The Way, Way Back

6.

I opened Twitter and registered a new account. Then, I posted a handwritten clarification, stating that Jonah and I had peacefully broken up and had not been in touch for five years. Then, I wished him a happy life in the future.

Victor had removed the trending topic for me before I posted the tweet, although he had promised he would not interfere in this matter.

Then, I got two concert tickets and a Post-it note on my desk when I went back to work.

The note simply said, "You're welcome." But I did not know whether he was talking about the tickets or the trending topic.

"Grande Entertainment" was an entertainment company founded by my parents. Because of Jonah, I had gone abroad to take charge of the overseas branch. Everyone was polite to me on the surface, but the atmosphere was full of dissatisfaction. They knew that I was the "heroine" of the trending topic a few days ago, so some employees had even shared Jonah's trending topic as a successful marketing case in meetings. After a long day at work, I was exhausted.

.

But I could not go home to rest yet because I had to meet with my realtor and a buyer today.

When Jonah and I had started dating, my parents had disagreed because of his mediocre family background despite his good-looking appearance. They hoped I could marry a man of an equal social rank. But after witnessing his love for me, they had acquiesced in our relationship and even bought a house for us.

.

The house had been emptied since he had left. And my parents had never mentioned it again for fear of upsetting me.

After returning here, I made up my mind to get rid of it. Fortunately, things went smoothly. A buyer was willing to pay a price higher than the market price. Because it would cost a large amount of money, he wanted to talk with me face to face.

.

I didn't think too much and drove to the house after getting off work. But I had never expected to see Jonah when I opened the door.

.

He was thinner and more haggard than at the concert. His eyes hidden in the shadow of the cap brim were bloodshot. And the two black circles under them were conspicuous despite the mask. He did not look like a famous singer at all now.

.

I was a little dazed, feeling as if seeing myself five years ago.

Seeing me, the realtor walked out and said, "Ms. Young, here you are. This is Mr. Lynd. And he is the buyer I told you."

Jonah put on his sunglasses, reached out to me, and said, "Ms. Young, nice to meet you."

I couldn't quarrel with him in front of the realtor, so I hesitantly stretched out my hand and said, "Mr. Lynd, nice to meet you too."

I wanted to lightly shake hands and quickly withdraw my hand, but he suddenly tightly held my hand. I rolled my eyes at him and struggled to break free. Fortunately, he quickly let go. But I was more shocked when he said, "What a coincidence! My girlfriend's surname is also Young."

.

I rolled my eyes again to express my disinterest in his boring wordplay.

The realtor echoed with joy, "What a coincidence!" After all, he had told me on the phone that the buyer was extremely interested in my house and was willing to offer a high price.

"No wonder Mr. Lynd took a fancy to this house at first glance," the realtor said, motioning Jonah to go inside.

I could only follow him inside and whispered, "What are you up to?"

"Yeah, I want to propose to my girlfriend, so I need to buy a house," Jonah said and put his hands in the pockets of his trousers. His face was covered by the mask and sunglasses, so I could not see his expression.

"Are you getting married?" The realtor said in surprise, "Mr. Lynd, there is another coincidence! Ms. Young also bought this house to get married. The overall structure is very in line with the living habits of young couples, and the decoration is simple but not outdated. You and your wife can directly move in without renovation!"

The more the realtor talked, the more excited he became. But Jonah’s vibes were getting increasingly gloomy.

"Ms. Young, why are you selling such a good house?" Jonah's question was so unexpected that the realtor and I looked at each other in embarrassment.

I folded my arms over my chest and frankly answered, "I’ve long broken up with the man, so there is no reason to keep it. I'm getting married and plan to buy a new one."

The blue veins on Jonah's forehead faintly stood out.

The realtor noticed the strange atmosphere, so he hurriedly continued to introduce the house, saying, "The child's room is separated from the master bedroom. And the ingenuity of the house is that the sound insulation of the partition between the two bedrooms has been weakened. It is a very considerate design because the parents can always keep an eye on the child at night."

"I'm very satisfied with the house. I would like to increase the offer by 20%." Jonah a forced smile and continued, "Please go to prepare the contract. I have some questions that I want to ask Ms. Young in private. "

The realtor hurriedly nodded and contentedly left.

It wasn't until I heard the door closing that I breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Jonah, enough is enough. I'm not selling you the house anyway."

.

Suddenly, he clenched my wrist and forced me to the corner. Soon, a dull pain spread from my shoulder blades.

Then, he said with scarlet eyes, "You must not marry him!"

It hurt so much that I clenched my fists with a frown and said, "Jonah, are you insane? The house is mine! How to deal with it has nothing to do with you. And you have no right to interfere with my marriage!"

I desperately struggled, but he continued approaching me. When his tall figure cast a shadow on the wall, my vision became dim, and my chest was heaving in disorder.

