~|confession #5 - when life gives you lemons, it gives you in dozens|~

"What am I supposed to do with all these lemons? They were not on my order list! I don't want them, okay! Take them back, please." ~ Dr. Sang Tian

»»——————————««

Sang Tian woke up with one of the worst hangovers that she had ever been through. The splitting headache was the first thing that registered making her feel grateful for the blackout curtains. With a groan, she moved the comforter off her body and stepped down the bed.

Her clothes had been changed, she noted. Squinting her eyes she looked around and found herself in her room at the Lakehouse. Rubbing the sleep off her eyes, Sang Tian massaged her temples gently to slightly ease the pain.

There were two glasses of water and a glass of lemonade placed on her side table along with pain reliever medicine. Sang Tian took the medicine and drank a glass of water and half of the lemonade before walking over to the washroom.

Filling up the bathtub she put in the lavender and peppermint bath bomb, Sang Tian stripped down and stepped inside the fizzy, purple water. Resting her head against the cushioned headrest, Sang Tian closed her eyes and stretched her limbs inside the tub.

As the warm, fragrant water lapped against her skin, Sang Tian felt her sore muscles relax. Adjusting herself into a comfortable position, Sang Tian let out a sigh and let herself soak in the bath for the next half an hour.

Afterwards, she had a quick shower to wash the color and glitter off her skin and waddled over to her walk-in closet and picked out a pair of comfortable, light blue colored jeans and a black turtle neck top to pair the jeans with.

She picked up her cell phone and checked if she had received any emergency calls from the hospital. There was none from the hospital but her parents and her brother had tried to contact her.

'What is it?' she sent the message to her elder brother and without waiting for a response, she put the phone in her jeans pocket and walked out.

Sang Tian made her way out of her room and went downstairs to the living room where she knew her friends would be. She greeted them all with a lazy wave of her hand and went to lie down on the couch.

Pulling a cushion under her head, Sang Tian looked up at her friends through tired eyes and asked, "What?"

Dylan, Yu Xin, and Chen Qiang shared a glance among the three of them but said nothing. "What?" Sang Tian asked again. Seeing the expressions on her friends' faces, Sang Tian had an inkling that something was not right.

"Don't tell me that I did something stupid last night!" she exclaimed and covered her face with her arm and let out a groan when she heard Yu Xin and Dylan burst into giggles. When Chen Qiang chuckled, Sang Tian knew that it was worse than she thought.

"What did I do?" she asked in a feeble voice as she turned on her side, her face stuffed against the back of the couch.

"Do you not remember?" questioned Dylan laughter evident in his tone.

Sang Tian's voice was muffled when she responded with, "If I had remembered, I wouldn't have asked you!"

"Well," Yu Xin began and was about to relay to her the events of last night but was interrupted by the ringtone of Sang Tian's cell phone.

It was her BB, her big brother Sang Yan's call, "Hello." Sang Tian said answering the call.

"You have an evening shift today right?" asked Sang Yan on the phone.

"Yeah." responded Sang Tian, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown.

She heard him hum before he said, "Come home before you leave for your shift. Mom and Dad want to talk to you about something."

"Okay." drawled Sang Tian, "What is it?" she asked in hopes of a hint of what their parents wanted to talk to her about as Sang Yan sounded serious. She was worried wondering about what must have happened.

"Just come home, okay." was all he said before ending the call.

She did not have the time to ponder over it much as her attention was called back onto their previous topic of discussion by her friends' muffled giggles, "So, what did I do?"

With eerily similar expressions of mirth and entertainment, Dylan and Yu Xin shared a glance before starting to give her a rundown of the events of last night. Sang Tian's eyes grew wider and wider as her two best friends told her about what she had done while Chen Qiang just sat there silent, shaking his head and lips curled into a teasing smile. 

"You know how clingy you become when you get drunk, right?" commented Dylan to which Sang Tian simply nodded in response.

"Well, you upped the level of your clinginess by several degrees last night!" he exclaimed with laughter in his voice.

"No!" drawled Sang Tian in a dramatic manner.

"Yes!" exclaimed Yu Xin in the same tone and added, "You clung to him like a koala; wrapped your arms and legs around him, and just wouldn't let go."

"No!" Sang Tian was on the verge of tears. She looked up at Chen Qiang hoping he would deny Yu Xin's claims but instead, he only added to it.

Nodding his head positively, Chen Qiang said, "It took the three of us to pull you from him. You even managed to rip his shirt." he said sounding so nonchalant as if this was normal.

"Oh my God!" cried Sang Tian and covered her face with her hands but her so-called best friends only laughed harder at her plight.

"Did you not see the piece of fabric on the bed next to your pillow?" asked Dylan while Yu Xin almost fell on the floor laughing.

Peeking through her fingers, Sang Tian almost begged, "Don't tell me that I brought back a piece of that man's shirt that I ripped."

