103 I will teach you how to dance (1)
Jinhai carefully watched his son. “Is it about how you tried to kill yourself by jumping in front of a car?”
Jun stiffened. He couldn’t meet his father’s gaze. What stunned him the most was how Jinhai knew about his suicide attempt in the first place?
He answered as he understood the question in his eyes. “I surely banished you from the family, but you are still my son. I was keeping track of what you were doing with your life. Naturally, I know that you are working in the central library. I got a report one day that you tried to jump in front of a car. The guards were unable to pull you back in time because it happened so suddenly. But they said a woman saved you and even slapped you. She was Zhou Ai, right?”
Jun nodded with a head lowered in shame.
Jinhai raised his brow. “There are very, very few people who can slap you in your face, certainly not strangers. She did well because you didn’t fail to disappoint me yet again.”
A painful lump formed at the back of his throat. “I am sorry-“
His harsh, cold voice cut him off. “Don’t need it. You killed yourself in your past life. You were going to do the same again. I cannot imagine how Nana would feel seeing you toying with the life she gave you if she ever came to know about it.”
Jun carefully heard him speak. The disappointment and fury in his voice was evident as much as how it slightly trembled with fear.
In the end, Jun was still his son. Jinhai might be biased against his sons and favor Nuo more than them. But it wouldn’t change the fact that he was their father. In his own way, he cared about his child. At the very core of his heart, he was still a parent who could never see any of his children hurt, certainly not die.
“I kicked you out because I could not forgive you for hurting your family, especially…” he clenched his fist. “Nana. She died because of you, and I can bear anything but not losing her forever. You hurt Nana in the worst way possible to the point she died, and that is my bottomline nobody can cross.”
The temperature took a sharp drop as Jinhai conveyed his parting words. “If you feel you can lighten your guilt by showing your bravery of confessing your suicide attempt to me, then you are wrong. Leave.”
—
“Bro!”
Jin hurried towards Jun outside the mansion as he saw him leaving from the gates. “Bro!”
Jun ever so slightly turned his head, his eyes carrying a hint of bloodthirst.
“I…” he took a moment to catch his breath. “I wanted to talk to you, but ever since you left home, I couldn’t get the chance.”
Jin stood before his elder brother and peered into his dark eyes. “Bro, Shui told me that you…you broke up with her.”
Jun didn’t respond.
“She told me at the cafe one day we met. I was shocked beyond my wits. There is definitely some misunderstanding, right? I suggested that Shui talk to you again. But even on New Year’s, things didn’t seem to resolve between you two. That’s why I came to meet you. What is wrong, bro? You love Shui to death. H-How is it possible that you break up with her?”
Jun could see the anguish and worry on his face. But he didn’t focus on what he was saying. He could only remember how he touched Ai. How he danced with her. How he got intimate with her.
Everything else seemed secondary to him.
“We have broken up and that’s that,” he affirmed without much emotion.
Jin blinked. “W-what? Bro, didn’t you always claim Shui as your wife? You are so crazy for her. Why did you suddenly…change like this then? Couples fight all the time. A break up over one argument seems far fetched. If you two still-“
“Enough.”
He stiffened, sensing the finality in his icy tone.
“I don’t want to talk about this,” his aura emanated such cold winds that made Jin shudder. “Right now…it would be really better if you left my sight.”
Jin’s lips parted in a light gasp, and his eyelashes trembled. His fingers shook as he curled them into his palm.
“Bro…Do you hate me?” His voice broke, “You left home, and it feels to me that you are avoiding me particularly. I just want to see you happy, Bro. Your happiness is in Shui, isn’t it? I just want to see you two together.”
Jun clenched his teeth and looked away. “Shui and I are over. The earlier you accept it, the better.”
Green nerves popped on the back of his fist. The only memory endlessly hovering in his mind was Jin and Ai’s dance. He was afraid he would become violent if Jin didn’t leave his sight.
“I will announce my break up to the family soon enough.”
Jin’s eyes watched his brother with an incredulous stare.
Jun took a step forward to leave but stopped himself to leave. He threw a side glance at him, narrowing his eyes.
“The thing Grandpa proposed about Ai being your wife? Don’t bother to take it too seriously,” his deep voice sounded darker and more sinister.
He tilted his head and warned. “Just treat it as a joke and let it end here. I will say again what I said before. Ai is not available for anybody. So, stay away from her.”
It was hard not to flip out like he did in his past life when he came to know about Shui and Jin. But that memory was what tethered him to control his emotions from lashing out. He didn’t wish to repeat the past life and get violent with Jin which had started all the misery.
He wouldn’t lash out, but he certainly could put a brake on any useless thoughts anybody might have for Ai.
Jun pushed the gate and walked out, his face marred with an expression of a deadly threat.
—
Over at Jun’s condo, Ai was seated on the couch, her thoughts lost and in disarray. She returned home first anyway even though Jun had messaged her to wait for him.
In the end, she couldn’t. But she also knew she couldn’t avoid his questions. So she patiently waited for him.
The door opened, and she immediately felt the air getting heavier and chillier. With every step that Jun took towards her, the space around her felt turning darker like the night sky.
Ai got up on her feet and turned to face him. “I know what you want to ask. You must be upset for me meddling into your family business. I had no right to take your gift and appear in front of your family-“
To her shock, Jun suddenly played a soft tune on his phone and kept it on the table.
As the music played, he grabbed Ai’s waist and pulled her towards himself, pressing her body against his.
Stupefied, Ai rapidly blinked. “What are you doing?”
Intertwining his fingers within hers, he quietly but alarmingly said, “You asked me that day that you wanted to learn dancing, right? Let’s do it. I will teach you how to dance.”