Her fingers that were wrapping the gyoza filling in the wrap stopped at once and for a moment, so did her heartbeats. Her head turned, very slowly, as if trying to make sense of Guiren's jarring statement.
"What?"
"He's very fond of food, isn't he?"
Chunhua's blank stare was still locked at him. Guiren hadn't moved, nor turned to face her.
"Because he knows what it's like to be without food for thirteen days straight. Sometimes, he would wake up in the middle of the night extremely starved."
"I…I don't…" her voice quivered as if she was drowning in freezing water, unable to breathe.
"You don't know about it because he didn't tell you. He will never tell you about it. There are some things in his life, Miss. Huang, which he would never share with you. Even if you become his wife in the future, there are some scars he will always keep locked in his heart."
"...But you know."
Guiren stopped, staring at the filling before him. "I don't know why he told me. Probably because I am his friend? And probably he cannot tell you because you are his girlfriend. We hold very different positions in his life, Miss. Huang. It doesn't mean to say that you are any less important to him. It's precisely because you are so important to him that he…doesn't want you to know about that time of his life."
He then finally faced her, witnessing the horror and tears in her eyes.
"But I am telling you about it, just a glimpse of it, anyway. And I think Hai knows about it too. He knows why I asked for your help right now, yet he didn't stop me. I guess he allowed me to open the curtain to his feelings - just a little bit so that you understand that he's not a monster. Miss. Huang. What did you think of Liu Jinhai?"
A dryness caught her throat, the question's implication clearing the fog by a tiny bit.
"You met him, didn't you? What did you think of him?"
"...I…I di-didn't think we were the right fit. He was…" she couldn't put it into words, "h-hard to talk to like…I was only meant to listen to him. It didn't sit well with me…Before that meeting too, he would..I saw him lashing out at you and the other professors so, I could tell he had a temper…"
Guiren turned towards the kitchen counter, silent for several beats.
"Miss. Huang. I won't break Hai's trust in me and reveal everything to you that he doesn't want me to. I told you this not because I want you to sympathize with Hai. He doesn't need anyone's pity or sympathy. It was…just to let you see what kind of a person Liu Jinhai was."
The silence was so deafening that Chunhua felt she could hear a loud, buzzing sound hammering down her ears. Even amidst the quietness, the eerie intensity of that ringing noise refused to die down.
Did he…did Liu Jinhai really…made Hai go through that?
"But Hai is his brother…Why would a brother do that to his own sibling…?"
"Nobody knows how someone's mind works, Miss. Huang," Guiren's voice lowered further. "What makes someone normal or what makes someone deranged is a complete mystery. Liu Jinhai was Hai's nightmare and that nightmare…had to end someday."
—
"Chunhua, Chunhua, I will drop you a message once I return!" Hai sheepishly grinned. He pressed her new phone in her hand and said, "Now, we won't miss each other~ We will talk lots!"
They stood in front of Chunhua's home where Hai had come to drop her off. He pouted. "But I am already missing you. We could have just spent the rest of the evening there. Guiren wouldn't have minded~"
She smiled. "My parents would. Th-They must already be so angry-"
"Chunhua!" Like magic, her mother's voice echoed with a deep fury beneath it. "Is this any time to return home!?"
Her father, who had also followed behind, widened his eyes upon seeing Hai.
"Liu…Hai?"
While Chunhua was busy panicking and thinking about her explanation, Hai had already come forward.
"Good evening, Mr. Huang, Mrs. Huang!" His black eyes shone. "Finally, we meet today. It's a delight to meet my girlfriend's parents~"
"Huh? Boyfriend?" Their jaws had dropped, stunned. "You…and Chunhua?"
Just months before, they had been pushing Chunhua to marry Jinhai and now all of a sudden, his brother came into the picture?
"Yup, yup~ Sorry for keeping her out so late, but you don't have to worry I am with her," his eyes continued to twinkle.
"Chunhua…" her father spoke with a clenched jaw, "How…Since when? How did you not tell us!"
She jolted. "I-I was-"
Hai held her arm and tugged her back a step. "Its my fault. I had plans to introduce myself, but I made a dummy mistake, and Chunhua got angry at me~ So it became a priority to soothe her fury" Hai pouted, then beamed a moment later. "But now we are all lovey-dovey again, so cheers!"
Though they always wanted Chunhua to get married into the Liu family, it proved difficult to wrap their heads around this sudden development. Her mother grabbed her husband's elbow and pulled him inside.
"Liu Hai? Is this really fine? I mean until months ago, it was…we all know about Liu Hai's reputation too!"
"That was before. But look at him now. He has changed after handling all the business. Where do we hear any rumors now?"
"There are rumors about him…!" Her mother somehow toned down. "I also want Chunhua to enter the Liu family and secure a rich life for her that would help both her and us, but…through Hai really? Liu Jinhai-"
"Is gone, Mrs. Huang."
They jerked at his unexpected interruption, but it was his harmless smile that forced a biting chill down their throats more than anything else.
"The dead have become the past, and I want to spend my present and future with Chunhua. Soooo, let's just focus on that, shall we~?"
