When morning comes, Jinri finds herself being alone in the bed. It takes her a while to drink in her surrounding and realizes where she is. She has already been too used with seeing his figure, smelling his scent, and feeling his warmth whenever she wakes up, so that the bed seems to be foreign to her with only her side being occupied. She rolls around to the other side of the bed and pain shots her from every single muscle in her body, making her groans. She must have unintentionally fallen asleep last night, but the slumber wasn’t enjoyable and was exhausting her instead.

As Jinri inhales on his pillow, his scent fills her senses, lulling her back to sleep. When her phone alarm rings, she hugs his pillow closer to her face and reluctantly opens her eyes. A piece of paper sitting on the drawer next to the bed catches her attention and she takes it after she turns off her alarm.

Jinri, I need to leave early today. Don’t forget to lock the door and bring the key with you.

Luhan

“A little bit more revisions and then you’re going to do great on the oral examination, Jinri. You are brilliant,” Mr Huang compliments his student while sipping his tall frappuchino. A wide, proud grin graces his thin, darkened lips (an effect of his smoking habits), while his small, cat-like eyes glint with enormous confidence. Then, his slender fingers, decorated with many eccentric silver rings, slide her thesis back to her. Other people may rise their eyebrows when they see how the man in his mid-thirties is dressed—printed, black graphic tee under studded leather jacket combined with ripped, black skinny jeans and high tops colorful sneakers—but the young lecturer is widely known for his unconventionality, so, whatever. He takes no offense at the term and wears it proudly instead.

“If you say so,” Jinri boldly replies as she retrieves her paper, despite of the slight red flush on her cheeks. His Cheshire-cat-like grin widens. He has always taken a liking on the younger girl’s straight forward personality. He has a slight distaste toward the general female population for the dramas they bring, so Jinri’s lack of it piques him.

“You deserve it, really. You know I’m not one to bluff,” he sassily adds while pushing his brown, leopard-printed, huge-lens eye-glasses back on the bridge of his prominent nose. Not only her personality that interests him, her praise-worthy working ethics is also something that Mr Huang admires. Jinri is a diligent student, and Mr Huang believes that the dark circles formed under her eyes—that he can see right now because her BB cream poorly conceals them—must have been a souvenir of her current overnight work for her thesis. Little does he know that today those are caused by something else.

“Although, if I don’t know you any better, I might have suspected that Luhan got his hand on this,” he teases as his lips are contorted into another playful smirk. Jinri’s smile quickly turns into a frown.

“I’m not…”

“I know,” he cuts her off while raising his hands as if surrendering, although his diva-ish aura tells her otherwise, “That is why I said ‘if I don’t know you any better,’ Jinri. I’ve known you since before you started dating him, so I know that you are as brilliant as him—if not more. Both of you are bold and innovative, always thinking out of the ordinary. Luhan is a little more daring and risqué than you with his approaches, but I can see his way of thinking in you.”

Jinri smiles bashfully at the mention of her lover, clearly feeling flattered to be compared with someone like Luhan. Mr Huang, who happens to be a lecturer assistant when Luhan was in college, is one of the many people who were impressed with Luhan’s ability. When her advisor’s eyes scrutinizes her even more, studying her as if she is an interesting newly-found species, she gulps her drink—a warm caramel macchiato—in an effort to ease the awkwardness that comes.

“Not only your minds that work similarly, though. In a way, I feel like seeing the college Luhan in you: curious, courageous, yet naïve and honest,” he adds his observation as he leans back and relaxes his stare on his student. Luhan’s tendencies to be curious—or rather nosy—and audacious are still pretty much evident now, but Jinri couldn’t imagine her boyfriend being green and honest. Seemingly innocent, probably, because his huge doe-eyes and sometimes clueless expression often give such impression, but the thought of Luhan being genuinely naïve is hilarious for her. Whereas honesty and Luhan are just… well, she rather doesn’t talk about it.

“Mr. Huang…”

“Zitao,” he corrects her while crossing his arms smugly in front of his chest; the smirk never leaving his lips. “I’ve told you again and again that you should call me Zitao, since you are officially Luhan’s girlfriend. It’s a small world, eh?” he smirks, letting his eye-bagged eyes crinkle.

