novellhall Chapter 21 Zhixing's Family and Yoona's Letting Go
Chapter 21 Zhixing's Family and Yoona's Letting Go
"Ji-eun, aren't you my family?"
Lee Ji-eun's breath hitched slightly.
The gloom of anxiety and uncertainty in my heart was completely dispelled at this moment.
She looked at Li Zhixing's profile, her eyes softening and becoming affectionate again.
Looking at the road ahead, Li Zhixing said calmly but firmly, "Grandma, and that boy Zhong Xun, aren't you both my family?"
"Even if I find out about my background one day, and some so-called relatives come looking for me, what I want to do is definitely not to put on a tearful reunion and then obediently go back with them."
"What I want to do most is to question them about what happened back then and why they haven't come looking for me all these years."
At this point, Li Zhixing turned his head during a red light and reached out to rub Li Zhi'en's head: "Zhi'en, even if you find your way back to the past, I truly remember the days we spent together over the past few years."
"Am I going to lose my memory again and forget all of you?"
"To me, you are my family now."
Following the force of his palm, Lee Ji-eun tilted her head back slightly, letting that large hand ruffle her hair.
Her eyes were still slightly red, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up.
Then, as if remembering something, she tentatively asked, "Then...where are my parents?"
Li Zhixing stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then suddenly chuckled: "Then the relationship is probably not quite there yet, after all, they've never bought me a lollipop."
"Pfft..."
Lee Ji-eun finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Now she was completely relieved, and even her calves, which were resting on the footrest, swayed happily a couple of times.
A little while later, the girl's cheerful voice rang out again in the carriage: "Oppa."
"Um?"
"Aren't you really curious why Seohyun contacted you?"
Li Zhixing looked at her questioningly: "What's there to be curious about?"
"Perhaps Seohyun really has something important to tell you."
Li Zhixing thought for a moment, then decisively shook his head: "Forget it, if it's important, she'll definitely come looking for me again."
"And what if she actually confesses to me? Then I'll have to come up with a reason to reject her, which is too much trouble."
"Aigoo, Oppa, you're so shameless!"
"That's a reasonable assumption, how can you call it shamelessness?"
……
After the screening, Jessica took her younger sister, Krystal Jung, home.
On Girls' Generation's side, only Lee Soon-kyu and Seohyun were left to return to their dorm together.
On the way back, Lee Soon-kyu would occasionally turn to look at her maknae, full of questions she wanted to ask, but she swallowed them back before she could speak.
Seohyun, on the other hand, seemed preoccupied the whole way, keeping her head down and remaining silent.
As soon as she got back to the dorm, she went straight to Yoona's room without even tidying up her shoes.
At this time, Taeyeon and Sooyoung, who shared a room with her, had not yet returned.
Seohyun pushed open the half-closed door. The room was dark, and only Yoona was sitting alone on the edge of the bed with her back to the door, looking lost in thought.
Seohyun slowed her pace and walked over, calling softly, "Yoona unnie."
Yoona then snapped out of her daze, turned around and saw it was Seohyun, and forced a smile: "It's Seohyun."
Seohyun sat down next to her on the bed and asked in a low voice, "Yoona unnie, just now... you went to the preview screening too, right?"
Yoona's eyes flickered slightly, but she didn't say anything.
Seohyun didn't press for details, but continued, "Senior is really amazing. As a debut work, not only did you get to play such an important supporting role, but your acting was also so good. Indeed, whatever you do, you can do it to the best of your ability."
Yoona kept her head down and didn't react.
Seohyun pursed her lips and continued, "Yoona unnie, actually I just made an appointment with a senior colleague to talk to him alone, and he agreed."
Yoona's slender shoulders stiffened slightly.
"But I was stopped by my senior's younger sister pretending to be sick." Seohyun looked at Yoona. "I could tell that the girl really didn't want me to meet my senior."
Yoona finally turned her head to look at her, her eyes full of confusion: "Little sister?"
Seohyun nodded vigorously: "Yes, it's my younger sister, the rookie singer named IU from LOEN Company. It seems they live together."
Yoona was completely confused: "Where did he get a sister?"
"That's right!" Seohyun said, her voice slightly agitated. "Yoona unnie, we met our seniors in the same year."
"He was your neighbor and also my first piano teacher when I was six years old."
"Until the spring of 05 when he passed away, we never knew he had a younger sister. When did he come to know her?"
At this point, Seohyun paused, her expression becoming extremely complicated: "Besides, doesn't unnie find it strange? The way the seniors look at us is so unfamiliar, like they're really looking at someone they've never met before."
"Sometimes I wonder, can someone really pretend so flawlessly?" Seohyun stared intently at Yoona. "Could it be... that he's lost his memory?"
Upon hearing this guess, Yoona was stunned, a hint of panic flashing in her eyes, but she quickly suppressed it with reason.
Then, she seemed amused, but her smile was tinged with bitterness: "Xiaoxian, do you think this is a TV drama? How could you possibly have amnesia?"
"Do you want to continue saying he's a chaebol heir who fell from grace and lived among the common people?"
Yoona's smile quickly faded, and her eyes dimmed again.
"Li Zhixing... isn't he naturally good at lying?" Yoona's voice was a little hoarse. "If he wants to lie to you, he will never let you see through him."
Then, she turned around and said to Seohyun with an extremely serious expression, "Seohyun, don't go looking for him anymore."
"Huh?" Seohyun's eyes widened in surprise.
Involuntarily, Yoona recalled the scene at the preview screening where Lee Ji-hyeong held the microphone and casually said, "I've forgotten everything from the past."
Her face turned pale, and her tone carried a hint of self-mockery: "What good would it do to ask? He already made his stance clear from the beginning."
"If you go any closer, you'll only humiliate yourself, Xiaoxian... I have my pride too."
"Since he doesn't want to have anything to do with us anymore and insists on being a stranger, then let him be."
"Consider this the last thing I do for him, to do as he wishes."
Then, Yoona turned around and held Seohyun's hand, her tone becoming more serious than ever before.
"Xiaoxian, our group finally got out of last year's nightmare, and now we have such high attention and popularity again."
"Let's stop thinking about him and focus on building our group. From now on, let's sing well, practice our acting skills, and realize our dreams."
"Besides, Xiaoxian, aren't you always afraid of him? Then why go looking for him?"
"Let's forget the past together."
Looking into Yoona's reddened yet unusually determined eyes, Seohyun still hesitated: "But..."
Yoona placed her hands on Seohyun's shoulders, looked directly into her eyes, and pleaded in her voice, "Seohyun, promise me you won't go looking for him anymore, okay?"
Seeing Yoona's pleading eyes, Seohyun couldn't bear to make her sad any longer, so she nodded solemnly.
"Okay, I promise!"
……