18 LATE IN THE NIGHT (4)

She bit her lower lip, fighting the honest urge to shed some emotional tears. She gripped his shirt's collar. "What you did is what's OFFENSIVE. That's OFFENSIVE!!! It's like you just disregarded my genuine intent to pay off my debt. You!!! Ugh!!!"

She released her hand, claimed her seat beside him, then buried her face on her palms.

Soft sobs came.

"Hu. Hu. Hu."

Xue Gunagxi clenched his teeth. What could he do in such a situation? It easily and very swiftly plummeted into the lowest of low.

"Stop crying, Sola." Xue Guangxi blurted out, immense annoyance still evident in his abrasive tone. "It's not like THAT much anyway. And, look's who's talking! It's young miss the heiress!" Xue Guangxi taunted with sarcasm.

He couldn't understand why Sola was such making a big deal out of it. Sure, he must have acted like a spoiled brat, but to cry over a relatively small amount of money by their standards, it was absurd in his eyes.

Kang Sola must have not lived the lifestyle befitting the title, but she's an heiress herself, no less. In South Korea where she was born and raised, her birth mother left her a hefty sum and a company of chemical plants under her name. Her second brother also left some worldly possessions for her.

So…

'Why the hell is she crying? She's still crying! Damn it!' He glumly thought.

He wanted to calm her and apologize, but he simply wouldn't want to do it just for the sake of doing it, especially when he doesn't see the point.

Also, all he did was to apologize to her that night. 'I'm tired of apologizing.' His scowl became more pronounced.

"Hey, Sola."

She didn't even budge.

'Fine. I'll do it, damn it!' He made up his mind.

Rolling his eyes, he said through his nose, "I'm sorry, okay? Hey!" He tapped her by the shoulders.

"Don't talk to me! Don't touch me!" Spite came flying towards the young man's direction.

Her unfriendly response induced his blood to boil even more. "Okay, okay!!!" He raised his two arms in the air.

The lady stood up, and without sparing him a glance, she walked away.

Kang Sola cried because she felt like crap. She felt she was looked down to, belittled, and trampled on, and by her friend at that! She thought that if a stranger did what Guangxi did to her it must have been more tolerable simply because she wouldn't care the least for a stranger.

But it was Guangxi who did it to her. The offense had been far greater and the incurred wound deeper than it should be given credit for.

Also, she cried in frustration knowing the simple fact that she had no money left to go home by herself. She internally cursed herself for not leaving at least a few for emergencies. It implied that she needs to swallow her pride and ride home in Guangxi's car.

'Unacceptable!' She clenched her balled hands by her side.

Still, she walked away from him and attempted to get a cab. The first ones did not stop at her bidding. When finally a taxi stopped by, she told the driver her situation and promised to pay when they arrived at her house. The driver drove off even before she could slam the taxi's door shut.

Enraged, she stomped her feet as she marched down the side of the avenue.

"I'll just walk home. So be it! Grrr!!!" She mumbled under her breath. "I should have hopped into the taxi without explanation."

While walking her way home, she attempted a few more times to halt a cab, but her efforts were for naught. Very few cabs passed by, and those which did were mostly occupied.

At least her body felt fine now. Her muscle cramps from before had toned down. She had regained energy from eating, too. She should be fine reaching home on foot, right?

Or would she?

Xue Guangxi followed the lady by car. The soft purring of the engine and the headlights gave him away but Kang Sola never once acknowledged him and his car's presence.

He drove the car at the slowest speed he could maintain, and close to the sidewalk. He fought the urge to honk at her. The scowl never left his face.

"Seriously?! How far can she go with this stupidity?" His fingers itched with the desire to just honk at her in full intensity and frequency. However, his self-control still worked the better of him.

Oh, how he wished his self-control had been more pronounced during the money-exchange incident. "Then, we wouldn't be in this stupid situation!" He grumbled.

As the car crept, he wondered how long would it take them to reach home, and how long Kang Sola could stretch her pride before giving in.

"She's not thinking about her health at all! We just came home from the hospital!"

After what it looked like just around ten minutes, Xue Guangxi could not keep it in anymore. He honked and honked at her, and pulled the car over on a stop by a curb.

He alighted from the car then grabbed Kang Sola's arm with force.

"Ouch! That hurts! Don't touch me!" Kang Sola fought and struggled against Xur Guangxi's stronghold. "Release me!!!"

"Help!!! Anyone!!!" She yelled in all directions. "I'm being assaulted!!! Help!!!"

Unfortunately, the streets were deserted. They were along a highway where cars outnumbered the pedestrians. Typically, pedestrians were not found in that area of the highway.

Xue Guangxi covered her busy mouth with his other hand. "Shut up!!! You're taking it too far!!! Is this how a lady should act?" He struggled, too, since she squirmed and tried all her might to escape from him.

Being the stronger of the two, Xue Guangxi took her by force, much to his dismay, and carried her back to the car. He shoved her into the passenger seat, buckled her up then ran back to the driver's seat.

When he reached the driver's seat, Kang Sola had unbuckled herself, opened the passenger door and was in the course of jumping out of the car had Xue Guangxi not able to grab onto her shoulder and yank her back to her seat, and closed the passenger door, all in the swift chronology of movements.

He utilized the child lock feature of his car he did not know would be handy to secure the belligerent feisty lady by his side.