**Warning: Mature themes**
Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. Owowowow.
"Get off me, get off," Julrie hammered and pushed at the man on top of her.
The man just hovered over her, propping his upper body up with his arms, looking down at her while their lower bodies were both tightly connected. His face was also twisted into one of discomfort.
Julrie couldn't move and had no strength. The fall had winded her, and while she had been winded, she didn't know how, but the handsome man on top and inside her had also somehow slipped and tripped, ending up inside her.
This was not how she expected to lose her first time.
She hadn't even thought such a fall like today's, with such a low probability of happening was even possible. All the coincidences leading to this had such low chances of happening that she almost felt like there must have been a big hand guiding it all to happen. But she didn't have time to think of that right now.
Right now, she was in too much pain. All she wanted was to get this man off her.
The man moved slightly, making her moan and he paused.
"Get off. Get out," Julrie was crying. "It hurts. Really hurts. Get off. Can't breathe."
"I'm sorry," the man said, attempting to pull out, but slipping, falling and squashing her, going so deep that Julie's eyes rolled from both the electrifying sensation and pain.
He had a marvelously beautiful voice. The kind that some girls would say they could get pregnant from just by listening to it. It just wasn't what Julrie was wanting right now.
She didn't know how she had come to this.
She hadn't quite made it to the toilet after having to hold in her pee all day because of the boss's super long meeting. And so, she had needed to discard her dirty underwear in a plastic bag to take home later so that no one would smell it on her. She had no spares and so she was planning to go but a new one when her boss had ordered her to instead deliver some documents to the shared office space in the international lounge in the building next door where an overseas business man had come to discuss a new contract.
The boss had told her to jump to it immediately and drop whatever she had been doing. And so, left with no choice and not wanting to embarrass herself further, thinking she could go buy her new underwear later, Julrie had obeyed. Nobody would know she wasn't wearing underwear if she didn't tell anybody.
Things had definitely felt uncomfortably vulnerable and breezy under her skirt while she had walked across the park to the next building. She had very carefully held her knee length skirt down when the wind blew so that she would avoid accidentally flashing any passersby. She had thought it would be a simple task, but no.
At the international lounge's reception, a rushing service staff member had bumped into her, spilling an entire tray of various cups of coffee and a jug of freshly brewed, scalding hot coffee all over her. Thankfully, the documents had been protected by the plastic folder that they had been.
In apology, the lounge staff had showed her to the ladies' shower and change room by the swimming pool with a change of clothes that unfortunately hadn't included a fresh pair of underwear. After taking a cold shower to deal with the scalding burns and gritting her teeth, Julrie had put on the slightly too small shirt and mini pencil skirt. After carefully wiping down the folder and making sure the documents inside were safe, she had walked out, only to be startled by a man emerging from the mens' change room wearing only a towel around his waist. Stepping backwards, Julrie had slipped backwards, grabbing hold of the nearest thing, which so happened to be a towel that flew into her face.
"What-" a startled man's voice had exclaimed, meaning to step forward to try and stabilise her, but instead also slipping on the same patch of tiles and somehow landing on/in her.
He slipped and slid, trying to get off and out of her, but the slippery floor conspired against him to cause him to keep falling back in and onto Julrie who was on the verge of fainting from these rough encounters. In the end, she did faint. Whether from bumping the back of her head so hard on the tiles when she fell, from the shock or from the man constantly plunging deep inside her by accident, Julrie fell unconscious.
Seeing that Julrie had gone limp beneath him and glancing up at the security cameras, the man had gritted his teeth, scooped the woman up and with some difficulty, pulled her aside, away from the slippery patch. And then he had carried her into the changing room where he had successfully uncoupled with her, despite now having a raging hard on. Looking at the woman with some regret, he laid her down on the changing room bench, used his towel to wipe up the blood leaking from between her legs, and called the ambulance before going to take a cold shower.
Later, after the ambulance had arrived, he found the documents floating in the pool, amazingly protected by the plastic case and signed them, while pinching the bridge of his nose, wondering how he was going to explain to his business friend what had happened to his worker. The girls at reception had been frightened when the ambulance had turned up and he had explained that the woman had been knocked unconscious by the fall.
