54_A Friend

"What do you think you're doing?! Clashing with others in broad daylight." a man was seen scolding his younger sister when she was laying flat in the hospital bed with a gauze wrapped around her arms and left leg.

"I don't need your lecture, brother. Stop acting like a freaking parent to me!" the younger sister lashed out at her brother with a scoff. If her two hands were available, she would be crossing her arms over her chest. Acting like a grown-up, to which she was.

"Can you stop doing this? Our parents will get a headache if they see you like this." her brother said with a sigh. He looked tired and disappointed at the same time.

"I don't need you to care, now go and leave me alone!" she raised her voice in another octave which made a nurse standing near her bed scurried away from there.

Head Attorney Wang quickly apologized to the nurse for the unsightly manner before she nodded with understanding. She said she would be coming in again later for another checkup.

Head Attorney Wang waited until the nurse went outside of the room before he turned to face his younger sister again. She was 25, eight years younger than him. And two years older than Li Yao. He didn't get why his sister was so much of a child when she was older than the kind, gentle and reserved Li Yao, his junior at work.

When he first discovered that his younger sister was oddly rebellious at the age of 18, he let it be. He thought it would die out soon with time. But it got worse instead. She began socializing with dangerous people, those who did drugs and alcohol. She even participated in gang races. Which resulted to today's accident.

Their parents were both busy, always out of the city travelling for business. Head Attorney Wang's family was just like Li Yao's. Normal middle class family but with extra fortune.

He always thought that he and Li Yao were the same and that they suited each other. Their family's situation and environment were the same. They belonged to the same class. Not like Mu Lihai- who was the president of a big company and was considered a public figure. He was a man from a wealthy, prominent family. Who didn't know of Mu family? They were in the list of top 5 family in the city and top 10 in the entire country.

Li Yao and the president of Mu Enterprise dating was the biggest bunker he ever known in his entire lifetime. How could a prominent family like Mu accept Li Yao? Head Attorney Wang had in mind for a long time that they were not serious with each other- that one day they would just break up eventually. She didn't belong to the upper society.

*

Li Yao was waiting outside when she finally saw Head Attorney Wang stepping outside of the room and closing the door behind him. She sat in the far corner of the corridor but still visible for the man to recognize her. He went to the bench she was sitting on and he apologized for making her wait so long.

"It's no big deal. So everything's settled now? You don't need to stay?" she asked him out of concern.

"It's fine. She can manage." he answered with a smile. Head Attorney Wang then offered to send her home since she could just get a half-day and not going back to the office.

"But I've already called a taxi to pick me up." is what Li Yao said to him. It wasn't her who called the taxi but her boyfriend, Mu Lihai. He didn't want her to get into Head Attorney Wang's car and she was clueless why. But she didn't question him and just let him rain his concern and care towards her.

Mu Lihai just her sent a text saying that the taxi would be there shortly.

Head Attorney Wang didn't have a chance to take her home so he decided to just stay with his sister. He didn't like how there was always a restriction when he wanted to create paths for the two of them to be alone together. Maybe he wasn't meant to be in the way of courting a woman who was in a relationship? Screw that. He would just have to wait for his chances then.

They bid goodbyes as he sent her out and Li Yao went home without a glitch. When she arrived home, she made sure to take a selfie of her in her room and sent it to Mu Lihai as proof that she got home safe. After the incident with that brute stranger who knocked onto her, Mu Lihai became strict on Li Yao's safety. Although she didn't think it was that big of an issue.

But knowing that Mu Lihai was constantly worried for her, Li Yao had no choice but to comply. Then it became somewhat of a habit for her to always send him her picture whenever she was home alone.

After that was done, Li Yao put her phone down with a grin across her face. She felt like falling in love again. But this time, with the same person, over and over again. She could never get tired of having to fall for Mu Lihai. He was the most sweet and considerate man she ever knew in this life. She was proud of her boyfriend, proud of their relationship. She was no longer a single woman, she would tell that to the whole world. Hell, if her friends from school asked of her status now- she would brag about her relationship with Mu Lihai like a blossoming teenager.

Suddenly thinking of her friends that she left behind six years ago, Li Yao felt a kind of nostalgia hit over herself. She really wanted to see them all again. The only trusted friend Li Yao had now was the one she made from college where that person was also a dropout and was now a full-time hacker known as Mantis. She was also the same woman to whom Li Yao entrusted the investigation of her mother's accident.

And as if that person knew Li Yao was thinking of her- she arrived at the front door ready to ring the bell.