Jinri laughs awkwardly. She is raised in a pretty conservative family--where manners and respects toward elders are considered to be mandatory--so it feels odd to her to address her lecturer--who is more than a decade older than her--by his first name. Jinri first knew Huang Zitao when he taught her in his lab two years ago and since then she has clicked well with the genius programmer.  Jinri admires the unusual ways he takes to solve a problem while Zitao appreciates Jinri’s boldness. When Luhan brought her to meet his little clique, she was really surprised to see Mr Huang—or Zitao as he prefers to be called now—being one of Luhan’s closest friends.

“I still can’t believe that Luhan has a girlfriend now. No offense, Jinri,” Zitao comments before emptying his cup; his eyes never leaving Jinri.

“None taken. I’m okay with him having a history of being gay,” Jinri replies shortly with another eye-smile on her plump lips, telling Zitao that she means her words.

“It’s not that. I’ve always suspected him to be bi, after all. It’s just, seeing how serious he is, planning about married life with you and stuffs…” he trails off to gaze at Jinri dreamily, “I can’t believe that he can love anyone whole-heartedly again after that incident with Kris. I guess I should give you a credit, Jinri. You have successfully melted his frozen heart, congratulation,” Zitao continues while grinning proudly, oblivious with the sudden change in Jinri’s expression.

“Who is Kris?”

Zitao’s grin falters faster than the sands in an hourglass. “Don’t tell me that Luhan hasn’t… Oh God.” Jinri’s bedazzled stare answers his unfinished question, leaving the older man feeling guilty. His eyes search in hers for signs of joke or anything, but there is nothing except pure curiosity. .

Zitao gulps his saliva in panic. Being such a secretive man he is, Luhan would totally flip out if he finds out that Zitao has just blurted out something that he shouldn’t have. Although being a close friend of Luhan—and an older one who is also a certified master of wushu, at that—Zitao is pretty terrified with the prospect of facing an enraged Luhan. He has seen it before and it was literally hell breaks loose. Luhan doesn’t play it physically to those who make him angry but he will make them suffer. You don’t want to mess up with Luhan; the dainty and angelic face is just a façade for a hellish creature that can really, really, make your life miserable at its finest.

Zitao stands up in a hurry, fumbling a little bit with his empty cup on his way out of his seat. However, Jinri manages to catch his wrist before he can run away, startling the lithe man who looks down at her warily.

“Zitao, who is Kris?”

Her words are blunt, and with the addition of her expectant eyes, Zitao feels his resolution to get away from her weakens. In his opinion, someone like her—whom Luhan is planning to live together with in the future—deserves to know who Kris is. With Luhan staying in Beijing and fleeting rumors of Kris coming back from the States, Jinri bounds to find out about Kris, sooner or later. After all, Kris holds an important part in Luhan’s past. However, Luhan would definitely despised Zitao if the older male dares to tell Jinri something that Luhan should have told her himself. Luhan is not someone who can trust people easily, and losing his trust is not something that Zitao is looking forward to. Zitao has worked hard to gain it, so he will do his best to keep it.

Disappointment.

Confusion.

Those are the feelings that Jinri is supposed to bear but to be honest; she isn’t sure what she feels. Heck, she is not even sure about what to feel anymore. She has been bombarded, in less than 24 hours, with too much information about Luhan’s past. She is barely adapting with the facts about Luhan’s existing parents—whom she has thought to be dead--and his early adolescence days, and then Zitao told her—unintentionally—about someone named Kris, who seems to be an important part in Luhan’s past. What is worse is that it wasn’t coming from Luhan and Zitao voluntarily but rather something that was accidentally popped out from them.

Jinri isn’t sure if she wants to confront Luhan about what that she has just heard from Zitao or if she should keep it to herself. The second option, she muses, is not something that she should consider at all. She needs to know—she has the right to—about this Kris guy. Zitao makes him sounds like someone who played a key role in changing Luhan’s life--to the point that he frosted Luhan’s heart—and being his rightful girlfriend, Jinri deserved the knowledge. Prying about Kris from Luhan doesn’t seem feasible at the moment either, as he is currently avoiding Jinri.

