"Okay, so let me get this straight. Your boss fell and broke his hip and you lost your job."
"He didn't break it, he just-"
"Shut up."
Li Jun sealed his lips, knowing the furious man beside him was one step away from spewing fire.
"You lost your job and none other than Iris Zhou helped you close up shop."
"Yes."
"She then asked you out."
"She had come on to me befo-"
"Quiet."
"Yes."
"So, Seren's CEO and you were 'getting to know each other', which is essentially dating although you just don't wanna admit it, and then you got angry at her and ran away. After that, you saw her at a gala and then she became your Boss. Is that right?"
"Well-"
"Is. That. Right?"
"Yes."
"And at no point through this whole ordeal did you even think to tell me about it?"
Tian Yu was absolutely fuming right now.
He knew Li Jun was a reserved guy. It had taken months for him to even return the energetic greetings Tian Yu threw his way every morning when they first became classmates. After a couple of years, Li Jun finally opened up about his past and his family, explaining why he was so cut off from everyone else.
Tian Yu had been shocked at the time, now understanding everything about his unsocial friend, swearing in the spot that he would always have his back, no matter what.
But now, oh the betrayal was so great, so painful, so deep. How could he, his best friend, keep him out of such a succession of events in the other's life? Kept in the dark like a rat abandoned in the sewers! This would not stand! It would not be tolerated!
"It is the first time you ever even looked at a woman, in what? Five years? And you didn't even think to mention it? Not even after getting dumped?!"
"I wasn't dump-"
"And now she's your boss?!"
Tian Yu's outburst was gathering the attention of the other students walking around the campus' green area, where they were sitting on a bench between classes. The young man was too enraged to care about the eyes on him, solely focusing his gaze on his friend, demanding an explanation.
"I didn't tell you because I knew you would overreact."
"Of course I would overreact! This is no joking matter! You dated a girl! A member of the female species! Don't you see how important that is?! Ever since you-"
Tian Yu cut his rambling mid-sentence. That subject was too sensitive to be said out loud. The scars still marred his friend very deeply, reflected in the way Li Jun's eyes became dull when he was reminded of what had happened.
"Sorry."
Tian Yu finally calmed down, rubbing his hands down his face.
Li Jun just nodded in response.
"Listen, Li Jun, I'm your friend. I'll always be there for you, didn't I promise that?"
His friend looked up to meet his eyes.
"You did. And you have."
"Exactly. How do you expect me to be there for you when you're sad if you don't even tell me?"
"I'm not sad."
"Oh, come on. You were practically beaming with light a month ago and turned into a zombie from one day to another. You have dark bags under your eyes, and you don't even smile at my stupid jokes anymore. I might not be the brightest, but even I can tell this whole Iris Zhou ordeal has got you down."
Li Jun kept quiet, thinking about what he said.
"Let me ask you this: do you like her?"
"I..."
Tian Yu sighed after seeing him hesitate like that.
"Listen, I know you have a lot going on, and there are many... Barriers for you to overcome to be in a relationship, but that does not make you unable to feel attraction and affection towards someone else. You have to figure out whether you truly don't care for her or if you are just lying to yourself because you feel there is nothing you can do with your condition. I'm no love expert, but I feel there must be something there if it affects you this much."
"It doesn't matter anyway, Tian Yu. Things are already over between us."
"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Do you think because you cut things off you can just make yourself stop feeling like that? Emotions don't work that way, and even if it ends up amounting to nothing in the relationship between you, you owe yourself the effort of figuring out where you stand about it. Otherwise, you will just end up bottling it all up and blaming yourself. You can't change what was done to you, but it is by no means your fault. If it turns out you lost something you have to let yourself grieve the loss rather than act like everything is okay when it's clearly not."
Li Jun fell silent again, feeling a headache beginning to pound at his temples.
"Just try to think about it, okay? I'll always be here if you need to talk."
Tian Yu's eyes were clear and steady. Li Jun felt the weight of his hand on his shoulder, the fabric of his jacket warmed up, along with his chest at the supportive gesture.
----
"So, how are your aunt and uncle? Things are tense at the end of the year with all the things that need to be finished and the many projects that get kickstarted in January. "
Qin Hee received nothing but silence from the other side of the table. She had finally managed to get Aunty Li to arrange another date between her and Li Jun after quite some time of them not seeing each other. He never actually gave her his phone number, so she had no other choice but to ask his aunt to arrange it for her, being too embarrassed to ask for his contact information instead.
She was looking her best, with her new dress and delicately selected jewelry, she had hoped to dazzle the man with her beauty the moment he saw her, earning a few compliments in passing. But not only had she not managed to catch his attention, the man was so far away from her that he seemed to look right through her skin, as if it were no more than glass.
"Ehem, Mr. Li? Li Jun, are you listening?"
Hearing his name being called finally kicked Li Jun out of his reverie. He had zoned out completely, still baffled by his conversation with Tian Yu earlier that day.
"Sorry, Miss Qin. What were you saying?"
Qin Hee smiled brightly, as if she had never been ignored at all, and spoke again.
"I was just asking how your uncles are. Things must be hectic because of the end of the year."
