"You...Why are you here?"
Hai stuffed the crepe in her hands and joined her on the bench. "Stalking my Goddess as always~"
"I-I am not your Goddess...!" She cleared her throat, looking away.
"Aye? But you were staring at so passionately until a few monts ago. I kind of felt naked under that fiery gaze, you know~?"
She gasped, eyes wide and back slipping farther back in shock. "W-What nonsense...! I wasn’t staring at you like that!" She said with rushed breaths and heated cheeks.
"Aish, you blush so easily. My Goddess is the cutest!" He shone.
"You..." she shifted a little farther to the side. "Please mind your distance. I am an unmarried woman," she nervously tugged a lock of her hair behind her ear.
Hai raised his brow, amused. "Married or unmarried, you are my Goddess that’s all I know."
Her eyes widened, stunned. "You shouldn’t be eyeing married won."
"I chase after what my heart wants~"
By that point, Chunhua had completely given up on tackling Hai’s persona and advances. He was a man she simply didn’t know how to respond to. She stared at the crepe in her hands and then glanced at Hai, holding six more of them.
"...You are going to eat that much?"
"I love crepes!"
"Still..isn’t that a little too much? Also too sweet."
"I love food! A lot!" he exclaid, flaring his nostrils with pride.
Her brow twitched.
He just ignored my question...
Rubbing the tip of her slightly reddish nose, she took a bite of the crepe, its buttery and vanilla sweetness bursting forth on her tongue.
"Soooo why was my Goddess crying? Shouldn’t a Goddess be making other people cry~"
Stiffened, she quickly rubbed her lashes and lowered her gaze further down. "I wasn’t crying."
"Do your eyes look red for no reason?" He gasped. "Are you sick?"
Her lips stretched into a grimace. "I am not sick."
He only humd at that. They remained like that in silence for a while. Happily munching on his third crepe, he asked, "Why do you want to beco an architect?"
Her eyes stretched wide, jerking her head towards him. "How do you know that?"
He smiled. "You ask so very adorable questions."
Strangely enough, Chunhua had a feeling she didn’t wish to dig too deep into his sources of information.
"I want to build my own house one day," she watched the passing cars on the road in a trance. "I want to make my own ho. A warm ho. With warm colors. With warm smiles. And..." the light in her eyes flickered for a mont, "A ho where I could live freely."
"Is that what your dream is?"
"Yes...My dream. I-I want to study more and build hos one day. But I also want to get married. I don’t know how long I will live, but I wish to see my great-grandchildren..." she smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I want to have a big family. Smiling, laughing and bantering together."
"A big family will need a big living room."
"Yes. I have thought about that," an unmistakable gleam seeped into her eyes, lighting up her expression. "A big living room with the most modern furniture but also having a little retro look to it."
"Then the staircase to the upper floors would start at the center and the kitchen would be closer to the dining area!"
"The wall colors will have soft pastel colors."
"I think we will also need a garden," he added.
"Garden, yes of course! I will build a grand garden with a big fountain at the centre. There will be lots of beautiful trees and flowers! It will be really good to have quiet evening walks there."
"What about a swing?"
"Oh, swing is a good idea! I hadn’t thought about that," her face shone with pure joy. Her arms waved in the air animatedly as if she was living through that future ti in this very mont. Her tears had faded away into one of the brightest smiles Hai had ever seen.
"Oohh and then the paintings-"
Chunhua turned without realizing, then froze on the spot. The distance she had made herself was now close to nothingness as they sat barely an inch away from each other. So close that her head would have collided with his had she not stopped in ti.
Her heart thumped hard - not solely by the increased proximity but how Hai had been listening to her intently, elbow propped upon his knee and chin resting upon his knuckles, head slightly tilted to the right as his black eyes never left hers. The sunlight kissing his side profile stopped her breath in her throat.
"Y-you should have stopped ...I-I just kept babbling," her face turned super crimson, a mix of furious blush and embarrassnt.
"Hm? Why would I stop you? I love hearing your lovely voice."
Her heart plunged into a deep dive into the unknown, sowhere unfamiliar but also sowhere incredibly sweet.
