Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

Joreen came out of the dressing room behind the stage, now wearing the tee shirt and trousers she had been wearing earlier. Before she could close the door, someone pulled her hand, startling her. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Hoy's back as he pulled her along with him. He didn't give her an opportunity to ask any question or pull herself away from his grip, he pulled her with him towards an unknown destination and didn't bother to listen to her protests to let her go. 

"What did you think you were doing there?" He stopped to ask when they were in a more quiet area with just the two of them. 

"What did I think I was doing there?" She asked, panting. Keeping up with his strides wasn't as easy as he had thought. 

"Can you stop doing that?" 

"Stop doing what?" She asked with genuine curiosity. 

"Stop asking me the same question I ask you."

"When did I ask you the same question you ask me?"

"Luo Joreen! You are trying to piss me off, aren't you?" 

"Why would I want to piss you off?" 

"Stop doing that for goodness sake?!" He blew up at her which made her blow up at him equally, "STOP DOING WHAT?!" 

He let go of her hand and took a really deep breath. 

"What did you think you were doing on that stage?"

"Modeling." 

"Modeling? You call that modelling?" He asked with an unpleasant frown. 

"I do that all the time. Why is it a problem now?" 

"Because you were giving those perverts what they wanted." He said in a quieter voice now, returning to the usual cool CEO she was familiar with. 

"What do they want? I gave them nothing. I was only showing my talent to win the prize."

"Prize? You did it for the prize?" He asked in disbelief. 

"Yes."

He took out his phone and began to punch his keypad aggressively, "If you wanted the prize, whatever that is, I will send you the money to buy whatever you like. Never do that again."

"Don't do that." She frowned and snatched his phone from him.

"I never asked you for your money." 

"Do you think that was funny? You were practically flirting happily with everyone there."

"So? What if I was? Why do you even care?" 

"Because I....." He closed his eyes, took in a deep breath again and held her shoulders, 

"Do not do that again... hmm?" 

She looked at his eyes. His gaze was soft, he wasn't glaring anymore neither did he look like he was going to kill her any second, but she snapped back to her senses and slapped his hands away. 

"It's none of your business what I choose to do. You are nothing but an uncle, not even my father."

"What?" He looked at her, his eyes widening slightly. "I... am 'an uncle'."

She nodded. "So if my father is okay with it, I don't see why you should have a problem with it."

"Damn it Joreen. Why are you being so stubborn?" 

'I don't want to be stubborn too. I want to tell you I won't do that again because I only did that for your attention. Who cares about any stupid prize?' She said in her head. But she had to stick to this. Since he wanted to treat her like she was a child, well, game on. 

"If you have nothing else to say to me, I will return inside. My parents must be waiting for me to return." She turned to leave but he grabbed her hand, glaring at her. 

"What suddenly happened to you? You were not like this Jo." 

"Really? How have I been then?" She asked tauntingly. She had never seen him react this way or say so many words at once to her like he was doing right now. Why was he so angry about her dancing there? She began to think deeply if this was in anyway against the contract she had signed with G-GLOBAL. Maybe there was a clause which said she wasn't supposed to do something like this without her boss' permission? 

"I... thought you said you liked me?" He asked, his piercing gaze not leaving her face. 

Her heart skipped a beat but she quickly recovered and asked, "Like.. you?" 

"Yes. You said you liked me and then you start to snub me and you became a lot stubborn. Damn it, Luo Joreen, what has gotten into you?" 

"Ah! That... was a drunken ramble uncle." Joreen answered with a sheepish smile. 

"I. Am. Not. Your. Uncle." He said through gritted teeth.

"You've always wanted me to call you uncle but now you do not want it? Also, you did a fine job always snubbing me. You were always busy with your mobile gadgets or with a document in hand, pretending to be a cool CEO which you are not and snub me because you wanted to focus on your business, why can't I do the same? You think you are the only busy one?" 

"Wwwhat?" He was almost speechless but he managed to let the word out. 

"You heard me. I am busy." She eyes him before turning around to walk away from him. 

*******

"Me?" Heya asked in surprise when her name was called. She didn't sign up for any performance. 

"Go on." Her mother urged her with a smile. 

"No. I didn't sign up for it because I didn't want to be a part. You wrote down my name, didn't you?" She asked her mother with an accusing frown. 

Her mother looked a bit flustered, "I'm... sorry, I thought your forgot to sign up because you haven't been in your best mood so I helped you—"

"And you didn't think to tell me beforehand so I would cancel?" 

"Miss Li Heya?" The moderator called again as he kept looking around. 

"Heya, I know you are pissed. Your mother was wrong but you need to calm down. People are watching." Her father said in a soft voice while glaring daggers at his wife. 

"You can still cancel. I don't think this is a must." Her father added. 

Heya still kept a frown on her face. When the moderator called her name again, she stood up. She wanted to say she was canceling but everyone was already clapping which made things a bit awkward and uncomfortable for her. 

With a dejected sigh, she began to walk towards the stage, keeping a smile on her face until she took the mic and introduced herself, "Hi! I'm Li Heya." 

*CLAPS*

"My mother signed me up for this." She confessed but kept a smile on her face while her mother was looking away in embarrassment.

"But we cannot turn down our mothers can me?" She asked with a short laugh that made the audience also laugh. 

So far you were from the Song-Wang-Li and Luo family, everything you say becomes funny to the others even if it isn't. 

"So I didn't prepare for this, but I am doing this for her. So.. I will be singing one of the songs I wrote some years back..."

More claps followed making her giggle.

"Do not be too harsh on me." She concluded before going to where a piano was stationed and sat in front of it. 

"She seem very different on stage." Suyin who was watching with her family and fiancee's family noted. 

"Yea." Shen agreed with a tiny smile on his face, not taking his eyes off Heya. "I watched some of her videos online, she is really good. I realised she could play a lot of instruments." 

"What a lucky girl." Suyin said and clapped soundly when Heya began to sing. 

Heya's song was about a person who loved someone. The love was hurting the person because they didn't know whether the one they loved was ever going to love them back, but still, they preferred to love the person instead of letting go of the hopeless love. 

Suyin turned to spare Zhu Liang a glance. He was looking at the stage with a sad look in his eyes.

'Maybe he is remembering her?' She thought to herself sadly. 

Heya's voice was nothing short of perfect and it was a perfect blend to the soft tones of the piano she was playing. Suyin wished she could sing. Maybe Liang would at least look at her when she was on stage?

The song seems to be talking about a lot of people at the same time because their eyes searched around for their 'hopeless love'.

Shen looked ahead at Heya with a very faint smile on his face, oblivious to the fact that a certain girl with purple coloured hair was staring at him. While the girl was ignorant of the fact that a certain waiter was staring at her. 

Joreen looked at where Hoy had been sitting, noticing he was staring at her, she quickly looked away. 

Heya's eyes found where Zhu Liang was sitting. Her eyes looked sad as she looked at him and sang at the same time. He was also staring right back, the look in his eyes looked similar to hers. 

They were both oblivious to the fact that someone was intently watching them.