"Oh, they're doing well, thank you for your concern."
The waiter brought their food and Qin Hee lost the opportunity to ask a follow-up question to keep the conversation going. By this point she knew Li Jun would not take the initiative to talk, keeping his stance clear that he was doing this for this relatives, having no intention of forming a relationship with her. Still, there was too much at stake here for her to stop trying.
She watched as Li Jun began eating, having no problem handling the complex cutlery. He remembered his friend's parting words when they said goodbye at the campus.
'Don't be so hard on yourself. You should give yourself some room to breathe. You have had enough people trampling you so far to add your own name to the list.'
Tian Yu was right. All this time he had been so conscious of his inability to be in a relationship that he hadn't even stopped to ponder if he actually wanted one. At the end of the day, as insistent as Iris was, she had never forced him to do anything, respecting his pace and private matters. He had willingly tagged along for everything.
'Maybe I felt way more lonely than I realized.'
After all, his only friend was Tian Yu, as he considered everyone else to be untrustworthy, including his family.
No. Specially his family.
Li Jun sighed.
He had a lot of thinking to do. But this was not the place to do it. He had other matters to attend to right now.
He finally looked up and met the girl's eyes, whom practically jumped in her seat at the unexpected attention.
"Miss Qin, why did you ask for another meeting? I thought we agreed that this whole ordeal of our families trying to make us a couple was ridiculous."
"Oh, uh, well I wanted to talk to you about that. You see, my father's position in the family is quite unstable, and my uncle has been very clear in his expectations of our relationship. I don't have much of a choice here. So I wanted to make a deal with you."
"A deal?"
"Yes. Clearly your relatives hold the same expectations from this relationship as mine, so maybe we should just give in."
"You mean become a couple?"
"No, I mean become a fake one. We could keep it up until my father's position has stabilized and you have made your space in the Li conglomerate with my family's backing. After that, we peacefully drift apart. That way, we are both free from our families' nagging, your uncle will back off, giving you the opportunity to create connections to support you inside the company, and my father will get the standing he needs."
"How long do you think this would take?"
"A couple of years? There are only six months until you graduate from what I understand, and it will probably take some time for you to stabilize yourself. From my side, the family requires the Li's help at least until the end of the bidding project. The bid will probably take some months given the scale of it all, and then the construction should be a few years."
Li Jun stared at her silently, making her squeeze the fabric of her dress at her lap.
"I will not meddle into your affairs, nor will I ask you for anything other than you appear with me in a few public events along the year and act as my boyfriend. Our families might ask for our engagement as well, but we can simply dismantle that afterwards with a fight between us which will be soon blown out after a bigger scandal comes around."
She didn't know what else she could say to convince him of agreeing, so she opted for staying quiet while waiting for his response.
"What do you get from all of this?"
Qin Hee froze on the spot, cold sweat ran down her spine and her breathing grew quicker, but she thankfully managed to retain her calm face.
"What do you mean? I already told you my goal is for my father to-"
"Yes, but that is your father's goal, not yours. Even if your father gains a greater standing in the company, the amount of shares he owns will not change, so his ambitions are of power, not wealth. Your inheritance depends on the shares he owns, so I don't see where you should be so interested in helping him, or did he threaten you to cut you from the inheritance?"
"No, he-"
"He shouldn't be able to, right? After all, your mother owns half of his possessions, so she must have prevented him from doing so with the threat of selling everything, limiting his control in the company. I even heard you originally wanted nothing to do with the Qin corporation, so there must be something in it for you to be doing this now, right?"
Qin Hee was shocked. She had heard from Aunty Li that this man was extremely sharp, but she had never expected him to know so much.
It was true her father had wanted to leave her out of his will after she chose a career different from what he had wanted. He needed for all his children to become business people in order to hold more positions inside the Qin Corporation. His brother's hold on the company was steady, but his heirs were lacking in intelligence compared to his own, meaning he could increase his standing with their help in the future.
After she had chosen to study literature, her father became sorely disappointed and wanted to punish her, but her mother had prevented him from doing so out of love for her.
Not wanting to feel trapped in her own home anymore, she chose to live on her own, and she had done so for many years, but now she had gone back to her family home, following her father to all the relevant company events and starting to help in the Qin's business.
Seeing she wasn't saying anything, Li Jun figured he had struck the nail on the head and relented in his probing. After calling the waiter over to put the food on the Li's tab, he stood up.
"Listen, Miss Qin, as I already said before, I have no intentions of having such a relationship with you, be it real or fake. What you offer to me is not as appealing as you think it is, and I believe you should begin to question whether whatever it is you are looking to get out of this is actually worth it for you to sacrifice so much."
He didn't wait for her to answer before he said.
"It was nice seeing you Miss Qin, but I hope we don't meet like this anymore. Good night."
Qin Hee watched his broad back get smaller and smaller between the restaurant's tables, until it completely disappeared from her sight.
She felt her chest getting heavier, with the beating of her heart running increasingly faster.
"Damn it! That bastard!"
Her hands slammed down on the table while her eyes darted around in desperation.
What would she do now?