chapter 30
Iselyn
Wen and Avi gulp visibly, then close the kitchen door behind them and approach me. Avi had returned from her trip just yesterday, looking like our old Avi.
Avi shoves Wen lightly. “It’s your fault.”
Wen’s lips curl downward. “Who would have known he’d get this mad?”
“It’s okay, guys. He’ll be fine in a few minutes,” I say.
Their heads jerk toward me. “No, babe, this privilege is only for Zo and you,” Wen says.
Avi nods in agreement. “He holds grudges very badly. Didn’t I tell you what he did to me when I asked you what kind of man you wanted to marry, right in front of him?”
Wen circles behind me and stands on the other side. “Leave Leo. You tell us,” she wiggles her brow playfully. “Why don’t we have the latest updates?”
I raise my brows. “What updates?”
Avi sings teasingly, “The updates of wanting him to kiss you.” Wen joins in, “And looking at him like you’re inviting him into your pants.”
I laugh. “Stop it, guys. There is no such thing.”
Avi shakes her head. “There is such a thing. We are two living witnesses.”
Wen speaks up, curiosity in her voice. “What has changed?”
“Nothing has changed. It’s just… he was leaning forward to kiss me, but I don’t return his kisses. And I can’t stop him even if I try. My fighting back only makes him kiss me harder,” and, it makes me enjoy it more. I immediately try to erase the thought as soon as it forms in my mind.
It’s not true. I don’t enjoy him kissing me. No—no, I do enjoy it, but it’s just physical. Yes, purely physical. It has been a long-established fact that it’s purely physical.
“Whatever we have is just physical attraction, guys,” I tell them, trying to convince them as much as myself. “I still can’t stand him, and I have no plans of forgiving him anytime soon.”
They both watch me like I’m a crime scene and they’re the inspectors. Reluctantly, they finally give me a clean slate.
Wen speaks up. “By the way, Avi, did you know we can start wishing Leo happy birthdays again? And probably festivals too.”
Avi laughs with a scoff. “Ha… didn’t I tell you? It’s all because of Lyn.”
“What!”
Avi nods. “After he fucked up and you stopped talking to him, he became completely unbearable. That year, when we wished him a happy birthday, he glared at us like we’d asked for his kidney.
He neither replied to anyone, and when someone called him and said ‘happy birthday,’ he cut the call immediately.
The same thing happened on Christmas, New Year, and then his next birthday.
When I asked Zoan what was wrong with him, he said something like…
he doesn’t get wishes from someone he really wants, so he just sulks.
That same thing carried on for all these years.
And this time, when on New Year he was sulking, I asked Zoan if it was because of Lyn.
He nodded and told me that Leo waited the whole day for your text and call on his birthday, Christmas, and New Year every year, and by the end of the day, he turned into a bomb that could explode even if someone so much as touched him. ”
She looks at Wen. “I told you, and you said this couldn’t be the reason.”
Wen blinks. “If he was so affected by her”—she points toward me—“then why the hell was he behaving like a total jerk?”
Avi shrugs. “According to Zoan, Leo was in denial for a very long time.”
I lock my gaze on the wall, diving into old, locked memories I had only ever wanted to keep buried.
It was the Christmas when I was fifteen years old, the last Christmas I spent living a happy life in my dreamland, where I was the princess and Matleon was the prince.
I was a girl who believed she could get anything she wanted.
Even in my one-sided relationship with Matleon, I was happy because I was under the naive impression that, when I grew older, Matleon would definitely reciprocate my feelings.
That Christmas, I fell sick and spent the entire evening sleeping. At 7 p.m. in Vladivostok, Christmas Day had started in San Diego. I usually wished Matleon everything at that time, but that day, I didn’t.
The next morning, when I woke up, I saw a missed call from him.
My heart leapt, I was thrilled that he had called to wish me a Merry Christmas, especially since I hadn’t wished him.
When I called him back and asked why he had called, he said he dialed my number by mistake.
My heart sank for a moment, but I pushed the disappointment away and wished him a Merry Christmas, telling him I had been sick.
He told me to drink cinnamon milk tea. I grinned the whole day because of that.
I decided to believe that Matleon cared about me.
I drank so much cinnamon milk tea that day that the next morning I woke up with three pimples.
