Give Him Up
Along the way towards the arrival area, Eunice who still find her rebirth surreal, kept praying that she isn't dreaming. She also can't keep her excitement down knowing that she is finally going to see her family again. Before her death, she hadn't met them for more than a month after she fought with them when they try to discourage her from marrying Zach.
That, even after they learned that something had happened between her and Zach. What hurt her the most was when they said that nowadays losing ones virginity is not a big deal. Now she finally understood that they said that not because they didn't care about her reputation. It's just compared to her future happiness, reputation is not as important. Maybe they could foresee that the marriage is doomed to fail. After all they witnessed how Alice and Zach interacted. Remembering those dark times, her steps slowed down. She feel ashamed and guilty. She didn't know how to face them because she shouted and cursed at them at that time.
Eunice is only able to get out from her daze when she felt a hand pat her head. Seeing Victor's concerned gaze, she finally remembered that she had returned back in time. At this current timeline she is still in good terms with her family. Her mood then improved a lot and her steps regain vigor. She gave Victor a reassuring gaze. "I'm fine Vic. Just jet lagged and my legs are a bit numb from sitting for half a day." She explain.
Instead of feeling reassured, Victor's worry hightened. "You can also grab my arm if you are that tired. I can also carry you on my back if you want."
"What are you saying? That's embarrassing! Plus I have Emi." Eunice rebuked but deep inside she felt warm. Ever since she woke up, her friends' attention are all on her. Checking up on her from time to time. Emily is even letting her hold her arm for support.
Eunice felt touched with his concern. If it was the her on her previous life, she would not hesitate to jump on his back despite being in public. She doesn't have the concept of appropriate distance between different genders. And since she has no romantic feelings towards the other party, she never felt awkward with skinship. But after learning the true nature of his feelings for her, Eunice decided to keep an appropreiate distance between them from now on. Not only to not give false hope for the man, but also to show concern to Emily's feelings. Glancing at her direction, Eunice noticed that Emily kept glancing at their seemingly intimate exchange with pursed lips but kept quiet.
In this life Eunice vowed to help her two friends get together because one, Emily deserve Vic more, and two, she knows that her feelings for Victor will never turn to love. It would be selfish of her to keep the man and not take responsibility afterwards. She would never take advantage of Vic's feeling for convenience. She is beautiful, rich and educated. She doesn't believe she can't find a man to love and love her.
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When the three bestfriends exited the automatic sliding glass doors, they immediately spotted their families together who collectively smiled broadly towards them. Due to the friendship they built while studying abroad, their families also got aquainted and even had business relations.
The Lin family owns Golden Harmony Hotel, the largest hotel chains in the country with three storey mall on the first floors, with ten branches. Three of them are in S City alone. They also have one separate four storey, five hectares wide mall with the same name located at S City. This was originally owned by the Han family, Eunice's maternal family, but was merged with the Lin family's hotel business after marriage making them at the top in the service industry.
Emily's family is in design and fashion industry. They own the Zhang Jewelrybox Company. Their main trade are jewelries and precious stones. But they also expanded in clothing, especially wedding dresses and gowns that includes precious stones and gems. Emily also has background in design but she prioritize business since she is the only child and is the heir of the company. And due to the friendship between families, they collaborated. That is why you can find Zhang Jewelrybox botique in every branch of Golden Harmony mall.
The Guan family on the other hand owns the Guan Construction Company. They are constantly on the top ten in their trade for three generations. The current generation CEO is Victor's older brother Michael in his early thirties. Victor is already twenty five, two years older than Emily and Eunice, because he studied programming first. Then he studied business because he plans to build a game developer company. He's goingto name it EVE, the initials of his and his friends name. Currently, the Guan and Lin family is collaborating in building a hotel resort in a newly developed island. They won the government's bidding in pioneering the industrialization of the said island to turn it to a new tourist spot.
The relationship between the three familes is really tight both on emotional and business level. That is why they suffered a devastating loss when Eunice insist on marrying Zach. The Guans almost went bankrupt and the hotel resort plan fell through. Emily pull out from the collaboration and transferred to a different city where another mall is more dominant. The hotel's reputation suffered a blow with Eunice's, the CEO, image as a homewrecker.
Seeing the three families' closeness, Eunice's tears can't help but fall again. She can't believe that she ruined such beautiful relationship because of her selfishness. The Guans and Zhang treated her better than their own children but she paid them back with suffering and disappointment. Right there and then she promised to herself that no matter what, she will protect this relationship. And if she could only achieve it by avoiding entanglement with Zach, she is more than willing to give him up.