Chapter 830: Scared of Losing You
After glancing over to the dance floor for a second, Xiaoyun quickly took out his wallet before handing the bartender some money.
"Make sure everyone in the bar today gets back home safely... And tell the owner to delete the security footage today."
The bartender hesitated for a second as he stared towards the 1000 NRC on the table. But in the end, he pocketed it as Xiaoyun took Lily away.
"Let me go..."
"You’re coming home with me. You want me to carry you out, or do you want to walk out of the bar yourself?"
"Help—"
As soon as Lily yelled for help, Xiaoyun quickly tried to cover her mouth. However, it was far too late.
The entire bar’s attendance was all looking towards the two of them. Even the DJ had stopped the music as the bartender started whistling.
"Ahem, I’m Lily’s fiancé. She had a little too much to drink. Don’t mind me, I’m just bringing her back home."
"Why are you covering her mouth? And why are you wearing those sunglasses indoors? How did you even get in here?"
As one of the young men in the dance square raised his question, Xiaoyun let out a sigh as he let Lily go.
"You happy, Lily?"
Everyone watched as Lily stood there in silence with her face turning more and more red. She had suddenly lost all her courage to speak up.
"Lily, are you okay?"
All four of her friends finally walked past their peers as they quickly surrounded Lily with their concerned faces.
"I-I’m fine. I-I got to go now—"
Before anyone could say anything else, Lily ran for the exit, leaving everyone a little confused as Xiaoyun gave chase right after.
"Shihan, who was that dude?" The young man who spoke up first curiously asked as he walked up to the four of them.
"Lily’s boyfriend. Or fiancé. Just a warning, I wouldn’t recommend you digging deeper about him."
"Young boss, she’s right. You absolutely do not want to mess with that man..." The bartender chimed in as he re-examined the cash in hand.
---
"Lily, where are you going?"
As the two of them ran into a dead end, Lily finally came to a stop. She turned around and looked towards Xiaoyun, standing a few steps away.
"Sorry... I-I don’t know what I was thinking. I know I-I shouldn’t be in the bar. I just don’t want to—"
"It’s okay. It’s okay. We don’t have to go home right now."
The sudden hug made Lily fall into silence. She could feel his warm hand around her back as he gently patted her on the other.
"You don’t have to tell me. Let’s just go for a walk in the park instead. You want some fresh air to cool down your brain, right?"
Lily slowly nodded her head as she accepted Xiaoyun’s hand. They walked out of the alley together and into the empty streets.
With a few turns, they were in a children’s park as the moonlight overshadowed the barely illuminated street light.
"Feeling better?" Xiaoyun softly asked, noticing the redness on Lily’s face had mostly vanished.
"Yeah..."
The two didn’t speak up again as they walked down the pebble road, going through the sandbox as they walked past a bench.
"Xiaoyun, can we take a seat here?"
"Sure."
After sitting down, Xiaoyun didn’t stare directly at her face. Instead, he chose to lean back, looking at the sky with a hint of anger in his eyes.
Lily was still a little nervous, her hands constantly moving above her thigh. But it soon stopped as a hint of fear crept into her sober mind.
The two of them sat there in complete silence. Night crickets chirped in the background as Lily finally gathered enough courage to speak up.
"Xiaoyun, I’m sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"Sorry for making you worried. I know I shouldn’t be in a bar alone without you—"
"Don’t say that. You weren’t in the bar alone. I saw you had your friends on the dance floor earlier."
Seeing Xiaoyun’s face still displaying a hint of annoyance despite the apology, Lily knew she had fucked up.
"Yes, but I... I shouldn’t be in a bar." Lily quietly murmured.
"Nothing stopping you from going to a bar. You’re an independent woman, and there’s nothing I can do as a boyfriend to stop you."
"Don’t say that."
As the two of them fell into silence once again, Lily suddenly got up from her seat before bowing down all the way in front of him.
"I’m really sorry."
"Do you know what you did wrong?"
"I... I shouldn’t be at the bar."
"No, it’s not that... I’m annoyed you didn’t tell me about it. I got no problem with you going to the bar with your friend.
But couldn’t you at least tell me about it beforehand? You know how worried everyone is at home about you?"
"I-I’m sorry. I promise it won’t happen again."
"I hope so... Stop bowing down and get up. We’re going to head back home before Leyan calls the police."
As Xiaoyun got up from the bench, Lily followed him in silence until he suddenly grabbed onto her hand.
"Lily, why did you and your friend decide to go to the bar in the first place?" Xiaoyun suddenly asked.
"W-We were invited by a friend of a friend. Everyone had never been in a bar, and we thought..."
"We thought what?"
Xiaoyun stopped as he turned around to stare Lily in the face, only for her to stare towards the floor in complete silence.
"Come on, just tell me. I won’t be mad. I’ll be happier if you just told me the truth." Xiaoyun pressured.
After a short moment, Lily finally spoke up again.
"We thought, who knows if we get to live long enough for another chance. So all of us went to the bar that his dad happens to own."
This time, Xiaoyun fell into silence. He knew exactly what Lily was trying to imply. He knew exactly what her friends were thinking of.
"So you accepted their offer?"
"I... I did."
Xiaoyun let out a small annoyed sound as he resumed walking, bringing Lily along as they began heading toward the park’s exit.
"You weren’t being peer-pressured to go, right?"
"No. I went with them because I... I was scared."
"Scared of what?"
Looking back at his face, Lily could see a genuinely curious look as if he was really wondering what she was scared of.
"I was scared of... losing you."
"Losing me?"
As Xiaoyun scratched his head in confusion, Lily’s face suddenly started to get closer and closer to tearing up.
"You’re going to be gone next week. A-And I’m just scared I won’t see you again. A-And everything that happened over the weekend..."
"Okay, okay. Don’t cry now—"
"I’m sorry, brother Xiaoyun!"
Xiaoyun let out a small sigh in his head as he magically took out a tissue to wipe Lily’s tears away from her face.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s all my fault, okay? It’s all my fault for causing you to be scared. I promise we’ll see each other after this trip."
"Y-You promise?" Lily asked as her voice started to hiccup from the sobbing.
"Here, let’s do a pinky promise... We’re going to see each other again when I come back from the trip.
And you don’t keep secrets from me anymore, okay? We both uphold our end of the bargain, and it’ll be fulfilled."
As the two of them crossed pinkies together, the tears finally stopped coming out of Lily’s face.
"Now, do you feel less scared?"
Lily silently nodded her head as the two of them walked out of the park, heading back towards the bar from earlier.
The two of them soon saw Xiaoyun’s parked car in the front, with a closed sign put in front of the bar’s main entrance.
Just as Xiaoyun was about to unlock the car door with his key, his phone suddenly started ringing.
Taking it out, it was Leyan calling him.
"Hello?"
"What the hell is taking you so long? Are you two okay? The food is starting to get cold already."
"Um, Lily was staying behind in the classroom to help with a professor’s secret project. The two of us are in the car right now to—"
Just as Xiaoyun was about to finish his answer, Lily suddenly tapped his elbow, signaling him to put the phone on mute.
"What’s wrong, Lily?" Xiaoyun asked after pressing the mute button.
"I-I don’t want to go home today."
"What?"
Seeing Lily staring back at his face with pleading eyes, Xiaoyun let out a small sigh before putting the phone back on unmute.
"Oh snap, phone signal died for a second. Ahem, as I was saying, Yiming called me earlier about an emergency meeting.
I need to drive to the command center right now... I’ll drive her back home after the meeting is finished."
"Okay then. You better drive safely at night."
