"Good morning!" Shen Yue greeted the receptionists. She was about to walk to her office, but a receptionist suddenly stopped her.
"Wait, Yue! You have a delivery!"
"Another delivery?" Shen Yue frowned.
"Here you go!" the receptionist handed a bouquet of red roses, "It's so beautiful! The best so far!"
Shen Yue chuckled when she saw her delivery. Ever since the Gala, she had been receiving several bouquets and gifts from random business associates. She often had to send them a message of gratitude and politely decline such gifts, but it appeared that those gifts kept coming since they were from different people each time.
The receptionist laughed, "You're so popular, Yue! We've already lost count on how many gifts you have received this week."
"Please. You're exaggerating!" Shen Yue jokingly rolled her eyes while accepting the flowers. 'Another message to be sent today,' she internally sighed.
"This time there are 66 roses by the way."
"We help count it for you," both receptionists giggled.
Shen Yue couldn't help but smile at their excitement, "Oh. What does it mean?"
"It means 'Nothing's gonna change my love for you'," the receptionist winked, while Shen Yue internally cringed at the meaning.
"Thank you," Shen Yue smiled, "I gotta go to work now. See you later."
"You're welcome. See you later," the receptionists bid her goodbye.
Shen Yue took the flowers and headed toward the elevator. While waiting for her elevator, she took a sniff of the flowers and smiled. The aromatic scent of the flowers surely refreshed her mind.
'But who could it be this time?' she thought.
However, her thought was interrupted when the elevator arrived. As soon as the door closed, Shen Yue noticed a small card hidden inside the bouquet. She quickly pulled it out, but to her confusion, the card was blank. She brought the card closer to her face to observe it. Suddenly, her eyes widened when a familiar perfume scent hit her. She stared blankly between the card and the flower.
At that moment, the elevator dinged, signaling its arrival on her floor. Shen Yue slowly walked out with the bouquet in her hand and an indescribable expression on her face. However, the corner of her lips soon curved up when she saw the janitor of her floor.
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Dylan walked into Shen Yue's workplace with a big smile on his face. He cheerfully greeted the receptionists and headed for the FP&A department floor, where he was supposed to meet her to work on their project. When he reached the floor, he caught something from the corner of his eyes, which made him abruptly stop.
"What the heck?" Dylan's jaw dropped after he turned around to get a better look. In front of him, a janitor was happily pushing her cleaning supply cart, but the thing that caught his attention was a beautiful rose bouquet in the cart. He was completely speechless.
Dylan then massaged his temples with one hand and sarcastically laughed before he frustratingly walked toward the FP&A department.
Shen Yue looked up from her computer when she heard a few knocks on her door. There he was, leaning on her door with his arms crossed.
"Why is the bouquet with the janitor?" Dylan was smiling, but Shen Yue could see in his eyes that he was burning inside, which made her lips curved up with amusement. 'Serve you right,' she thought.
"Good morning to you too, Mr. Wang. I didn't expect you to arrive this early," Shen Yue pretended to be surprised but with a sarcastic big smile on her face. She then stood up to move to the seating area in her office and invited him, "Please have a seat."
Dylan grumpily sat on the sofa Shen Yue showed him, while she took a seat on the one adjacent to him.
"Why is the bouquet with the janitor?" Dylan asked again, grumpily this time.
"What bouquet?" Shen Yue feigned ignorance.
"You know what I'm talking about," Dylan narrowed his eyes.
Shen Yue let out a laugh before she got completely serious, "Well, Mr. Wang. I've already informed you that our relation shall be professional, which means that I would not accept any generous gifts from you."
While maintaining eye contact with Dylan, Shen Yue leaned back onto the sofa and crossed her arms with a smile, "But since you already sent it here, it'd be such a waste to throw it away; I thought the janitor could make use of it."
Dylan should be protesting against that, but he was too distracted by her to respond. He was supposed to be mad, but with her confident posture and words, Shen Yue suddenly looked a lot more attractive than she already was.
