Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Jun had completely shut himself off when they reached the condo, not talking a word to Ai no matter how much she wanted to. When he was about to storm into his room, Ai came in between his route.

"You know that keeping it to yourself is not gonna help anybody," she pursed her lips. "I know you are angry and that's why I want to talk to you."

Jun smiled. "Why do you want to talk to me now? Did you think before accepting to dance with Gu Yating?"

She said with complete seriousness. "I didn't want to at first. I was contemplating not being a part of the game when I saw that Yating was my partner. But Soo Zhenya insisted. Also…"

She was thinking of how to put it. "I didn't want to make him feel that I doubted him. He said he would be friends with me and not accepting to dance would have made him feel like I am suspicious-"

Jun grabbed her shoulders and his dark brown eyes watched her closely with disdain. "And why do you care about his feelings so much? Until a few months ago, you didn't want to have anything to do with him! But now you are considering his feelings!? Who cares if he gets hurt!? You are my girlfriend. You have no obligation to care so much about your ex-boyfriend!"

Ai took a pause and slowed down her thoughts. She was aware that Jun would definitely get upset because of this, but now that she thought about it, she admitted she was in the wrong here.

I should have indeed been firmer in declining Yating. I wonder why I didn't…

She knew herself well and there wasn't anything that deterred her stance. But for the first time, she hesitated. Nevertheless, it was a mistake from her side to make Jun uncomfortable. Her heart plundered into depression, and her shoulders slumped.

"Jun…"

Biting his lip, he lashed out further. "This is the second time you did this! The first time was when you rushed to his place. Why? You didn't have to!"

Ai blinked this time. "Jun, but I clarified about that. I suddenly got his message and-"

"So? Did it mean that you had to take responsibility for attending to him?"

She stared at him and asked back, "Jun, I understand I was wrong tonight. You are right. I should have declined to dance with him and made you uncomfortable. I won't defend myself over that. But regarding that day, I only did what I thought was right at that time. He was asking for help. How could I have ignored it?"

He smiled with his lips laced with fury. "And give him a wrong idea about your intentions?"

Ai slightly furrowed her brows with dissatisfaction. "Jun, if Shui had called for your help in this manner, would you have been able to ignore it?"

He stiffened.

"Would you have left her alone?"

He gritted his teeth. "The difference here is that Shui clearly doesn't have any feelings for me! Even if I rush to help her, she would only think of me as her friend. But Gu Yating? He is not like Shui! He likes you. He still loves you. And you know what? That's exactly what made him misunderstand your 'kindness.'"

Ai rebuked. "He won't, Jun. I was already clear about my feelings at Valentine's evening itself. And even if he did misunderstand me, I have no problem in reiterating it to him again and again that there can be nothing more than friendship between us. The part of myself that loved him is already in the past. There is nothing that would waver me in his favor. But that doesn't mean that because of a hypothetical misunderstanding that might occur, I refuse to help him. That will be too inhumane."

Jun stared at her, stunned. "Inhumane? Isn't it because of that cursed day that he chose for the whole world to know his feelings for you tonight? He definitely thought that somewhere in your heart, you still care about him. So let's give it a push."

"He said he only wants to be friends-"

"And you believe him?" He laughed. "You did see his hesitation to admit that he had no feelings for you, right?"

Ai narrowed her eyes. "Yes. I saw that too. He hesitated because yes, he might still love me. But that also doesn't mean that he is not trying to move on. When you broke up with Shui, was it that you stopped loving her from the very next moment?"

He clenched his jaw, unable to retort.

"That day outside the cafe when you saw Jin and Shui together - you were furious to see them spending time together. Even though you had broken up with her, Shui still affected you so much. It took sometime for you to move on. It took sometime for me too to completely give up on Yating after I was reborn. When he had confessed to me on Christmas, I hesitated a lot even if I knew what the past was like. If you and I can take time to heal, then why cannot Yating do the same? Jun, you have given up on Shui for Jin's sake. So you know what it feels like to take that step and move on. It's not easy and it takes time."

A deep and cold silence ensued between them.

Jun slowly let her go, facing her with a cold and hurt gaze. "You will fight for him even though he put you in such a predicament tonight? You wouldn't have had to face such humiliation if Mr. Lin had not interfered."

She answered after a thoughtful pause. "But just like Chyou, I feel that it was a genuine miscommunication between Yating and Mr. Lin. If Yating had to do this, he would have already done so after the Summit."

"And somebody's patience can slip at any point in time, Ai. Maybe he still had hopes for sometime but when he didn't see them getting fruitful, he finally played this trick."

Ai knew that could be the case too as Jun said, but she had trouble comparing this evil Yating to the one from that evening who showed sincerity towards letting her go.

He smiled. "But it's fine if you or Chyou don't think that way."

He held her shoulder and slightly pushed her out his way. "You can keep showing your sympathies to him. It's me who has to learn to deal with it, isn't it?"