The paramedics had not accepted his explanation of such a low improbability fall occurred, resulting in the police also coming over to question him. In the meantime, the reception girls had confessed to accidentally scalding her with the coffee and everyone was looking at him as if he were a rapist.
"If you aren't a pervert or rapist, where is her underwear?" they had demanded.
What kind of bad luck had he met with today?
Julrie woke up in the hospital with some confusion and in her daze, related to the medical staff and police what had happened leading up to the disastrous fall. After they asked what happened to her underwear, she had blushingly explained her accident in the toilet.
With her dirty underwear found, her testimony matching up with the man's, the police and medical staff had asked her with disbelieving voices that had hinted that they thought her likely promiscuous, they had asked if she would like to accuse the man who had fallen on her with sexual assault. After all, they said, it could be an accident, but nobody ever falls on another person in such a way by accident. It just wasn't possible and the chances of such a thing happening so miniscule.
Julrie had rubbed her sore head.
Sexual assault? Yes! She certainly should accuse the man of such a thing, but when she saw the man drooping in a corner, rubbing his head, she also knew that the whole thing was just a big accident. The man happened to lift his head to meet her eyes.
"Go ahead," he had said in a weary, but resigned tone. "It was indeed my fault and I should take responsibility for my actions and pay the price for them. As a woman, you have indeed been insulted by me. I'll accept whatever punishment or charge you want. Just tell the police so that I can get this over and done with. I haven't slept in 48 hours now."
"It was just an accident," Julrie said, her mouth changing what she had intended to say. "I won't charge him."
No, no. What was she saying? She should charge him. Demand a high compensation! Teach him a lesson for taking away her virginity. What good man would want her defiled body now? Even if it had happened in such an inexplicable way.
"Then, we won't charge him. Mr Feng, you had better be more careful in the future. And Miss Lan, you need to take better care of your body and respect yourself more."
The policewoman went into an hour long lecture, double teaming with the doctor against the two miserable people until they were not just miserable but close to breaking down with remorse over the accident neither of them had any power to prevent, but nobody believed.
After Julrie had been thoroughly examined and pronounced safe to go home, the unexpected couple stood awkwardly outside the hospital, waiting for Julrie's boss to come and pick them up.
"That," the man hesitated, saying in a soft voice but being careful to keep some distance from Julrie, "for what it's worth, I'm sorry. Truly sorry. I'll compensate you properly later. You - you weren't injured, were you? You were bleeding down there."
Julrie covered her face with both hands, not wanting to recall the embarrassing event.
"That was because, Mr Feng, it was my first time," she said in a low voice, not wanting to look at the man. It was good that there was no one else nearby who could listen in on their conversation right now.
"Oh. Then I'm even more sorry," the man apologised awkwardly. "I don't even know how such an accident even happened."
"You and me both," Julrie sighed from behind both her hands, feeling mortified and that so ashamed that she might just combust.
"So, uh, it means I'm your first man, huh?" he said awkwardly.
"Don't. No jokes. It was awful. I don't think I'll even ever get married or want to be with another man in my life," Julrie said in a muffled voice.
"Sorry. If you want, I can..."
"Let's just pretend it never happened, ok? You go your way and I'll go mine."
"But I should take some responsibility. It was your first time, after all, and - and mine too. I can't be a jerk and just do the deed and forget it. That would be too inconsiderate of me. As a man, I know how to own up to my own mistakes."
"It-it's fine. It was a mistake. I know. I just want to forget this ever happened and never see you again."
"So, um, I never did find out why you didn't have any... on..." Mr Feng's voice faded away at Julrie's glare from over slightly lowered hands. "Alright. I won't ask. Won't ask. Sorry."
What would it take to make the man stop talking? He'd better shut up.
Julrie buried her face in her hands again.
A car slowly pulled up and came to a stop in front of them and the window wound down so that they could see the driver. It was her boss.
"Get in," her boss said in a low voice.
Julrie hesitated and Mr Feng got into the front passenger seat. Seeing that, Julrie quickly climbed into the backseat.
"Julrie, do you know your mistake?" her boss demanded, in the cold and low voice he used when he was angry after making sure everyone had put their seatbelts on. "I asked you to deliver documents, not sell yourself. How did it become such a big mess? Have you no respect for your own body? Do you still want this job?"
