Once inside the car, the atmosphere between them stilled.
Rong Xue who was sitting in the passenger seat waited for Qiao Jun to ask, while Qiao Jun in the driver seat waited for Rong Xue to speak.
Just when the atmosphere turned cold to the point both of them couldn’t bear it, they started to talk simultaneously
"Now tell ...."
"Why are you silent...."
Qiao Jun and Rong Xue looked at each other and both of them chuckled.
"Xue, from when did you and Vivian start to interact?"
"During the ti you were hospitalized...she started to ask about your recovery and that was how..." Rong Xue explained.
Qiao Jun raised an eyebrow,
"Be careful."
He couldn’t pinpoint but for so reason, he kept on feeling that Vivian was more dangerous than Aunt Mila and Uncle Miller.
Rong Xue’s eyes flashed and he looked away without replying to Qiao Jun.
"Now tell the answer to my previous question."
Rong Xue sighed and asked suddenly,
"How much do you like Yu Holea?"
"Huh? Why are you dragging her na into this conversation? Is she the one who destroyed your love life?" Qiao Jun asked in a casual tone.
The love that used to be present in his voice for Yu Holea...suddenly seems to have vanished.
Rong Xue stared at Qiao Jun for a few seconds, before shaking his head,
"You...forget it. You can’t give what I want...anyways."
Qiao Jun was irritated,
"Xue, I am asking for the last ti. Tell . What is that you want?"
Rong Xue lowered his head and said in a soft voice,
"First you tell . How much do you like Yu Holea?"
Qiao Jun furrowed his brows at Rong Xue’s repeated question
"Why does it matter how much I like her?" Qiao Jun said with an edge in his voice.
"She’s my fiance. I care about her—"
But the words felt... off.
He couldn’t shake the strange feeling that sothing had changed inside him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.
"What did you say?" Rong Xue asked softly.
Qiao Jun held his head and muttered,
"I...care...about...her? No. I don’t care about her..."
Rong Xue clenched his hand and asked loudly,
"Tell . Do you care about her? Do you like her?"
Qiao Jun’s eyes turned dazed,
"No. I don’t like her..."
Rong Xue gulped, his body trembled and his heart ached. Many doubts filled him.
Was he doing the right thing by doing what he was about to do?
Qiao Jun lied to him...in the first place...but what he(Rong Xue) was about to do now...called betrayal...
However...
He truly liked her.
Just this once...this once he would take advantage of his best friend...if he(Ronge Xue) could have her...then he would apologize to his best friend.
But if he(Rong Xue) couldn’t he would truly let go of Yu Holea.
Rong Xue took a deep breath and asked,
"So you truly don’t care about her?"
"No." Qiao Jun answered firmly. But for so reason, his heart felt empty once he said so. It was as if, a very important part of his heart was leaving...
What was happening to him?
"Can you break off the engagent with her then?" Rong Xue asked softly.
Qiao Jun’s eyes widened.
The words he had spoken—No, I don’t care about her—echoed painfully in his mind, even though they hadn’t felt entirely true.
He couldn’t understand why, but an overwhelming sense of emptiness began to settle over him.
His chest tightened, and for a brief mont, he felt the sting of tears welling up in his eyes.
Yet, despite the heavy ache in his heart, he heard himself say,
"I’ll break it off... I’ll break off the engagent."
The mont those words left his mouth, a strange, hollow silence filled the car.
It was as if sothing precious had been ripped from his soul, and the space left behind was cold and desolate.
Qiao Jun rubbed his chest absentmindedly, trying to soothe the pain, but it refused to go away.
"But why?" Qiao Jun asked, his voice low and raw.
"Why do you want to break it off, Xue? What does Yu Holea have to do with you?"
Rong Xue took a deep breath, his expression conflicted, his hand tightening into a fist in his lap.
He hesitated for a mont, as if gathering the courage to speak, then finally t Qiao Jun’s gaze.
"Jun... Yu Holea loved first."
Qiao Jun blinked, stunned by Rong Xue’s revelation.
His heart skipped a beat, a cold sensation creeping up his spine.
"I... I didn’t see it at the ti," Rong Xue continued his voice barely above a whisper.
"I was dumb, oblivious to her feelings. She tried to show , tried to get close, but I was too focused on other things to realize it."
He wasn’t lying.
In his previous life, the person who Yu Holea fell for was him...Rong Xue not Qiao Jun...
In their previous life, Yu Holea repeatedly gave him the chance to love her...but he...he was too focused on that white lotus nad Yu i and didn’t love her...
He expected that in this life, everything would be the sa and even visited the Yu Mansion, in order to take Yu Holea out of the Yu Mansion and keep her with him, but...
But...she had left.
Her decision changed everything.
Their first eting.
Their love.
Her first love..
Qiao Jun’s mind flashed back to sothing his sister had told him months ago—how Yu Holea might not have fully forgotten about her first crush.
He had dismissed it at the ti, confident in his relationship with Yu, but now... now it all made sense.
Her first crush was Rong Xue.
"After a while," Rong Xue said, his tone heavy with regret, "she gave up on . And she started to like you. I saw how happy she was with you, how she smiled in a way that she never did around ... So I stepped back."
Qiao Jun swallowed hard, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
A deep, bitter jealousy began to bubble up inside him, twisting his stomach into knots.
Yu Holea had loved Rong Xue first? His best friend? The thought clawed at him, but for so reason, he couldn’t express his anger.
He couldn’t yell, couldn’t accuse Rong Xue, even though the jealousy burned fiercely within him.
"And now?" Qiao Jun asked, his voice tense, barely controlled. "Now you’re saying you want her back?"
Rong Xue looked away, his eyes filled with sorrow and guilt.
"I... I’m not asking for anything, Jun. I’m just... If you don’t care about her anymore, if you don’t love her, I want a chance. Just one chance to see if there’s anything left between us."
Qiao Jun looked calm from the outside. But his inner side was in turmoil.
The thought of losing Yu Holea, of her choosing Rong Xue over him, made his chest ache in a way he couldn’t fully understand.
He was angry—at Rong Xue, at Yu Holea, at himself—but also strangely numb, as if part of him had already accepted this fate.
But then there was the other part of him, the part that still wanted to fight, still wanted to hold onto sothing, even though it felt like it was slipping through his fingers.
"Do you think..." Qiao Jun’s voice cracked slightly as he spoke.
"Do you think she still has feelings for you? After all this ti?"
Rong Xue shook his head slowly.
"I don’t know. Maybe not. But before I let go completely, I need to find out for myself."
Qiao Jun pressed his lips together, a painful knot forming in his throat. He rembered Yu Holea’s words.
Her first kiss was with her first crush...
And how she blushed when her first crush was ntioned.
Maybe she....truly still has feelings for him(Rong Xue).
Then what was he?
Rebound?
The re thought of being nothing more than rebound, frustrated Qiao Jun.
The jealousy inside him flared again, but no matter how much he wanted to lash out, sothing held him back.
Instead, all he could feel was exhaustion. He wasn’t even sure of his own feelings anymore.
His mind felt clouded, as though sothing—or soone—was interfering with his thoughts.
And yet, despite the haze, a single question lingered, gnawing at the edge of his consciousness.
"Why didn’t she tell ?" Qiao Jun whispered, more to himself than to Rong Xue.
"Why didn’t Yu ever say anything about you?"
Rong Xue’s expression softened.
"Because she moved on, Jun. At least, that’s what I think. But if there’s even the smallest chance that she hasn’t... I need to know."
Silence fell over the car once more, heavy and suffocating. Qiao Jun’s head was pounding.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Qiao Jun exhaled shakily, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
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