Volume 2 - CH 26

Playing Fish Trapped in Secret Room

Book 2: You’re Beautiful

Chapter 26

He put the jewelry box on the table.

He stared at her the entire time they waited for their coffee. It seemed that ever since he had to carry her back into bed and sort out her room that night, his emotional self-control was slipping.

Even……

He would always thought of that night.

He wanted to forget the feeling from that night.  Forget that she was in his arms and ask him softly,  “If you didn’t know about esports and never entered this circle, Dt, what would you have done?”  With only a suspender long skirt, pure cotton with many pink heart patterns, wrapped around her otherwise naked body……

“There’s no if.”  He tucked her into a blanket back then and making sure to cover her hands and feet.  Finally he bent down to hold her tightly together with the thick and soft white blanket. “If you’re in this circle, then I am in it.”

Held her……

This girl had been so far away from him, nearly unreachable.

Though he was taking advantage of the situation, but this was a hug he had been longing for a decade.

He was twelve years old the year when she stood under the spotlight on the award podium.  He didn’t know anything yet.

When he was fifteen years old, he led a non-professional team and went through thirty-seven matches to finally stand in front of her.  He shook her hands before the competition and she looked at him squarely for the first time after the competition.

……

And ten years later in the hotel room in Chicago, he finally could take the chance when she was drunk to hold her in his arms with a thick blanket between them.  She was so little and soft to the touch.  How could she endure the betrayal and misunderstanding for so many years.

If only he was born several years earlier……

He could’ve given her a super strong team and the commitment that the team would never disband.

The coffee arrived in a timely manner, along with his ice water.

He lifted the glass and drank the water.  Two ice cubes flowed into his mouth.  Suddenly the cold ice woke him up, he was once again calm.

Ai Qing turned her head back too and smiled.  “Tell me now.  Don’t worry.  No matter what you say, I absolutely won’t vent my anger on you.”  She expected that this story must have something to do with Grunt.

“Grunt had a childhood first love.”  He wasn’t used to introductions, so he told the core of story.  “Probably when he was thirteen or forteen years old, until they broke up when he was sixteen because that girl had a new boyfriend.”

She was familiar with the former information, but the latter was a surprise to her.

“Later on……”  Dt wasn’t used to gossiping about others.  But since this was for a close friend, so he had to keep talking.  “That girl broke up later again.  She wanted to get back with Grunt again, but at the time Grunt was already with your sister.”

“Was he in Guangzhou at the time?”

“I don’t know.”  Dt was a little bit embarrassed.  How could he know this.

Ai Qing noticed his embarrassment but couldn’t stop her laughter by holding her chin.  He was really an interesting person, who would get so embarrassed talking about someone else……

“Later.”  He grew even more embarrassed.  He felt it wasn’t a good thing to talk about a stranger behind her back.  “Later-- --”

“Later-- --”  She teased him in mock imitation.  “It’s difficult for you to tell a story. I’m almost finished with my coffee and ready to order a refill.  But I have only heard two sentences so far.”

Dt drank the ice water again.  He couldn’t help but sigh.  “I really can’t talk about it.”

……

Did you know the feeling when you reach the cliffhanger to a story, but never continued?  It was exactly like now.  And the big guy in front of her didn’t plan to continue with the story.

Ai Qing was flabbergasted. “Never mind.  I understand it now.  Actually, are you using this excuse to have coffee with me?”

“......No.”  He shot straight up in his chair.  “I’m really not.”

Ai Qing laughed again.  Although she didn’t hear what she really wanted to hear, she still understood that there was something going on.  He probably learned about it only after they had the confrontation that night and that was why he was trying very hard to explain for Grunt?  She thought about it and picked up the jewelry box.  “I’ll just call Grunt.  I won’t put you on the spot.”