"Boss, I didn't," Julrie attempted to explain, but her boss ignored her.
"I never thought you were that kind of woman. Your kind of woman, I can't afford to keep in our company. You've completely lost our face."
"Bro, bro, whoa," Mr Feng interjected. "Calm down. It wasn't her fault."
"It wasn't her fault? I know what kind of person you are, Feng. Your standards are so high, you even look down on the heiress of the Bai family. Why would you lower yourself to do anything to one of my employees? It must be Julrie who has managed to hide her true face, has perverted thoughts and wants to snag a richer man than her low class standing would allow."
"If it was anyone's fault, Boss, it was yours!" Julrie shouted uncontrollably, unable to stop herself, shaking with fury and misery. "You made us sit in a meeting all day and didn't even give us a break to go to the toilet, otherwise how would I have wet my pants? I was going to buy new ones when you insisted I send the documents over immediately. How was I meant to know all that would happen?"
Julrie felt all the wrongs, stress and pressure heap up on her until she couldn't take it anymore. When the car stopped at a red light, she jumped out of the car before it had completely stopped, slamming the door behind her and running across the road, sobbing into her arm.
"Bro, that was too much!" Feng protested. "Look what you've gone and done."
"Good riddance. I'll fire the trash when I get back."
"It wasn't her fault. None of anything was her fault!"
"Then was it your fault?"
"It wasn't my fault either. It was neither of our faults. You go back and look properly at the security camera. I'm getting out to look for her and make sure she doesn't get herself in trouble or hurt while she's like that. Don't you dare fire her. You fire her, then our cooperation is done. I won't have a bro like you."
The boss slammed his hand on the steering wheel in frustration.
Feng got out of the car and ran across the road in the direction Julrie ran before the traffic light turned green.
Julrie ran down the street, seeking somewhere she could hide and bawl her eyes out where nobody would be able to see. Seeing a internet café, she went in to hire a private room only to discover they didn't use cash and their card machine was broken. She didn't have her phone on her. She had left it at her desk earlier.
Back out on the street, desperate for somewhere to hide, she slipped into a dim alley between two buildings, squatting down to hide her face from the world.
People walked past the little alley, either not seeing her, or seeing her and deciding whatever was wrong was none of their business.
Running feet tapped past and then backtracked.
"Julrie? There you are, woman. I thought you might go and do something stupid in desperation, or blinded by your tears, end up getting hit by a car on the road or something."
Feng pulled her up and hugged her into his chest, giving a deep sigh.
"It wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything on purpose. I didn't do anything wrong," Julrie wailed.
"It wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything wrong," Feng agreed. "Don't worry. I know. I'll make it clear to your boss. You didn't do it on purpose. The people involved know the truth. There were only us two there. Both of us know that it was a freak accident. It wasn't your fault."
Julrie sobbed into Feng's chest for a good while.
"It was your fault for coming out so fast with only a towel on. Why would you do that?" Julrie hit him on the shoulder with a fist. "It was my first time. It hurt so much. I was so scared. And now Boss is blaming me. He's going to fire me. How am I supposed to find a new job now? I can't tell the new workplace that I was fired because I wet my pants, slipped and somehow fell so that a man fell inside me. Who would believe that?"
"I would. If your heartless boss really fires you, I'll hire you. Didn't I tell you I would be responsible? I'll take care of you. Don't worry. It wasn't your fault. If you want to blame someone, it's ok. You can blame me. It was my fault. Completely my fault. It was my fault for being attracted to you the moment I saw you in the split second before we both fell. It was my fault that I kept slipping and I couldn't get up. It was my fault that you lost your virginity. It was my fault, ok? My fault."
"How could it have been all your fault? I wasn't wearing any pants," Julrie's brain was slowly starting to come back online. She couldn't blame everything on the man. That wasn't fair.
"I wasn't either. I came out of the changing rooms thinking my assistant had arrived with my clothes, completely forgetting that the swimming pool, though private, is still a relatively public place."
"Earlier, you said," Julrie pulled away and accepted the tissue from Feng's pocket to wipe her face and blow her nose, "you said it was your first time too?"
"Yeah."
"I'm sorry," Julrie said to her feet.
"Yeah. Me too. You - you really didn't get hurt because of me other than that?"
