Fan Series #1; Choosing Her

54; His Love

JUNHAO

I was standing by the table, the weight of the moment heavy in the air as I watched her enter the house. My lips were about to form her name, "Zhubao—" but before I could utter more words, she dashed to her room, the door slamming shut with a resounding echo that reverberated through the house.

"Zhubao!" Hang's voice followed her as he hurried after. "Hey!"

"What's happening?" Zhixin's concern was palpable.

"What's wrong?" Ji's confusion mirrored our own as he stepped into the living room.

Hang knocked insistently on her door upstairs, but it remained closed, her silence a barrier between them. "Zhubao, please, talk to me. Let me explain whatever it is you've heard!"

"Tsk..." Azhi approached him with a solemn expression. "Kuai, Hang Ge, we need to talk..."

Hang meekly followed him and settled beside Azhi. "What is it?"

"I'm the one who should be asking you that..." Azhi's voice carried a weight of uncertainty. "What's going on...?"

"I-I don't know. What are you talking about?" Hang feigned ignorance, though the tension in his voice betrayed him.

"Admit it, Hang." Ji's tone was firm.

"We've known for a while," Yuhan chimed in.

"We were just waiting for you to confide in us," Zeyu added, his voice tinged with disappointment.

"We were waiting for you to trust us enough to tell us yourself, not keep us in the dark..." I interjected, my heart heavy with a sense of betrayal.

"So, you all knew?" Hang's voice wavered. "About us?"

"Yes..." I nodded, the admission feeling like a betrayal of its own.

"You betrayed our trust," Yuhan accused him bluntly. "You told us to wait, and yet you acted without considering any of us."

"I can't believe you'd lie to us like this, Hang," Ji's disappointment was evident.

"We trusted you, we talked about this," Zeyu's frustration was palpable. "We trusted you to stick to your word, to wait. But why couldn't you?"

The others rose to their feet, the tension thick in the room, but the elders—Guanyu, Zhixin, and Yu Zeyu— remained seated, their expressions a mix of concern and disappointment.

"But I didn't—" Hang's protest was cut short.

"You've broken the rules," Yuhan accused him, his voice sharp with anger.

"Your own rules, at that situation," Zeyu's remark dripped with sarcasm.

"The question remains. What did you do to her?" Ji's voice was laced with concern.

"S-She overheard me. I never meant to hurt her like this," Hang's voice cracked as tears welled in his eyes. "I was going to tell her about us, about how I've fallen in love with someone else—"

"Why didn't you tell her sooner, to spare her this pain?" Yu Zeyu interrupted, his disappointment evident.

"I-I... I was scared," Hang confessed, his voice barely above a whisper. "I was scared to see the hurt in her eyes, to see her shattered by my words."

"What did she hear from you?" Ji pressed, his patience wearing thin.

"She heard me say..." Hang's voice faltered.

"What?" I leaned in, desperate to understand the gravity of the situation.

"She heard me say that... I-I don't love her anymore," Hang's confession hung heavy in the air, the weight of his words crushing.