"Mr. Wang?" Shen Yue frowned when she noticed that Dylan just stared at her without saying anything.
"You're hot."
Dylan paused.
Shen Yue paused.
The room suddenly fell into a deep silence. The sound of increased heartbeats could faintly be heard, yet no one was sure they belonged to whom, and both of their faces started to get redder.
After what seemed like forever, both of them suddenly turned away from each other and pretended to clear their throats.
'Remember what he has done. Stop betraying me, heart,' Shen Yue silently cursed her heart, trying to calm it down. However, she couldn't help but blush hard at his sudden words.
'What have I done?' Dylan internally smacked himself. His heart was beating like a drum. He then paused for a moment when he remembered what Shen Yue was talking about. He smirked before he turned back to face her.
Shen Yue suddenly felt nervous when she felt Dylan's eyes on her. When she finally glanced at him, she raised an eyebrow. Why was he looking at her with that smug smile?
"How did you know the flowers were from me?" Dylan leaned closer to her with a smirk.
Shen Yue blinked a few times, trying to digest his question. "What?" she blurted out.
"I didn't write anything on the card. There was no trace that I was the sender," Dylan rubbed his fingers on his chin and squinted his eyes.
Shen Yue snickered at his words before she looked at him straight in the eyes, "There were no written words, but it appears that some idiot left his perfume scent on the card."
Now it's Dylan's turn to cross his arms and leaned onto his seat with a satisfied smile, "Oh. Look like someone still remembers my scent."
Shen Yue paused. As she started to get what he meant, she could feel another blush creeping on her cheeks. Did she just fall into his trap?
Seeing her reaction, Dylan burst out laughing, while Shen Yue kept side-eyeing him with a blank face, 'Jerk'.
"There are 66 roses. Do you know what it means?" Dylan asked when he finally stopped laughing.
Hearing no response from Yue, Dylan continued, "It means 'Nothing's gonna change my love for you'."
Shen Yue bitterly smiled after she heard his explanation.
"Right," Shen Yue looked at him with a bitter smile, "Your love was all deceptive before. Does that mean it still is? I don't know what you're trying to do now, but don't think you can fool me again."
Shen Yue then dropped her smile and stared at him coldly, "You think I don't know? You must have pulled some dirty trick to make this project happen just like what you did before." She snickered, "Has anyone ever told you not to use the same trick? I thought you were more creative than that."
Dylan's heart clenched at Yue's words. He admitted that he was wrong to pull a dirty trick on her for wrong reasons before, but this time, he did it simply because he missed her; he just wanted to be near her; he wanted to explain everything to her; and he wanted to win her back.
"Yue, I'm sorry about what I did before, but-" Dylan wanted to explain to her, but she stopped him again.
"I believe that I already told you not to address me with my given name," Shen Yue then continued without looking at him, "The past is the past, Mr. Wang. I've moved on, and you should, too."
Dylan quietly observed how she avoided his eye contact when she said that. A small smile slowly appeared on his face. 'You're lying', he thought.
Ignoring his stare, Shen Yue glanced at her watch and handed him the documents, "I suggest that we should stop wasting time on this useless topic and start working on our project. Let's maintain our professionalism here."
Dylan sighed and accepted the documents to scan through. While keeping his eyes on the paper, he said, "You know what."
Shen Yue confusedly looked at him, "What?"
When Dylan felt that her attention was on him, he looked up to make eye contact with her and continued, "For someone who stressed on professionalism and told me to refrain from bringing up any non-work-related, you sure can entertain my NON-PROFESSIONAL conversation so well, Ms. Shen." Dylan smirked when he stressed on the word 'non-professional'.
As soon as he was done, Dylan immediately turned his attention back to the paper, leaving Shen Yue feeling dumbfounded.
