This dark mood and shitty depression were dragging him down, and as someone upbeat his whole life, he didn’t know how to navigate it. Three days of this never-ending heavy mood made him feel like doing nothing. Not even training on an evening. The thought of going to the gym no longer held any appeal.
He wondered if that sense of urgency had been foreboding all along that he somehow knew they were not meant to be more than a brief interlude.
He knew he should have said something that day, but at the time, he was frozen and couldn’t think. Maybe it was shock, or he had just been a coward, knowing he didn’t have it in him to do it any other way. He felt shitty about leaving her there like that, and perhaps that was why he couldn’t get her out of his head. Replaying it and agonizing over how hurt she looked, how that tearful, broken-hearted expression had been tearing him up for days. No matter how much he told himself that it would never work, she was in his mind’s eye, making him want to see her.
He had never been like this over a girl, and it was making him crazy.
Qian exhaled heavily, checked his watch, and crossed the street to head back faster when he spotted a dark-suited figure heading in the same direction at the opposite crossing. It was a moment of a double take as he scanned the person for no obvious reason and, with disinterest and a slight hum of familiarity, pulled his head to snap back again.
He was sure he had seen him hanging around here in previous days, at a distance, and maybe that’s why he was getting a weird feeling about him. He had never gotten a good look, but he recognized his build, and the expensive suits were a giveaway. The security expert in Qian was pushing him into police mode, and he narrowed his gaze to scrutinize the man’s movements.
There was something shady about how he was walking around that he could not put his finger on. It was more like a feeling that the guy was stalling, holding back, or looking for someone. Dressed like an executive yet acting more like some deadbeat ex, stalking a past girlfriend at her workplace and trying to stay out of obvious sight.
Qian followed the stranger, trying to get even a glimpse of his side profile in passing shop windows, and was more convinced now he knew him. It was definitely the guy who had been hanging around the last couple of days near OTS. A deep stirring of suspicion as he walked at an even pace. They were heading the same way anyway, so he wasn’t exactly following the guy without reason, but he couldn’t shake this weird instinct.
He wondered if this guy was stalking one of their employees, which riled his temper. Qian had always been fiercely protective of the weaker gender and saw it as his duty as a man and an OTS superior to ensure this jackass wasn’t up to anything shady. Watching him and having OTS security flag him as suspicious wouldn’t hurt.
As they approached the OTS building, staff was coming out for lunch, and the man in front of him suddenly sidestepped into an ally, seemingly spotting someone in the distance and turning into the shadow in such an obvious manner. It made Qian stop too, hanging back by more than ten feet, and he turned, dropping his bags to one hand, and pulled out his cell phone. Pretending to use it, he tilted the blank screen to catch the reflection of the man peeking out of his hiding spot instead of directly watching him.
That little maneuver convinced Qian that this guy was up to no good and he was no longer riding just a gut feeling.
Qian didn’t like it. Something inside of him was sending off a million red warning bells, and he scrutinized the dark reflection, finally catching a glimpse of the side profile as he leaned out further to observe the groups of employees leaving OTS’s main doors.
That familiar face had Qian’s stomach clenching in disbelief. Blinking to adjust his focus and staring harder, he couldn’t believe what he saw and had to take a minute to process it.
San Zhao.
San fucking Zhao.
Qian stopped breathing, took a double-take from his cell to the figure shielding himself from view, and stepped back against the nearest building to escape plain sight. San knew Qian too, and he didn’t want him to get spooked on sight until he found out what he was doing here, checking out OTS. There was no reason for him to be here acting like this unless he knew Kai and Meilei were here, too.
Qian resisted the desperate urge to walk over there and kick him in the face. San had long been a name on Qian’s hitlist for what he did to his cousin, and he was bubbling with aggressive energy at seeing him now. Trying to calm his breathing and cool his jets to see what this idiot wanted. He wasn’t here for no reason.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and after five long years of no contact, this asshole shows right up outside OTS? Qian snorted under his breath and set his camera to record, turning it slightly to capture the entirety of the person. Then, he caught something out of the corner of his eye.
Meilei Liu and a co-worker were walking this way, and Qian edged inside and watched from the glass storefront behind various posters stuck there, noting San’s head followed her as she passed him before he slid out and started moving behind them in the direction they just came from.
Qian turned around completely to conceal himself as the women walked past the storefront. A minute later, San did, and it was obvious he was following her.
Gritting his teeth, he slid out after they were a few feet in front and pulled his cell back up to continue filming as he pursued them. Discarding his beverages and food in a trash can, he passed and stuck to the side, in the shadows watching every movement San made in case he needed to slip into an alley out of sight.
“I’ll get the coffee while you pick up the lunch order so we can have more time to sit and eat.” Chou motioned to Meilei as they neared a familiar intersection. Waving her onward.
“Okay, I’ll meet you back here in twenty.” Meilei smiled, nodded, and headed on across the narrow road. Chou turned left, separating them, and Meilei seemed oblivious to anything but her walk in the sun at this hour as she looked around, taking in the sights of lunchtime. She turned a second alley into a quiet area where their favorite food shop was nestled. Their regular ordering spot; she knew this route like the back of her hand and was innocently unaware that two men were walking along behind her.
San turned in behind her, taking in the secluded spot after several days of coming here and having no chance to get her alone or the courage to do so. He had finally gotten the nerve to do this. It had taken days of watching the doors to figure out her lunchtime routine to be in with this chance of contact, and he knew he had to take it. He was leaving tomorrow to return home and wouldn’t come to this city again for a long while.
“Meilei?” San called out to her, his heart palpating with nerves and his hands clammy as he followed her down the alley. Afraid of what her reaction would be, he couldn’t stand it anymore.
Meilei seemed to freeze mid-step at the sound of his voice. A flicker of recognition in her made her body bristle, and she stiffened, sensing danger in it. San stopped, still eight feet from her, and swallowed hard as fear got the better of him. His chest was heaving with the effort to keep breathing, and his mouth dried out with the anxiety of what he was doing.
Qian had rounded the alley and hauled back when he realized they had stopped, lifting his cell to edge it around and viewing them via his screen.
Meilei turned slowly and deliberately, her face paling as she did so, and her eyes widened in horror as she took in the familiar face before her and stumbled backward in unveiled horror. She couldn’t believe what she saw and wasn’t prepared for this encounter. Unsure if this was real.
“Please stop. I only came to see you because I have something to say and then I’ll go. I won’t come any closer, so stop running away. Please.” San had been desperate these past days to see her, and now he was consumed by guilt at seeing her obvious reaction to him. The sheer fear on her face and her breathing in labored breaths as her body began to tremble. She was scraping herself along a jagged wall to get away from him.
Qian shifted in position, holding himself back from intervening even though the girl was obviously scared. Everything in him felt like this was important to film because something told him he shouldn’t interrupt. Her reaction was not what he expected between ex-lovers, which held him rooted to the spot.
Qian clenched his cell at hearing what she said and drew daggers, glaring at the screen and San’s rear view. So many questions and doubts rose as he rethought the past and what she was saying. His angle showed Meilei in full frightened glory, and he had to use his full willpower not to do anything but listen. The instinct to protect a frightened girl was so severe he had to stop himself physically.