Back to the present (2)

We were having a blast at the club, the loud music danced in my ears as my friends and I screamed our lungs out and observed the good looking men at the club, not to be creepy or anything.

Furthermore, the food upstairs in our private room was genuinely delicious, paired with the soju and beer, it was a dream come true. I had a pretty good alcohol tolerance so playing games with shots etc wasn't as much of a worry for me as it was for my girlfriends. I had to take a few of their shots to make sure they wouldn't drop dead from alcohol overdose, but by then, my mind was getting fuzzy.

As a way to get myself out of there, I went to go and dance downstairs for a while and told Xiao Long to take care of my friends, which he complied with. I went down the spiral staircase to the ground floor of the club along with Lexie and talked with a few people before breaking out into a full on dance mode. After 30 minutes or so, it was getting very late so I decided to go up to pick up my friends and catch a glass of water before saying goodbye to everyone and going back to our hotel room.

I ascended the staircase and drunkenly opened the door to a familiar face. Dropping the shoes in my hand, my mind went into complete disarray.

"Oh, Mu Feng this is my best friend I was talking to you about and her name is Victoria. Victoria, this is Mu Feng and he owns a few businesses around asia."

What Xiao Long didn't know is that I already knew him. I shook hands with Mu Feng briefly, looking at him through his eyes to see if he'd recognize me. No luck. His face was frozen and his aura was cold. I felt choked, saddened, but then again, what did I expect? He already had someone he loved in his heart and I could never replace that. Having cold sweat from around my forehead was already a good enough sign that I needed to get out of there soon before I'd do anything stupid, so I said my farewells to Xiao Long and his friends and dragged my drunk friends out of there.

He offered us a ride but I kindly declined and made our way home now. The next day we were going to Japan.

As soon as we went to the hotel, we went straight to sleep, even in our party outfits and make up because by the time we arrived it was already 4am. Thankfully, our flight was in the late night so when we woke up at midday, we had time to shower and-

*ding*

My heart dropped as I read the message. Our flight was cancelled early due to over bookings. Immediately, I called Xiao Long to ask him if his flight was cancelled, which it was, and now we were panicking. I didn't know what to do because my friends and I had to check out in a few hours and we had no plans of what or how we were going to get to Hong Kong. Just as I was starting to stress out with my friends, I got a message from Xiao Long saying that he booked us a flight to Hong Kong today for us so we could stay somewhere safe, at his friends place, until we had to leave again to go to Hanoi.

At first I felt so guilty for having him pay for our tickets but we decided to pay him back as soon as were refunded. We can't say we weren't excited for this leg of the trip because this time, we were going to be travelling with more people and staying in a group, which means more mingling and more partying.

We met Xiao Long at the airport, and after thanking him profusely, we boarded our plane ready to depart to Hong Kong. Coincidentally, his seat was next to mine, it was a pair in business class, whilst my friends sat behind me and behind them. During the flight, I kept thanking him although he said it wasn't necessary, and instead asked me questions about my life and talked about his. He kept me entertained during the longevity of the flight, making me laugh at his bad jokes and making me feel at home even though I was thousands of miles away. He mentioned about having family all over the world but he lived in Hong Kong and traveled monthly for business etc although he never really specified exactly what he did.

When we were being served dinner, he gave me some of his meat, which I found really funny because it was as though he was treating me as a little sister after only knowing each other for a week or so. I told him so and he laughed, saying he wouldn't mind adopting me as his sister, which really made me snort in laughter. Thankfully though it wasn't loud otherwise it would've been embarrassing having so many eyes on me.

Prior to landing, he briefed us quickly that the place wasn't to far from the airport since the person had to travel often, and wasn't at home at the moment, so we could be comfortable in our own space. Once we landed and collected our luggage, I breathed in the air of Hong Kong and felt relieved.

I was so thankful for having met Xiao Long because he'd done so much for us in such a short amount of time we'd met, so I decided to make it up for him, not sure how though.

He told me to stop overthinking and dragged me by the shoulders inside the limo taxi his friend owned. He laughed and talked with me about his life here, as he did to keep me entertained during the flight, and how busy he was with his small business, bragged about his friends and made me smile.

Although I didn't have much to say to him about my uneventful life, I did eventually spill to him about my stupid love life, without spilling names, and about my small clothing line, which he was quite curious about. Of course, I had a lot of pride in it because I made the clothes all by myself and managed finances and marketing so I didn't hold back when talking about it.

Time flew by and we finally arrived at the place we were going to crash at, but it wasn't really a place. Shook, I questioned Xiao Long why we were at this grand apartment complex, towering gold above us, shining and gleaming in the sun. We were taken to the front doors of the building which had gold doors floor to ceiling, about 4 meters tall, with men waiting to greet us and take our luggage at the door.

Honestly, we felt a bit out of place, wearing joggers and a cropped shirt, and arriving at this grand, gold venue with smart people left right and center. But nevertheless, I didn't want to seem ungrateful to Xiao Long after all he'd done for us and our friends so I just let him take us to the room. What I didn't expect though, was to be taken to this VIP gold elevator and flown to the top floor of the complex. Yes, the penthouse.

Curious, I questioned Xiao Long why we were here or if he made a mistake but all he did was smile at me and look me in the eyes. My heart felt warm again, like I had gained a big brother, before refocusing my view to the doors which slowly opened to reveal a beautiful open plan apartment. I never felt like this with him but I suppose after all he'd done, to make us feel safe and happy, and almost let me into his life without question, I'd felt like he was my new big brother. Xiao Long was handsome and tall, although less than Mu Feng in my opinion, he could easily compare to him. Lucky, I felt lucky to have him in my life and I was going to repay him as much as I could.