cheery smile like his presence wasn’t a big deal.
Tian stiffened, looking anywhere but at her, aware of how stuffy the room suddenly became as he watched her walk in. Inwardly heaving a sigh and gritting his teeth before avoiding her, focusing on the PowerPoint he had set up for the monthly review.
Ling stuck her boobs out and waltzed as confidently as she could to the kitchen counter where the coffee machine was. Pretending to ignore his presence entirely, dismissing the static charge that seemed to zap in the air between them, and was sure she could feel his eyes boring a hole into her back. Impulsively, she glanced around to catch him, throwing on a sarcastic half-smile, but her face fell when she realized he was stooped down and typing into his laptop instead. Seeming like he had no interest in her presence.
She pouted, irritated by his blank and dismissive attitude, and turned back to focus on banging every item of the coffee setup she could touch.
Screw Tian Jerkface Wang.
Tian’s eye twitched at the ringing, clanging, and banging she was doing over there, trying not to breathe as that invasive perfume floated his way, and he experienced several flashbacks. That smell was haunting him, and he had even considered having his nasal nerves lasered to remove it.