Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Four months later.

"Sir?"

No response. The secretary cleared her throat and lightly knocked on the desk.

"Sir?"

She jolted when he opened his dark circles-laced eyes and glanced at her in a deadpan stare. She inwardly sweated at his zombie state and promptly put a file on his desk.

"The papers are ready as you had asked for. Just need your signature."

Jin grabbed the file without much thought and signed it, sliding it back to her side.

"Y-You won't check it once…?"

"You said the file is ready so why do I need to check again?"

Her back straightened and she hastily picked the file. "You are right! There are no mistakes at all!"

She turned on her heels and rushed out at the first chance she got, sobbing inwardly.

When will Sir return to normalcy? I cannot handle the stress of his zombie state anymore!

Her gaze fell on the small unused secretary office where Jin would often gaze at emptily.

"Things were so peaceful when she was here too…" she muttered.

When silence returned to the office, Jin closed his eyes once again. Fatigue and exhaustion had settled in every corner of his face as if sleep evaded since time memorial. And it had.

Ever since their last confrontation outside the hospital, Alix had completely cut off her contact with Jin and the Liu family. She had stopped coming to the Liu villa, including teaching essays to Ailun and the kids. Though Ai and Ailun had barely started their mission to get them together, Alix had shut all the doors herself. No matter how much he tried to talk to her, she never let him step into her world again.

When Jin opened his eyes the next time, he saw that the sky had already turned dark. He unlocked his phone and opened his chat window with Alix, staring at the continuous string of his messages for the past four months.

Can we talk?

Can we meet?

Please talk to me.

Let us talk just once.

Though at this point, it was clear by her radio silence that a response was the last thing he would get - his heart refused to give up. He knew she was reading his messages, which meant that she was thinking about him everyday, even if a little bit. He was afraid that if he stopped reaching out to her, Alix would completely forget about him one day. The thought alone was enough to paralyze him.

Which had been Jin's state ever since. The only thing he could do to take his mind off of Alix's rejection was drown himself in work. But now that wasn't enough either, especially when her small office she used to work at was right across him.

Jin forced himself to exit his office. He stopped by Alix's workspace, standing there in silence. He released a shaky breath, his eyes mistying yet again. Seated in the driver's seat of his car, he blankly stared ahead. Staying back at the office made him restless and so did returning home.

Where should I go…

—

Alix opened her eyes the next day, a dreadful feeling enveloping her chest. She woke up in an extremely bad mood attributed to an extremely bad dream.

In it, she was walking across an endless white vast expanse with no particular destination in her mind. At a far distance, Jin quietly followed her with his silent steps. He spoke nothing, neither did he try to stop her. He simply followed her wherever she went.

At one point, Alix got frustrated and turned to push him away but couldn't when she met his warm gaze. It didn't ask or expect anything from her. It simply watched her with a quiet resolve and love. It angered her even further and when she looked back at him again, she noticed huge steel bars standing tall in between them, separating them as if he was in some prison. Suddenly, she sensed him going farther and farther away with no apparent reason, which was when her dream broke.

Alix scratched her head in frustration.

What prison? Prison of unrequited love?

She grimaced and grabbed her phone. As expected, there was a message from Jin, but this time, she noticed he had sent two messages instead of one.

The first message was his usual request to meet him. To talk to him.

She pressed her lips and scrolled further, expressionless.

The second message was a picture he clicked of himself. Her brows crinkled. In the background, she saw lights and crowd and chaos.

Is it a bar?

The picture wasn't so clear, including his face that looked blurred. The text that followed the picture was -

'I am a helpless princess again hehe…'

Alix blinked twice and recalled the evening they had hung out in the bar after Shui's art exhibition. Jin had gotten so intoxicated that she had to call Jun to pick them up.

No wonder I felt the bar looked so familiar…

Alix grimaced.

Did he get wasted again?

Considering he couldn't keep the phone steady to be able to take even a clear picture of himself, she was tempted to believe her theory.

Yup, he definitely got wasted again.

Men. Wasting their youth behind alcohol, she snorted.

Though she was aware that she was the reason behind his tragic state, she promptly decided to ignore her own involvement in this matter.

"Sis! Sis! Sis!"

Mui barged into her room with an expression of horror across her face. Alix clicked her tongue.

"Why do you always have to get so excited first thing in the morning? I just woke up and that too in a bad mood. So exercise caution."

"This is not the time for that! It's an emergency! Have you seen the news?" She said, rushing in.

"Who died?" She lazily asked with a yawn.

Mui's brow twitched. "Why does somebody always have to die for you?"

"That's what makes interesting headlines."

"This headline is beyond anybody's death! Just look!"

She pushed the phone right into her face, its light blinding her eyes.

"Ugh, Mui! Didn't I say I woke up just now?"

"That's not important! The news of Liu Jin getting arrested for a woman's sexual assault is more important!"

Her eyes flew open as if a bucket of cold water was dropped upon her. She threw her a blank stare.

"Sorry..who got arrested for what?"