After exiting the restaurant, Chen Mu remained silent as he drove and Susu sat in the passenger seat. Once in a while, he would noticed at the corner of his eyes that she would peek at him to study his expression.
Finally, he pulled over when they reached the parking spot near the beach. "Let's take a walk." He said while suppressing his emotions. She could feel his frustrations from how deep the space between his brows were curled up.
He walked to the rails and sighed deeply, "Susu, just how did you live with those disgusting people? I thought that your father would be the most sensible and understanding person, but he was a foul! Did you hear how he sided with that Karen?! Ridiculous!" His hands gripped on either side of his hips as he ranted more and more anger words out of his system.
"And that Karen! Did she think her freaking tears could cover the whole world with salt? I'll teach her what salt taste like when I rub it all over her damn face with those oily, spicy dishes that she had ordered! Hooligans! Corrupted individuals! Thank god none of them were cops or this world is truly over! Dead!" He started to raise his voice by a tad and faced the ocean as he spoke.
"Not only that! She tried to compare herself to you. She should be glad that my hands didn't slip from the other side of the room divider and accidentally spilled my bowl of soup onto her head! Seriously, her outfit looked like wicked yogurt balls with mixed expired berries and ants crawling all over it! Her handbag is expensive, but she doesn't match the aura of the bag! What a disgrace to the designer!"
"Pfft... hahahaha" She held her stomach and finally uncovered her mouth. She had to cover her mouth to not let the laughs come out. Seeing him get this angry for her made her feel extremely good for some reason.
"Y..you! You were just bullied! How could you not be angry with those gangsters?!" He turned towards her and gently pinched her cheeks while hearing her giggle more. She looked up with her slightly stretched face and pinkish eyes, "Someone is being angry on my behalf, so shouldn't I be laughing it out? I'm helping you balance!"
She patted his shoulder and brushed some air off his shoulders, "Here, I'll lift some weight off your shoulders for you! Hehehe." Facing her, he didn't know if he should be glad or happy at how she is reacting. There he is, all grumpy and dissatisfied with thousands of words coming out of his mouth and she's laughing like he was a comedian.
He stopped pinching her cheeks and rubbed them delicately as if it were a priceless treasure. Each touch was as gentle and light as a feather's weight. He continued to complain as she smiled and stared at him sweetly.
"Geez! The one that got me mad the most was Tian Yuo!!! Every single damn year! I always reminded him of your birthday and even handed him presents! How the fuck did he forget? Were my words that hard to remember? Is he that brainless? Or am I just overestimating his intelligence if he had any to begin with? Wait, actually, he's been pretty damn gullible. Ughh!!! This is sooo frustrating!!!!"
She stood there with her lips slightly parted, "You did what?" Her mellow voice and the warm palms that reached for his face instantly made him quiet. He could hear cricket sounds and crows cawing while passing by like those anime scenes where awkward silences took place.
His attempt in averting his gaze failed as her palms guided his eyes to meet hers, "What did you just say?"
"W..wah.. what did I just say? I didn't say anything." He stuttered as he focused on the gentleness in her voice. It sounded so soothing that he wanted to drown in it.
"You said something about passing presents and reminding somebody about my birthday! So? Hmm? True or false? Random spurts outs or truth? Truth or the truth? Pick either one, it'll still land on truth, right?" She pressed his cheeks inwards and made his lips form a fish lip shape.
He lifted both arms and surrendered, "Yeesshh, troooffff....trooofff..." His pronunciations were so off, but she understood what he had said. Hearing the answer that she wanted to hear, she released his cheeks and playfully said, "What's that you said? I didn't understand~ Say it properly."
Staring into her bright adoring eyes, he recognized the hint of mischievousness and played along, "I said, I was the one who handed him the presents to pass to you for your birthdays. I was the one who reminded him about your birthdays. It was all me." This time, his palms covered her face and caressed it.
Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked and listened to his husky voice, "Why? You know, if I never received any of those gifts, I might have ended things much earlier with him."
"Because I was afraid...." his fingers brushed her cheeks and slid down her arms, capturing her hands in his. "I was afraid to see or think of you being sad on any day, especially your birthday. Even if I handed you the gift, you wouldn't have been as happy as receiving a gift from him.
"So.. for all these years, it was you who wrote those pretty birthday cards that had his name on the front of the envelope? It was you who picked out the smallest and biggest gifts that didn't happen to be coincidentally exactly to my liking? You were the one who always looked after me even though you had to go out of your way to do all this?"
"Mm... I did those all for you because your smile is the best gift anyone could ever give me." His thumbs nervously moved back and forth against the back of her hand. She could feel the wetness of his sweaty palms as she continued, "Why? Why did you do all that, but wouldn't let me know about it? Why would you do it for all these years without asking for anything or telling me about it?"
He tried to loosen his grip on her hands, but she didn't allow it. Instead, she pulled him close to her body, and their chests were touching. She looked into his eyes deeply, searching for the answer she wanted to confirm.
After a few minutes of staring into each other's eyes, she frowned from his silence, "If you're not going to tell me the answer, then it's fine. Just leave me hanging. I'll walk home myself while you stay here to eat some wind!"
She separated from him, let his hands go and walked away from him in the opposite direction of where home was. He quickly chased after her and said, "Susu! Home is the other way!"
"Hmph! Who cares? Obviously, my dad doesn't care. I don't care. So why would you care? Huh? You couldn't even tell me the reason why you did all those for me. So tell me, why would you care? Why should you care? Why should I listen to you?!! Mphhhhhffsbjdf!!" Her lips were covered by his, immediately taming her as her arms circled around his neck.
After giving her a passionate kiss for two minutes, he separated his lips from hers and said, "Because I love you. I have fallen in love with you since a long time ago. It was a small puppy love at first, but unconsciously, these feelings started to grow into a bond that is much stronger and greedier. I've always wanted to see this beautiful smile, but not for anyone else, only for me. That is why...I did all that."
She lowered her head against this chest as her body trembled slightly, making him anxious. He thought that he might have forced the kiss and hurt her feelings. What he didn't expect was that this little devil had been pretending to be angry and purposely stomped the opposite direction to make him spit out a confession.
He raised his left brow and crossed his arms after hearing some giggles leaving her mouth, "Hoooooh, so somebody tricked me! Okay, now I'm mad." He pretended to be mad and loosen her arms around his neck, trying to scare her.
In the next minute, she lifted her head and gave the most cheerful and blooming smile that he had ever seen. Once again, she had captured his heart and made him fall even deeper in love with her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and tiptoed, "Still angry? Hmm?" She blinked adorably just an inch away from his face.
"Yes." He cleared his throat and acted like he was really mad to see what she would do.
"Oh?" She returned the kiss from earlier and made it last three minutes. Though still sloppy, it has improved from last time. Nearly out of breath, she nibbled on his lower lip and tilted her head, "What about now?"
"Still mad." The desires in his eyes were so evident, and his lie was exposed as well. Chuckling softly by his ears, she whispered, "Then, let me tell you a secret. I love you too."
That smile, that kiss, and that loving voice that she used to confess to him almost gave him a heart attack. It took him by surprise. So surprising that he pinched his own cheeks to make sure it hurt. So surprising that he touched her face, watched and heard the girl's mouth repeat, "Chen Mu. I love you too. Should we try dating?"
Immediately after her question, he tremendously blushed, similar to cherries. He tried to look away and face elsewhere, but wherever he tried to hide, her face would follow. She took his hands apart to avoid him from hiding his expression from her as she teasingly asked and continued repeating, "Shall we date? Date? Yes? No? Maybe Yes? Absolutely yes!"
His arms wrapped around her body tightly, "That's a billion infinity times of absolutely yeses!"