I Don't Like The World, I Only Like You

Chapter 9: Illegal Cohabitation

In this Chapter of I Don't Like This World, I Only Like You, Jennie recounts how Mr. L managed to persuade her to move into his apartment when both of them were staying in Beijing. Through their cohabitation, we learn more about Mr. L, who is now revealed to be a controlling workaholic with a slight obsessive-compulsive disorder, and takes the idea of "persuasion" to its extreme – preparing charts, PPTs, and a full, entire report just for Jennie to move in with him. We're also exposed to how, despite his cool and arrogant exterior, Mr. L has a ton of internal emotional activity which he expresses subtly to Jennie. Unfortunately, due to Jennie's careless nature, she rarely (if ever) picks up on these signs and simply continues living her life in her happy way. It's cute how Mr. L always puts up a cold front of others, but we get to take a peek at his most natural, 'shameless' side through Jennie's eyes. I guess love entails putting down one's mask and showing the other party your realest, truest, self.

001

Even though both Mr. L and I had been friends for a very long time, we haven't really interacted with each other as a couple. Thus, it was only after we ascertained our relationship that we discovered all sorts of problems. For instance, I found out that this fellow is extremely controlling.

I have a habit – when I'm entering a restaurant with other people, I have a tendency to be the first one to open the door, so that I'm able to hold the door open for subsequent people entering the restaurant.

When I went on dates with him, I helped him keep the door open several times. This caused his to be rather unhappy, "You should let men handle these types of things!"

Alright, you handle it.

As I have a very keen sense of time, I'd always arrive twenty minutes earlier than the scheduled time for all our dates.

He became unhappy once more, "You could always arrive slightly later, I don't mind waiting for you."

Alright, I guess I'd have to dawdle at home and waste time before arriving precisely ten minutes later than the scheduled time.

When we went out on dates, he always paid for all our expenses. As I felt bad for him, I always offered to pay for my share. However, he always refused to let me pay. Once, I took the opportunity to settle the bill when he went to the washroom. When he returned to the table, he was so mad that his face nearly turned green.

I bought two bottles of mineral water, and was about to open them before I noticed the slight furrow in his brows. Without a second thought, I immediately started to pretend that I was extremely weak, and complained, "I can't open it."

He took the bottles from me and opened them without much effort. He put the straws into the bottles before passing them back to me and conveniently patted my head. He appeared to be in a terribly good mood.

Sometimes, men can be really, really childish.

002

My senior from High School told me that she had just moved to Beijing, and that she was experiencing great difficulty adjusting to the new environment.

"When I arranged to have dinner with my friend at 5:30PM, my friend came to pick me up at 3PM. Initially, I was really confused – why did we have to leave so early? It was only later that I understood why. First, we hopped onto the bus, which slowly chugged past a few bridges before slowly driving past a few rivers. Just when I suspected that the bus was going to drive all the way to Tianjin, my friend finally indicated that we had arrived at our stop, and we alighted. After alighting, my friend told me that we still had to take the train and transfer twice before we reach our final destination. At that time, I experienced a meltdown and started crying by the roadside. I complained whilst crying, lamenting Beijing's bloody huge size."