This time Yu Xin fell on the floor and took Dylan along while Chen Qiang convulsed with laughter, "Okay. We won't tell."

"Oh no!" Sang Tian stuffed her face against the back of the couch in shame. She vowed to herself to never drink again for who knows she might end up assaulting someone else again. She had ripped off someone's clothes, who knows what she will do next when she is drunk.

As her friends continued to poke fun at her Sang Tian stood up from the couch and ran away after announcing, "I am leaving!"

She went upstairs to her room, and grabbed her stuff along with the ripped piece of fabric, and ran out of the Lakehouse not wanting to be reminded again and again of what she did last night.

She ran away to avoid one problem unaware that she was going to encounter another one soon.

»»——————————««

Locking her car close, Sang Tian headed inside the Sang family mansion feeling anxious about what her parents wanted to talk about. Her brother had been very cryptic during their phone conversation and did not give her even a hint about what their parents wanted to discuss with her.

She tried to shake the uneasy feeling off her chest but it continued to nag her like a vague premonition of danger; a forewarning.

"What could be worse than throwing oneself on a stranger and then ripping that stranger's clothes?!" she tried to comfort herself instead it caused a shiver to run up her spine, "What in the world?!" she whispered to herself while rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

Her parents along with her brother were waiting for her in the family living room and looking at the grim expressions on their faces Sang Tian felt another shiver run through her body.

"Hi!" she exclaimed smilingly and went over to hug her parents, "What's up? Why are you looking so serious?" she asked while taking a seat beside her brother Sang Yan.

Her parents shared a glance, communicating silently through their eyes for a minute while she hooked her arm with her brother's and rested her head on his shoulder. She was still slightly hungover and wanted to sleep.

"What is it?" she asked not getting a reply. Her parents looked like they wished to be anywhere except here. Sang Yan let out a frustrated sigh pinching the bridge of his nose, "You know grandfather fought in a war, right?"

"Yes." nodded Sang Tian, confused as to why her brother would talk about their grandfather and the war he fought ages ago.

"Do you remember the story about the war where grandfather and his best friend were stuck in a tight spot and they had extremely low chances of getting out of there alive but they managed to do so and were later rewarded for their bravery?" her father, Sang Rong blabbed.

"Yes, yes, and yes." said Sang Tian, her forehead creased with lines of worry and confusion, "What about that?"

"Well, your grandfather and his best friend made this promise that if they made it out alive from the war they would get their kids married and become in-laws." Sang Tian's mother, Luo Lan sounded annoyed.

"Eh, what?" Sang Tian made a face as she listened to her parents continue to explain the situation to her.

"Yeah, they promised on their lives and honor that they would have their kids get married and become in-laws but your grandfather had only one son, that is me, and his friend has only sons as well. There was no daughter born so they kind of transferred the promise to the next generation." explained her father looking extremely apologetic.

Sang Tian raised her head from her brother's shoulder, "No!" she said with a shake of her head. 

In response, her parents nodded in positive and so did her brother, "Yes, because of the promise that grandfather to his friend, you are supposed to get married to the Zhang family's son."

"What the f-" 

"Language!" her mother scolded before Sang Tian could cuss.

"You guys cannot do this to me! You cannot force me into marrying someone because of a stupid promise that Grandpa made all those years ago!" shouted Sang Tian, "I am not consenting to this, okay!"

"Tian Tian, sweetie," Luo Lan went to sit beside her daughter and placed her hand on Sang Tian's shoulder, "I know that this is not the right thing to do but can you at least meet the Zhang family boy and see if -"

Sang Tian stood up enraged, "No! I am neither getting married like this nor I am going to meet that guy. There are no ifs or buts to this."

"There is another promise though." interjected Sang Yan while looking up at Sang Tian.

"What?" she snapped.

"Remember how you could not find a suitable birthday gift for grandfather last year and then you ended up promising him that he could ask you for anything and you would give that to him." reminded Sang Yan making his sister turn deathly pale.

"No!" she drawled with a shake of her head while Sang Yan responded with, "Yeah, he cashed in on that promise today."

"He is using that promise to force me into this marriage?" Sang Tian's heart cracked and eyes brimmed with tears thinking that her grandfather would do something like this to her.

"No." Sang Rong was quick to respond, "He only wishes for you to meet that boy with a positive attitude and see if it can work."

"His friend, Mr. Zhang is adamant though." informed Luo Lan in a sympathetic tone.

Sang Tian sniffled while wiping the corner of her eyes. She stayed silent for a few seconds before grabbing her stuff and announcing, "I need to go." and without another word, she left her home and drove away ignoring her family's frantic calls.

She went straight to the on-call room in the hospital. There were still a few hours left for her shift to start so she decided to just sleep in on the latest problem in her life and decided to think about it with a fresh mind.

Sang Tian was unaware that this was not the last problem for the day, another one was on its way. She had just fallen asleep when two police officers, one male and one female, came knocking at the door.