'Did he just call me out?' Shen Yue's jaw dropped. She rolled her eyes when she saw his smirk. She wanted to smack that smug smile off his face, but she decided against it and just focused on the documents instead. 'This one month is going be a long month,' she thought.
"I hope that one day you can be as brave in love as you are in work right now and stop running away from hearing what I have to say about us," Dylan suddenly said without looking up from his paper.
Shen Yue looked at him. His face looked serious when he said that, which made her puzzled. What's there to talk about? He already indirectly admitted that he lied to her when he apologized. What else did he want? She frowned.
'Don't get distracted. Don't waste your time hearing his excuses,' Shen Yue pushed the thought aside and put attention back on her work. However, deep inside, her heart was still subconsciously holding onto what he said. Little did she know, her resolve had already begun to shake.
----------------------------------------------------
"Hahahahaha! She gave your flowers to the janitor?" Xize and Jingkang were holding their stomach after hearing what happened from Dylan, while Guan smiled amusedly at the story. All four of them were at Dylan's Shanghai penthouse which he just moved into for a shorter-distant commuting to Yue's workplace. Jingkang and Xize were sitting on the stools at the bar area near the living room where Guan and Dylan were.
Dylan crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at his friends' reaction, "I didn't tell that for you to laugh at me."
"Hahahaha. We're sorry, but we can't help it. Who would have thought that the almighty Wang Hedi's plan failed so miserably?" Jingkang laughed harder along with Xize.
"Hey!" Dylan protested before he smiled giddily, "But at least now I know that she even remembers my scent."
Xize and Jingkang abruptly stopped laughed and rolled their eyes.
"Who wouldn't remember? For goodness sake, your perfume is customized, so everyone could know that it's yours even if they only meet you once," Xize stated as a matter of fact.
"But Yueyue didn't know that it's customized," Dylan proudly smirked, "She even indirectly admitted that she remembers my scent."
"Ha Ha Ha" Xize and Jingkang sarcastically laughed before they went to sit on the long sofa across Guan and completely ignored Dylan who was sitting adjacent to them. As always, Guan was amusedly observing everything.
"So what's your plan now, Dylan?" Guan finally asked the giddy Dylan. Jingkang and Xize also turned their attention back to him.
"Well, she told me that she's moved on, but I know quite well that she's lying," Dylan smiled, "So I'll keep trying to pursue her and make her listen to me to clear our misunderstanding."
"You know that it's not an easy task, right?" Jingkang asked.
"Yes, she's intentionally trying to avoid you and forget everything, so she'll resist strongly whenever you try to dig it up," Xize added.
"I'm sure that's not the only option you have, right Dylan?" Guan asked with a smile.
Dylan leaned forward, clasped his hands, and smiled fondly, "If she still doesn't want me to dig up the past, I'll start anew. I'll make her fall in love with me all over again."
Xize, Jingkang, and Guan exchanged looks and smiled. The Wang Hedi they knew was back.
Xize raised his glass of wine that he had poured for everyone earlier and announced, "Cheer to Wang Hedi!"
"Cheer to Wang Hedi!" Jingkang and Guan also raised their glasses up.
Dylan smiled wider at his friends' support. He must have done a ton of good deeds in his past life to have met such great friends like them in this life. He raised his glass to cheer with them.
As he sipped his wine, Dylan became even more motivated, 'Yueyue, no matter how hard you try to push me away, I will always resist and want to stay.' He warmly smiled as he felt his own heartbeats, 'Because I know your heart is calling for me as much as mine is calling for you.'
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Finally, I'm back!! I'm not sure whether this chapter is fluff or angst. lol. both maybe? Dylan has made his first attempt (which failed miserably). Let's see what he'll do next! XD
Anyway, I've been so busy lately, so my update schedule is unsure now. :') I'm not sure when I will update again, so for now, hopefully, you enjoy this chapter!! thank you~~~ Until then, please take care and have a great day/night! 💖💖💖