"No. Just lost... nevermind. Just bruises from the fall."
"Good. That's good," Feng patted his chest and stroked her back. "Then... shall we go back to the office? We still have to explain it to your boss and we have to do some damage control. You also got scalded all over and have blisters on half your body."
"Not half. I got in the shower fast enough. The cold shower helped a lot. The blisters only came up where most of the coffee splashed on me."
"Will you need help putting the cooling gel on it? Will you be ok managing it on your own?"
Julrie crossed her hands across her chest protectively.
"Where do you want to put cooling gel on? I can do it myself."
"Oh. You got splashed there. Sorry. I didn't know," Feng didn't know what to do with his hands and flustered, turned around. "Sorry. I'm sorry."
"So you should be."
The mobile phone in Feng's pocket rang.
"Did you find her? Where the heck are you guys? I've parked in the underground carpark under Maisilie's Department Store. I've driven twice around the block already. The stocks of both our companies are dropping and the media is having a ball. Do you want to come back and deal with it or not? If you can't find the woman, forget it. I don't want trash like her, anyway."
"If you don't want her, then I do," Feng hissed into the phone, seething. "I already told you. She didn't do anything. It wasn't her fault. I've found her. We're coming to find you now. It'll still take us five minutes to get to you."
Feng hung up without waiting for a reply.
"Stupid idiot," he muttered, putting his mobile phone away. "He's been a manager and a boss for too long. He's forgotten how to be human."
There was silence.
Feng looked down to see Julrie squatting on the ground and hugging her knees again, silently crying into her arms.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Feng enveloped her in his arms but Julrie pushed him away.
"I'll take you back. We really do need to go back to the office and sort out this mess. I'll do the explaining for you. If he still insists on firing you, I'll hire you, ok? You can work for me and I'll protect you if he insists on being so pig headed. You won't lose your income. I won't let people gossip about you and point fingers. Your boss is waiting for us. Let's not make him any madder than he already is, ok?"
Julrie wiped her eyes and blew her nose again. Feng took his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on her face.
"Look, now nobody can really tell you've been crying. Let's go. Ok?"
"Ok," Julrie wobbled as she stood up but Feng wrapped an arm around her.
Although she immediately pushed him away, wanting some personal space, she didn't push him very hard and Feng didn't take it to heart. He understood that although Julrie had just cried in his arms, he was the one who had hurt her in the first place - so to speak. He himself didn't even know how to feel about this whole debacle.
Julrie walked with Feng to the nearby big department store and after Feng made a phone call, soon found her boss waiting irritably for them in the short stay car park, tapping the steering wheel.
This time, Feng sat in the back seat with her.
"What took you two so long? Going on another date? Wasting time? Don't you know both companies are in a state of emergency because of the two of you? And what, you're just shooting the breeze?"
"We came as quickly as we could, ok? Gu Bro, this place was a bit further than I expected. Sorry. We're here now. Let's go."
Boss Gu just grunted in reply and pulled out so quickly that Julrie grabbed hold of the car door handle in fright. She and Feng swayed during the tight corner turns and Feng also grabbed hold of the car door and overhead handle.
"Bro!" he protested.
"Didn't she want to die?"
"I think she wants to throw up. No. I want to throw up. Drive properly. Don't be a menace on the road."
"Menace? You are the menace. Both of you are the menaces."
"Fine," Feng spat. "When we get back, I'll help you sort things out, but don't take your anger out on other people. What happened was really an accident."
"Oh, because somehow getting your junk in a woman by slipping and falling, and then getting caught by the media can possibly be an accident. First, you'd have to be aroused to get it in a woman. Second, you'd have to be positioned just right. Third, the woman would have to spread her legs for you. If you say it's neither of your fault, it's both your fault. If someone in your company told you this story, would you believe it? You might as well go home, take the trash with you and have babies with her. I can't believe I trusted both of you only for you both to betray me like this. What kind of professionalism is this?"
Boss Gu went on a rant and all Julrie could do was grit her teeth, hold onto the car door and bear it. Feng did the same.
By the time they had arrived back in the underground carpark of the office, both were feeling dizzy and queasy. The moment the car stopped, both got out and rushed to the toilets to throw up.
