Fated Encounter (BJYX Fanfic) - Completed

9: Stay Silent

Three days passed and Wang Yibo and Cheng Xiao's scandal is still a rich headline all over China. Meng Ziyi had lost some of her hairs from stress handling that matter and another bomb had just striked again.

"I can't believe how stubborn that guy is!" She slammed Ji Li's table with her palms in frustration, making the other embrace himself from fear. "Why not just allow his company to deny the rumor if it isn't true?! Or just admit it if it is real! And now there is another circulating photo of them caught by a paparazzi! How irresponsible!"

This was the scenario when Zhan walked in, returning to work after two days of his absence, hiding his heartbreak with a lie of catching a flu.

His steps halted in a second, trying to compose the lose beats of his heart after hearing Ziyi's sentiments regarding the scandal. After second thoughts, he approached them, hand taking the photo Ziyi had just dumped on Ji Li's table. It was a photo of Yibo and Cheng Xiao at a dimly lit place, intimately close. The flirtatious smile on the female's face says it all, she is having the best time of her life with her lover.

Zhan had thought wrong when he believed he had overcome his own sentiments on the matter. Hearing the issue again and seeing the evidence of a love he had hoped so much to be fake, just rubbed salt on his wounds. He is dying again inside and no one knows of his sufferings.

"B-Boss..!" Ji Li greeted standing up then running to his side. "You still don't look fine. Maybe you need more days to rest?" He worriedly suggested.

A small smile broke from Zhan's pale lips. 'I've been putting off our meeting for a long while now, I can't just be a supporting role forever.' He mumbled to himself then faked a wider smile, "Let me meet him. I want to talk to him myself."

"H-Huh?!" Ziyi and Ji Li blurted in shock gaping at Zhan. Their Boss had never met with an artist himself, regardless of the urgency of matters. Zhan only deals matters with the managers and higher ups. He is the brain of the company but never the one personally settling things on a face-to-face basis with an artist.

"B-But..!" Ziyi and Ji Li cooed in protest seeing Zhan's condition but the determination in Zhan's eyes made them shut their mouths and just bow in respect to their leader.

There's no question in Zhan's competence in his line of work, it was just a bit embarrassing for them that they had to see him step up and intervene because they are hitting a brick wall dealing with the mighty Wang Yibo's scandal.

While waiting at the meeting room, Ji Li can't unsee the blankness in Zhan's usually bright eyes.

"B-Boss, is there something bothering you?" He queried in concern.

And there goes that tiny smile again on Zhan's lips, far from his usual carefree grin. "I'm just thinking..." Zhan shortly replied, then turned his back and stared at the busy streets of Beijing from below, "...thinking how to face him again." he whispered in a painful tone.

Inside his head, dozens of questions were stacked. He wanted to ask them all to the man he is waiting for, yet he is also afraid to hear his responses.

'Would he recognize me? Would he be happy to see me again?' Zhan closed his lids and listened to his thumping heart beats while continuing to dive deeper on his stirred up emotions, playing with the broken strings of fate that once connected them.

He thought of the degree of irony of what they had become. He was the one who distanced himself, but ended up the one longing more than anyone can imagine.

'He's already too far and he is going further away.' He bitterly smiled, staring at Yibo's gigantic billboard across the other building, internally chanting in sadness, 'I can't stand the distance anymore.'