two players; lin yanjun

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third person pov

"Jiejie, your mom is so sweet," Xudan told Scarlett as the two of them sat in Xudan's room. Nongnong was sitting on the corner of her bed on his phone watching a video.

"Yeah, she's awesome," Nongnong agreed, his eyes not moving from the device.

Scarlett's eyes moved between the two of them. Supposedly they weren't dating, but Scarlett didn't exactly believe it. Nongnong was beside the girl almost always.

"And she totally loves Yanjun, like your dad does! She doesn't like Andrew at all," Xudan smiled, eyes sparkling with triumph. "You should marry him instead!"

"It's not that simple," Scarlett muttered even though her heart told her to pick Yanjun too.

"What's so difficult about it? You love Yanjun and he loves you. You want to be together so what's stopping you," Xudan stopped hanging all the clothes Mrs. Huang had bought for her. Scarlett was putting them on the hanger while Xudan was hanging them in her closet.

"A lot of things," Scarlett said and looked over to see Nongnong putting earphones in his ears to listen to his video better. "Yanjun only wants me now, but in the near future, he'll realize I saved him from the wreck that's me."

"I don't think so," Xudan put her hands on her hips and shook her head. "Jun-ge loves you a lot and if he only wanted you now, I think he would've given up a long time ago."

Being stubborn, Scarlett internally told herself that Xudan was wrong even though she knew she was right.

"Jiejie," Nongnong suddenly said, yanking out his earphones. "Justin's in the hospital."

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"Excuse me. I'm looking for Huang Minghao," Scarlett said to the receptionist at the desk. The lady at the desk told her a room number and Scarlett along with Xudan and Nongnong were off. As much as Scarlett hated the elevator, she had to take it.

When Scarlett reached his room, to her and the others surprise, he wasn't there.

"Excuse me, where's the patient for this room," Scarlett asked the nurse whose name was Jessy.

"He said he had family here so he went to room 46," the nurse replied and Scarlett's heart dropped in her chest.

"Family? What does he-"

"We need to go," Scarlett cut Linong off and led them to where Justin was. She knew she should've told him about their father. Even if her father didn't want him to know she should've told him anyways.

When Scarlett got to the room, the others were already there, waiting outside her father's door.

"Jiejie," Chengcheng saw her first and she noticed he had been crying. "D-Did you know?"

"...yeah," Scarlett replied and Chengcheng didn't say anything. The others silently moved out of her way and she wiped her hand on her pants before reaching for the door knob, but it was pulled open by Justin.

His eyes were puffy and his lips were swollen from crying. He had tears coming down his cheeks and Scarlett took notice of the cuts he had on his face.

"J...what happened to you," Scarlett reached a hand out to him, but Justin slapped it away.

"Why didn't you tell me he was like this," Justin glared at his sister. "I-I have a right to know! He's my father too! I'm your brother! He's been like this for months and you didn't tell me shit."

"Justin, I...I couldn't tell you. Yihui told me-"

"Not to tell me? I know. Dad didn't want me to know, but think about it. Just because you're the favorite doesn't mean that I don't need to know about this kind of stuff. You know that he matters to me too," Scarlett finched at her brother's words.

He's mad, Scarlett reminded herself.

"Justin, just listen, okay? I-"

"No, you listen. You make every single thing about you, Jiejie. First you disappear for two years, you make all my friends like you, you date Yanjun, you break up, you get engaged to some guy that you don't even like, and now you don't tell me about our dad being in a coma and possibly dying any fucking second? and for what? For attention? You...you're really something," Justin spat.

Scarlett opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. Justin just stared at her with hate while the others quietly stood, not sure what to do.

"Justin...I-I'm not-"

What Justin did shocked everyone including him.

Justin slapped Scarlett.

"Dude, what the fuck," Yanjun yelled, angrily. He was going to shove Justin, but Scarlett grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Jiejie, I...I didn't mean it," Justin said trying to reach out for her, but Scarlett moved back, shaking her head and looked up at him. Tears were sparkling in her eyes and the look in her eyes made the hair on Justin's body stand.

The sadness and hurt in her eyes was different from whenever anyone else had hurt her. It looked deeper than anything Justin had ever seen, that any of them had ever seen.

Xudan was crying while Linong was holding her, Yanjun was protectively standing in front of Scarlett, and the others were too in shock to do anything.

"I've heard that line a thousand times," Scarlett stated as her tears spilt over. "I never expected to hear it from you."