Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu



Jin smoothly tapped his fingers on Shui's belly while also circling them around in gentle, fluid motion in an attempt to provide her some comfort. Even though a thin line of her dress separated the contact, the euphoric sensation of a thousand butterflies tickling still grabbed the inside of her belly. 

His black eyes looked calm and patient, something very opposite to how evasive they seemed until an hour ago. The minutes ticked by and Jin's stay in her room kept getting equally longer too, a notion which Shui highly appreciated.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Shui, who was still in the daze of enjoying Jin's concern, didn't clearly hear his question.

"Shui?"

Her stupor popped like a balloon, making her cough. "Y-Yes, it's so much better now…"

Which wasn't a lie. Though Shui wasn't really having periods, she still did feel the relief out of those gentle pats washing over her which seemed to extract her lethargy of today's trip, including dealing with Jin's strange behavior.

Can this last forever? She sobbed.

Suddenly, from outside the hotel and through their window, they heard the sparkling boom of firecrackers lighting up the night sky into beautiful shades of red, yellow, green, purple and orange. Another cracker simultaneously bursted in the sky, making Shui's eyes gleam. "So beautiful!"

Jin, too, felt mesmerized by those bright colors that seemed to bring life to the dark, black clouds. "Yeah."

"I wonder if there is some celebration going somewhere."

A third firecracker also blossomed in the sky, filling the crevices in between the clouds with the breathtaking spectrum of the rainbow.

"Could be."

Enjoying the beauty of those fireworks, Shui couldn't help but chuckle as she looked back at Jin. "Seeing fireworks makes me remember your failed attempt to light one back in the day. Were you what nine or ten? You were always so afraid of firecrackers that you stayed far away from them."

Because their unpredictability reminded me of the twins which I absolutely detested, his expression grimaced to that of displeasure.

"You always kept your distance. It was so funny when you tried to light up your first firecracker," she laughed. "What was it, the cone? You kept pulling back even when Aunt was right behind you and when it burst, you immediately ran to Jun's side and cried your heart out to him. The way you clung onto him so fiercely was so cute."

Jin's gaze darkened. It wasn't a very prideful memory to recall as he was the subject of everybody making fun of him for a long time to come, especially by the twins, Grandpa Liu and his Uncle Jing. The quadruple gang of hyperactivity and an ever happy go lucky attitude.

"I wasn't that scared!"

"..."

Shui's lips twitched while she laughed to her heart's content at the same time. "Of course you weren't. That's why you didn't let go of Jun for the rest of the evening. Oh and by the way, Grandpa still has the video of you escaping like a scaredy cat."

"..."

"Should I ask for it to refresh our memories~? There are many other enjoyable videos too, capturing little Jin's best moments. L-Like the time…" by this point, tears slipped out of her eyes as she couldn't hold back her laughter, "the twins fooled you into declaring to marry Aunt Nana. That too in front of Uncle Jinhai. And that too…" she bit her lip, "on their wedding anniversary with you stating that Uncle was a bad husband. You even said that he kidnapped her. Ahahahaha…"

Jin gnashed his jaw with the extremely embarrassing and frightening memories that Shui sprung up on him out of nowhere. He still recalled that horror as if it was yesterday. Calling Jinhai a bad husband wasn't nearly as bad and dangerous as Jin declaring to marry Nana. That effectively meant kicking him out of her life, which was a notion Jinhai hated to feel even if it was somebody's tomfoolery. Facing his father's cold wrath and punishment made it traumatic for him to be anywhere near the twins from that day.

He sneered. "Don't laugh so hard that your cramps will return. Don't blame me if I stop caring for you then."

Shui simply waved her hand, still busy laughing off on Jin's tragedies. "You were s-so cute…Th-that trying to act strong and holding back your tears but clearly frightened like anything…"

"Han Shui! I order you to stop right now!"

She innocently blinked. "Aren't you my servant though right now?"

His angry smile dipped into his heavy sarcasm. "Oh yeah, your servant who is supposed to tend to a woman in her period who is supposed to be in a lot of pain right now."

Shui coughed. "How is it my fault? I feel my stomach aching but at this point, I am not sure if it is because of the periods or because your tragedies are way funnier to make it ache by laughter."

Glaring at her, he jumped on his feet and exclaimed. "Well since you look all fit and fine, you don't need me anymore, right? Great. So I will head back to my room and prepare for tomorrow while you keep wasting time on some stupid childhood memories!"

Shui hastily grabbed his wrist. "No, no! You don't need to leave. I am sorry. I promise I won't laugh anymore…"

Nevertheless, Jin could still hear her mild, sneaky chuckles and his expression further twisted. "No way!"

"Don't be like this pleaseeeee," she cutely widened her eyes. "Can we not even reminisce about our childhood anymore? There were so many fun things!"

"Not for me," he coldly barked.

Shui kept tugging his hand, refusing to let him go. "Okay I promise-"

"No way! I am leaving! I don't want your promises. You are just like the twins," he glared at her.

She flared her nostrils upon his stubbornness and gave his wrist one hard pull until he stumbled off balance and fell on top of her. Which wasn't what she had intentionally planned or expected to happen.

She was quick on the uptake and before Jin understood his position to react, she reached out and whispered into his ear. "Move even an inch and I will kiss you. So don't test my patience."

"..."