The Rise of the White Lotus

After some time processing the ridiculous data uttered by her, Ethan Lu slammed the surface of the table, throwing a huge fit.

"You did what?! Ah --! My head… is this how you get jealous? Aiya… this is too much to take in. Don't tell me you'll do that if I pushed your buttons?" Unlike the response Lexi anticipated from him, Ethan Lu only acted as if his head was about to burst and inquired odd questions.

"Yeah, so don't stress me too much or else, I'll kick you from here to there." Riding along with his funny reaction, Lexi pointed out the floor to length window on the enormous living area with a slight smirk.

She couldn't understand, but Lexi expected for the worst. She would understand if he would be a little awkward or probed even further from what she was thinking back then. She also thought that she'd hear more exaggerated criticism from him… however, his unexpected response slightly calmed her edgy nerves.

"Tsk tsk tsk, no wonder my brother couldn't handle the sight of you… his mistress almost got killed!" Ethan Lu sulked as he rested his chin on the table. Raising his gaze on Lexi's bare albeit refreshing profile, he mumbled.

"Bad girl."

"I stopped in the middle alright? It's just that there's another speeding car behind me which you know… you can fill in the blanks. But still, I got all the blame from it. Well, it's understandable since I did had the resolution for a second." This time, Lexi was more confident to lay her dirty laundry in front of Ethan, since he didn't bore the judgy eyes nor did he depicted that he was disgusted to hang around with her.

"Damn… that's troublesome. Did you really change?" Unenergized, Ethan Lu murmured expecting nothing from her. 

He too, was quite baffled that he didn't have the urge to judge her or anything of the like. Was it because he didn't expect anything from her? Or was it because he already knew that she wasn't kind? Yet, Ethan Lu was beat as this confession should lessened his infatuation towards her but instead, it didn't help; not a tiny bit!

"Change? I can't say I'm entirely a change person but I am trying. Also… I can now clearly see the people who really cares for me and the ones I should let go." Looking straight at his tired eyes, Lexi subtly smile with relief.

What she said were true. She couldn't say she's a good person now and she was only at the phase of redeeming herself. However, with her decision of letting go of the man she dedicated her heart to, Lexi's burden lightened. 

True, sometimes, loving someone who doesn't reciprocate one's feelings was like holding a rope that has a huge falling rock; the more she holds on to it, the more it hurts. 

For a brief moment, Ethan was mesmerized by Lexi's honesty. Her slight smile and touching words… he wondered if he was one of those she was talking about. It gave him waves of emotion that was akin to a mild tsunami as his heart was in a great turbulence.

Just then, Ethan's phone vibrated that slightly tickled his ear that was on the same table. He immediately scratched his earlobe while he abruptly glanced at his phone then altered it to Lexi who resumed on finishing her food.

Slowly, he reached for his phone and the moment he opened it, a sly smile formed on the side of his lips.

"OMG! Young Master Lu finally posted something for a long time!!"

"Woah, friends? *suspicious emoticon* my baby, you make me jealous! *crying emote*"

"Waaah~! Struggles of being a friend O.O !!"

Kevin Woo: "Is that a woman's finger I see? *coughs* #friends *coughs*

"EliOfficial shared your post with a caption: how to dig you own grave 101"

Ethan Lu's first reaction was light seeing that his ever loyal fans commented and sent their love to his first post of the year. However, seeing his friends comments, especially Elliot Gong sharing his post, his expression gradually turned sour.

Soon, after Elliot Gong shared Ethan's uninteresting post, he gained a whole batch of followers and comments regarding their funny brotherhood. Moreover, the girl who was in the photo had tons of questions on her identity.

'Atleast, it still gained attention more than I expected.' Ethan heavily sighed inwardly as he muted his phone without a care in the world.

If Elliot Gong didn't shared his teasing post, Ethan was unsure if it will gain more attention than it already has. After all, Elliot Gong was a famous actor with a knacked of singing and released several successful albums along in his career.

"Omaygad!" Being reminded about something, Lexi abruptly put down her chopsticks. Ethan who couldn't be more shock any longer cast his apathetic gaze on her with a creased brows.

"I forgot to tell my parents -- gosh!" As shock as she may look like, Lexi gaped her lips apart and panic slowly creeped on her.

Ethan Lu clicked his tongue hearing what bugged her in the middle of her meal, he ridiculed. 

"Ha! Such an unreliable child… thankfully, you got this handsome man and told them that their daughter was drunk as hell, unable to get home."

"Really? You told them I was fine?" Ignoring his unnecessary words, Lexi's mind unconsciously rearrange and deciphered what he meant. Her face brightened as she anticipates Ethan's confirmation.

"What? Didn't you hear me?!" With a gasped, Ethan's face distorted by how Lexi ignored his mocking and guessed what he relayed to the yang parents.