The murmurs around the room made my skin crawl, each comment more unnerving than the last.
“Did I say something wrong?” Chu Ke Huan asked, feigning innocence with a faint, infuriating smile. His goal was clear: absolve himself of any blame while shifting everyone’s attention to me. It wouldn’t be long before his “taken” status was entirely forgotten by the group.
“Yes, you did,” I replied with a saccharine smile of my own. “I had to pretend to be single earlier, but thank you for openly admitting you’re taken. Now I know I wasn’t misleading anyone!” I forced out a laugh, though I knew my face probably looked worse than if I were crying.
I had thought I was the righteous one, but in the end, I had been publicly humiliated with a smile.
“Oh, come on! If both of you are taken, what’s the point of tonight?” grumbled a woman from 2451.
“It doesn’t matter. I was about to leave anyway. You all carry on! Bye!” I said. This time, I couldn’t even be bothered to keep up a polite smile. Grabbing my bag, I stormed out of the room without looking back.
I rushed down the busy street. People were everywhere, their eyes seemingly mocking my disheveled state.
If I had just chosen to turn a blind eye earlier, things wouldn’t have gotten so awkward. Ke Fei could have continued her... hunt. Maybe I should have gone back to the room and apologized to her properly. But right now, I felt so panicked, so overwhelmed, and so exhausted that all I wanted was to go home.
Steadying my breath, I looked up and started walking toward the metro station. Just as I did, a male voice came from behind me:
“Leaving already? Or are you just stopping to buy a gift to apologize to your boyfriend?”
I turned around and, to my surprise, it was Chu Ke Huan.
“You…?”
“You left halfway. Someone has to come out to collect the bill, right?” he said with a smile.
Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to stay calm and reached for my wallet. “How much?”
“134.5,” he said with a cryptic grin.
“What?” I didn’t understand.
“That’s your company’s stock price at today’s close,” he explained, looking at me with amusement. “You work so hard for the company, yet you don’t even check the stock price? Imagine retiring one day only to realize the company shares you’ve been accumulating are worthless. That would be a tragedy.”
Are all traders like this, using numbers to mock people?
“I don’t want to owe you. How much is it, really?” I insisted, opening my wallet to grab a 500-dollar bill, only to realize I only had a 1,000-dollar note. How embarrassing.
“Save it. Settle it with your colleague tomorrow,” he said, pressing my hand down to stop me from paying. The warmth of his palm against my hand caught me off guard. Looking at me from an uncomfortably close distance, he asked seriously, “Let me ask—when I mentioned your boyfriend earlier in front of everyone, did I ruin your chances with anyone?”
“I don’t need any ‘chances’!” I snapped, pulling my hand away as if I’d been burned. Shoving my wallet back into my bag, I finally let my anger spill out. “If it weren’t for Ke Fei begging me, I wouldn’t have come tonight at all! I love my boyfriend—I love him very much! Unlike you, who’s been with your girlfriend for ten years yet still goes around looking for someone else!”
“That’s not very fair of you to say,” he replied softly, his calm tone suffocating in its intensity. “Tonight, you and I stood on the exact same ground—both pretending to be single while hiding the fact that we’re in relationships, coming out to meet new people. Tell me, how are we any different?”
I froze.
Looking at my reflection in a shop window, I saw a version of myself I barely recognized: smoky eyeshadow, a daring neckline accentuated by the loosened buttons of my blouse. If this was “looking for something new,” I was undeniably guilty. I hadn’t even dared to tell Hao Yi about this mixer. What right did I have to judge Chu Ke Huan in front of everyone?
With one casual remark, he had exposed my hypocrisy. The fact that he had openly admitted I had a boyfriend, leaving me unable to deny it, was only karma.
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