Chapter 5
For the past two weeks,
Whenever they had evening tutoring sessions to help Scarlett with homework, Kai would make up some excuse about having something to do and rush off to wait by the payphone.
The next day, he’d report back to Jaxon about the situation.
The old man who collected phone fees had gotten familiar with his face.
Every time he saw Kai, the old man would wave his hand and say meaningfully:
“Kid, your girlfriend hasn’t called.”
“If you really miss her that much, why don’t you just call and check in on her?”
Call her himself?
No way… that would be way too embarrassing.
Besides, that last phone call had already cost him three months‘ worth of saved–up meal money.
Money he’d originally been saving for Scarlett’s birthday gift.
Kai shook his head.
“I’m not the one who screwed up. Why should I be the one calling back?”
“If throwing tantrums actually worked, wouldn’t everyone just use that to manipulate people?”
The old man chuckled knowingly.
“I can tell you’ve got no experience.”
“When it comes to chasing girls, what’s pride worth anyway?”
Actually, Kai wasn’t inexperienced.
He’d already lived through one lifetime as a man–he understood all my habits.
The things I refused to back down on.
Nobody could force me, and forcing never worked anyway.
If he called too many times, the only result would be getting blocked, and that would never get undone.
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Chapter 5
Kai trudged back home, deflated.
He started having trouble sleeping, afraid of nightmares.
Dreams of me at Cambridge, meeting some new guy and getting married.
Dreams of me getting mugged in some sketchy neighborhood, lying in a pool of blood calling out his name…
“Kai, Kai…”
That voice–it used to mean nothing to him.
Now every time he remembered it, his heart would skip a beat.
When he woke up.
His pillow was actually damp.
Jaxon had been standing outside his door for who knows how long, dark circles under his eyes.
Without saying a word, just seeing those dark circles was enough to guess the outcome.
“Still no call?”
Kai’s voice was barely audible.
“Yeah.”
“Probably never gonna call again.”
“I wonder how she’s doing over there, if she can get used to the food.”
Jaxon hung his head.
“Did we go too far? Hurting her like this…”
“Maybe we should call her and explain.”
“Tell her we were just feeling sorry for Scarlett, that we don’t have those kinds of feelings for her.”
Suddenly, Scarlett’s voice came from behind them.
“Kai, Jaxon.”
“What are you guys talking about?”
Both of them immediately felt guilty.
17:25
Reborn Losers? Now I’m the CEO They Can’t Unsee!
48.1
That righteous talk about “feeling sorry for her they couldn’t get those words out anymore.
“Scarlett, what are you doing here?”
Scarlett explained sweetly;
“You guys have been late to morning study sessions lately, so I came to check on you.”
“I was worried you might oversleep and skip breakfast, so I brought you guys some buns.”
“Want to walk to school together?”
Both nodded.
Eating the buns, their hearts felt incredibly bitter.
In their past life, the three of us had started a business together, racked up debt, dressed in rags.
The owner of a bun shop had looked down on us, calling us dirty beggars,
So I’d gotten up early and stayed up late, learning to make a whole steamer of fragrant buns.
“Once we eat these buns, nobody’s ever gonna push us around again.”
Even though we were poor, we’d all laughed so happily.
Scarlett noticed something was wrong and frowned deeply.
“Do they not taste good?”
Jaxon shook his head, lost in melancholy.
“They taste too much like something I remember.”
It was still three people.
But everything had changed.
“Bang!”
Suddenly, Kai felt dizzy and collapsed to the ground.
17:26
