Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Shui stared at Jin’s posture, particularly his hand that was open right before her. She knew what the gesture meant, but she still had trouble processing the meaning coming from Jin.

She looked up at Jin with confusion and couldn’t help but ask, “What…?”

Jin pointed his gaze towards her hand, which she followed and couldn’t believe that he was really asking her hand for a dance.

“No, that’s fine…Like I said, you don’t have to force yourself.”

Jin tilted his head and smiled. “Everything that I want to do will be of my own free will. YOU cannot force me anyway, Han Shui. Not again.”

Shui blinked.

Again?

Jin slowly took her hand in his, making Shui stiffen. The light focused on them as Jin pulled her and wrapped his arm around her waist.

She swallowed a sharp gulp and felt her head spinning.

Is he really…dancing with me?

Their fingers intertwined but a little tighter than what Shui expected. She felt the tips of his fingers digging on the back of her hand, slightly making her uncomfortable.

“I-It’s…It’s…” She didn’t know how to put it.

“Hurting?” Jin smiled.

To others, that smile would look like a friend smiling at his childhood friend, but it was only a condescending smile filled with loathe for Shui.

Shui said nothing but the awkward expression on her face was a clear answer to his question.

“Then that’s good, isn’t it?” Jin chuckled.

Her eyelashes trembled.

“Or did you think that I would be so forgiving and kind-hearted just because it’s your birthday? It’s just a birthday. Nothing to treat you so special over it, right?”

She said nothing.

“Look, there are soooo many people already treating you like a princess tonight. One man not treating you like that won’t make a difference to you.”

Shui trembled again and her misty eyes shone with anger. “Jin. I didn’t force you to dance with me. Why are you humiliating me when I did nothing wrong?”

“Because I like to see you sad. I like to see you hurt, Han Shui.”

She froze.

“As for what you did wrong…do you really need to ask me that?” Jin’s voice turned sharper and colder.

He twirled her around his finger but his movements were not as elegant and smooth. Instead, the harshness from them made her almost stumble, though it was unnoticeable when Jin quickly caught her.

Jin smiled. “Dancing with me is more of a humiliation than me leaving you stranded, isn’t it? I like this option better.”

Shui tried to calm down her messy breaths and stop her shoulders from shivering any further. Instead of getting furious again, she peered into his eyes and tried to look for an answer in them.

The answer for his hatred. Resentment.

It wasn’t just now. Ever since the Shanghai Fest concluded, she gave it a serious thought for Jin’s actions. For a childhood friend to hate her like this wouldn’t bubble out of nowhere.

But no matter what, she really couldn’t come up with anything.

Except…

“Jin. Do you…hate me because you think I didn’t treat Jun well?”

The fingers that were painfully digging on her skin paused. His gaze looked different too, and she immediately noticed the change.

“You think that I hurt Jun by ignoring him or not loving him the way he wanted me to?”

“Shut up, Han Shui,” his voice grew thunderously grim. “Don’t fucking dare to talk about Bro Jun.”

His threat was enough for her to know that she spoke the truth.

“You…”

“Shut up,” Jin pulled her closer but there wasn’t a speck of intimacy between them. “Don’t talk about Bro Jun. You have already broken up with him. So don’t dare to talk about your pathetic relationship and your pathetic role in it.”

Shui stared into his gaze. Her words had hit his nerve and his reaction equally hit her childhood memories of him.

“I knew it…You always followed Jun everywhere. You liked him so much. More than anybody else in your family, you always chose to spend your time with Jun. But whenever he paid more attention to me, you always got so angry.”

Jin narrowed his eyes.

She faintly chuckled. “Remember that day? We three were playing and drawing together. Then Jun went outside for a while. Only the two of us remained who were drawing together.”

*Flashback*

Little Shui was humming with joy as she colored the characters of her drawing. “Jun will definitely like this!” She chirped. “This is the most handsome I have drawn him till now! Right, Jin?”

Jin, who was busy with his own drawing, threw a bored glance at her picture. His brow slightly twitched. He looked at his own drawing where he had sketched out Jun’s figure. He was trying to draw little Jun and little Jin – two brothers standing together.

But he bit his lip in anger, realizing that Shui’s imitation of Jun was actually better than his.

“Haha, Mom knows how to draw too! She helps Aunt Shuang with game characters, and she taught me too. Look, it has come out so well, right?” Shui beamed.

Little Jin clenched the pencil in his hand. He suddenly felt like tearing apart his drawing.

Bro will…like her picture more than mine, right? It’s so ugly…

Shui was whistling a happy tune, eager to show her picture to Jun.

Jin stared at her picture again and felt irked.

Will Bro play with her even more if he gets impressed? It’s not that good either!

In a fit of jealousy that he couldn’t control, Jin splashed paint upon her paper, ruining the drawing.

Shui gasped in horror. “My drawing!”

She picked her paper and stared at her ruined picture with tears brimming in her eyes. “Jin! My drawing! It’s all ugly now!” She cried. “Why do you splash paint on it! You are mean!”

Jin snapped out, and his face paled.

Shit!

Jun was also coming at any moment and if he saw Shui crying, it would be over for him.

“Sh-Shui…please…Please don’t tell me Bro that I did it. Please I beg you!”