Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

Reen had wanted to stay indoors the whole day, but she kept recieving various messages from friends in school to come hang out at the court where they usually played basketball together. They weren't really her close friends but after playing together for close to two years, they were more than mere acquaintances now. They finally got under her skin and made her leave her bed. She wore a loosely fit high waist joggers with slim legs and a matching grey sport bra then wore a big sized hoodie with a zip at the front but she left the zip undone. Next was her hair. Since she liked to mess around with dyes, she had changed the color of her hair from purple to blonde. Her hair was already short so she didn't bother to tie it up. She simply ran her hand through it and wore her pair of sneakers before picking up her headset and car keys. 

"My ball." She remembered just as she was about to leave her room so she went to get it. She carefully placed all her stuff inside her backpack before leaving her room.

She already knew the house was empty by now and the cleaners or helpers weren't coming until tomorrow so she made sure everywhere was locked before she opened the door. 

She was surprised when she saw someone standing there. It was a surprised looking Zichu who looked like he was ready to flee since he hadn't expected someone to see him there before he could knock. 

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she looked closely at him. 

He looked different. Dressed in a sweater and pants with a coat and hair slicked backwards. He had a basket of variety of chocolates in his hand. 

She looked back at his face and noticed how pale he looked. She ignored it and glared at him. 

"Reen..."

"What are you doing here? How did you even know where I lived? Oh.. I remember. You are a stalker." 

"Please." He spoke calmly. "I came to apologize to you and your family."

"With chocolates? Nice." She said without humour as she stepped out of the house and closed the door behind her. 

"Well... it's just me at home fortunately, so I'd advise you to leave." 

"Reen, I'm sorry. I... I messed up. I apologize for everything. I know it is going to take you a long time to forgive me or even forever, but I won't stop trying. Whatever friendship we had, it was genuine and special to me—"

"Please!" She raised her hand to stop him from speaking further. The more he spoke, the more she was hurt. 

"Do you know how it feels like to be betrayed?" 

He wasn't sure if she was really asking him or if it was a rhetorical question but when he tried to say something, she cut him off, 

"I don't have friends. I mean.. I know a lot of people, but I cannot say for sure that I have friends. Because everyone just keeps wanting something from me and it's... crazy." She laughed. "I told you about it. Told you how I felt about that. I thought just maybe, we could be friends. My family was even happy to see that I was able to meet someone. They treated you well. THAT should have made you reconsider. You should have told your brother to stop. You should have trusted me and told me about it. I would have forgiven you!" 

"I... co..uldn't." He said in a broken voice. "I was scared." 

"I know. And I understand." She sighed and began to head towards where her SUV was parked.

"You don't need to apologize or thank my parents for letting you and your brother off. And don't think it was me. I didn't do anything." 

"That's not it. I just—"

"You cannot eat your cake and have it. It was either you choose your brother or choose your integrity and our friendship. And you chose your brother, which I totally understand. So stop showing up in front of me. You should own up and be proud of the decision you made. Nothing is ever going to happen between us." 

"Reen please..." He pleaded when she started to get into her car but she ignored him.

"I... I am leaving town..." He finally said, looking like he was going to cry any moment. 

She stopped for only a second before she sat down inside her car and started it. 

She still didn't say anything until a few seconds passed before she said, 

"Leave with your chocolates." 

And she drove off. 

Ning Zichu felt a piercing pain in his heart.

"Do you regret it?" The older woman's voice rang in his ears as he stood there and did nothing but cry silently while watching the car speed away. 

"I... don't know. I think I do but... I have a feeling that I would do the same and not tell on my brother if I was faced with that situation again. I'm sorry." He had answered that question with his head down, ashamed. 

It was a lot easy for people to judge others when they weren't in their position. 

"Why are you apologizing?" Changyu had asked him. He had met her first that morning to thank her for letting them off and that was when they had had this conversation. He knew if the woman had planned to deal with them, then it would have truly been over for them.

"People... shouldn't support evil but because of my personal relationship with my bro—"

"You know one reason why a lot of people fear and respect the Song-Wang-Li and Luo family name?" The older woman asked him calmly. Although she scared him and he had heard tales about how much of a Devil she could be, he had a feeling he could trust her. 

He shook his head at her question without looking at her. 

"Because we always take each other's side. No matter what." She paused before she continued, "So that is why I can understand why you decided not to tell Reen or anyone that it was your brother who did all that." 

"He... is my... only brother." He sniffed and wiped the tears that was leaving his eyes. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. I know I do not have any excuse for the filthy things I did for money. I just... didn't have a choice. My part time jobs wasn't helping much and there's always pressure and expenses in school and at home. I... dropped out from school without my family knowing about it." He broke down in tears and continued to cry until he felt a warm touch on his back. 

"Everyone has their reason for doing something. Everyone has a story. You are still young and I know young people these days do a lot of terrible things, yours cannot even measure. Look, I won't give you a bunch of money to return to school and start a new life. So if you really want to change and do things responsibly, you have to work for it." 

He looked up, wondering what she meant.

"I might know a few people who might need a few people for a few job. So if you need to start afresh; a new environment, new life, new name if you like–" 

"Will... Reen forgive me then?" He asked hopefully while looking up at her with his teary eyes. 

"That.... I cannot say. If you are only going to agree to this and return in the future because you want to impress Reen, I'll be really disappointed. You should be doing this for you. And to answer your question, maybe you two can hit it off in the future, maybe she'll even find some nice guy this year and fall in love with him, I cannot say for certain. Let's leave it all to fate." 

The Black SUV finally disappeared from his sight and he wiped his tears off. He made up his mind to work hard. He was going to work really hard until he was confident enough to present himself before them, then he would return and kowtow before the family and everyone else he had wronged. Then just maybe... just maybe...

He returned to the front door and dropped the basket there before he gave a deep sincere bow. Then he left.