He suddenly said in a soft tone, "Cindy, I was wrong!" Then, he rubbed my scar with his fingers and said, "You haven’t moved on, right? You haven't sold the house for years. Are you deliberately putting it up for sale now to give me a chance?"

His eyes lit up when he said, "I designed such a partition between bedrooms in my first house design homework. And it is you that inspired me."

Hearing this, I raised my hand to slap him. When the tingling pain spread in my palm, I said, "Jonah, if you haven't sobered up, I hope this slap can help."

Jonah’s mouth twitched, but he was still unwilling to give up. So, he said, "I know I deeply hurt you and owe you a lot."

A light flashed when he suddenly took out a small knife.

7.

"I will repay you." He raised the knife with a firm look. Unexpectedly, the blade was toward himself instead of me.

When I realized what he was up to, the blade was approaching his wrist! So, I reached out and grabbed the blade without thinking.

.

When blood flowed down my wrist, I met his astonished eyes.

Maybe because I had countless physical and psychological pains, I felt numb instead of pain when the blade cut my palm.

Jonah tremblingly released his grip for fear that the blade would cut deeper.

Tears gradually welled up in his eyes when he said, "Cindy, why are you so stupid? It's me that should die."

When I let go, the knife fell to the ground, making a loud sound.

I spread my hand, showed the bloody wound to him, and calmly said, "Jonah, is it enough now? The public doesn’t know the complete story between us. So, you managed to make use of it to build up a good public persona last time. Do you still want to use suicide to strengthen your affectionate persona?"

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When big drops of tears hit the ground, he took out a tissue from his pocket to bandage my hand in a panic and hurriedly explained, "I didn't intend to make use of the trending topic. I sincerely hope we can get back together."

"Really?" I sneered, "It is five years from the day you blocked me to the day of the concert. It is ten hours since the trending topic appeared to it was removed. If you’re sincere, why didn't you take any action back then? When you abandoned me, I cried myself to sleep every night and tried hard to convince myself that you must leave me because you had your difficulty. Jonah, I'm used to living without you now, and I don’t want to suffer the pain again.”

Looking at him sobbing, I took out my mobile phone and called the realtor, saying, “Hi, I’m not selling the house anymore. Don’t worry, I will pay you the commission according to Mr. Lynd's offer."

"No!" Jonah reached out to stop me, but I hung up the phone and put my injured hand between us to stop him from approaching me.

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When I rushed toward the door, the continuous footsteps behind sounded like a ringing alarm bell, making me not dare to look back or stop.

When I opened the door, I bumped into a man. Before I could see his face, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pushed me behind him.

It was Victor!

I immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and my racing heart began to slow down.

Suddenly, he threw a punch at Jonah. Hearing the loud colliding sound, I looked over his shoulder and saw Jonah fall to the ground. There was a new bruise on his cheek which I had slapped just now.

.

"Didn't I tell you not to stay away from her? What’s the matter with you? The trending topic can’t satisfy you? Do you want me to call the police?" While speaking, Victor took out his phone.

"Don't call the police!" Hearing me stop him, Victor showed a gloomier face. I explained in a faint voice that only he and I could hear, "You hit him. If you call the police, you will also get in trouble. I don't want to you get arrested."

Victor rolled his eyes at Jonah not far away, carefully held my hand, and asked with a frown, "Does it hurt?"

I shook my head with a smile, "Not really." After motioning for Victor to step aside, I said, "Mr. Lynd, I won't sell this house to you. My fiancé and you are both entertainers, so countless paparazzi are watching you. I hope you will not disturb our lives like this or allow the media to create rumors and cyberbullying again. Please show some respect. And I don’t want to see you again."

Victor took me into his arms, leaned against the door, and raised his eyebrows at Jonah, saying, "Mr. Lynd, please leave. We are going to lock the door."

Jonah stood up in a daze and nearly tripped over the threshold when leaving. After he disappeared from the elevator, my mind finally relaxed.

.

"Let’s go!" Before I could recover, Victor pulled me outward and angrily said with a frown, "You must go to the hospital. Look at you! Your lips are bloodless. You are a liar. You promised that you would never hurt yourself for him again. How could you go back on your word?"

.

He was two years younger than me. But when he scolded me, I obediently lowered my head, feeling as if a kid who had made a mistake.

I explained, "You misunderstood! He wanted to cut his wrist, so I did it to stop him."

Victor angrily laughed, "Cindy, do you think you are superwoman? How could you hold the blade bare-handed?"

"But if he had injured himself, the trending topic would be #Jonah committed suicide at his ex-girlfriend's home". What would netizens say? What would our parents think? I don't want him to make use of me again. Neither do I want the relationship between our families to be affected."

"What about me?" Victor asked while intensely staring at me.

"What?"

He smiled, "Didn't you say you don't want him to affect our relationship?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

He mysteriously said, "I thought of a way to solve the problem once and for all."

"Go ahead."

"Let’s get married!"