"Pretentious jerks," Boss Gu rolled his eyes and hauled them both up to his office by the back of their collars as soon as they came out from the toilets.
The company workers whispered and muttered as they were marched through the buzzing office.
"Aunty and Uncle Feng, Grandpa Feng, I've brought your son back with the woman," Boss Gu tossed them both on the floor at the feet of his couch.
Feng weakly lifted his head, still feeling sick.
"Are you sick, Bro? Gu Peiyan, are we still friends? Do you have to be like this?"
"We're not friends," Boss Gu snorted. "Not anymore after what you've done to my company. Neither of you were drugged. The blood tests came back clear other than you having high cholesterol. Your parents came to see you after seeing the news. You talk to them and then come find me in the meeting room. Your mess, you clean it up."
"Mum, Dad, Grandpa," Feng greeted weakly after lifting his head.
"Son, what's going on? What happened? How did you end up with this woman?" his mother asked.
"Is this my grand-daughter-in-law? My good grandson, have you finally found the woman that you love?" his grandfather asked. "When are you getting married? When will I see my great-grandson?"
"Did this woman drug you or trick you? Otherwise how could the two of you fall in such a way and be caught by the security cameras like that. You even enjoyed her for a while. She obviously did something, but it's not clear through the security footage."
"She didn't do anything. It was my fault," Feng protested, trying to shield Julrie's body with his.
"It takes two to clap," his father said dryly.
"We really didn't - today was the first time we've both met," Feng protested. "It was a complete and utter freak accident. She took my virginity! I wouldn't do that on purpose. She lost her virginity too. Giving away your first time is supposed to be all loving and gentle and sweet with the one you love, not so... unexpectedly traumatic."
"Losing your virginity doesn't have to be all gentle and sweet. It was all blood and fire for your grandmother and I," Grandpa Feng said while Father Feng shook his head. "We were so angry about being forced into the arranged marriage and our parents drugging us to force us to be together that we had a battle with each other. Your grandmother was quite the tigress."
"Dad. That's enough. Too much information," Father Feng tried to calm Grandpa Feng down.
"Good girl, come here and let Grandpa get a better look at you."
Julrie rubbed her forehead and stepped closer to Grandpa Feng, looking at the floor and trying to tug her clothes straight. Her emotions were all confused and conflicted. This was all beyond embarrassing. She felt so ashamed and didn't know what to do with her hands or feet.
"Good girl, do you like my grandson?"
"Mr Feng? I only just met him today. We've barely talked," Julrie stammered.
"Mhmm? Then your impression."
"Other than that... accident," Julrie rubbed her forehead, "he's been quite the gentleman. Very nice. He stood up for me in front of my boss. If it weren't for what happened earlier..."
"Mhmm?"
"I'd have just thought him another professional businessman on par with my boss."
The elders in the room hesitated for a moment.
"You brat," Grandpa Feng turned his head to look at Feng. "This is the best you could do to seduce the woman you love?"
"Grandpa, I don't love her. What happened was truly just an accident."
"Accident? What accident? Who ever heard of a man falling like that? You do the deed, you take responsibility for the woman. What have I taught you before?"
"Mum, Mum, stop pinching my ear! Grandpa, don't hit me. Ow! Don't hit. I did try to take responsibility."
"I don't need him to take responsibility," Julrie said. "It was a mistake. At most, if my boss fires me, he promised to take me in."
"Take you in? Of course he has to take you in. Get your documents. We're going to the Department for Family Services."
"But," Julrie felt herself being hurried along and saw the Feng family ushering her to bring her handbag over so that they could check she had all the correct documents with her. If not, they'd take her to her home first.
When Julrie got back to her usual department, her manager was standing there without any expression on his face, packing her things up.
"I'm very disappointed in you, Julrie," he told her, handing her the cardboard box with all her things in it. "You've been fired. Go home and think long and hard about what you've done."
"A-Dan, I didn't do anything. I really didn't do..."
"No need for crocodile tears. No excuses. You did what you did. Apparently it was all caught on security camera. Just take your stuff and go."
"Manager," Julrie said but was pulled away.
"Alright, alright. No need to cling to cold butts that don't want your warm face there," Grandpa Feng said, pulling her away. "What's your family's address? We'll go visit your parents and get all of this settled."