Wen snaps her fingers in front of me. “What are you thinking?”
“Cinnamon milk tea,” I mutter.
Matleon
The girls decided we should play games in the garden after dinner.
Now here we are, sitting in a circle on garden chairs.
Avi is glued to Zo as usual, and Wen has stolen my wife, as usual.
I’m already plotting to send her back to Pa’s mansion by canceling her upcoming event.
She would have gotten lost by now if her event hadn’t been postponed.
One more week of her third-wheeling—great.
Wen places her phone on the rock table in the center. “I’ll press shuffle, and two names will come up on the screen. The first person will do or answer whatever the second one asks.”
She presses the button. “Avi and Leo.”
I rub my hands together. “I know everything about you, so it’s a dare.” I grin. “Put your chair one foot away from Zo’s.”
She purses her lips but does it. Zo glares at me, and I wink.
“You’re just a jealous, mean guy, Leo,” Avi grunts.
Wen presses shuffle again. “Wen.” She pouts. “Again, Leo.”
“Can I dare you to go back to Pa’s house?”
She flares her nostrils. “No. Dares have to be short-term, easy things.”
I sigh. “What’s the benefit of such a useless game?” I wave my hand. “Alright then, get away from my wife.”
I give a smile to Iselyn, who’s watching me closely.
Wen groans, shifting her chair and muttering, “I hope his name doesn’t come up again.” She presses shuffle, and Zo and Wen’s names appear.
“I have a question for you, Zo. Suppose Leo and Avi are about to get shot, and you can save only one, who would you save?”
He shrugs. “I’ll shoot the shooter. But if there’s a situation where that’s not possible, then I’ll save Avira, because Leo could take a bullet without dying.”
I snarl. “A man betraying his brother for his woman is nothing new.”
Wen speaks up, grinning at me. “Ok, next is you and I. If you could change two things about your past, what would they be?”
I cross my arms over my chest, leaning back in my chair. “I would attach a security force to his ass,” I point toward Zo, “so that I wouldn’t have to see him lying in blood and mud in the rain with three holes in his body.” I hate that night when I almost lost him.
“And I would take his words seriously, the words he said on Christmas five years ago, when we were standing on the terrace of Pa’s house, watching the sunset.”
He told me that day that I should think about how I wanted Iselyn in my life.
That Christmas, she didn’t call me, and I didn’t like it.
I waited the whole morning for her call, eventually calling her myself out of impatience, but she didn’t answer.
Zo was observing everything. He said I would regret it if I took whatever was between us lightly, and I brushed his words off with denial. The same denial that became my doom.
“Here I thought you’d choose not to act like an asshole on someone’s birthday,” Wen scoffs.
“The second change was about that,” Zo says.
Wen and Avi watch Zo with questioning eyes, but my gaze stays on my wife. She’s not only watching me with questions; there’s also confusion and that thing I know so well, the curse of our love: denial. Back then, it was in my eyes; now, it’s in hers.
Wen’s voice breaks our staring. “Lyn and Avi.”
Avi looks at me with narrowed eyes, then turns her head toward Iselyn.
“What do you hate the most about this Leo? I know there’s a never-ending list, but give us the most hateful thing from it.”
I glare at her. She sticks her tongue out at me.
I divert my eyes and place them on my Angel, who looks like someone has just asked her the most difficult question in the world. I purse my lips. Are there really so many things she hates that she can’t pick just one?
She looks toward me, watching me from head to toe.
“I think… I think I hate his ugly bracelet.” She nods to herself. “Yes. I hate its color. This strange blue doesn’t suit his olive skin tone.”
This is perfect. She doesn’t hate anything about me.
“Are you sure the thing you hate the most about this arrogant, manipulative, stubborn, mannerless, emotionless, horrible man is his bracelet?” Avi asks.
Only the fact that she’s my sister, and Zo’s woman, is helping her breathe right now.
“Zo, why don’t you take your girlfriend to bed before I change my mind about keeping her alive,” I say, getting up and walking toward my wife.
I bend down and grab Iselyn’s hand, tugging her up. “It’s not good to sleep late for your health. Let’s go.”
She stands, pulling her hand out of my hold. She wishes Zo and Avi good night, and with Wen, follows me inside.