Shadow In Your Mind [ARC 1- 5]

Chapter 131 - Ripping off the band-aid all at once

A/N: In the previous chapter, I added Charles Wong in Wong Xue Guo's fear, because I forgot *sweats*

XG 131 - Ripping off the band-aid all at once

"Xue Guo, where do you feel uncomfortable?" Chen Yibo immediately approached her the moment they broke hand contact.

Woojin let out a low curse and leaned into Teacher Jang's hand as he rubbed his aching head. He glared at Wong Xue Guo but was then distracted by the familiar-looking guy acting caringly to her.

Woojin does not pay attention to anyone that does not interest him, so his eyes were only on Wong Xue Guo. Thus, he did not bother to look at Chen Yibo until now.

He immediately recognize it was the guy from the last scene of Wong Xue Guo's memory that was staring coldly at her. Comparing this friendly, genuinely worried man with that cold expression, Woojin immediately caught on that Wong Xue Guo was afraid that this guy would dislike her one day.

Or the cold guy was from the past and their relationship became much better? She was afraid he would hate her again?

The headache was no longer that painful after knowing this secret of hers.

Wong Xue Guo shook her head, saying she wanted to rest and asked how long she was being exposed to Woojin's ability.

"Twelve minutes. Let's stop for today, okay?" Chen Yibo asked her, but his eyes went to his father.

Director Chen did not push the issue, since Wong Xue Guo's face does not look that good. "This is the second exposure on the same day and will be a heavy toll on her. Get some rest but let us have a health checkup first."

"Give Woojin a checkup too. He looked like he's under torture instead of Xue Guo," Chen YiWen said and he was not exaggerating.

Woojin actually looked more exhausted than Wong Xue Guo, which could be reasoned because he had overexerted himself from using his ability. It would be safer to check if the Awaken people would have side effects from using too much of their ability.

After everyone left, Teacher Jang stayed behind to accompany Woojin, who had closed his eyes but was not sleeping.

Absentmindedly enjoying Teacher Jang's gently rubbing his head, his mind was overloaded with what he had seen and realized that parents could also dish out emotional abuse by treating their children as unwanted baggage.

All this while, he had always thought he got it bad compared to the other kids the same age as him. He had been jealous and even had grudgeful thoughts on why they were not the ones suffering.

He was also jealous whenever Teacher Jang would pay attention to other students other than him. His mind and heart echoed that he needed the most attention, not those students that whine about little problems.

Wong Xue Guo's interaction with the female counselling teacher was very similar to Woojin and Teacher Jang's interaction. Both of them were lucky they had a nice teacher to support them.

But he still believes he had it worse. Hey, parents that allowed their son being someone else's punching bag deserve to have the 'worst parent of the year' medal.

Woojin was able to break free from his duty of being a good son and take revenge against that bastard that messed with his life, taking control of his own life again, but not her. From what he had seen and heard since he arrived at this place, Wong Xue Guo's parents hold a strong authority over the place. He had even mistakenly believed she was a loved and pampered child if not from her memories.

It was also his mistake not seeing that a loving parent would never send their child out to fight with zombies, especially without them accompanying her. After all, he was distracted by her parent's reaction after hearing he was the mastermind behind their daughter's injuries. They had shown nothing but care for their daughter by torturing him.

Her parents in her past memories and the parents that beat him up for their beloved daughter were too different. That answered why she would be so afraid of her mother turned back to being indifferent towards her.

What had she done to change her parents this much?

Anyway, that was not really what he was curious about when he no longer cared about his own parents. He wanted to talk to her about something else.

Wong Xue Guo might be trying to act like normal, but those that knew her well would notice her oddity. She had gone back to the meeting room, grabbed the comfiest chair in the room, and started poking around her mobile phone.

The researchers had gone back to the lab with the new result, eager to compare it with Charles Wong and Suzie Yap's health report. The couple were the only ones that succeeded in the beta experiment for a booster shot for now.

Chen Yibo placed her thermos on the table, which he had refilled. "Xue Guo, you should go back to your room to rest. Your sample is already taken and the earliest you can get your health report is tomorrow."

"But my gene awakening percentage rate could already be figured out, right?"

Actually, there was no way their current technology could give such a quick result, and would need a minimum of one day after testing. But as Wong Xue Guo's case was special, they had Miu use her ability to check the result in advance. "Yes. It's now sixty-two percent."

"From forty-seven to sixty-two, that's quite good. If I continue, I will need around two to three more sessions with Woojin."

"Not today."

"Okay." Wong Xue Guo also wanted to take a break after abusing her psychology state twice today.

"Not tomorrow either."

Wong Xue Guo looked away from her task of dropping missed calls to her grandmother's phone and gave Chen Yibo a puzzled look. "Why not tomorrow? Is there anything going on tomorrow?"

"You need to give your mind a rest, or you might suffer from mental trauma."

"Actually, I prefer to go all the way right now instead of delaying."

"Xue Guo-"

"But I won't do it," Wong Xue Guo hurriedly said. "I just say I prefer that way. Just like ripping off the band-aid all at once instead of ripping off a tiny bit at a time."

Chen Yibo frowned. "This isn't supposed to be helping you to face your fears."

Wong Xue Guo's eyes strayed elsewhere, not meeting his eyes. "It strangely feels that way."

She had expected to be afraid of her mother being indifferent to her again. But it truly shocked her when she saw the last scene, where she faced a different Chen Yibo.

"You should go and take a rest. Your face does not look good." She flinched when he suddenly rubbed his fingers over her face. "Oh, you got some colour back."

Of course I will, you stupid flirt!

Other than the slight blush on her face, her expression was deadpan as she retorted, "Can't I stay to listen to the next meeting when it's about me?"

"You can, but the next meeting won't likely be anytime soon. How about I promise to call you if there's a meeting?"

Wong Xue Guo reluctantly accepted his kind offer and he walked her back to her room, fearing that she would suddenly feel uncomfortable. As she was brutally aware of his presence behind her, her mind recalled her first impression of him.

At that time, it was not long after she decided to stop being a troublemaker when the Chen family moved in next door.

Mr Chen looked cold with a slender frame, but he introduced his eldest son that followed in his footsteps to be a researcher with pride gleaming restrainedly in his eyes. But when it comes to introducing his younger son, he was subdued and not as animated.

Somehow, that action was like a thorn pricking her finger, and she did not know why she felt that way at that time.