"SINCE WHEN," Meilin asked slowly, each word carrying a dangerous amount of weight, "HAVE YOU BEEN SECRETLY MEETING LILY LIANG?"
Jinhai stopped dead.
His stomach dropped.
"How do you—"
"INSIDE."
She pointed toward the apartment.
Jinhai stared at her for a moment.
Then at the closed elevator doors.
Then back at Meilin.
He sighed.
He was finished.
Completely, spectacularly finished.
Meilin was going to kill him.
And honestly?
He couldn't even blame her.
---
The apartment was unusually quiet.
So quiet that Jinhai could hear the faint ticking of the clock hanging above the kitchen.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
He sat at the dining table, staring at the plate Lily had left behind.
A few pieces of white pasta remained.
He picked up his fork.
Meilin sat opposite him, arms crossed.
She watched him take one bite.
"Since when do you eat white pasta?"
Jinhai paused.
"You hate white pasta."
He swallowed.
"Lily likes it."
Silence.
Meilin's eyes narrowed.
Jinhai immediately regretted opening his mouth.
"Explain."
He looked up.
"Explain what?"
"Don't play stupid with me."
"I wasn't—"
"Jinhai."
Her voice softened for half a second.
Then hardened again.
"What were you doing with Lily?"
He lowered his fork.
"She's my friend."
"That's not what I asked."
"She needed help."
"That's not what I asked either."
"Meilin—"
"Does she know?"
Jinhai went completely still.
Meilin leaned forward.
"Does Lily Liang know that you're Jinhai Shulong?"
His jaw tightened.
"No."
"Does she know that you're Lihyun's brother?"
"No."
Meilin stared at him.
Her anger slowly gave way to something else.
Disbelief.
Pain.
"Gege…"
Jinhai rubbed his face.
"I know."
"No." Meilin shook her head. "I don't think you do."
"I do."
"Then why are you still doing this?"
He had no answer.
The silence stretched.
Finally, Jinhai whispered,
"Because I didn't know how to tell her."
Meilin's expression softened slightly.
"How did this even start?"
Jinhai leaned back.
For several seconds, he simply stared at the ceiling.
Then he exhaled.
And began.
"It started with an accident."
---
He told her everything.
The car accident.
The hotel.
The clothes.
The corridor.
Lily seeing Lihyun running after Shin Ling without knowing who he was at that time.
Meilin's hand flew over her mouth.
"Wait."
Jinhai nodded.
"She actually saw him?"
"With her own eyes."
"And she doesn't know that was your brother?"
"No."
Meilin stared at him in disbelief.
"Oh my God."
Jinhai continued before she could interrupt.
"She thought he was cheating on her."
"She already hated him before the wedding?"
"She had every reason to."
Meilin slowly lowered her hands.
"And then what?"
"We met again."
He told her about his movie set where she was co-incidently working.
About Lily's sudden rise to fame the night before that landed her a singing opportunity alongside him.
About how they had started talking.
Then came the part that made Jinhai's voice grow quieter.
"She trusted me."
Meilin looked at him.
"How much?"
Jinhai swallowed.
"She told me things she hadn't told anyone else."
He looked down at the table.
"She told me she didn't want to marry a guy she didnt know."
Meilin's expression fell.
"She told you that?"
"She told me everything."
"And you just sat there listening?"
"What else was I supposed to do?"
"Tell her the truth!"
Jinhai flinched.
"I know!"
The words came out louder than he intended.
He immediately lowered his voice.
"I know, Meilin."
He stared at his hands.
"But every time I thought about telling her, I imagined the look on her face."
Meilin didn't interrupt.
"I knew what she'd think."
"That you'd lied."
"That I'd made a fool out of her."
His voice cracked slightly.
"She'd think every conversation we'd ever had was fake."
Meilin was silent.
Jinhai continued.
"And I couldn't… bear to loose our friendship"
Meilin leaned back.
"So you kept lying."
"I kept protecting our friendship."
"By lying to her."
"Yes."
"That isn't protection, Gege."
Jinhai looked away.
"I know."
