The Billionaire's Bridal Chase

EP 09: Like Me More

“Aw,” I whined and shielded my busted lip with my hand, covering the pig’s face with my other hand in the process. In an annoyed tone, I said, “Get lost. I’ll do it myself.”

Caly glared between my fingers so I made them stick together and pressed my palm harder, but she was able to remove my hand from her visage in a second.

Ah, I shouldn’t forget that she’s stronger than me. How could I? After she made me fly and drop in the pool? I should know my place… Even though I’m the employer. Damn it.

“I’ll do this because I want to talk to you,” she replied in a serious manner. It’s scary. “Tie your hair for me, will you?”

The cotton she was using fell so she took another one and poured a wound-disinfecting solution on it.

Sighing, I heeded her request and removed the hair tie from my wrist. It’s no use going against this ball of mulishness at the moment. She’s got the same determination from when she asked me to become their playwright.

But generally, her atmosphere right now scares me.

“What do you want to talk about?” I inquired while tying my hair. “Why I kissed you?”

The pig drapes a small towel on my head after I finish, then resumes cleaning the wound near my mouth as she speaks, “I know that you like me. But you can’t just kiss me like that.”

My eyes traveled from her eyes to her lips. I gulped.

Wow, Levi. You never learn.

“Are you angry?” I asked after I cleared my throat.

“I’m not,” she answers pronto. “I only punched you out of shock."

Hmm? “You’re lying,” I deadpanned. “You almost broke me out of shock?”

“It’s true,” she claps back and shoots the cotton in the trash bin a few meters away from us before she leans on the backrest of the chair she’s sitting at right across from me. “You didn’t even kiss me on the lips, so what’s there to be angry about?”

“But you punched me twice and sent me flying to the pool? All because you were surprised?” I asked in a grim tone. I can’t accept this bull.

My lips curled in irk when she waved me off with her flippant hands.

“That’s just how I react to surprises. Let it go,” she returned with an expression that says she’s being bothered by puny arguments. “It’s your fault, I mean it.”

“You-”

“Ah, I remember now. What I really want to say is…”

I scoffed in disbelief. She forgot?

“If you really want to kiss me without any casualties,” she pauses to grin like a Cheshire cat, “Make me your girlfriend first.”

My jaw dropped open.

A few hours later, I’m still thinking about what she said while I remain hanging around them, observing her and Averiel (who keeps throwing daggers at me with his stare which I return even sharper, of course) as they practice their lines for their two-man skit tomorrow.

What the pig said was… the standard. A statement with a reason that adheres to social norms. The fact that she told me something so obvious blew my mind. Even grade-schoolers would know that. What does she take me for?

Still, it’s on me. I got carried away after having a dream like that.

What was it that I felt? Jealousy? Fear?

In any case, I'm in the wrong. I can’t believe I’m this kind of guy when I have my eyes set on someone. I’m so damn petty, jealous, and impulsive. It's quite disgusting.

I said nothing’s going to change even if I admit that I like her, but what foolishness am I doing?

Ugh. My head hurts thinking about all these.

After the three of us ate dinner together with the team, and they were loud as usual, we went separate ways for a bit to freshen up. By 10PM, we met in our room to rest. I immediately dived into the fluffy mattress while Caly said she'd go visit the other rooms to chatter.

Averiel on the other hand, said he’ll fix his stuff first then sleep. Well, he’s at the age where sleeping is the most important thing. The two other people in the room, Carris and Jane, are in their own world, playing online games on their phones with silent concentration.

“If you like her that much, then what are you doing goofing around?”

Huh? That voice sounds like Averiel's. Is he talking to me?

I rolled and lied on my back to see Averiel folding his used clothes and putting them in a laundry bag.

I crossed my arms. “I don’t like her that much,” I replied plainly. I’m unsure about my answer, though.

“Then, I like her more than you do?” he returns in a cheeky fashion. I winced.

“Even if you do, she doesn’t like you.”

Although I’m not really informed, it should be clear that she doesn’t have the hots for him.

Averiel snickered, making my jaw clench.

“Right now, that’s true,” he zipped his bag closed and looked up to connect with my vexed gaze. Smirking, he continued, “But who knows, later I might...”

Snap.

I sprang from the bed and started giving him a piece of my mind. “Aren’t you graduating this year? You think you have time for this? You should be having your nose in books, studying. Alright?”

Why is this brat so cocky?

He shook his head, grinning in amusement while lying on his bed. “Are you a tsundere?”

“What’s that?” I retorted as I took off my hair tie angrily. Ah, my scalp hurts. I’m so annoyed.

“Nothing. Good night,” is all he said then closed his eyes. I followed suit but decided to stay conscious until the pig witch returns, however, my tired body and mind gave up before she did.

The second day of the retreat just had to begin with me watching Caly and Averiel on the patio steal glances in my direction, then laughing and whispering with each other while having coffee. I got up from my seat and started to stride over with plans of flipping their table. Thankfully, Zea and Leo were nearby and held me back. I shouldn’t forget what Caly did to me yesterday.

Morning until noon, the two stuck together like Siamese twins, while I grumpily sat not too far away from them.

Around 2PM, the two-man skit performances of the acting partners commenced. It is happening in the multipurpose hall behind the rooms. There’s a problem though. Averiel passed out due to dizziness before their performance.

“...He’s a graduating student, so he’s probably been pulling all-nighters before the retreat. I understand. He better take some rest,” I heard the pig say while I waited outside the clinic. I was the one who carried the guy inside.

A minute later, Caly walks out of the room with an unreadable expression on her face.

“What’s with the face?” I asked as I matched her slow steps. “It’s really unsightly,” I added.