"Is it..is it still lovely if a woman talks about her dreams?" she clenched a fistful of dress within her palm.
"A woman is the loveliest when she talks about her dreams. So keep talking, Chunhua. Because I want to know everything about you."
Tears pooled in her eyes without her permission, but she quickly blinked them away. She had craved for that understanding from her parents, from the man she just t for the date. Yet those words ca from a stubborn, annoying stranger she always kept escaping from.
She cleared her throat and thought to divert from the subject of her own aspirations.
"What is your dream i-if I may ask?"
His brow arched. "I don’t see the need to dream. I chase after what I want. I get what I want."
"Oh," she humd a bit. "You are a young master so many things would co easy for you, I understand. But still. There must be sothing you want that your riches cannot give you. Is there nothing like that?"
"Hmm..." he tilted his head further, his gaze fixed sowhere farther in the distance. "Probably, there’s sothing. But it’s already too late for that."
"Is that so...?" Her gaze turned downcast for a sour reason she didn’t quite understand herself either. She was curious to know more, but she sensed it wasn’t the right ti to ask.
Sothing that even Liu Hai can’t have...
"But it’s alright. I don’t feel bad about it because there is sothing else I want like crazy and I know it will be mine one day."
"W-What?"
On the road, a car zapped past them and by the end of it as it disappeared from their view, Hai’s lips were on hers, soft but firm. The longer they remained, the sweeter it felt. The sunlight that had been illuminating her face until this mont, now all of a sudden, got blocked by Hai’s shadow consuming her. He withdrew slowly, then peered into her stunned gaze, appreciating the most breathtaking beauty he always admired.
"You, my dear."
At first, Chunhua threw a blank look. Then steam escaped out of the top of her head and ears. Her face had crossed all limits of crimson shades to ever exist in the world. She attempted so valiant efforts to speak, but her voice betrayed her every step of the way.
"Y-you you...Th-This is...I-I am..." her incoherent words stuttered.
"Yeah, I know. You will say you are an unmarried woman and this is shaful to do before marriage, but don’t worry~ This is my sin to bear. My Goddess will always be the sweetest and purest angel~"
Blood rushed to her face. New feelings, new sensations she never felt before blossod in the pit of her stomach. She had read and heard of fairy-tale romances, watched a few romance movies she could count on her fingers, yet as conservative and pure her thoughts were, love wasn’t sothing she could ever connect to - that is until now.
Sowhere deep within her, she felt herself tumbling down to a place of no return. Dangerous and risky as it was, she fell deeper and deeper until escape seed fruitless and pointless. The next best thing she could do was bury her face in her palms.
"Chunhua~" he poked her shoulder.
"Sh-Shut up. Don’t l-look at now...!"
"Why not? You always look beautiful to ~"
"I am looking strange..!"
"Yes, I know why that is," he laughed heartily. "Sooooo, Chunhuaaaa~"
"I-I just told you to keep quiet!"
"Chunhuaaaa~" he kept poking her shoulder, "I love you."
She froze.
"Will you be my girlfriend? Please, please? Pretty pleaaaaaaase? I will keep you super duper happy! I will always protect you. Both you and your dreams~"
After a long pause of silence, Hai eventually forced her two stuck palms hiding her face to part ways, revealing the tears rolling down her cheeks with a tint of blush marred against them.
"Aish, it’s a happy day and happy love, my dear. So smileeee~" Brushing her tears away, he leaned in - only for her hand to press against his chest, stopping him in his way.
"W-What are you doing?"
"Celebrating the start of our sweet, blissful love~"
"...I ha-haven’t said yes yet..."
He grinned. "But do you want to stop ?"
She thought she would imdiately respond, but then she didn’t - or couldn’t.
"Yeah, I thought so haha. Don’t worry, dear. Your hand is on my chest. You can feel my heartbeats, right? They are just like yours. Erratic, chaotic and suuuuuuper ssy! But as ssy as they are, they are all yours. Only yours~"
The last string of resistance in that mont, if any that remained, snapped cleanly as if it was never there, as if she submitted to her own ssy heartbeats that exactly matched Hai’s.
Then ca the kiss. A second ti. That remained longer and felt sweeter than any other feeling in the world.
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