Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

"What do you want?" Reen asked Kyle harshly immediately Joreen left the table. 

"Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?" He asked innocently, making her feel like throwing her glass of wine at him. 

"Oh! You did nothing wrong?" She asked sarcastically.

"Not that I remember." He shrugged. This attitude of his made her more pissed. 

"I am going to ask you just one question, and I deserve nothing but the truth from you." She said, looking directly into his eyes. 

"Do you have feelings for Joreen?" 

His eyes darted to the side as he avoided her eyes. After a few seconds he answered, "No." 

"I said tell me the truth!" She demanded. "And nothing but the truth! How do you feel about Joreen?"

"I swear, I feel nothing. Why would I have feelings for her when you are my girlfriend?" He asked looking hurt. "And how can you ask me something like that? You don't trust me?" 

"Hell yea! I don't trust you!" She agreed. "I do not trust you one bit. I see the way you look at her, the way you smile at her. We saw how you reacted to the waiter who spilled drinks on her and how you kept glaring at him this morning. And you still have the guts to lie to my face? I shouldn't have invited you to join us on this trip. I regret it." 

"I told you I don't love her okay? I think it's the opposite case instead. Why don't you think she's the one in love with me? Didn't you notice how she always flirt with me? Did I do wrong by giving her my attention which she was craving for? Didn't you also see how she reacted when I said I wanted to speak with you privately? She got jealous and called me a bastard!" He said defensively. 

"I didn't want to mention this to you earlier because I didn't want to ruin your relationship with your sister but you have to believe me. I feel nothing for her. Rather, she has an obvious crush on m—"

His 'speech' was cut short when she threw her wine on his face. 

"YOU. DIRTY. LITTLE. DELUSIONAL. PIECE. OF. SHIT!" She said through gritted teeth. 

"Something always told me you were an asshole but I tried to believe otherwise. How dare you say such nonsense about my sister?" She stood up from her seat. "Do not ever appear in front of me unless you want to be thrown into the sea. You make me sick. Stupid bastard."

When she turned to leave, she noticed the very familiar waiter who was working as a bartender, looking at her in surprise. She didn't know how long he had been watching but she knew he must have seen her throw her wine on Kyle's face. 

He looked away immediately their gaze locked and focused on serving drinks to people.

She narrowed her eyes to look at him before matching there. She took one of the high chairs and tapped the table loudly to get his attention. 

"Tequila." She ordered. 

He looked a bit surprised to see her there but he nodded immediately and began to get hers ready. 

When he served her, she looked deeply into his eyes and asked, "You have the hots for me, don't you?" 

"I... am busy." He looked away from her and tried to focus on arranging the wine glasses but she spoke again, 

"You know, you are quite brave. You don't even try to hide it in front of my mother or boyfriend." She said with a smirk. 

"I don't... know what you... are talking... about.." He stammered without looking at her.

"Yes, you do." She said firmly. "You do know what I am talking about. But I will tell you something you do not know." She started, getting his attention. 

"You do not like me. You only feel this funny excited because you saw me on my lingerie yesterday." 

"That is not true!" He denied almost immediately, startling her.

"I.. saw you when you first arrived at the port." 

"So you are trying to say it's love at first sight?" She squinted to look at him while she drank gulped her drink. 

"I follow you on social media." He confessed. "So I have... well.."

"You are stalking me?" She asked, feigning shock. 

"It's simply a coincidence that we met here, I swear it. I have to get back to work now." 

"When is your free time?" She asked, stopping him from leaving again while looking at his name tag. 

"8pm tomorrow. Why?" 

"Hang out with me, Ning Zichu." 

"What?" He asked with bulging eyes. 

"I. SAID. HANG. OUT. WITH. ME." She made sure to lay emphasis on each word. 

"I can't."

"Why?" 

"We... are different. Besides, you have a boyfriend." 

"Also, you are drunk so you obviously do not know what you are saying." He added. 

"We are different? Haha! I'm guessing you are talking about my family. My family has nothing to do with this. And we are not different. We are all human." She winked, "So listen, I am going to count to three. If you do not change your mind, then that's it." 

