Lijuan looked around the table suspiciously as the family had dinner together.
Jiaying and Rong occasionally shot her angry glares whenever they had the chance.
Jiaying remembered how she had seen Jinhai in front of their house laughing happily with Shan and Lijuan. If she still had been confused about the 'Jinhai' they had been talking about earlier, she was finally sure now. It was really Wang Jinhai and he had left with Shan. Her second hand fisted under the table. She hadn't even made any move, yet they were already trying to snatch him away. She was not going to let that happen.
"Has anyone been entering inside my room lately?" Lijuan asked while looking suspiciously at her two sisters.
"Your room? Why?" Her mother asked as she raised her head to look at her.
"A few things has been missing and I do not think it's the maid."
"Your point is?" Rong was the first to ask in annoyance. No matter how hard she tried, she hadn't been able to scrub off the embarrassment she had received from Yun. Never in her life had she ever imagined that a man would treat her the way he had. He made her feel cheap, worthless and worse of all, he put her thief of a sister before her.
"It's exactly as I asked. have either of you been going into my room in my absence?." Lijuan asked without taking her eyes off Rong.
"Rong? Jiaying? Have you been entering inside her room?" Mother Mei asked not liking the tension in the atmosphere.
"What am I going to do there? I only go there when I'm to collect something from her and she's always there." Jiaying said quickly.
Rong didn't bother to answer. She didn't see why she should get herself involved in Lijuan's issue.
"Rong?" Her mother called her.
She lifted her head and noticed her mother was waiting for her to say something so she frowned.
"If she misplaced her stuff, she should look for it. Why embarass us everyday by asking such silly questions? Who has the luxury of time to be going about people's rooms?" She asked with an even deeper frown.
Lijuan eyed her. As far as she was concerned, her two sisters were her suspects. The maid wouldn't steal a pen or tear a piece out of her sketchbook. It only had to be them.
"Enough!" Chairman Mei who had been quietly eating said in a low but firm voice.
"You should check your room properly. Now you all should eat and give me some quietness."
Lijuan sighed and began to do just that.
"Why didn't I see you at breakfast today? Where did you pass the night?" Chairman Mei suddenly remembered to ask.
So much for the quietness.
Lijuan's grip on her fork tightened. She quickly glanced at her mother who was also looking at her and then returned her gaze back to her father..
"Shan's place. We left late so we couldn't return to the house" She lied. She hoped no one would ever find out she had slept in Yun's house.
Jiaying cast her a quick glance as she cleaned her sweaty palm on her dress.
For some reason, Jiaying could tell she was lying.
Was it possible they had both hooked up with some men? Or.... had they gone out with Jinhai and Yun? She wondered with a frown.
Chairman Mei said nothing more but just nodded.
When Lijuan returned to her room, she sighed deeply. What was she going to do now?
Yun had been so nice to her and the least she could do now was to give him his pen and get rid of the drawing but surprisingly, she couldn't find both.
Her phone began ring with a call from Shan. She rolled her eyes as she answered the call. Shan hadn't called her the whole afternoon and Lijuan hadn't bothered to call since she didn't want to ruin their date.
"Hello Girlfriend!" Shan greeted excitedly. "You are pissed aren't you?"
"Why would I be? How did your date go?" Lijuan asked idly.
"I told you it wasn't a date! quit calling it one." Shan said rolling her eyes.
"Fine. But I hope you weren't so busy having fun and forgot all you were supposed to ask him?" Lijuan asked.
"Of course not. You know you always come first. I did remember to ask him and guess what?" Shan asked with a smile.
"What?" Lijuan asked with a curious frown when she heard the smile in Shan's voice.
"I think Yun likes you!" She said excitedly.
"You aren't going to continue with this right now are you?" Lijuan said with a sigh as she lay her back on the bed and looked at her ceiling.
"No no no.. I'm serious. Really serious."
Lijuan sat up immediately she heard her serious voice and frowned.
"Did Jinhai tell you that?"
"Yes. He was also at the club last night and saw us there. He sent Yun a picture of you dancing with a man and guess what?"
"What?" Lijuan asked.
"Yun came over and declared right there that he was your boyfriend!"
"What?" Lijuan gasped and stood up immediately.
"He... said I was his girl—?"
Bits of the event that had occurred the previous night began to flash in her head...
"Call that bastard now!" She remembered Shan's angry voice instructing her and she also remembered dialing his number but she didn't remember speaking with him on the phone.
She could also recall Yun's voice telling her to go home.. "Let's get you home."
And then Shan had said...
"It's really monkey face?"
"It's head, not monkey face, monkey head." Lijuan had corrected Shan as both began to giggle.
Lijuan's eyes bulged out in horror. All those had actually happened?" She asked herself in shock, obviously no longer paying attention to Shan on the phone.
"And you have a prettier head than a monkey's" She remembered telling Yun outside the bar.
"I do not think that is a compliment." He had said with a frown.
"Oh yes it is! It's very difficult for me to give out compliments.. you must be lucky.." She said while winking and giving him finger hearts.
She screamed in shock and fell with her face on the bed.
"Why did I give him finger hearts and say all that?" She asked herself aloud and kept hitting her head with her knuckles.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Shan's worried voice asked her but Lijuan wasn't paying any attention to her anymore.
"Do not lie to me Vice President... have you ever seen a girl prettier than me?" She had asked as she clung unto him when he carried her and was about dropping her on the bed after Jinhai dropped Shan.
"Her friend is also pretty" Jinhai said to Yun who didn't bother to answer him.
"You should sleep now." He tried to drop her on the bed but she tightened her hands around his neck.
"Answer my question first. Have you ever seen a prettier girl?" She asked with a pout letting her hands drop from his neck. Yun used the opportunity to drop her gently on the bed.
He paused and scratched his head... "You're really pretty." He decided to settle for that.
"Smart! smart answer." Lijuan nodded in approval and frowned when he turned to leave.
"No goodnight kiss?" She asked with a pout making Yun look at her with round eyes. "Didn't you say I was your woman?" She giggled.
"You should kiss her." Jinhai had said with an amused smile before walking away to give them some privacy.
"Hurry" She said with big puppy eyes making Yun groan inwardly as he walked back to the bed to drop a goodnight kiss on her forehead.
"Oh no! I didn't do that! I couldn't have done that." Lijuan said shaking her head as she put her hands together in prayer.
"What didn't you do?" Shan asked with a frown. Lijuan finally remembered her phone and picked it from the bed.
"I want to die! I embarrassed myself. Shan! I'm never taking alcohol again. Never ever." Lijuan swore.
************
"So what are we having for dinner?" Yun asked Jinhai curiously.
"Why are you asking me that? Shouldn't I be asking you?" Jinhai asked back with a frown.
Yun gave him a confused look... "Why should you be asking me?"
"Because it's your house and it's your responsibility to provide the food." Jinhai said with a smile.
"Oh... it's now my house and my responsibility to provide our meals?" Yun asked with a raised brow.
Hadn't he been acting like a professional chef just this morning?
"You have to earn your keep so go make us something.. " Yun said inching his chin at the direction of the kitchen.
"Come on... you should get a Live-in maid as soon as possible. We can't continue like this."
Yun waited for him to finish talking before pointing towards the kitchen with his chin, telling him to go there.
"You don't want to ask me how my date went?" Jinhai asked deliberately ignoring him. He was just going to order take-outs.
"I'm sure it went well. Don't bother me with the details." Yun said disinterestedly as he changed the news channel to CNN.
"You're just jealous." Jinhai muttered before walking away.