AnLing didn"t believe in fate but on the day she had gotten accepted to the same school as her boyfriend, despite having below-average grades, AnLing felt as if the world was on her side.To celebrate, AnLing had booked a room at Hotel Helios. She knew what doing this meant, and she was completely prepared for what was to come, but with no warning, tragedy struck.
She was young and naive back then.
Like a character from one of her beloved drama"s, she"d imagined a perfect romantic relationship where she was loved pa.s.sionately and loved back just as pa.s.sionately.
A romance for the ages where, despite all the trials, she and her boyfriend would make it to their very own happily ever after.
Reality wasn"t as pretty and pink as she had imagined at seventeen.
In reality, there was truth and there were lies. There was love and there was… something else, maybe a person could call it l.u.s.t, but AnLing couldn"t quite put her finger on it.
In the three years she spent with Yize, she thought they were perfect together, but she had to raise her status to have Yize"s parents accept her and that meant graduating from a top-level university and getting a corporate job.
Thinking about it now, she was making all the wrong decisions, back then, but she was blinded by her pure love.
Who would have imagined that her love story was nothing more than an illusion?
She found that out at twenty.
That day...
AnLing remembered it so clearly.
She was standing at the front desk with a dumb smile. Her shoulder length hair falling gracefully on her shoulders with a slight curl. Two figures exited the elevator out of the corner of her eye. The silhouettes tall, and erect. It was so familiar and the light brown jacket he wore reminded her of the one she had gifted Yize that Christmas.
Once she turned to look at the figure, she felt as if someone had drenched her with a bucket of ice water.
The truth was a painful thing.
Sometimes, even when a person sees something with their own eyes, they don"t want to believe it and there was always something that would stop them from facing it.
But AnLing had no such thing.
At first sight, she couldn"t help herself but call out.
"Yize."
The two figures froze.
Admission of guilt was the easiest thing to see; words could lie but actions didn"t.
At that moment, a million things ran through her mind. She felt numb and opted to drown her sorrows in alcohol, made a mistake and then blacked out but it didn"t change a thing. As soon as she woke up the pain wasn"t any lesser.
That was the day when Hotel Helios had become synonymous with sadness and infidelity.
As AnLing sat in the corner, on a sofa with her phone in her hand, she couldn"t help reminisce and curse her rotten luck that brought her back here. Though at present, she didn"t feel as horrible as she thought she would.
As she watched people walk in and out of the hotel she examined their clothing. There must have been some sort of event that night because she saw many beautiful women wearing even more beautiful dresses.
AnLing felt out of place with her white blouse, khaki pants, and her not-even-name-brand heels.
There were even some kids running around wearing clothing more expensive than her whole wardrob.
Rich people were something else...
From the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar small figure. She quickly turned to look but instead, her eyes met the body of a good looking man. Behind him was a woman but AnLing couldn"t make out her face.
There was something familiar about his back but AnLing was not in the heads.p.a.ce to think about it.
A cold air emitted from the man"s body before he turned and left and the girl did the same thing.
AnLing could tell that the woman was holding a child"s hand but the sheer amount of people making their way to the ballroom shielded the child from her sights.
Lovers quarrel?
She wondered before turning away.
AnLing played with her ring as she looked in other directions.
Now and again she would see people enter the elevators and wonder how many of them were actual couples and who practiced adultery religiously.
Maybe the girl had cheated on him and he was heartbroken? AnLing wondered about the man, but she couldn"t be more mistaken.
The thought made her want to vomit but it wasn"t any of her business so she tried her best to ignore it.
AnLing looked at her phone. It was 9:05 and Shuya hadn"t walked through the door. AnLing was beginning to get annoyed. She just wanted to meet Shuya, sort things out and then leave.
AnLing had the choice to leave but she knew that if she did she would be forsaking a calm future. Her best option was to wait and sort things out.
After a couple more minutes AnLing contemplated whether to call Shuya but just as she was about to do it, the words "Royal Pain" flashed across the screen.
Wasting no time, AnLing picked up.
"I told you not to be late! Where are you?" Shuya growled.
AnLing: "I"m in the hotel, near the front desk. Where are you?"
"You... are you an idiot? I"m obviously in the lounge. Did you think I was going to meet and sit in the guest waiting area?"
"What a brat." AnLing thought.
AnLing: "Got it."
As she maneuvered around the guest, AnLing felt a couple of stairs on her. She didn"t like the attention but nothing could be done.
The difference in status was way too apparent.
Though AnLing didn"t feel too bad about herself. She just admired the beauties for a moment.
In her mind"s eye, she saw a man and a woman b.u.mp into each other and lock eyes. It was a story of love at first sight. It flashed through her brain. A soft melody began to play before lyrics flowed.
AnLing had to stop and write them down before heading to the lounge.
The door of the lounge was wide open when she arrived. She was about to walk through but a large group of men exited, blocking the whole entrance.
AnLing waited for them to pa.s.s.
It wasn"t that she couldn"t squeeze through but she would rather not accidentally rub up against them. Drunk men usually formed strange perversions in their heads and most couldn"t control themselves when they believed a woman had made the first move.
And for AnLing it was worse, despite not being too short, she wasn"t too tall either. She feared what she could touch.
The men pa.s.sed her without paying her any attention but just as the last few walked by the familiar scent of flowers filled her body.
AnLing looked back to see if she could find the one who carried that scent but the group had already turned down the corner.
She could still hear their voices.
"Will you be staying at the hotel or going home?" she heard one man ask.
"President Kang still has a few more people to meet here tonight." Another man said, answering but not quite answering the question.
By the time the other man answered AnLing had stopped listening though and walked straight towards Shuya who sat at the bar sipping on a transparent drink.