Long Jinjing didn’t hear Lu Zihao earlier when he claimed that he forgot about having girlfriends in the past and Grandpa Lu assuming that he might have selective amnesia because of the ski accident. She only heard the worried Grandpa Lu insisting on taking Lu Zihao to the hospital. As soon as she heard the word “hospital”, his obvious lethargy in the past days immediately came to mind, causing her to panic and worry for him even more.
She had no idea that this kind of conversation occurred between the grandfather and grandson while she was busy heating up dinner for Lu Zihao in the kitchen.
“Why did he have to lie to me?” she murmured to herself. “It’s not like I’ll mind if he had girlfriends before. I have an ex-boyfriend, too. It’s normal and not a big deal.”
Her mood sank and she pulled the blanket more tightly around her. “Is it because he hates the idea of being serious with me that much? That’s why he said that he only had bedmates, not girlfriends, in an attempt to deter me?”
She rested her chin on her knees. “Should I…break up with him?”
“Like hell I’m letting you break up with me before our 30-day agreement is over,” Lu Zihao’s eerily calm voice sounded from behind her.
She yelped and fell down from the windowsill as the blanket tangled all over her body. He caught her and helped her stand on her own feet.
“Ni-nikolai, you scared me! You’re always so silent like a ghost! You’re going to give me a heart attack someday!”
His answer was to tighten the tangled blanket, trapping her and not letting her escape from him.
“W-what are you d-doing, Nikolai?”
His intense gaze bored down on her. Although his expression was unreadable as usual, she could feel anger emanating from him. [This novel is a contracted work with W e b n o v e l . c o m (remove spaces). If you’re not reading this chapter on W e b n o v e l, it has been stolen. It’s very discouraging to see thieves profitting from my hard work. Please support the original author, ArriaCross. Thank you! Also follow me on Instagram @arriacross]
“Why the f.u.c.k are you thinking of breaking up with me?”
She shivered at his deceptively soft and calm voice.
“Answer me, Jinjing.”
She tried wiggling but it was no use. She couldn’t disentangle herself from him and the blanket. “I…you lied to me,” she whispered.
Silence.
When he still didn’t say anything, she slowly peeked at him out of the corner of her eye. He wasn’t showing any emotions but the feeling of anger emanating from him intensified.
Why was he angry? She didn’t do anything wrong! He was the one who lied to her!
Feeling indignant, she raised her chin and forced herself to look at him straight in the eyes. “I know that you don’t really w-want us to become b-boyfriend and girlfriend and that I was the one who wanted this in the first place…but you didn’t have to lie—”
“I didn’t lie, Jinjing,” he told her in a voice so soft that it was almost a whisper.
She frowned at his denial. “Please…that’s enough.”
Unable to hold his gaze anymore, she turned her head away from him to look at the large but empty-looking master bedroom instead. What was she doing? These feelings were something that she shouldn’t be feeling because of him. It was ridiculous that she was feeling like a pathetic, hopeless, scorned woman.
She forced a smile on her face but still didn’t look at him. “I’m s-sorry—”
“What the hell are you apologizing for?” he demanded.
“—for acting like this.” She knew he said something but didn’t hear what he actually said. Instead, she started to babble in her agitated state. “I made a promise not to question you about your private affairs but here I am acting like a mistrustful, bitchy girlfriend. D-don’t worry, Nikolai. I won’t do it again. I was just…c-curious about why you would lie…never mind. Let’s not talk about it anymore. Uhm, I…can I go home? I really don’t feel like staying here after all. I think—”
“Jinjing.”
“—that I need some time to think away from you. Yes, that’s what I need. Some time for myself and figure out—”
“Jinjing!” He shook her—gentle enough to not hurt her but firm enough to get her attention. “Listen to me.”
She paused while still refusing to look at him. “I know that I’m being unreasonable given that I’m not your real girlfriend but…oh no!”
Humiliation flooded through her when her eyes started to fill up with tears. She instinctively tried to cover her face with her hands but couldn’t move because of the blanket wrapped tightly around her. All she could do was turn her head even farther away from him.
“I…this is ridiculous! I don’t know why I’m acting like this. You must be thinking that I’m such a pathetic woman—”
“Look at me, Jinjing.”
“—and that you made a mistake by entering this 30-day agreement with me. See? I’m terrible company tonight. I think it’s best for me to go home—”
“Look at me!”
The angry, commanding tone startled her and caused her to look at him by instinct. Fortunately, she was still able to hold on to a bit of her dignity by being somehow able to keep her tears from falling. She felt confused at why she was acting like this. It felt humiliating.
“What do you mean that you’re not my real girlfriend?” he asked through gritted teeth. “Does this mean that you weren’t treating me as your real boyfriend all this time?”
“I….” She swallowed hard and found it hard to explain what she meant.
“This relationship might only be temporary but I automatically treated it as real the moment I agreed to your terms. You think I’ll waste my time showing you off to everyone if I thought that our relationship is fake?”
Her expression showed confusion but also some other emotion that she couldn’t determine—no, she didn’t dare determine. She didn’t speak to prevent herself from saying something that she might regret.
“This is why I don’t do relationsh.i.p.s,” he said, his voice finally starting to express frustration. “It’s such a hassle trying to communicate like this.”
That sliced through her. Her eyes watered even more but she was determined not to embarrass herself even further by letting them fall. He thought of her as a hassle.
“Then…let’s break up,” she whispered.
