Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

When Joreen was younger, she had a passion for the theatre. She was especially good at acting and received a few awards in school. She followed up every news about G-GLOBAL but didn't think there would ever come a day when she would be a part of it. Just like a miracle, her cousin got married to the CEO of Li Corporation which had G-GLOBAL as one of its subsidiaries. On her 8th birthday which was also her cousin and her uncle's wedding day, she received a contract which changed her life forever. 

Her stepfather, Luo Jaime was quite a busy man and so was her mother who owned a clinic, while the rest members of the family got busy with their lives and families. As a young girl who didn't know much about the world, the family placed her under Li Hoy's care. 

After G-GLOBAL became a standalone company, she was fully in his care. So for 10 years, he was more or less the only man in her life. 

Hoy didn't think a day like this would ever come when she would confess that she liked him. It was until they boarded the ship that he began to worry about the possiblilty of it happening and he prayed everyday that she would stop being confused and realise she didn't exactly like him like she thought. He also didn't want her to ever say it out to him because he didn't know how he was going to react, but unfortunately, she did.

"You like me too right?" She asked. 

She was looking intensely at him while also trying to sit up on the bed. 

"You are drunk." His quiet voice said.

"I am not!" She said stubbornly.

"Stop saying nonsense and go to bed." 

"Hoy?" 

"It's uncle Hoy!" He corrected her. 

"Why?" She suddenly got angry and glared at him. "Other women do not call you uncle. Why must I call you that? Are you my uncle? Are we related?" 

"You have been calling me that since you were a little girl. It's different." 

"And I am no longer little!" She shook her head. "I will stop calling you that. Maybe you'll finally see me as a woman."

He sighed. "Stop talking. You'll get embarrassed if you remember tomorrow."

"Why do you treat me so harshly?" She sniffed. 

He looked surprised to see she was actually crying. 

"Why do you hate me?" Her teary eyes looked up at him. 

"I do not hate you." 

"You do hate me!" 

"Is it my fault that I like you? Do you think I want to like you? You are always mean to me. You don't smile at me. You stop me from doing everything I want to do. You don't want me to have a boyfriend or even party. Don't you think that is enough reason for me to hate you?" She began to louder. Hoy cringed when she used the back of her hand to clean the snot from her nose, dragging it across her face. 

"I like you. I like to see you. I like to be around you, to hug you. I like how you smell and how you rarely give other ladies the chance to flirt with you. But why are you suddenly letting them flirt with you? Are you doing it to annoy me? You even gave that girl your jacket. I thought I was the only one you treated like that!" 

Her cries grew louder and she picked up the pillow to hit him repeatedly. Her hand movements are clumsy so he really didn't feel anything. The pillow kept brushing his hand.

He was simply staring at her and hoping she would fall asleep soon. He prayed for sleep to overwhelm her.

"Why do you prefer that Aishu girl to me? I am prettier! And she is shameless! Didn't you see how she was shamelessly confessing her feelings to you and flirting with you? But I will never do that. Because I like you." 

Okay... that left Hoy confused. What was her point? Maybe he would have laughed had this not been a serious issue. 

It really didn't make much sense to him that she was suddenly saying she liked him. Up until a few days ago, she was still very indifferent and was doing her best to avoid him. So what prompted this? He had checked online and read that it was common during teenage years for girls to crush on guys and most of them usually didn't last. Some crushes could last for a maximum of a week and then they would move to another. So deep in his mind, he felt this was similar to it. 

Maybe he did something unconsciously that made her suddenly feel excited and begin to think whatever she felt for him was love. He believed if he didn't take her seriously, it wouldn't even last for three days. But if he did, it may encourage her and she would probably get confused later. 

"Is it because of the age? Age doesn't matter! My mum is older than my stepdad so it isn't a big deal." 

"Stop crying." He said when her tears began to make him feel very uncomfortable. 

He went towards the dressing table to pick a face wipe, thankful that they made it available in every room.

He took one out and handed it to her but she didn't take it from him so he decided to help clean her nose and tears himself. 

He moved closed to her so that they were facing each other and gently began to clean her face. He thought it was best to use the opportunity to clean her entire face so she could sleep comfortably.

To his surprise, she suddenly wrapped her hands around his neck. Since he was taller than her, he had to bend his head and body a lot so he wouldn't hurt his neck or back. 

"Is it because I am not tall?" She asked with sad eyes. 

'Why isn't she giving up?'

"I can always wear heels if you want me to." 

"Don't be silly!"

"Is it because I am brown–skinned? Because we have different skin tones?" 

He wanted to tell her nothing was wrong with her skin but she spoke first,

"You can always have a surgery to have a brown skin right? There should be something like that right?" She suddenly began to cry again and left his neck to hit his arm. "Why don't you like my skin when I like yours? Is it fair? I cannot bleach my skin for you. I like myself. But you can do it for me right? You should make a sacrifice for our love." 

He almost laughed but he did his best to suppress it. At least he was glad she was comfortable in her own skin. It was something that always worried him because he knew there were a few racists who had said some unpleasant words to her before. 

"You have a great skin." 

"So are you accepting me?" She asked with hopeful eyes. 

"No." He said immediately, making her eyes widen in surprise. 

"You are mean. How can you reject me? What do you want me to do?" 

He ignored her and focused on cleaning her face, trying not to let her tears get to him. When he was done, he remembered the lens she was wearing. 

"Can you take off your lenses?" He asked.

"NO! I won't!" She said, shaking her head stubbornly. "I am going to go to bed wearing it. Maybe it'll make me go blind and then I won't get to see your face anymore. What is so great about you that you are turning me down?" She asked angrily. "I hate you. You are mean and ugly." 

"...." He was more than frustrated, dealing with a drunk Joreen. He was so exhausted.

She slowly reached for his hand and touched it gently. "Please uncle Hoy... accept me." She begged in a calmer voice which caused him to sigh again. 

It had taken him quite an effort trying to get her to take off her lenses but when she still didn't, he had to wash his hands and took it out for her. 

She kept swapping between swearing at him and pleading with him to accept her until he could not take it anymore and embraced her. 

Since she mentioned she liked hugging him, he believed it would shut her up and thankfully, it did. She finally calmed down and her breathing became steady. When he realised she had fallen asleep, he gently placed her on the bed before calling Mr Ping, asking him to get Reen to come with their key. 

Reen looked even worse than Joreen so Mr Ping helped her until they got to their floor. After Reen opened the door, she went straight to bed.

Hoy slowly carried Joreen from the bed into in his arms. She felt so small and fragile. Why would an innocent girl like her think about such things with him? Wasn't the possibility of being with him scaring her even a little?

"You know, I thought you were going to be the first to fall for her charms...poor Jo." Mr Ping whispered with a mischievous grin as he opened the door for Hoy to carry Joreen out. 

Hoy only glared at him but said nothing as he gently carried her out. He looked down at her briefly and quickly looked away when he saw how visible her breasts looked in the dress. Her cleavages were in display and the outline of her breast was pretty obvious. 

The other door was already opened so he went in and dropped her gently in the other part of the bed which was not occupied by Reen.

Once Joreen was in bed, he heaved a sigh of relief and gently covered her body with the duvet.

Joreen could only remember what happened in bits, but there was another memory that was forcing itself out. 

She furrowed her brows as she remembered her eyes fluttering open. She opened her eyes weakly and saw a face hovering above hers. Li Hoy?

Her eye closed almost at the same instant but she felt something soft on her forehead before she heard a quiet, "Sleep well baby Jo." 

Did that happen? 

Was it a dream? 

But that was the least of her worries. 

Her mouth was already hanging open at the embarrassing memories.