Beach Date

The white sands of the beach had been fascinating, but to have walked on the beach with someone she liked had been extremely significant to her. She had strolled with her girlfriends on the beach countless times during the past five days, but only this time it had made a difference. Simply because she was with Mr. Yu Bing.

He watched the sunlight stream over her dark locks, and wondered where had he been in the last three years, that he had not noticed her flourishing into a beauty. He was reminded of the time when he was 16 and she was 11, and they had coincidentally ran into each other at a resort when their fathers were on a business trip. She had asked him to cycle her around the resort as she didn't know how to pedal a bicycle. It had been the first time she had told him she had liked him, and he hadn't thought much of it since she was a child then. But now, she was no longer the child he saw in his memory. He felt even guiltier that he had robbed her of that one thing that would cause her to never find herself the same any longer. Something that she would have chosen to keep for her Mr. Right. If he had more self-control that night....

"Do you like the view?" he found himself asking, as she engrossed herself in scrutinising one of the gigantic leaves on a tree. She nodded. "Yu Bing, will you step back and help me take a photo?"

"Sure," he said, and took her smartphone from her, moving backwards until he was able to capture her from a better angle. It was at that point, when two mindless late teenagers of no more than nineteen, decided to try their luck and harass her. Since she had changed into an off-the-shoulder top, her flawless pearl-white skin was exposed and it had enticed the two teenagers to approach her.

"Miss, are you free to chat?" the first teenager asked, and she looked at him strangely.

"Miss, could I have your number? Just ignore Ernie, he's just a kid. My father owns a large number of palm tree orchards in Indonesia," the other teenager blurted out in English, with a heavy Indonesian accent.

She shook her head and continued walking around the beach, engrossed in the flora and fauna around. The boys continued to harass her, with promises that she would be happy because they were the children of local magnates. Just then, she heard a booming voice.

"TIDAK BISA," the voice said. Those two words meant not possible. Yu Bing had to pass the message that the exchange of numbers was not happening. "Sepatutnya harus tanya sama pacarnya lebih dahulu (It's a must to ask the boyfriend first)."

He sounded really mad, that for a moment, Myra thought he seriously was going to punch the boys, but they ran off as quickly as they came.

"Hey, don't get mad," she patted Yu Bing on the back. "They're just kids, really. What can they do?"

"I don't like it," Yu Bing said, feeling a bit of discomfort that the boys had been eyeing the girl he was with. "Let's just go."

"Did you get my photo?" she inquired vainly. "Also, what did you say to them?"

"That it's not possible and they should ask the boyfriend first," he answered her. Though he wasn't fluent in Indonesian language, he had picked up what the tour guide and hotel staff had been conversing in over the past days he had been in Bali, and he had gathered some understanding in basic Indonesian. But since he had been really infuriated by the pesky kids earlier, he had kept the sentences short, and scared them off with the anger in his tone.

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Are you jealous?"

"Er, no, nothing of the sort," he promptly defended himself. "I'm just protecting you. After all, we did grow up seeing each other."

She giggled and kissed him on the cheek playfully. "Thank you for protecting me, then."

"Er, Myra?" he asked, feeling her moist lips touch his cheek.

"Yes?" she responded cheerfully.

"Do you want to cycle together? I could rent a tandem bicycle for the two of us, since I recall you can't cycle."

"I'd love to!" she cried out gleefully. As he walked towards the stall to rent the bicycle, he turned back to look at her, and ensure that nobody else was hitting on her again. Cycling together had brought back memories of her and him at the resort when they were young children, and Yu Bing hoped that it would at least reimburse her slightly for his guilt of making her part of his plan to appease his father. Not too long ago, he had just caused his father much tension from his insistence to pursue and be with Lu Lu, and following that, he had messed up a business deal with the Yang Hotels Group. By playing along with their fathers' idea for them to date and pretend they were an item, Yu Bing and Myra would unite the two groups and improve the ties between them, as well as allow the fathers to be happy, even if it was just for a few months.

She had hugged him and thanked him joyfully before entering her suite, and he merely responded with a few smiles. In his heart, he had also appreciated that he had at least brought a few smiles to her face, after what had happened the night before.

Since they had linked rooms with the other girls, Situ Shao seized the opportunity to grill Myra about why she hadn't returned the night before. Feeling embarrassed at having an one-night stand at her tender age, she lied that she had gone for a midnight stroll and came back while everyone was asleep, before waking up early and leaving while everyone hadn't woken up, to go with Yu Bing as his date for the engagement party.

"Oh?" the gossiper responded curiously. "But as far as I recall from the posters and announcements, the engagement party started at ten and should have ended at four p.m. max. It's already ten p.m., so where did you go after that?"

"We had a few drinks at the bar and talked about our childhood. Totally lost all track of time."

"Nothing happened between you?" she looked disappointed.

"Sorry to spoil your chances in having a good scoop."

Shao chuckled, and then smiled shyly while looking down at her knees. "Myra, actually, I...I did it with Li Wei."

Myra's eyes almost bulged out in surprise. How her best friend had kept her relationship with her bodyguard cum chaffeur secret, beat her.

"So he was the one whom you dumped me for last night."

Shao flashed her best friend a guilty look. "I'm sorry, Myra. I know you'll forgive me."