The only option left is to coax the information from Luhan’s closest friends, which is pretty much next to impossible as Jinri knows how loyal they are to Luhan. Zitao is out of question; he is already terrified with his unintended blurting so there is no way he will tell her more about Kris. Although Xiumin supports her relationship with Luhan, she isn’t close with the youngest in Luhan’s little circle. All she has shared with Xiumin were formal greetings of ‘how are you’s and ‘I’m fine thank you. How about you?’s so Xiumin is not an option either. Then, there is Yixing, her mentor in the company. Yixing is the closest and the most loyal to Luhan among them, yet he is also the softest and the one who trust her the most.

Jinri is already halfway pressing Yixing number while walking nearing her apartment complex when she hears a man’s voice asking.

“How much does he pay you?”

She is pretty sure that the question isn’t directed to her so she pays no heed to him.

“How much does Luhan pay you?”

Jinri halts her steps and turns around to meet a blonde man leaning on the fence and smirking at her. He feels somewhat familiar and when her eyes fall on the plaster at the bridge of his nose and his blackened left eye, she remembers. He is Luhan’s cousin, Yifan or something. She throws him a glare before she walks away, leaving him.

“Or do you pay him? Because he can give a pretty good service, if you know what I mean,” he sneers at her. However, when Jinri ignores him and keeps her pace, he decides to tail her closely by walking a couple feet behind her.

“Did you scream his name until you’re deaf? Because I’m pretty sure you could still hear well last night.”

Jinri fights the urge to punch him on the face and tightens her jacket instead. She disregards his existence and keeps on walking. It’s only a couple feet more from the entrance gate of her apartment building, she can ignore him. The guards will probably recognize the bastard and haul him out, like earlier this morning.

“Luhan is gay and he is only using you, girl.”

Jinri feels her fingers are itching to wrap themselves around Yifan’s neck and strangle him to death, but she knows it is wiser for her to not doing so. Her fingers curl into fists instead, inside of her jacket’s pockets. She grits her teeth while pretending to not hear anything and walks straight. However, Yifan doesn’t allow her and grabs her wrist instead, turning her to face him.

“You are a really ungrateful . I’m warning you; Luhan is only using you. Get away from him while you can,” he hisses, eyes glinting dangerously as he peers down at her.

Jinri, however, isn’t intimidated with him. She glares back at him and speaks with venoms dripping in her words. “I know about his past, thank you very much. And he is not using me.”

Yifan scoffs in disagreement. “What do you know about him, really? I bet he hasn’t told you about his father’s will. He is using you, , I’m warning you.”

There is hesitation before Jinri snaps her wrist out of Yifan’s grasp harshly. She actually has no idea about what Yifan is talking—Luhan’s father’s will—but there is a huge possibility that Yifan is only bluffing. Judging from how he and Luhan were fighting at dawn, he seems to be a guy who keeps a great hatred toward her boyfriend and will do anything to make Luhan suffer, including separating him from her.

“Stop calling me with names, I’m not a freaking female dog. And get lost, before I ask the guards to do it for me, like this morning,” she threatens, emphasizing on the fact that she was the one who summoned the guards earlier. Yifan snickers but he lets her go.

“Feisty. Just like Luhan. Too bad, you don’t know how stupid you sound right now. Just don’t come crying later because I’ve warned you. This is my card,” he slips his business card into Jinri’s hand before she can reject it, ”if you ever change your mind and want to listen to me.”

Jinri is dumbfounded as she watches him turns his back and walks away. What she sees in the business card, however, shocks her even more.

Kris Wu

TBC

an: a new chapter is out^^

I'm sorry for the long wait, but I'll update quite often after this  because I'm really excited with this story. Thank you so much for all of your support, comments, votes, and subbs. ^^

I originally plans to write this in two chaps, but end up merging them into one. 

My comment replies:

with love,

himalayancat