Me After Meeting You

Amber worked until midnight, and Ruby didn’t pick up any of her calls. She could only guess that her brother had gotten so engrossed in playing cards that he had forgotten about her. But unexpectedly, half an hour later, he came back to the hospital again.

He had even run to her department to find her.

Amber asked, “Where’s your phone?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know where I lost it,” Ruby replied between pants. He patted his left and right pockets before asking, “Can we go now?”

“Yup.” The siblings walked out, got into Ruby’s car, and started towards home. As Amber sat in the passenger seat, she looked around for his phone. When she called his number, a ringing sound came out from underneath her butt, and she had to expend a great deal of labor to fish it out from the little slit that it had fallen into. “You’re too careless ….”

She said to him as she glanced at his phone. “You have tens of unread messages.”

“They’re probably mostly from Mom.” Ruby glanced at the screen before continuing to say, “They’re welcoming the New Year in, so they’re probably still awake right now. Call them back and say that I was fetching you.”

This was the excuse that they had planned. Amber understood him well and didn’t mind helping him, so she unlocked his phone. She knew Ruby’s passcode because he told her each and every passcode and password he had. He was lazy and his memory surprisingly poor, so he used her as a backup.

After she opened his phone, she started maneuvering to look at the missed calls when she accidentally clicked on one of the unread messages.

“‘He sees you in broad daylight, but I can only hide in a corner’ … Who’s this … Oh!” Ruby abruptly stopped the car, causing Amber to almost fly out of the window.

Amber didn’t expect that Ruby’s reaction would be so extreme, and was unable to stop him from snatching the phone away.

“No, what’s the matter?” After quite a while, she recovered and looked at him as if she were looking at a headache. “Are you a two timing bastard who’s cheating on someone?”

Ruby was already feverishly inspecting his phone, and only felt a sense of relief wash over him when he confirmed that he’d kept the identity of that person secret, listing the name only as 001 on his phone.

Then, when he heard his sister’s words, he couldn’t help but want to vomit blood. “Am I that kind of person in your heart?”

Amber harrumphed. “Who knows?! That sentence was very problematic. What did she mean by ‘He sees you in broad daylight, but I can only hide in a corner?’ It sounds just like a line out of heart-rending drama!

It’s as if you’ve swindled an innocent naive little girl, who, even though she knows that you already have a girlfriend, couldn’t bear to leave you. And in her grief, she silently became your mistress.

And whenever she sees you going out with your actual girlfriend, she’s reminded that she can only hide in a corner and sneak glances at you, jealous and hurt.”

As she continued describing the setting in her head, she started to believe her words more and more. “You said that you went out to play cards with a friend, but who knows what you were actually doing? And why was your phone even here?

You must’ve arranged dates with both of them at the same time, and since you couldn’t go to both at once, you had no other choice but to throw your phone aside!”

She accused him with such absolute conviction, it was enough to make Ruby angry enough to laugh. “You can really make things up!”

He was a proficient liar, unlike Amber. Amber would only lie if she had to, and she even preferred to awkwardly remain silent. Ruby, however, could lie to anyone and everyone without a single hint of guilt or remorse when he did so.

“Please, stop trying to make me out as some kind of two-timer. The guy who texted me is crazy, and he’s always pestering me endlessly for some reason or another because he thinks that everyone around him is a love rival. Who knows where he saw me, and what kind of craziness he has going on in his mind?”

As he spoke, Amber fixed her gaze on him. His expression was very calm. Back when Amber had been studying psychoanalysis, she had frequently practiced it on him. So, although he couldn’t analyze someone else as shrewdly as she did, he could at least cover up his tells quite well.

Unfortunately, he was up against Amber.

After he finished his spiel, Amber said, “Hmm, it doesn’t seem like you’re lying. I’ll believe you.”

Ruby relaxed at her placid words. Amber then casually asked, “Did you drive over by yourself yesterday?”

Ruby was flummoxed by the seemingly random question, and he reflexively nodded and answered, saying, “Yup.”

He thought that he had dodged a bullet, but then he suddenly heard Amber say, “You’re lying.”

Ruby automatically rebutted, “What do you mean I’m lying? I clearly drove here alone ….” As he continued to look at Amber, he fell silent before becoming flustered and exasperated. “Amber, stop doing this to me!”

Amber smiled. “You didn’t deny it, did you? Lying so naturally like that ….” As Amber’s words trailed off, she stopped smiling.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Then, her tone turned severe as she castigated him. “Brother, to me, you’ve always been a good man. I think that you’re a very capable person, so don’t do something that’ll make me look down upon you, okay?

Earlier, I even had to tell someone else that there were two guiding principles that one should always follow to maintain their humanity: not take money you shouldn’t take, and not reciprocate feelings you shouldn’t reciprocate.

Loving someone and receiving that person’s love in turn, generously and under broad daylight, is a form of respect to that person, and also a form of respect to yourself.”

“Alright, alright.” Once she started morally lecturing him, Ruby couldn’t stand her anymore. In defeat, he mumbled, “I know what I’m doing.”

But he still didn’t confess to anything.

Amber sighed, wanting to say more. But before she could do so, Ruby started the car and preemptively said, “I’m driving. I can’t be distracted right now, so I can’t talk to you.”

It was a total refusal to communicate. Helpless, Amber could only ignore him for the moment, taking solace in the thought that she would have a proper chat with him later.

Later, she would be busy, so busy that she forgot all about this conversation. And when she finally remembered. At that time, Amber would wish that Ruby had merely been a two-timing bastard.