Novel Full 112 The ring
Jun stepped into a lavish jewelry store, the sophisticated glass rows scintillating with exquisite and stunning pieces of jewelry right from the delicate diamond earrings to the elegant gold necklace sets. The store belonged to the biggest and most popular jewelry franchise in China. The place was quiet with a few wealthy socialites and couples shopping among themselves.
Everybody’s heads automatically turned to size up the new customer who just stepped in. Jun’s presence was so powerful and compelling that nobody dared to meet his eye. The women began swooning over his hot figure and the intense aura he emanated.
Jun ignored all the starstruck gazes and went straight to meet the Head Jeweler, Mr. Shao.
Mr. Shao noticed Jun coming and beamed. “Mr. Liu! I am glad you are here. Thank you for your patronage. Your order is ready.”
He took out a small red velvet box and placed it on the counter. He gently opened it, and a beautiful diamond ring was gracefully perched upon it. It was so dazzling that the other customers forgot to breathe.
Mr. Shao was extremely pleased. “Mr. Liu. Your ring is exactly made as you had ordered. Please check it. I hope you are satisfied with the result.”
Jun stared at the ring for several long seconds in silence. He held the ring between his fingers, and a memory from his past life knocked his heart.
*Flashback*.
In his past life on the very same Christmas of last year, Jun and Shui had a big argument. A boy belonging to her class was talking to her and as Jun noticed it, he exploded in a fury and punched that classmate hard.
“Jun! What are you doing?” Shui asked in shock.
“The hell he was holding your waist!” Jun’s voice was extremely frigid. “How dare he touch my girlfriend!?”
“What!? He wasn’t touching me that way. I slipped, and he was just trying to help me!” Shui was aghast.
He sneered. “You think I will believe his intentions?”
The classmate desperately shook his head in fear. “No, no! I was really only helping her! Look, she slipped on this fruit peel.”
Jun cast him an icy glare. “I have seen enough of these tricks people use to cause these accidents.”
The classmate didn’t know how to make Jun understand. “Trust me. I have a girlfriend, and I really love her! I have no intentions for Shui!”
Shui nodded, exasperated. “Yes, Jun. I know his girlfriend too. She is from another college.”
He gritted his teeth. “You have no awareness, Shui!”
“Fine! Then check the footage, and we will know if he dropped the peel on purpose or not!”
They did, and it was proved that indeed some random passerby had dropped it accidentally. He hadn’t noticed it at all. The classmate was innocent.
Shui asked, “Are you satisfied now?”
Jun wasn’t, and he went as far as to check if the classmate had bribed that man somehow, but he didn’t get any results. The classmate felt extremely humiliated but in front of Jun’s menacing aura, he was too afraid to speak up for himself.
“Jun, you…you made this such a big of a deal for nothing! The Christmas party was going so nice and you!” She bit her lip in disappointment.
Jun clenched his jaw. “I…”
“Forget it. I am going home. I am not in the mood anymore…”
He curled his fist. “I will drop you-“
“No!” Shui warned. “I will go home alone.”
After that incident, Shui ignored Jun for a long time. That and due to many such fights that occurred between them even before Christmas only made Jun more agitated. Out of desperation, he had given an order for a custom made diamond ring several months back. He had planned to propose to Shui on her twenty-first birthday.
Since she would be still only twenty-one, naturally he didn’t mean to marry her so soon. But at least, he wanted to become her fiance and shake off this discomforting feeling that had been bugging him for quite some time.
It felt as if Shui was slowly slipping away from his hands, and he needed a reassurance that tied him to her.
The argument settled down and on Shui’s twenty-first birthday, Jun put the ring in her finger. Shui accepted it, making him the happiest man in this world…
Only for this bliss to remain short-lived.
Four years later, when Jun proposed again with the intent to marry Shui on her twenty-fifth birthday was when the harsh reality shattered all his dreams. It came like a tsunami that drowned him in the depths of hell forever.
“Shui, Will you marry me?” Jun asked in anticipation, his heart racing as if somebody was loudly beating a drum.
Shui stared at him, tears shining in her black irises. “…I am sorry, Jun but I can’t.”
That one word which escaped her lips darkened Jun’s world like a blackhole. His world came crashing down in the matter of seconds. The woman he gave his heart to all this time had rejected his proposal.
For a long time, Jun didn’t even understand what happened. He simply blankly stared at her. But then in the next moment, he realized the reason behind Shui’s answer.
“I…I cannot see our future together anymore, Jun.”
“Huh? I don’t understand. Cannot see our future? Shui, I am not in the mood to joke around.”
“I am not joking, Jun. I won’t lie to you at such a time,” she trembled. “But…the moment I realized my feelings, I couldn’t keep going on anymore. All this time, I felt that there was a big misunderstanding. But it’s not. It’s the truth that has dawned upon me.”
Jun blinked.
“I cannot accept your proposal, Jun. I did so on my twenty-first birthday because I was disillusioned. I thought it was always meant to happen. You and I together. There was no doubt about it. But not anymore. Now, there is no fog in my mind anymore because I have finally realized that I…I don’t love you, Jun. I…I am in love with Jin.”
*Flashback ends*