Winter Wind (YiZhan)

31. Response

"Back then, you were probably somewhat in love with Wang Yibo or at the very least you had feelings for him. Otherwise, your expectations of him to stand in the line of fire with you wouldn't have even existed. Actually no, scratch that. Your expectations of wanting him to offer to stand in the line of fire with you wouldn't have existed because if you indeed had feelings for him, then you wouldn't have wanted it either. So what you resent him for Xiao Zhan, is that he didn't try. Because if he had you probably would have stopped him, but you were never even given that option because once again, he didn't try."

Xiao Zhan remains quiet because quite frankly, he doesn't know what to say. He has been thoroughly and completely exposed. To himself and Ni Ni.

He had feelings for Wang Yibo? Romantic feelings? Even then?

At this he turns to her, the surprise and despair written all over his face.

And at this her expression softens. "You didn't realize it did you?"

He grits his teeth until eventually the words force themselves out.

"That's not true,"

"Alright," she says looking unsurprised. "Let's go with that. My question for you right now is where things are with the both of you? Are you two still just friends or are things escalating?"

His gaze begins to harden at the question and to this she sighs "I know that I'm not supposed to interfere when it comes to Wang Yibo and since to an extent I understand why now, I'm not even going to encroach any further because as you've said, this is personal. Incredibly so. But I care about you, so I'm going to leave you with this one piece of advice."

"Don't pack this all up again and shove it into some drawer because it makes you uncomfortable because it will come back again to haunt you. Except you truly stop having feelings for Yibo and given the fact that all of this still bothers you so much, I don't think that I need to point it out that you probably won't. So, this means that you have to confirm the depth of these feelings and you have to confront the resentment that you have for Wang Yibo. And the sooner you do these the better otherwise it's just going to keep eating at you."

"Until one day you'll find that you've truly and completely come to hate Wang Yibo."

Fear slams into him at this last statement.

"Hate?"

"Yes, hate. That's how it's going to end. Look at Tao Jie's character for instance. She resented her husband for so long because of the neglect and abuse he brought to her but she never addressed it, and instead chose to remain with him for the sake of her child. But then her child died and guess what happened in that second? He also died to her because the only thing left that connected them was gone."

"What still connects you and Yibo right now I think is the friendship between you two, but I hope that by now you can see that on your part at least, it is out of obligation. Because one day Yibo is going to do something, most probably unintentionally that hurts and you're going to completely cut him out of your life. This is only a matter of time so if you do care about Yibo, I suggest that you resolve this with him. It'll make you happier and you know more than anyone else that I want you to be happy. Not to the detriment of your career though so I'm still going to keep my eye on how all of this plays out."

At this Xiao Zhan turns away. "I still don't want you involved."

"Because you know I'll keep knocking you over the head with the truth about it don't you?"

Xiao Zhan cannot even refute this.

They both go silent in deep contemplation until Ni Ni's phone begins to ring. She grabs it and rises to her feet, however Xiao Zhan suddenly grabs her wrist "Don't leave," he says. "I- I still have something to ask you about."