Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

It seemed like half of the people who were to be present at the hotel arrived at the same time as Joreen's family. 

"We are here!" Jaime announced before getting down. He opened the backdoor at his corner for his daughters to get down before opening the front door for his wife, which earned him a glare from her. 

They were at the VIP parking lot so the few other people in the lot were also a part of the extended family,

"Isn't that CEO Li?" Reen asked as she looked ahead. 

"CEO Li? Which of them? Where?" Joreen inquired as she looked at the direction Reen was looking at. 

The 'CEO Li' could either be Sara's husband, Li Muchen of Li Corporation, Li Hoy of G-GLOBAL or his elder brother, Li Minde of CLASH–TECH.

When she looked ahead, she saw Li Hoy standing there and having a conversation with Sara. Sara's son, King held his hand and swung it back and forth. 

Everyone had noticed how King favoured Li Hoy compared to other members of the family. It wasn't hard to see why they clicked, they had the same aloof personality.  

"Uncle Muchen doesn't look so happy about CE— I mean, uncle Hoy speaking with Sara." Joreen pointed out. At work, Li Hoy was CEO Li. But during family gatherings or outings, everyone was addressed less formally. But she was already used to addressing him formally.

"What are you girls gossiping about over there?" Cixi turned to look at her daughters who were still behind. 

"We're on our way. Just a moment." Reen said and pulled Joreen back when she tried to follow their mother.

"Look... I heard before that..." Reen began to whisper in a conspiratorial tone. "Uncle Hoy had a crush on Sis Sara before she got married to Uncle Muchen." 

"What?" Joreen asked with eyes wide with disbelief. "Is that... true?" She turned to look at them again. Hoy didn't like to talk much but he had been speaking with Sara for a while. Over the years, she had also noticed a thing or two about his particular interest in her but hadn't really thought much about it.

"It's true. I even heard both men fought!"  Reen said with an exaggerated gesture of punching their air while Joreen gasped and used a hand to cover her mouth.

As if sensing he was being gossiped, Li Hoy suddenly turned to look behind him and locked gaze with Joreen who couldn't hide her surprised expression as quickly as she would have hoped.

Reen quickly sent him a smile and bowed so Joreen also managed to smile sheepishly as Hoy looked at her up and down before turning back to look at the people he had been speaking with. 

Joreen let loose a sigh of relief when he turned away from them, and put a hand on her chest.

"For a moment, I thought I was going to die." 

"He really is scary. I wonder how you've managed to cope all these years." 

The parking lot was soon filling up. Apparently, they preferred to exchange pleasantries there than going to the private room they were supposed to have the family meeting. 

The members of the Song-Wang-Li family where 19 in total, which also included the Luo family. The Luo family, although were rich, they weren't known much until Wang Cixi married Luo Jaime. 

Currently in the parking lot, they were 11 people present: The Luo family which were 4 in number, Sara's family which were also 4 in number, Li Hoy, and his parents who were currently speaking with Joreen's parents. 

A car drove wildly inside the parking lot and came to a screeching halt, getting everyone's attention. 

"Don't tell me—"

Joreen didn't finish before the front door opened and a lady got down from the driver's seat, her black stiletto coming into view first. 

"Oh my goodness!" Reen gasped when the lady fully stepped down. 

Li Heya, Sara's sister in-law, was the only daughter in the old Li family before Li Queen was born. Sara was employed as Li Heya's fitness coach many years ago and that was how she had met Li Muchen who was her husband now. Well, that was the story everyone knew.

29 years old Li Heya wasn't on the slim side, neither was she the very fat type. She was chubby and contrary to what most people thought about Chubby people, she exuded elegance, class and confidence. 

One of her best attributes was her smile. She had a really pretty smile that even the media spoke about whenever she came into the spotlight. 

Talk about the way she dressed, she wore a blue turtleneck, a black trousers, black stiletto and a grey coat while her long hair was left down. She wore make up just like the other women but hers was purely nude. 

"Sister Heya!" Joreen called excitedly before dashing to where she was. As usual, she hugged her tightly. 

"Wow! I almost didn't recognize you." Heya said when they eased off the hug.

"Talk about you! You look stunning. With you moving around, I thought you would be looking as thin as a broom by now."

Joreen hadn't meant that as an insult and Heya didn't see it as one so she laughed. 

Ever since Joreen was younger, she always said whatever she had on her mind and Joreen had unknowingly made Heya feel good about herself a number of times when she kept talking about how she would love to look healthy like sister Heya, and had innocently asked Heya to stop losing weight because it was making her look ugly. 

"I didn't want you to complain so I always ate well. You look good Reen. One may think you're going for a blind date." Heya said, turning her attention to Reen who was now standing beside them.

Reen laughed briefly, "I'm glad I took my time to look pretty. You all would have outshined me." 

That made Heya laugh. "I'll meet you girls inside. Need to say hello to the others." Heya said politely before she excused herself. 

Joreen and Reen natually assumed a conversation about Heya and how dashing she looked. She was pretty, strong, independent, an awesome singer and music instructor. 

"Do you think she has a boyfriend now?" Reen asked curiously. 

"I'm not sure. Maybe she does?" Joreen asked rhetorically as she absentmindedly twirled the thin strap of her bag a couple of times. She hadn't expected it to fly out of her hand and hit the floor with the contents scattering everywhere. 

She gasped and quickly crouched down to pick her things while Reen laughed behind her before joining, 

"I was wondering what you always carry inside your bag. This is definitely going to be scandalous of the media sees this." 

"Shush and help me before someone sees them!" 

Her nose suddenly caught whiff of a familiar scent before she saw a man's shoe which obviously costs a fortune walk past her. She could swear she heard the person mutter "Clumsy" before walking past her. 

She raised her head and saw Li Hoy's back as he moved far away from her before she looked down at the contents that had fallen from her bag. 

A broken wrist watch, hair band, a sanitary pad, compact powder, her favourite lipgloss which was long overdue to be replaced but she kept pressing the life out of the tube, a small sized picture of her favourite boy band artist with little hearts drawn all over it.

"Why do I have a straw in my bag!?" Joreen cried in embarrassment.