Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Ai took in a silent breath. She knew that Jun would also realize the truth after the post. But she hadn't expected that he would come to meet her so late at night.

She remembered the last time she had seen Jun in Sky where Yunru had announced his engagement with Shui. A feeling of bitterness and discomfort encased her heart.

Ai was looking at him but her voice was quiet as she spoke, "...Hello."

Jun tilted his head and stared at her as if he was piercing her very soul. "Won't you invite me inside?"

Ai cleared her throat. "It's a little late-"

"Won't. You. Invite. Me. Inside?" He narrowed his eyes, icily enunciating his question.

Silence.

Ai saw one of the neighbors peeking through the slit of their door to know what was going on. She said, "Please come in."

He sneered. "Good. Because you didn't have a choice."

"..."

Jun passed from beside her, making Ai feel that it was suddenly freezing even more than the snow raining outside.

Ai quietly closed the door and walked to the living room where his tall and sturdy frame seemed to occupy the entire room. The house suddenly felt fuller than before. His presence was silent and commanding akin to a Demon King stepping into the human realm.

Silence rang in the air for several long minutes.

Ai tapped with her fingers, looked left and then right and finally asked, "You are-"

She froze when Jun's figure towered in front of her out of nowhere. Just a second ago, he was at a distance from her, but now her eyes were staring straight right at his chest. Her breath stopped in her throat with this sudden proximity.

Jun's frost-covered gaze peered into her as he asked in a threatening voice, "What the fuck was he doing here?"

The question snapped her out of her trance. "Who?"

The look in his eyes turned even icier. "Gu. Yating. What was he doing here?"

It was a pressure that would have crushed anybody else miserably, but Ai stood unaffected. She figured that since Jun worked in Sky, he must have come to know who Gu Yating was.

She maintained her poise and said, "You must have read my post. As Dream High's chief editor, he came to talk to me."

Though Ai couldn't understand why he was asking about Yating. She had expected him to shoot questions about her dual identity.

Jun took a step forward even though there was no space which made Ai stumble a step back. She looked up and her eyelashes trembled as he bent his face closer towards her.

"As Chief Editor or somebody else?"

Her brows crinkled.

If not as Chief Editor then as what?

"I don't understand."

"Will a Chief Editor bother to come to an author's house at such late night just to clarify about the misunderstanding?" At the end, she faintly heard the sound of his teeth gritting against each other. "Did he come here just as a colleague or somebody else?"

She felt the anger and danger emanate from his aura and his gaze throwing daggers at her.

Ai stared at him. "Then why are you here? Didn't you come here at such a late hour too? What relationship is there between us?"

In the end, her voice also turned a little sour, recalling about Jun buying a ring for Shui. That one moment had clearly drawn the line between them.

The danger oozing out of Jun's aura sharply reached the max level.

He coldly smiled and grabbed her arm, bridging the narrow gap between them. "What relationship is there between us, you ask? Have you forgotten that night we spent in the swing or should I remind you?"

Even though nothing had happened between them that night, Jun twisted his words as if something more intimate had indeed occurred rather than just making out.

Ai narrowed her eyes. "I do remember. But it seems that you don't."

That's why you could buy a ring for Shui even when you had said that you would break up with her.

She left it unsaid, realizing that she had no right to feel this way and have such thoughts. But at the same time, she also wouldn't bear Jun's accusing tone as if she was the one in the wrong.

"I don't remember…?" He stared at her in a daze.

Fuck, I have been thinking nothing but that ever since it happened! The hell my body-

Jun stiffened, his heart burning in anguish. He recalled how he had gotten a reaction just before he read Ai's post. His nostrils flared, feeling furious at himself.

Ai noticed the rapid changes in his expressions. One moment he was troubled and the next moment, he would be all angry and riled up.

Jun let go of her arm and took deep and sharp breaths. He shut his eyes, forcing the desire within them to dissipate. He was afraid that if he got a reaction once again in front of Ai, he would really end his life here once and for all.

He wanted to thoroughly drill her about Yating's visit, but the conversation had taken a dangerous turn. So, he dropped that subject. For now.

Jun glared at her. "Please explain the post."

He finally asked the question which Ai was expecting.

She pursed her lips. "It was my fault. I lied."

Jun rapidly blinked. Among the million questions and what-if scenarios running through his mind, he wondered if it was possible that Dream High was forcing Ai to take the blame and protect the company's image.

"You are really…"

"I am indeed MissImperfectlyFine," she glanced up at him. "The same woman who wore the mask and shades at CherryBlossom's book signing event and the same writer whose signature you had asked. I am the same author whose tragic endings you hate the most."

Silence.

"Why did you lie? Don't you dislike hiding stuff?"

Ai answered. "At first, I lied to protect my privacy. The first time I said I was Butterfly when you asked my pen name. Apart from Dream High and my family, I didn't want anybody else to know my identity. But then I felt I had no choice but to lie to enter Sky."

"Why!?" This question bogged him ever since he read the post.

"Because I heard that Sky will never take any writer from Dream High."