"...."

"One..."

"...."

"Two.."

"...."

"Two and a half..." She frowned. 

"Can I get a glass of your strongest wine, please?" A lady suddenly interrupted. 

Zichu immediately turned away from Reen to attend to the intruder. 

"Tch! He's playing hard to get? How annoying." Reen said as she watched him get busy. "But cute." She added with a shrug.

********

"Aunt? If you love someone, what do you do?" Joreen had asked Changyu earlier that evening. 

"Hmmm.." The older woman pondered on the question. 

"You know, personalities differ. So a lot of people have what works for them. There are some people who believe the man has to make the first move. So even if they are completely into the man, they do not say anything about their feelings. The highest they can do is give a few hints or greenlight and trust me, not everyman is smart enough to see those hints. Take your uncle for example."

"You know, I can hear you right?" Jianjun said with a frown but his wife totally ignore him. 

"I kept giving him hints for a long time but he still thought I liked someone else. It was frustrating." She sighed making Joreen giggle. 

"I realised that if I didn't make the first move, then nothing was going to happen... this brings us to the other type of people. People who go directly for what they want." 

"Take me for example, if I want something now, I just go for it. That was how I was able to get your uncle twice even after more than two decades of being apart."

"It's because she is scary. I couldn't say no." 

"I AM NOT SCARY! I AM A SWEET PERSON AND YOU FELL FOR ME!"

"Actually aunt... you are a little bit scary." Joreen said with a sheepish smile while making a little circle with her fingers. 

Walking towards that table right now, Joreen made a resolve just before she appeared in front of them. 

"Oh my! Aren't you Luo Joreen?" Aishu asked with a smile when Joreen suddenly popped up beside them. 

"I almost didn't recognize you if not for your skin. You look really beautiful tonight." 

Joreen snorted inwardly but tried to smile at her. 

"Are you drunk?" Hoy asked as he stared at Joreen who was also looking at him. He was a bit surprised she came to meet him considering how she had refused to speak with him earlier. But then, his worries shifted when he noticed she looked drunk. Why did Reen allow her to walk around by herself especially when she was looking this SE... well.. pretty. 

Shaking her head both sides to tell him she wasn't drunk, while also pouting her lips, she looked cute. But that was the least of his concerns at the moment. She was drunk. She was already a handful when she was sober. He didn't want to imagine what a drunk Joreen would do. 

"So why were you laughing? Tell me, I want to laugh too." Joreen slurred drunkenly before plopping down beside Hoy, startling the two of them. 

Aishu was more than confused as she wondered what Joreen was talking about. 

"Go on. Tell me the funny thing he was telling you. I want to laugh too." Joreen used her hand to cover a part of her mouth and began to laugh, imitating what Aishu had done earlier. 

"Jo... we need to leave now. You are drunk." Hoy said and tried to help her up but she wrapped her hands around his upper arm and scotted closer, stopping him from standing up. 

"I said I'm not drunk! I want to stay here with you." 

"Haha! She is so adorable." Aishu said while looking at Joreen like she was an adorable child. The look made Joreen frown. 

Hoy had never been so confused in his life. He wanted to take her back to her room but it was obvious she didn't want to. He had never seen her drunk before but he had a feeling this wasn't going to be good especially seeing how she was snuggling her breast into his arm. She obviously wasn't wearing a bra and it was hell for him sitting there and pretending like he couldn't feel anything. 

"Hoy?" Joreen called slowly, making him raise his brows in surprise.

Hoy? Since when did she call him that?

"Bring your ear down. I want to tell you something." She was looking up at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes, totally ignoring Aishu's presence. 

With a confused look, he tilted his head towards her to grant her access to his right ear. He first felt her hot breath on his neck before she moved to his ears. 

She said something that made his eyes widen and his face coloured immediately. All efforts to keep his usual straight face proved futile. 

"Alright! Time... to sleep." He said with resolve before he stood up by force and carried her in his arms in a bridal style when she tried to protest.