章 21: Not apology but embarrassment
The college boy coughed badly. The sound of his violent coughing resounded in the area, and the other patrons asked, "Is there something wrong?"
Jun turned and flashed a smile. "Nothing much. Kids these days don't walk properly. Keep on getting hit somewhere or the other. Be at ease."
"Oh, I see. Indeed, young lads are too troublesome sometimes. Please carry on."
He turned, and the smile vanished from his face. The friends in the group almost peed their pants, watching his expression growing sinister.
The boy looked up and trembled so hard as if it was an earthquake. The air had turned deathly still.
"Strip your pants."
"H-Huh-"
The pressure Jun emanated forced him to lower his head.
"Didn't hear me?" His voice was as still as his gaze.
His friends were all ready to run away when Jun warned a command. "Don't."
It was just one word, but it was enough to deflate their courage of escaping.
Jun pressed his foot on the boy's ankle. He silently yelped in pain. "Strip your pants, and leave this library in that state."
"H-How…can I…"
Is this how terrifying an adult is? He is on a whole nother level!
"Like you were about to lift her skirt. You don't see it as embarrassing. I am sure you wouldn't be embarrassed if people saw you in your underwear either."
It sounded like a casual remark, but the tone behind it was anything but casual.
"No-no it was m-my mistake…" he sweated buckets.
That boy didn't know who the hell Jun was, but his instinct said one thing for sure that he absolutely cannot mess with him.
"I…am sorry."
Jun's silence felt eerie and pricking.
"Strip your pants."
That was it. It was akin to an ultimatum. There was no scope of an apology or negotiation. If he would protest once again, then he would face the consequences.
The boy sobbed and quickly removed his pants.
Jun then threw a glance at the boy's friends. Suddenly, they realized why his beaten up friend was in such a pathetic state.
He gave an aura of a monster.
A villain.
And the villain was the most dangerous guy in any story.
Facing him felt like those miserable side characters who die by a villain's hands in a movie.
He didn't even need to tell them before they automatically removed their pants too.
A smile bloomed on Jun's lips. "You guys are smart."
They felt cold. His smile felt like the end of the world to them.
The boy who tried to lift Ai's dress stammered against his pounding heart.
"S-s-sorry."
"I don't want your sorry. I want to see your embarrassment. Also, I don't need to tell you that you aren't welcome in the library anymore, right? Did you think you are free to do as you please because this is an area less visited?"
They shuddered.
Cold, menacing and unforgiving.
He didn't want their apology. He wanted their suffering.
The college boys clenched the pants in their hands and slowly left the area, utterly ashamed. The other patrons around them shrieked in shock.
"Y-you shameless boys! What are you doing?"
"This is a library, not your home! Have some decency."
"Put on your pants!"
Their faces reddened in shame. Everybody was giving them disdainful looks.
"Gosh, kids these days think that they can do anything."
They turned towards Jun. "Why don't you stop them?"
"What can I say? I tried to, but they seemed adamant for some reason," he sighed.
They mumbled. "I don't know what the parents of these kids have taught them."
As the boys finally ran away, everybody else dispersed too but still whispering about the incident.
Jun looked back at Ai, who was staring back at him, her body trembling slightly. He was about to throw a sarcastic comment when he stopped himself.
Instead, he asked, "Can you come down on your own?"
Ai was in a stupor. She breathed out and lifted her foot. But the world spun around her, and she stopped. She clung onto the ladder like her life was on the line.
She gulped. "Give me some time…-"
Her eyes widened when Jun suddenly held her waist and lifted her off the ladder. She quickly and instinctively clung onto his neck, feeling afraid.
The locks of her hair tickled his cheeks. Their gazes met.
Close.
The distance between them was too close.
He put her down. In the end, he couldn't stop himself from saying, "You should start using that mouth God has gifted you to shout when you need help."
But Ai wasn't really listening to him. She sped away and sat down in her seat, hastily opening her notebook.
Jun was dumbfounded.
Huh? Why did she run away like that?
He just shrugged and went back to his own desk.
That woman is weird anyway.
On the other side, Ai was rapidly jotting down some words on a page. Her fingers were slightly shaking, but her heart was filled with thrill as the words kept flowing like a river's steady stream.
That was it.
The moment when Jun confronted the boys. That was the moment when Ai realized something.
Now I understand what MrPerfect was talking about.
'When his love was attacked by the goons, what did he do?'
'If it had been me, the goons would have suffered much more than just empty words. They dare look at my woman. They wouldn't have seen the next day at all.'
Even Ai had felt the chill when Jun was facing the boys. His eyes were as cold as ice.
She felt the threat.
She shivered even though she was being protected.
Ai knew Jun was an intense person, but it was that moment when he looked truly evil that she realized what MrPerfect wanted to convey.
The male lead's feeling of wanting to protect, and the female lead's feeling of being protected.
She revisited her books and could see why the plot felt flat at some places.
"The intensity of their emotions don't sync at all. I failed to properly convey the anger the male lead should have felt when his love was in danger," she mumbled to herself.
She quickly took a snap of the piece she wrote and sent it to Xing Bi.
'Tell me how is this?'
Instead of a reply, she got Xing Bi's call.
"Ai, this is…"
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