Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

As Jin slowly woke up, he felt a furry body wriggle beside him. He lowered his gaze, and then his eyes popped out of his sockets. "This cat…"

He stared at the cat, dumbfounded.

Jun said, his expression turning sour, "Ai brought him one day and ever since that day…she is completely ignoring me. It feels like our intimacy has taken a bad hit and all because of this cat," he mumbled.

*Meow*

The cat stretched his body and yawned lazily as if not caring about Jun's complaints at all.

Jin said, "This cat…he came in my dreams."

"What?"

"Yeah. That place I was trapped. Where I could see my memories. It was this cat who showed me the way back to consciousness. How come the same cat is here?"

He cautiously poked the cat's cheek to which the cat responded by rubbing his cheek against his finger.

Jun blinked. "Really? This cat?"

"Yeah. That's why I am so surprised. For some reason, I thought that it was you helping me find the way. Just like that day you stayed beside him in the room," his gaze looked warm as he tickled the cat under his chin. "He has the same eyes as you."

*Meow*

The cat clearly enjoyed this attention.

Jun snorted. "He might have the same eyes as me, but he is definitely not me. I am way cooler."

"..."

Why so petty?

They heard a rattling sound and turned to see Ai staring at Jin, carrying a tray in her hand. Her eyes caught the cat letting Jin pet him, which caused immense distraught in her heart. "How is it that the cat lets you touch him and not me?"

Jin cocked his brow. "He does that? I must say the cat is really intelligent. He knows who to keep his distance from."

"...I found him at first though. Where is justice in this world?" She mumbled to herself.

"I cannot believe I would see a day of Zhou Ai getting jealous of me for a cat?"

"I am not jealous."

"Yeah sure," he scoffed.

The cat jumped onto Jin's lap and made his seat as if he found his royal throne. He then shut his eyes and went to sleep.

Ai felt her heart tighten.

There is really no justice in this world…

Jun asked, craning his neck, "Where is Shui?"

She pursed her lips. "She left."

"Left? So suddenly?"

She sighed. "She was here until a few minutes ago. From a distance, she saw you two talking, and then said that she would leave since Jin seems to be okay now. I insisted that she stay, but she didn't listen to me," she glanced at Jin, "I think she didn't want Jin to see her and feel uncomfortable."

Jin slowly lowered his head, staring at the sleeping cat.

"...She was here too?"

Ai answered him. "For the whole time. She hardly slept since yesterday and didn't eat much either."

His eyes slightly shone with uncertainty.

There was a beat of silence after which Jun smiled and ruffled his head. "It's okay, Jin. I know there are many things to sort out. You can take your time. We are here with you."

Ai nodded in agreement.

Jin faintly hugged the cat tighter unconsciously. "When I saw that golden clock…I heard Shui's voices echoing in my head."

Jun slowly widened his eyes. Ai scooted closer to the brothers too.

"Did you hear what she said?"

"...Not so clearly. It was on and off."

Just like how Ai and I experienced…

"But she was crying a lot. She was talking to somebody. It seemed that she was accusing that person…" he trembled, his gaze growing more uncertain.

Jun looked somber. "It was the same for me. I heard many voices in my head. Everything was such chaos. Ai and I feel that all those memories are a part of our past life which we are unaware of. The golden clock, the memories…they want to say something to us."

"How will that happen?"

Jun glanced at him. "We don't know that. It's a phenomenon not in our control. But Ai did figure something out about Cai Guiying. What we can do is gather these bits and scraps to see the truth. Cai Guiying was always suspicious. But now it feels like we finally got a lead on her."

—

The dinner went on in silence, but a certain someone was scrutinizing Zixin as if wanting to probe something about him.

'If it's you, I will gladly take whatever it is you have to give me.'

'She' was always cautious about him as he was Jun's cousin. But the more 'she' was forced to spend time with him, the more 'she' felt that all her worries were getting baseless.

"Why are you so particular about this?"

"This?" Zixin paused his elegant movements and enquired.

"About me. My story. Going out places. I don't get it."

He answered with all sincerity. "I want to be your friend."

"Why? You can have as many friends as you want," 'she' raised her brow.

"But you are you. None can replace you."

'She' said nothing.

Zixin then looked to be in a gentle trance. "I want to be your friend also because of our first meeting at the hospital. We met under the cherry blossom tree, and I had a strange feeling that you looked familiar to me. When I saw the cherry blossoms fluttering around you…I felt at ease. It was so pleasant…I cannot explain it really. When I read your stories, I felt stronger about this connection and familiarity. You are a talented writer, and I wished to know more about you."

'Guiying' hadn't left her gaze off him for even a moment as he tried to put his feelings into words. 'She' silently went back to eating her dinner.

—

As they finished and Zixin went to wash his hands, there was no water coming from the kitchen sink's faucet.

"As usual with the water cuts…" 'she' muttered in annoyance and said, "Go to my room and use the bathroom over there."

Zixin obediently did as 'she' told. Stepping out of the bathroom, he glanced around her room in curiosity, which was quite in a messy state a bit.

He blinked.

Somehow, I didn't imagine this…

The inner organizer in him was slightly getting restless. He bent on his knee before he knew it and started picking up stuff to quickly arrange it.

One of which was a crumpled up a note. It was so heavily creased as if somebody hated the piece of paper from the bottom of his heart.

Curious, he opened it and it read -

'I shall forever be your most loyal fan.'

MrPerfect.