“We can't participate,” answers her in a dazed manner.

My eyebrows met while I brushed my hair back. “So what? It’s not a major performance,” I remarked.

The pig stopped walking, looked at me in indignation, then hissed, “I spent a whole week writing that skit just for this day.”

Eh? So that’s what she’s been up to for the past week, huh?

Before she took another step forward, I grabbed the hood of her jacket. She would have fallen backwards if not for my arms catching her.

In romance novels, scenes like this take about thirty seconds of eye contact between the main characters for feelings to build up. “Bathump, bathump” said the hearts of the characters, cheeks red. I’d lie if I said my heart isn’t beating fast, nor my cheeks aren’t glowing red, when we’re looking at each other like this.

But she’s heavy.

“Up you go,” I muttered after a second of her falling as I assisted her to stand properly. “Sorry about that.”

“You probably did that on purpose,” she said, her back now facing me.

“Blah-blah. And here I meant to tell you I’d play Averiel’s part.”

She stopped walking once again and looked behind her shoulder with wide eyes.

“You better not take that back.”

Oh, another bothersome situation I took myself into.

I’ve never left them since yesterday, so I heard and watched Averiel express his lines over and over again. I don’t have them memorized impeccably, but I remember the idea.

“Don’t s**t the stage,” she reminded me while heading to the hall, whistling.

I didn’t bother to look up from my phone and read the script diligently. I also don’t want to s**t the stage and embarrass myself, you know.

When we arrived, it was almost our turn.

Heading backstage, I feel like punching myself. Going to the stage with our costumes, I almost punched myself. On stage…

“Is that Levi? Pfft! He’s not an actor, though?”

“I thought it’s going to be Averiel.”

"I heard he fainted.”

I clenched my fist. Time to punch myself in three-

“I did not expect that. Your acting was good,” Zea comments, raising a thumbs up and then covering her mouth quickly to stifle her laughter.

“Yeah, thanks,” I replied in sarcasm.

“No, I meant that. It’s just that…” she covers her mouth again before pointing at me. “You're in a crab costume.”

Crab costume. That’s right. I’m in a crab costume because there happened to be a crab costume delivery here.

I glared at the plaguey entity laughing hysterically beside her.

“Still..hah...You did well -back there. Pfft!”

Crazy, pig witch.

Yet I’m crazier for liking this loud sound coming from her.

The sun sets without me noticing, and just like that, we’ve reached the last night of the retreat.

We’re currently having a barbeque near the pool area where a lot of the team members are splashing around.

“Stop eating every barbecue I finish grilling, for Pete’s sake!” yelled Leo, who’s in front of the grillers. Caly doesn’t listen and snatches the cooked barbeques from Leo’s grillers. “Don’t come back here!”

The pig ran to the long table, where I'm sitting with the others, handed one of the snatched barbeques to me, then took a seat beside me afterward.

“Thanks,” I said and took a bite.

“Good, right?” she marveled with her eyes gleaming.

I chewed silently.

It’s a food that is nowhere near a five-star dish. It’s not even a food that I rarely eat. I should be saying, “Tastes normal to me.” But for some reason...

“Yeah. It’s really good.”

“He-he."

“Ah, before I forget,” Leo paused and stood when almost everyone was seated at the table. “There's a courage test forest in this resort. We should all go after drinking a little-”

He crouches and picks something from under. I have a bad feeling about this.

Slamming the case on the table, he cheered, “-alcohol!”

“Let’s go~”

“Whoop whoop!"

“Alcohol!”

You're not wrong. Those noises were all Caly.

Setting the alcohol aside, I’m more worried about the courage test. The moment it was announced, I knew I shouldn’t go, even when they said that we’ll go with our acting partners. But all the people at the table agreed to do it, so Leo begged me not to be a buzzkill.

However, my hunch was right.

“The lights died. The flashlight you’re holding is not working. Now you’re saying we’re lost?”

“Yeah…”

I shouldn't have taken this courage test.

Through the faint light of the moon, I could see her shivering as she sat beside me. I leaned against the big tree behind us, keeping my voice steady.

“How dare you shiver like that…'' I muttered, then linked our arms together. She seemed to be taken aback for a bit but relaxed shortly after.

“I don’t want to hear that from you.”

We’re both scared, huh? But I'm more cold than scared.

I chuckled. “We’re the worst couple in this setting.”

“Couple?” she repeats. I’m not looking, but I can feel her grinning at me tauntingly. “Are you finally asking me to be your girlfriend now?”

Here she goes again, asking about unrelated matters.

“No,” I groaned.

“You like me, right? Then, aren’t you supposed to make me like you, too?”

“I don’t want to.”

“What?”

I heaved a sigh then explained, “All you ever did was piss me off, but I was able to like you. You should be able to like me the way I am, too.”

She falls silent, so I tilt my head a little to catch a glimpse of her, albeit shadows of leaves from the trees are not allowing me to do so. It was only a few seconds later when she hummed in a fashion that said “I’m amused.”

"Earlier, you saved me again," she suddenly says in a gentler voice which made my forehead wrinkle. Her tone just now is one thing, but saved her...? From what? "Thank you."

"I don't follow. Saved from what?" I asked, but was ignored when she digressed, "You're not planning to chase after me, huh?"

Chase? I didn't know what to say.

No words conveyed after, she reached for my hand that had been shivering from cold and intertwined her fingers with mine. She hid our clasped hands in her jacket's pocket afterward. I couldn’t say a thing, much more when she turned her head to me and the light of the unclouded moon made an unparalleled beauty flash right before my eyes.

Smiling with its eyes, that beauty said afterward, “Then I’ll just make you like me more.”