บท 8: Chapter 8: Brother

"Why are you holding my sister's hand?" A stern voice sounded from the stairs below. A handsome man who was wearing a navy polo shirt looked at Shen Jun Shan with a resentful face.

The man walked up the stairs hurriedly and stood beside Shen Jun Shan. His eyes were on Shen Jun Shan's who was still holding on to Qiao An's hand.

Qiao An shook her hand, and Shen Jun Shan let go of it.

"Why are you here?" Qiao An looked at the man who was staring at Shen Jun Shan, and the man looked ready to fight Shen Jun Shan.

"I figure out that I need to visit you to see what you are up to. It looks like my decision to give you a surprise visit is right" The man replied to Qiao An, but he was still staring at Shen Jun Shan who seemed lost in the conversation.

"Would you like to come up?" Qiao An invited the man, and there was a trace of unwillingness in her voice. "Brother, don't scare people like that."

Qiao An started walking without waiting for the man or Jin's answer. Jin had to follow her up. He gave Shen Jun Shan one last intimidating look before tailing after Qiao An.

Shen Jun Shan stood for a moment alone on the stairs while looking at his hand that reached out to hold Qiao An's hand until Amy Shen called for him from inside their house. It was such an odd feeling. He was trying to reason why.

"Why are you outside while staring at your hand?" Amy Shen asked Shen Jun Shan. She called for him because she wanted Shen Jun Shan to help her open the lid of a tight jar.

"I went out to talk with An about something her brother came" Shen Jun Shan opened the lid smoothly and passed it to his sister. "He's handsome, just so you know, in case you are curious about how he looked. But he seems familiar. I feel like I saw him somewhere before, but I can't recall where because he glared at me and I don't want to stare at him openly."

Not wanting to say more, Shen Jun Shan walked towards his room in an attempt to escape from the conversation.

"Why would he glared at you?" Amy Shen asked him, but Shen Jun Shan had already closed the door of his room. Amy Shen made a mental reminder to ask Qiao An later.

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Jin sat on the three-seater sofa bed in Qiao An's living room. While Qiao An was in the kitchen, making tea for him, Jin took the chance to look at the decoration of the house.

All white, minimalistic decoration and it screamed loneliness – just like Qiao An's room in their house back in City T.

The living room only has a cream coloured three-seater sofa, a small white rustic coffee table and a white bookshelf. There was a white wooden wall clock on the wall.

A few minutes later, Qiao An came into the living room with a teacup. She put the cup in front of Jin without saying anything. Jin was used to this, so he took and drank the tea.

"Who's that guy just now?" After sipping the warm tea, Jin was ready to go down the business.

"My friend, Amy's brother" Qiao An glanced towards her clock. It was already ten minutes after 8.

"Why is he holding your hand?" Jin noticed that Qiao An kept on looking at the clock and he was used to this. Qiao An always had everything planned, and she had timed everything. Just like, it was already eight so Qiao An will read.

"He tried to stop me from walking" Qiao An did not think that it was such a big issue for Shen Jun Shan to hold her hand, but Jin didn't think so.

"But you don't like people touching you, before this…" Jin was getting angrier, but when he looked at Qiao An who frowned while looking at him, he stopped his sentence. "You know I am only looking out for you, right? You are my sister, no matter what."

The conversation was short. Jin asked Qiao An to be careful and to introduce him to the Shen siblings next time. He wanted to know what kind of people Qiao An befriended in City L. Qiao An did not talk much, she nodded to indicate that she understood everything said by Jin.

The first time she met Jin in City T, Jin was cold to her and her mother. He expressed his dislike towards them openly, especially towards Qiao An. But Qiao An never told her mother about it because she understood how Jin felt at that time.

After so long of being only him and his father, when his father brought an unfamiliar woman into the house, Jin felt that the woman tried to take his father, the only family member he had from him. Along with the daughter of his stepmother, Jin felt that Qiao An was trying to take away his father's love from him too.

But something happened in the past that made him changed his mind. Starting from that, he treated Qiao An and his stepmother like his real family.

While driving back to his own house, Jin found it funny house he was overprotective of Qiao An. His friend and even his new girlfriend always joke about how he had a sister complex. He started to believe that maybe, he did have this sibling complex towards his sister.

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Nine years ago.

It had been half a year since the day his stepmother and that daughter of hers to step inside their house.

Truthfully, they did nothing bad or wrong ever since they came into the house. The stepmother had been nothing but caring towards Jin, and she cooked a delicious meal too. As for the girl, she didn't speak a lot, but his dad adored her like she was the most precious girl in the universe.

Jin did not think much of her. He couldn't understand why his father loved Qiao An so much. She was not that pretty; she was quite heavy for girls her age and the only good things about her would be her smart brain.

Jin felt as if he needed to compete for his father's against Qiao An. Therefore, he always glared at her and pretended as if he didn't know Qiao An at school.

One day, Jin argued with his father over his decision on pursuing a different course from what his father planned for him. It was their first argument, so both of them didn't know how to apologise towards each other.

Jin skipped dinner to avoid seeing his father, but his stomach betrayed him. He was tiptoeing towards the kitchen when he heard his father told Qiao An not to be like Jin. Jin thought that Qiao An might use that chance to win his father's favour, but he was wrong.

"I think people should do whatever makes them happy. Uncle might have a specific arrangement planned for them, but at the end of the day, brother Jin will be the one who lived his life. He and I might not be that close, but I can see that he likes gaming. While uncle wants him to study business, I think he could do both"

Jin didn't hear the rest of the conversation because he was too absorbed in recalling all the wrong things and the cold treatment he gave Qiao An. The girl was nothing but being kind to him.

From that day, Jin started to accept Qiao An and her mother as his real family.