"Grandpa Feng, how do you know I'm a good woman? What if I'm a gold digger or out to destroy your family?"
Grandpa Feng snorted.
"We had someone look into your background. You're clean. You're a good girl. You're a woman. And more importantly, Feng has some feelings for you and is willing to take responsibility for you. No wonder he fell on you first chance he got. It's best all round if you get married to him and have my great-grandchildren for me to hold before I'm much older. You two get your marriage certificate and then it'll be just nice that he can take care of you for life. If you want to work, he'll organise your work. If you want to stay home and waste his money, then you stay home. Everything he has will be yours."
"No, but," Julrie felt stunned. This was not the way she had expected Feng's elders to react.
At some stage, she had gotten into a car with Feng holding her hand as tightly as she was holding his. Both sweaty. When had that happened? She tried to let go and shake him off but he held her hand tightly, glancing at her with pale lips.
His lips were quite a nice shape. If a bit too pale. Was he feeling confused and unwell too?
Her parents barely glanced at her when she arrived, but her great-grandmother raised her cane to beat her. Scolding her for impropriety and not loving herself. Julrie had just stood there, taking the hits before Feng rushed over to wrap her up in his arms and to take the beating for her.
Apparently her parents had been informed of the Feng family coming.
"You have disgraced and shamed your family," her father had said to her with a cold face. "Indeed, I shouldn't have doted on you so much. The old saying is true. A daughter is like spilled water. From now on, you belong to the Feng family. Don't come home again. We don't accept you here. I'll have your things sent to the Feng family."
"Head of the house, we should at least listen to our daughter's side of the story. What if she has been wronged?" Julrie's mother attempted.
"I told you not to use those modern rules and ways of thinking at home. Look what came of it," Julrie's father pointed. "A slut. A whore who is so desperate, she doesn't even wait to climb into a man's bed. She does it the moment she meets him. I don't have such a dirty, scheming daughter." Her father snatched her documents from her mother and shoved them into Julrie's hands. "Get out of my house, you dirty slut. Let me talk to the Feng family and try to mitigate this disaster you've caused."
Julrie felt herself and Feng pushed out of the front door. She stood there in a shocked daze, tears welling in her eyes, unable to speak or move.
Seeing her like this, Feng couldn't help remembering the last time she had made this expression just earlier this afternoon. He had been inside her at the time. Flashes of pain and shock had crossed her face and she had been so incredibly tight around him that it had almost been painful. Just thinking about it made him start to inexplicably get hard.
He hugged her to help steady her swaying body to hide his lower body and she didn't seem to notice. Lost in her pain and shock at her father disowning her like that without asking for an explanation. Not even willing to hear her speak.
Julrie just casually pushed whatever was poking into her lower back away, turning back to stare at the front door of her family's apartment. She could hear the murmur of voices inside. Everything had become a blurry dream. A nightmare.
Later, she was helped back to the car while her mother handed over suitcases of her things to the Feng family. Julrie's father held her mother back and glared at her with a terrible face. Shaking, Julrie knelt down to give three deep bows, knocking her forehead on the ground toward her parents.
It was with some effort that Feng dragged her up from the ground, looking at her bloodied forehead with some heartache. He quickly found a tissue to hold to her dripping forehead and helped her into the car.
"... So unreasonable," she heard Mother Feng explode while they were driving away later. "Wouldn't even listen to our explanations and refused to even hear his own daughter's side of the story."
"Nevermind," Grandfather Feng said, leaning over Feng who was sitting in the middle backseat to pat Julrie's arm. "Even if your own parents don't want you anymore, we do. Our Feng family want you. We'll keep you. My grand daughter-in-law will be treated like our own granddaughter. Even better than my grandson. Don't you worry, girl. Our Feng family loves you. You're obviously such a good girl. You'll give my Feng family lots of cute and chubby babies. It doesn't matter girls or boys. I'll love them all. What's not to like?"
At this, Julrie broke down, making the old man flustered, not knowing what he had said wrong.
When evening came, Julrie stared with blank eyes at the marriage certificate that had suddenly appeared in her hand. The Feng family were celebrating around her and Feng was holding her hand with a stiff and awkward expression on his face.
What had just happened?