Hello, Mr Li: The Christmas Trip

"What... are you...?" 

"I need your earring." He informed her before taking it off without permission. He used the sharp end to tear a button hole on her coat. It took about a minute before he did it and he was glad he succeeded. 

He was about to return her earring but looked at it carefully, "This is fake gold." He pointed out, not bothering to ask. 

She quickly snatched it from him and fixed it back on her earlobe. 

"Who... said it.. was?" 

"Where did you buy that from? Did someone con you into buying fake gold? How much did you get it?" He asked quietly, looking like he was prepared to kill whoever it was that made her wear inferior stuff. 

"Fourteen—"

"Fourteen thousand? And you were given this? Pretty cheap, but it should have been better than this."

Did he... just say 14,000 was cheap? Like... fourteen thousand!!!!

Joreen smiled sheepishly and began to scratch the back of her neck, "I meant.. fourteen yuan." 

He frowned in confusion. 

Seeing he didn't understand, she explained again, "FOURTEEN YUAN. One—four. Hehe!" She said with a sheepish smile. 

He looked a bit surprised and tried to process what he just heard. 

"14 yuan?" He asked to be sure he heard correctly. 

She nodded before she remembered the worth of the jewelry she was currently wearing around her ankle. 

**********

Music was one thing that made Li Heya happy. After dinner with her family, she would have returned to her room in the resort but she didn't. She was by the sea side with a whole lot of other people, listening to some Christmas Songs. 

The sea said was lit with chinese lanterns which were floating in the air but if one looked closely, they would see a string connecting all of them together to form a very big star. 

There was a buffet service present with a lot of grilled foods, children running around, some security personnel stood beside the sea, making sure no one was going to cross to that side, especially the careless children. 

There was a hut for Santa Claus by the corner where kids and even some adults were queuing to get gifts and take pictures, there was also a Mickey mouse dancing to the Christmas songs with some kids and their parents. 

Heya smiled as she watched the scene, especially the children. She envied the kids who were receiving gifts from Santa clause since she never got one because she was always shy to come out when she was younger. 

"Hey!" Suyin appeared behind her, "Merry Christmas." 

"Merry Christmas." Heya returned with a smile of her own. 

"Having fun?" Suyin asked as she looked around with a smile. 

"Hmm.. can't say. But it looks fun here." 

They were both quiet for a while before Suyin appeared in front of her and surprsingly hugged her. 

"I'm sorry for how we left things the other day and what I said to you. I admit, I had no right to tell you what to do when I cannot do that myself. I was being an hypocrite. I really do not want to fight with you. You are the only friend I have here." 

She pulled away from the hug to look at Heya, "I sincerely apologize." 

"...." Heya could not find any word to tell her so she just looked at her. 

"I am... just scared." Suyin admitted with a sad smile. 

"I don't really have friends because I noticed a lot of people do not like me. Even those I call my friends pretend to like me when they don't. People think I am always too excited, or pretending to be nice or too talkative or bossy. Look... I don't want to ruin our friendship. You can forget about all I said. I didn't mean to push you to my brother like that. I had no such right!" 

Heya looked at the girl and could not stop the guilt that was starting to eat her up. 

"I..." 

Suyin waited patiently for Heya to say what she wanted to say to her. 

"There is something I need to tell you." Heya confessed. She could not keep it in anymore. If she told Suyin, then the girl would hate her and stop being nice to her. But she kept having a second thought because if she said something about her relationship with Liang to Suyin, what would happen? Suyin would hate her, sure. But what was going to happen to her relationship with Zhuo Liang? How would the parents of both Suyin and Liang take it? What about her own family? 

"Is... something wrong?" Suyin asked when she noticed the look on Heya's face. "What is it you want to tell me?" She asked Heya. 

"Miss Yan!" 

Both Suyin and Heya turned when they saw a woman who was probably in her mid thirties, smiling at Suyin as she approached them. 

"Mrs Feng." Suyin greeted the woman with a smile. 

"Oh.. you are Miss Li Heya, aren't you?" The woman asked Heya, the smile not leaving her face. 

Heya nodded. "We have met before but I am sure you do not remember me." Mrs Feng said. 

Suyin thought it was best to do an introduction since it looked like Heya doesn't remember her. 

"This is Miss Feng. We met two days ago. I realised she is an event planner so she is going to be planning my engagement party." Suyin said excitedly. 

Heya felt like she had just been hit by a truck when she heard it.

"Your... engagement... p..arty?" Heya stuttered. Zhu Liang was still getting engaged to her? A tiny part in her head had tried to convince her that Liang probably still loved her and maybe he would be interested in getting back together since it was obvious he didn't like Suyin that much. Was that only her wishful thinking?

"Yes! Hopefully, it'll be on New Year's day. That's a week from now. Remember you promised to sing for us?"