Pandora's Heart | d.cx ✓

CHAPTER 36

'So how was the carnival?' Jiaqi asked later that evening in Chengxin's room. They had just gotten home a few minutes ago, but almost everyone had gone straight to bed. Chengxin was sitting on his bed, removing his shoes.

'Good.' Chengxin answered him flatly.

'Did Pandora get jealous?'

'Yup.'

'See!? It's working!' Jiaqi said excitedly. 'Gosh this is so awesome.'

'No it's not working Jiaqi. The only thing that's happening is that Pandora is getting jealous, that's it. There's no other benefit I'm getting from this.' Chengxin groaned. 'And I'm done with this.'

'What?' Jiaqi frowned. 'Come on Chengxin.'

'No I mean it, it's not working and I really think it was a bad idea. And I don't know if you've noticed but Rio is a really annoying kid.' Chengxin had finally removed both of his shoes and lied down on the bed.

'So what are you gonna do? Let her go to Haoxiang?' Jiaqi put his hands on his waist in disappointment.

'What else can I do?' Chengxin put his hands on his head. 'It's just so tiresome and stressful! I just want to be done with it! I want to be done with her...like for good!'

'I guess you're right.' Jiaqi nodded. 'I'm sorry it didn't work out man.'

'It's okay, I guess that's life.'

Jiaqi sadly looked at his friend then walked out, not knowing what to say next. He wished he would have been able to help, but at this point he had also realized that this was hopeless.

Chengxin grabbed his cellphone and started going through his friends' private stories. Almost all of his bandmates had posted fun carnival photos, except Chengxin. He clearly didn't have any fun at this carnival.

He swiped slowly through Haoxiang's stories, seeing he had several photos with a happy Pandora. In one photo, he even had his lips on Pandora's cheek.

'Ugggh!!!' Chengxin cried frantically to himself and turned off the screen of the cellphone. He felt so broken and so angry at the same time. At some point, this pain didn't feel real. It felt like it was something in his imagination, because he had never believed that he would go through this kind of pain. The people who said love is pain were certainly right, it definitely wasn't as beautiful as they made it seem in the movies.

Haoxiang got off his bed and opened the closet, now wanting to change in his pajamas. The feel of the jeans against his skin was beginning to irritate him. The moment he opened the closet, the first thing to catch his eye was his tuxedo. He remembered he had worn it at the Nikita's dinner, and it immediately reminded him of Pandora and the kiss they shared by the fountain. He wondered if that was all a lie.

Suddenly, Chengxin felt angry rather than sad. Tears of anger gathered at the edges of his eyes, as he tried to understand what everything between them had meant. Was that chemistry all pretend? How could the same girl whom he had had the most beautiful moments with do this to him?

Chengxin opened the door of his room violently and walked over to the stairs. He went up quickly, skipping some stairs in the process. When he finally reached Pandora's door, he didn't hesitate to knock on it immediately.

'Rio again!?' Pandora asked from the inside as she walked towards the door. When she finally opened it, she was surprised to see Chengxin, looking completely angry. 'Oh hey...'

'Tell me right now what everything meant. Were you playing with my feelings so that you could just dump me for Haoxiang?' he asked her, sounding very emotional.

'Wh...what?' Pandora stammered. 'I didn't play with your feelings.'

'Then why the hell did you let me believe that there was something happening between us!? Why did you do that when you knew you loved somebody else!? How can you do this to a human being Pandora?' the tears that had gathered had now started to roll out of Chengxin's eyes. The last thing he wanted was to cry in front of Pandora, but he found himself doing it anyway.

Pandora felt her heart break at Chengxin's tears. She didn't want to see him cry, especially not because of her. 'No Chengxin, I didn't mean to hurt you like this. I just...Haoxiang and I have history okay? And he would have been sad if I chose you over him as well. He's done so much for me and I couldn't just let him go.'

'He's done so much for you like dumping you and insulting you right?'

'No you wouldn't get it. My childhood would have been a mess if Haoxiang wasn't around and...and...helping me out.' She started to stammer as a lump started to grow in her throat. 'Chengxin, I warned you! I told you we couldn't be together because of Haoxiang and you didn't listen to me. I knew something bad would happen.'

Chengxin sniffed and nodded. 'You're right. I should have listened. Just tell me this...were those moments real or not? Because now I'm beginning to think everything was a lie.'

Pandora shook her head. 'I don't know what's true or not. Sometimes we just do things in the heat of the moment you know.' Pandora felt tears in her own eyes, and she didn't want to show them to Chengxin. 'I gotta go, goodnight.'

'Wait!' Chengxin screamed but the door was shut in his face.

Chengxin felt shattered the moment he was standing alone in the corridor. He still wasn't getting used to the pain, but he took a deep breath and walked away from the door. He knew he was going to have a long night, if he would be able to sleep at all.

Pandora threw herself on her bed and started crying. No matter how much she tried to keep herself from making a sound, her crying was so loud. She didn't know what she was specifically crying about...whether it was the guilt about everything or the fact that she had lost Chengxin. She didn't know if she loved him more than she loved Haoxiang, but she knew that her choice was Haoxiang. It had to be Haoxiang.

While she cried, she heard a knock on her door. She assumed it was Rio trying to tell her to shut up, because their rooms were just next to each other.

'I'm sorry! I'll be quiet!' Pandora shouted loudly to the person outside the door.

But the knocking continued.

'Geez,' Pandora got off the bed and wiped her face quickly, even though it would be useless for her to appear like she wasn't crying when she knew she was just being too loud.

She walked over to the door and opened it, surprised to be met by the face she had just slammed the door into. It was Chengxin, he was back again. Seeing him here made her feel even worse than she was feeling.

'Don't cry,' Chengxin wiped her tear with his thumb. 'The last thing I want is to hear you crying.'

'Do you think I like seeing you crying!?' Pandora pushed away his thumb. 'I don't! And stop being so kind! Why can't you just hate me and go away!?' she cried.

'If I could hate you I would, okay?' Chengxin replied. 'Now stop crying. You don't have to cry. You have Haoxiang...' Chengxin couldn't even believe he was saying this. Haoxiang was one of the worst people in his life, but he just wanted Pandora to be happy.

'Yeah and you have Rio too, you don't have to cry.' Pandora smiled painfully. 'Let's stop this and just be happy with who we're with.'

If only Pandora knew that Chengxin didn't have Rio. But he nodded anyway. If that would make her happier, then he wasn't going to give her a long speech about how he and Rio were just pretending to date for the sake of making Pandora jealous.

'You're right.' Chengxin nodded. 'Let's be happy.'

Chengxin turned to his left when he noticed that someone had walked onto the second floor. It was Junlin who looked at them inquisitively.

'Oh I'm sorry, I just heard crying so I wanted to know what was up. Everything okay?' he asked when he noticed Chengxin had turned his head to him.

'Yeah, everything's fine.' Chengxin told him.

'Okay then.' Junlin walked off almost immediately.

'Goodnight Pandora,' he said to her.

'Goodnight.' She answered with a pained look then shut her door.