Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

"Are you sure you are okay?" Mr Ping asked Hoy who was simply staring outside the window of their suite with his hands inside his pockets. He wasn't one to admire nature. He would rather spend his time working than staring blankly into the night sky or into the sea. 

Hoy did not answer. His mind was occupied. Maybe he hear Mr Ping, maybe he didn't. 

"What could possibly make him this worried?" Mr Ping asked himself. 

"Maybe you'll need a drink and a bit of distraction from whatever is troubling you?" He offered. That did the trick and Hoy turned to look at him. 

"The party is already going on. There are a lot of distractions there." 

And that was how Hoy found himself inside the hall. The hall had been completely transformed into a club which surprised all of them since it didn't even take up to 24 hours for this change to be done. While everyone was having fun partying, drinking, dancing and playing fun games, Hoy chose to sit alone.

Mr Ping wanted to stay with him but he chose to be alone. He took an empty seat at the far end of the hall and sat there with a bottle of wine and a glass on his table. He saw his brother and cousin with their wives, they looked like they were having fun and even texted him to join but he chose to remain there instead. 

His eyes scanned the hall, hoping to find that familiar face. He saw Reen but didn't see Joreen who was almost always with her, no matter how much he looked around. Whenever someone entered inside the hall, his eyes immediately went to the door, expecting to see that face which always looked happy, but no, it wasn't her. It was another unpleasant face with too many make up and skimpy dress which he never fancied.

He messed up. He messed up big time. He didn't know what Sara had told Joreen, but it seemed like Joreen wasn't happy about it. It was never his intention to make her sad and seeing her cry earlier, he regretted raising this issue in the first place. 

He just felt it would be awkward telling those things directly to Joreen. He wanted someone else and someone closer to Joreen to let her know how she was supposed to behave around him and other men because he couldn't keep pretending like he wasn't affected by any of it. 

Another thing that scared him was the possibility of her falling for him. What was he going to do if it turned out to be true. Of course, he would have to reject her, but was he willing to see her cry or break her fragile heart? He was thrown into a dilemma. 

He blamed himself for everything. If only he had let her do all she wanted to do and not limited the only guy in her life to be him, maybe she would have learnt things differently and fallen for a guy her age. But all these happened because she was stuck with him. Realizing he was getting ahead of himself, he shook his head. Maybe he was simply overthinking. There was no way Joreen would like him more than was necessary. 

He wanted to apologize to her and let her know he was willing to stop being her guardian now. She was going to turn 18 in a few days and this was one of the things that came with being legal but she had ignored him twice already. That was something that had never happened before so he felt really strange when she snubbed him or didn't smile at him. He didn't want that. In fact, he wasn't going to let her snub him anymore. 

But didn't he just say he wanted to let her be?

The frustration had him gulping down the full glass of wine. He immediately refilled it but this time, he drank slowly. 

As he took a long sip from his glass, his eyes went to the door and he noticed someone enter. With bored eyes, he looked at the person. First thing that caught his eyes was the dress. It was a short gold sequin dress with a spagetti strap and deep V Neck. When he saw the exposed part of the girl's body and realised she had a brown skin, his eyes instantly moved to her face and he choked on his drink when he realised it was Joreen.

She wore a nude make up but a smokey eye shadow. He squinted his eyes and took note of the brown contact lens she was wearing. Her braids was in a pony tail, and she wore a pair of red 6-inches heels. 

Joreen and Reen were always together so when he saw Reen but didn't see Joreen, he thought she wasn't going to come. But here she was, standing by the door her eyes scanning around like she was looking for someone. 

He didn't know how long he stared at her, but he just realised he could not pull his eyes away from her. 

He noticed how two young guys wrestled to get to her but another person beat him to it and stood in front of Joreen. 

Hoy's mood changed immediately. He realised he was angry but surprisingly, he didn't know why. But he guessed it was because of the dress Joreen was wearing. Why did she dress like that?

It was at that moment Joreen looked at his direction and they locked eyes. It didn't even last for two seconds before his view of her was cut and he saw a familiar face smiling at him— Bai Aishu.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here." She said with a smile and sat down beside him without waiting for an invitation to join him. 

"I swear, I am surprised to see you here."

Hoy's eyes followed Joreen. He saw her say something to the young man who approached her. She looked like her usual self as she smiled at him.

Why didn't she smile at him when they locked eyes?

Joreen said something to the guy before walking away. She didn't bother to spare a glance at his direction. He would have thought she didn't see him because of how she was ignoring him like this right now, but he knew that wasn't the case. 

"Are you okay?" Aishu asked Hoy who was staring absentmindedly at another direction. 

~~~

As Joreen carefully walked down to the table Reen was, she tried not to look at Hoy. Was it weird that she wanted to go sit beside him? Was it weird she didn't like the fact that that girl with the ugly name had approached him again? 

Why was her heart beating so fast? Why did she feel like she wanted to cry? Why was she feeling so much hurt in her heart? 

But she didn't like him like that right? How could she like someone she called uncle? But why couldnt she like him? Why did someone else have to like him but not her?

"Jo? Oh my God! You look stunning. What happened to you?" Reen asked in surprise when Joreen touched her arm to get her attention. 

"Pretty aunt happened." Joreen said with a smile which was forced. 

"Are you okay?" Reen moved closer to ask so the loud background music wouldn't drown her voice. 

Joreen nodded. She looked at the table and waved at the two ladies and three guys who were looking at her with somehing akin to interest, jealousy and admiration. 

They eagerly waved back and invited her to play the drinking game with them but she shook her head. 

Reen pulled Joreen with her and looked around until she saw an empty table and seats. It seemed the people sitting there earlier were in the dance floor so she sat there with Joreen. 

"Did something happen?" 

She shook her head. "I had a great conversation with aunt." 

"So why do you look sad?" 

Joreen's gaze moved to where Hoy was seated. Reen followed her gaze immediately and saw Hoy sitting with a girl. She looked back at Joreen who was looking down sadly. 

"Should we drink?" Reen asked. 

Joreen nodded eagerly. She always heard, read, and watched movies where people drank when they felt devastated. Maybe she would feel better and lighter after drinking?

"Hold on." 

Reen left the table and after two minutes, returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. 

She opened it and filled their glasses. "Drink up. I got you." Reen assured her. 

"Are you... sure it's okay?" Joreen was almost turning to look at Hoy's direction again but Reen quickly turned her sister's face towards her.

"Trust your big sister. I'm here." Reen assured her with a smile.

Joreen took the first sip tentatively, it burned her throat and she winced. 

"You okay?" Reen asked with a light laugh. 

Joreen didn't answer. She took a bigger gulp which made her grimace. Reen smiled proudly before she began to sip hers slowly. She didn't want to get drunk alongside Joreen. She had to look after her. 

"Are you supposed to be here like this? What about Kyle?" Joreen asked. 

Kyle's name brought a frown to Reen's face. "Don't know where he is, don't care. And don't want to talk about it." 

Since she didn't want to talk about it, Joreen didn't push further. She turned to look at Hoy again but Reen held her chin and turned Joreen's face to face her. 

"Whenever you feel like looking at him, have a drink instead." Reen said.

"Look at who?" She asked, looking flustered from the drink and her sister's statement. She was already beginning to feel lightheaded. Did people usually get drunk this quick?

"You know what I mean Jo. Do not look at him. Drink up." 

Someone suddenly sat in one of the chairs opposite them. When they looked at the intruder, Reen frowned when she saw Kyle.