Ru followed him out of the restaurant and found the man taking the elevator. She waited and saw that the elevator had stopped at the rooftop. Not even waiting for the elevator, Ru ran towards the stairs and took a flight.
Even after running up twenty floors, she wasn't breathless because of her stamina but she was sweating profusely. There was eagerness in her eyes and the restless heart of hers was drumming violently against her chest. Her eyes were wandering around on the dimly lit rooftop which seemed barren but she knew better. She would never believe that there was no one around her.
Taking a couple of steps ahead, she shouted, "I know you're here. Come out! Now!" There was a ghostly silence around her. But Ru stood her ground. "Don't play games. I'll kill you otherwise."
A snort was heard and Ru turned to face the man she met earlier. He had removed his cap and looked at Ru with a self-deprecating laugh. With a pang of sadness in his eyes, he said, "How many times are you planning on killing me?"
Ru frowned at his reply as she took a calculated step close to him. The soft light was falling on one side of his face. He looked like one of those flower boys with just his looks. Those soft brown eyes were pulling her like a magnet. Ru's hand lifted slowly and he didn't move back. As her fingers brushed his cheek, he closed his eyes and felt the tremble in her hand.
"I didn't know you were such a softie. Your hands are trembling." With a chuckle, he looked into her green eyes again and added, "That's another first."
Ru retracted her hand and clenched it into a tight fist even her knuckles had turned white. "When did this young master dare to kill you?" The look in her eyes was unfathomable but oddly, to the person before her, it was very amusing and familiar.
"Didn't you?" He retorted with a pained expression. "You broke your promise. You broke the one thing I valued in this world; my trust in you. You broke our bond. And with all that, you Young Master Ru broke your brother."
Ru closed her eyes at his words, she didn't want to face him. That face might have changed with years but those eyes... How could she forget those eyes she used to love so much?
They both were as much of strangers as they were familiar with each other. It was like they knew the other person and yet, they both were trying to find someone in the eyes of the other person. They were trying to find the person they lost. At the same time, they were looking at the person they had become with time.
"Why are you standing so calmly then?" Ru's words made him knit his brows in confusion. "If I broke you so much Second Young Master, why are you still so calm?" She looked challengingly into his eyes as she added, "Yell at me. Scorn me. Hate me. Condemn me. Do something!" 'Do anything to take to this bloody guilt out of me.' She kept the last words for herself.
The man placed his hands on her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. "I wish I could do all that. I wanted to. Trust me, I had written a whole speech for you. But..." The rims of his eyes reddened as he continued, "Ge, I can't bring myself to do it."
Ru felt her heart taking a leap when she heard him calling her 'Ge' after a decade. It was such a long time. So long that she felt like she was in a dream. Was this really a dream? The arms on her sides lifted on their own as she patted his back.
"I didn't think you'd still be a weakling." Ru's comment made him smile as he shook his head. "Can't even do one thing right."
"Grandfather said, love doesn't leave room for hate. You can either love someone or hate someone. But once you love them, you can only lie to yourself that you hate them because love would never leave hate in its place. All it leaves behind is a void. Something which is deadlier than hate itself." As he quoted their grandfather's words, Ru was again hit with a wave of nostalgia. "And if you really hate someone from the bottom of your heart then you're never in love with them, to begin with."
Pulling herself away from her brother, she said, "When did my Second Young Master start paying attention to grandfather's words?"
"Since the time you left me to fend for myself. All alone." He muttered making a tinge of guilt to flash past Ru's eyes. "The promise was of a year. I waited and waited and kept waiting. But you didn't come like you said you'd." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "You always called me a fool. I think I took that very seriously because I really waited for you like a fool."
Ru stepped back making a distance between them as she turned to look away. "You should have stopped waiting like everyone else. You knew how much I loved freedom. I am enjoying my freedom away from that stuffy state where I always was bound to some rules." Ru said in her calm tone. Keeping all her emotions locked up all over again.
"HA! My brother was everything but he never was a liar. Lost values or changed them for this world? Right, why would you care about a clingy brother? Your freedom matters more. Brother? It's a petty little title." His words seemed harsh to her which she wasn't expecting from him.
"XIA HAORAN! Mind your words!" Ru looked back at him with raging eyes as she shouted. "Question my values. Don't you dare question our bond! Or my love for you!"
A beautiful smile spread on his face as a tear slid down his cheek betraying his emotions. Then that smile turned into a peal of full-blown laughter. The sound of his laughter seemed to have struck Ru as she stood stunned looking at her younger brother. But more than his laughter, his tear shook her heart.
She held his face in her hands as she wiped his tear with her thumb and asked, "Why are you crying?"
Xia Haoran placed his hand over hers and said, "Ge, this is the first time I heard my name from your mouth in my whole life."
His words took her by surprise. She recalled how she really had never called him by his name. Even though the said name was given by her very self. He was her rice cake, her little brother, her life... It was strange but truly, it was the second time she called his name. First would have been when she held him in her arms and looking at his bright eyes and said, "I'll call you Haoran. My Xia Haoran."
"It sounds good. I never thought it sounded this pleasing before." Ru punched his shoulder making him yelp playfully. "Well, somethings never change. You still are the violent one between us."
"Being funny, are we now?" Ru retorted resentfully.
"It's a known fact that between the two of us, only I have a sensible sense of humor." He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he added, "I doubt that you have improved in these years at all."
Ru gaped at him with narrowed eyes. Both of them stood silent again. Ru had to tilt her head to look at him now. He really had grown up. "Oi! Aren't you ashamed?"
"What for?"
"How dare you grew taller than your elder brother?"
Xia Haoran nudged her arm saying, "You must be hopping mad since you can't tease me now for being tiny."
"Itty-Bitty rice-cake. Remember who I am before teasing me. I still have a bad temper." Ru warned him but he could tell she was bluffing. She always did that around him.
"Look at my height. How am I Itty-Bitty now? Don't just make things up." He pursed his lips to show his displeasure but inwardly he was glad to see his brother was still treating like before.
"By all means, grow taller than a skyscraper. But you'll still be my Itty-Bitty rice-cake." Ru answered matter-of-factly.
Holding her hand in his own, he looked at it carefully as he said, "I missed you, Ge."
Ru felt ants running all over her chest as if making it stuffy. But she still managed to squeeze his hand back as she said, "This young master missed you more."