He told her about the recording session today
About how he had forced the crew to reschedule it to today so he could get an excuse to check up on her after yesterday's dinner fiasco.
Then—
"The studio went dark."
Meilin's face changed instantly.
"What?"
Jinhai nodded.
"I had a panic attack."
Her voice dropped.
"Again?"
"I didn't expect it. I think seeing dad punish Lihyun in his study yesterday triggered it once more."
Meilin sighed.
"Was Lily was there when the seizure happened?"
"Yes."
"She saw?"
"Yes."
Meilin stared at him.
"What did she do?"
"She stayed."
Jinhai's expression softened despite himself.
"She didn't panic. She didn't run for help immediately. She just… stayed with me."
His fingers tightened around the fork.
"She turned on her phone flashlight. Talked to me. Helped me breathe."
"And then?"
"She drove me home."
Meilin glanced at the half-eaten pasta.
"And that's why she was here."
Jinhai nodded.
"She cooked nothing. I cooked. She ate. We talked."
Meilin watched him carefully.
"Do you like Lily like that?"
Jinhai gulped. "No"
The answer came instantly.
Too instantly.
Meilin studied him.
Jinhai looked away.
His heartbeat had suddenly become irritatingly loud.
Of course she's my friend.
Just a friend.
He repeated it inside his head.
That was all.
It had to be.
Meilin stared at him.
Then sighed.
"Thank God." She said "Because if you did have feelings for her…"
She paused.
"…this situation would be much worse."
Jinhai looked down.
Something inside his chest twisted unpleasantly.
He didn't understand why.
Meilin stood.
The chair scraped sharply against the floor.
Jinhai looked up.
She began pacing.
"You've created a mess."
"I know."
"No, Gege. This isn't some little secret you can conveniently keep until the wedding."
Jinhai's face fell.
The wedding.
Right.
The wedding he'd been trying not to think about.
Lily would eventually stand beside Lihyun.
She would become part of their family.
She would discover that Jinhai had known the truth all along.
And when she looked at him—
What would she see?
A friend?
A liar?
A fool?
Meilin stopped pacing.
"Imagine Lily finding out the truth about you after the wedding."
Jinhai said nothing.
"Imagine being Lily." Meilin emphasised.
His fingers curled against the table.
"She'll wonder whether every time she told you how much she hated getting forcefully married to Lihyun, you were secretly laughing at her."
Jinhai's breathing caught.
"She'll wonder whether you knew exactly how humiliated she felt and still chose to stay silent."
"Stop."
"She'll feel betrayed."
"Meilin."
"She trusted you."
"I said stop."
His voice broke.
Meilin went quiet.
Jinhai stared at the table.
"I know."
His voice was barely audible now.
"I know what I've done."
For the first time that night, Meilin saw just how exhausted he was.
Not physically.
Something deeper.
He looked like a man who had been carrying the same secret for so long that he'd forgotten what it felt like to put it down.
Meilin sighed.
"I understand why you didn't tell her."
Jinhai looked up.
"But I don't agree with what you're doing."
"The longer you wait, the worse it gets."
"How am I supposed to tell her?"
"Tell her the truth."
"And destroy everything?"
"Maybe."
Jinhai flinched.
Meilin stepped closer.
"But at least then it'll be real."
She placed both hands on the table. And them dropped a bomb.
"There is no friendship if one person is living inside a lie."
Jinhai stared at her.
Meilin's voice softened.
"You're not protecting Lily anymore, Gege."
A pause.
"You're protecting yourself."
The words hit harder than he expected.
Jinhai looked away.
He hated that she was right.
And he hated even more that a tiny part of him was relieved she'd finally said it.
Meilin straightened.
"You have two weeks."
Jinhai looked up.
"Two weeks?"
"Two."
"Meilin—"
"You tell Lily yourself. And if u don't, I will."
Jinhai stared at her.
"You wouldn't."
She smiled.
"Oh, I absolutely would."
"Meilin."
"Two weeks, Gege."
She said before dissapearing inside the washroom she had been dying to use since the time she had arrived at his house.
Jinhai sat frozen at his table.