344 Let's Talk

"Take a deep breath... It's okay. You just have to ring the doorbell. Yes, you can do it!"

This was Nora's encouraging words to herself as she tried to lift her hand but ended up dropping the idea. As you might have guessed, she was standing at the door of Xin Villa at this time of the night. 

Nobody knew how she did it but somehow she managed to sneak up to the door without alerting the security at the main gate. Her drunk self was quite good at finding her way or perhaps, it was sheer dumb luck.

She had several thoughts running through her mind. As much as she wanted to see Ah-Si, she was also not very confident. Especially after she watched him leave the other day at the mall.

'It's your love story, nobody can write it except for you!' Xiu's words rang in her mind making her turn to stare at the doorbell again.

"Oh, Fuck it!" she simply rang the doorbell and waited. As she heard footsteps coming closer from the other side of the door, she whispered, "Here goes nothing..."

As soon as the door opened, Ah-Si's face came into her view. As their eyes met, both of them stared stunned at each other. 

"Hi!" Nora waved her hand at him making him frown.

Of all the days, why was it that he was alone at home tonight? There were not even any housemaids in the house tonight. And why was it that she was standing at his door late at night looking pretty drunk but still... Cute? Ah-Si shook his head immediately. Don't fall for it again. She's not cute. Not cute at all. He repeated those words to himself.

"What are you doing here?"

Nora had expected this question but it still hurt the way he asked it. He clearly showed how much he didn't welcome her here. But just because he didn't want to see her here, was she going to leave? The answer is NO! If it had been before, yes, she would have left by now already seeing him giving that hard stare. But tonight, she had two motivations to stay. One; she was drunk. Two; Xiu would kill her if she didn't take control of her life.

And apparently, those two reasons were good enough for Nora to hold her ground, lift up her eyes, and look at Ah-Si. 

"I wanted to see you," she answered making Ah-Si's eyes widen a bit in shock. "Also, I wanted to talk to you."

After his initial shock, Ah-Si intended to close the door as he said, "We don't have anything to talk about." But before he could close the door, Nora put her foot in and blocked him from doing so. "Nora!"

"What?" she looked into his eyes challenging him.

"You're drunk. Go home!"

"Not going unless you sit down and hear me out!"

Nora and Ah-Si kept looking at each other without blinking as if there was a competition going on to see who would blink first. Because whoever did will lose this battle. They say the one who loves more always loses. Then can you guess who lost?

BOTH...

'You wouldn't want your daughter to grow up without a mother, do you?' 

'Don't you want your daughter to have a happy family?'

'Don't assume things so much. At least, sit down with Ava's mother to know what actually made her abandoned her own daughter. No mother would leave her own child without a valid reason.'

Those were the words that flashed through Ah-Si's mind as he looked at Nora. His father, Darren and even his own brother had repeatedly told him to stop avoiding this matter. He knew he couldn't run from it. Especially, he couldn't turn a blind eye when Nora was standing right before him at the threshold of his house.

"You want to talk? Let's talk," saying that Ah-Si opened the door wide and indicating her to walk inside. Nora was in disbelief but she still managed to step inside. She watched Ah-Si closing the door behind her before he went to the cabinet closeby and pulled out a pair of new slippers for her to change into. Nora quietly took off her shoes and slid her feet into the pair of slippers he placed before her.

As she followed him further inside, she wasn't looking at anything except for his back. Those broad shoulders that seemed so enticing. She wanted so badly to put her head on his shoulder and forget everything. Wouldn't it be better if time turned back? She promised to not be scared of her own thoughts anymore.

"Take a seat," he suggested and Nora nodded her head before perching down on the sofa. She thought he would sit with her but instead, he went out of the lounge to somewhere she couldn't see. 

Sitting alone, Nora was trying to come up with the right words to say to him. She really didn't prepare anything before coming here. She just came here on impulse. What was she supposed to even talk about? After all, she had thought that he wouldn't even agree to talk to her! But he did!

Right, I should ask if he is single or not?

Is that the right question though?

Can I even ask him that question?

Yes, why not? she argued with herself.

"But with what right?" she mumbled out.

"You still have the habit of talking to yourself?" Nora was startled when she heard Ah-Si's voice and looked over to see him. He extended his hand towards her which held a cup in it. While Nora looked at him in confusion, he added, "It's ginger tea. It'll help with your drunkenness."

Nora bit her lips as a smile bloomed on her lips. He not only remembered that she had a habit of talking to herself when she is drunk but he also brought her ginger tea. It really made her earlier doubts to vanish completely. It was exactly as Xiu had claimed, he really seemed like someone who was still in love with her. And that thought alone was enough to warm her heart.

Seeing her with that silly smile, Ah-Si cleared his throat awkwardly while saying, "I'm not worried about your health. I just don't want to have a conversation with a drunk person. It's like banging my head against a wall. I'd rather talk to you when you're sober. Yes, that's the reason. That's the only reason."

Nora listened to him rambling on and on with her silly smile still intact on her face. He sounded more like convincing himself rather than her. But anyhow, whoever he was trying to fool here, at least she wasn't falling for those words.

Bzzzz...

As his phone vibrated, he fished it out of his pocket and checked the caller id. Before attending the call, he looked at Nora to say, "Drink that. I'll be right back."

As he came out to the hall to take the call, he put the phone against his ear to hear his brother's voice saying, "Ah-Si, I won't be coming home."

"Why are you telling me that?" Ah-Si frowned at his brother's words. Even if he was not coming home, he shouldn't be informing him.

"I'm telling you so that you can tell dad," replied Xin Xiaoli from the other side.

"Well, dad is not home. He's gonna stay over at Uncle Yi's place I guess. So..."

Xin Xiaoli was silent for a moment before he questioned, "What about Ying?"

Ah-Si scoffed at his brother. "Bro, Ying Jie hasn't come home in days. And it obviously has something to do with you. And if it is your doing, you better pray that dad doesn't hear about this. Otherwise, you'd be in deep trouble."

"I didn't ask her to leave..." protested Xin Xiaoli softly before adding, "I just enlightened her that if she stayed with us, Meihui might not like to hear about it."

"There you have it!" spat Ah-Si in anger. "No matter how much I love you, I'd still say you're an idiot. How can you not realize that other people also have feelings? I get it you love Sister Meihui but what about Ying Jie? Don't forget before anything she's a friend of yours. A friend who saved your arse way too many times."

"I didn't call my little brother to hear his lecture. So, I'm hanging up." 

With that, Xin Xiaoli hung up the call leaving Ah-Si even madder. He hated it whenever his own brother overlooked the fact that in his endeavors to please one person, he was hurting a hundred as well. But he couldn't do anything about that. Especially now when his own problems were waiting for him to man up and face it all.

Ah-Si took a deep breath and turned back to where he left Nora. "Okay, if you're done let's hear what you have to sa..." His words were still in his throat when he saw Nora curled up on the sofa sleeping with light snoring sounds that made him chuckle softly at her.

He crouched down beside her and his hand having a mind of its own went up to touch her face gently. She had a crease between her brows while her lips appeared like she was pouting. However, she looked so adorable like this that he couldn't even bring himself to wake her up.