142 Precious

There had once been a time when Rebecca Freeman Storm had planned rigorously to get the young master, Mr. Jimmy Hunter into trouble. Thirteen years ago, she had been so annoyed with the man's presence and her father's constant praise of him, that she had plotted to get him involved into just a little bit of trouble. Had she known back then, that Miya was all she needed to make the man kowtow, she would have been saved a lot of trouble herself.

The thought made Rebecca beam.

Meanwhile Jimmy realized his own words. His expression turned solemn, and he looked down at Rebecca. He had called Miya beautiful in front of this woman. He composed his face, and it turned stern at once.

Rebecca's smile widened at that.

"I won't tell her," she quickly said, raising her hands, "Though I think you should."

Jimmy hated the idea of being exposed in front of an outsider, so he simply nodded curtly and was about to walk off, when Rebecca called out to him again.

"I forgot to put earrings on Miya. Hand them over for me, please?"

Jimmy stared at her outstretched hand, and at the pair of light pink tassel earrings on her palm. He shrugged.

"She looks better without them," he said simply.

And his insides cursed out loud.

Damn! What was wrong with him? He was unstoppable today!

Rebecca pursed her lips, doing her best to not laugh out loud. Jim noticed that, and his eyebrows twitched. The Storm girl was talking too much right now.

"I'll be leaving then, Ms. Storm," Jim said by way of final greeting. Rebecca nodded. Just when the young master had spun around to walk away though, she remembered something else and called out to him again.

Jim frowned.

Rebecca was in thought as well.

"Mr. Hunter," she began, "I never asked you… but the night you organized the masquerade party, why did you want everything to be exactly the same as it was way back in 2004? I mean, at the party that my father organized? You even made me dress Miya up in similar clothes… That dress was exquisite, by the way. The most beautiful blue."

Jim was surprised by Rebecca's words. He had not expected her to bring this up again. Shrugging, he said nonchalantly, "I wanted to remind Miya of something."

"I've been wondering since. Did you both… by any chance, meet that night at my father's party?"

"We did."

Jim looked at Rebecca with interest now. He sure had asked the woman to aid him and dress Miya up in a similar fashion at the time of the masquerade ball. But he also recalled Miya thinking that her first kiss was with Rebecca. He wondered how that had happened.

"Oh… Miya never told me."

"She didn't know it herself."

That made Rebecca frown.

Jim looked at the rather tall woman, and then decided to prod in for information himself.

Rebecca's eyes were the size of orbs now.

"What?!"

"But she didn't know it was me. In fact, before I realized the truth, she told me her first kiss was with you."

"WHAT?!"

Rebecca's howl had grown tenfold. She looked positively horrified.

Jim cocked an eyebrow again, thoroughly confused now. He folded his arms across his chest, whereas Rebecca's brows furrowed to form a frown. She seemed baffled as well.

"B-But – " she said, "Why would she think that? I thought she kissed –" And then the girl stopped.

Jim's gaze grew piercing. The girl shrugged.

"I remember wanting to trouble you," and with slight discomfort, Becky related to Jim what she remembered of that night. How she had dressed up like Jim to try and con her parents, and how the plan had never actually happened.

When Jim heard the story, he was stumped himself. He looked at Rebecca incredulously, while the woman scratched at her hair and admitted, "I know it was a stupid plan."

"Very," the young master confirmed.

These girls… what sort of brain did they even have?

Jim would have chuckled, but he maintained his expression.

Rebecca bit her lip, then shrugged again. Jim wasn't done enquiring.

"Who did you think she was with that night though? You said the plan couldn't be executed. Why?"

Rebecca tried to recall the next few days after the party. She had a few flashbacks of Miya blushing a lot, sometimes tearing up, and not talking to her at all, unless of course, Becky was flirting with her. She remembered Miya ready to cry harder when she did that.

Rebecca hesitated for a few seconds, then sighed.

"Kasu… Kang Sung I mean, called me that night. He came to my place uninvited, so I had to go out. I think he wanted to meet Miya and I almost beat him up for it. Later on, I couldn't find Miya, but after the party she said something about kissing. I thought she and K-Kasu had kissed."

Jim's insides roiled at the words. His mouth was drawn into a thin line, and his expression darkened. He shirked away the brooding feeling that came over him.

"Kang Sung?"

"Yes. I teased her a lot about it, but I think it never was explicitly discussed between us about what actually happened that night. And the riots happened later on and… Miya left. But, I think I understand now why she blushed every time she saw me. This punk! She actually thought I kissed her?!"

Rebecca grumbled to herself a bit more, while Jim was lost in thought.

So it was a simple misunderstanding, with each party making their own assumptions. While Miya, owing to Rebecca's ridiculous plan, thought it was Becky who had kissed her, Rebecca in turn thought it was Kang Sung because he came over to her place that night.

Kasu…

"What kind of a man was he?" Jim's question was straight and he asked it with a long, expressionless face.

Rebecca almost spat when he did.

"Trash," she said without hesitation.

"Then why –"

"Miya was with him? I honestly never understood. They became rather good friends after we met. And I knew Kasu had a thing for her. But… I don't know. Their relationship was odd. They would be great friends somedays, but then sometimes, she would return back bruised. She and Kasu would have long drawn brawls and they beat each other up mercilessly. I – I don't know how it worked for them. But I was relieved once Miya left. I wanted to kill that bastard – I and my brother Adrian beat him up once, but Miya told us to back off. When she left, I thought she was rid of him. Turns out, they met again. Three years later."

Jim registered the words in his head, his face blank.

Rebecca shrugged.

"It's mean of me," she said again, "But when I met Miya again after all these years, she told me Kasu was dead. I was so happy. I know I shouldn't hold it against him, something that had happened so long ago… but whenever Miya and Kasu fought, it was brutal. And Miya was the one who ended up with more injuries. She was smaller… less strong. I never forgave him for it. The odd thing though… Miya didn't mind when I said I was glad it happened to Kasu and he died. In fact, she smiled."

That last piece of information struck Jim.

Miya had also told him she never loved Kang Sung.

What was going on?

"I –" Rebecca was still talking, her voice emotional now, almost as if she had recalled something horrible, "I'm so glad she met you, Mr. Hunter. When she left, I was scared for years. I had helped her run, and I didn't know where to… It must have been a nightmare. I've always questioned our decision back then, wondered if I made a mistake when I let her go."

Jim stared at Rebecca's head, as the woman looked to the floor now. There was a slight shiver in her shoulders. Jim's face lost a bit of its sternness.

"She's precious to me, Ms. Storm," he told her in a plain voice, "I won't hurt her."

The words made Rebecca look up at the man at once. The corners of her eyes were red, but she smiled and bowed lightly.

"Thank you."

"You don't need to."

Rebecca nodded rigorously, and turned around to walk back. Jim's head was a fluster of thoughts, but he did call out to the woman.

"Ms. Storm?"

"Yes?"

"It was a very brave decision to take over your father's company under circumstances like these. You would've made him proud."

Rebecca's throat clenched at that. She nodded slightly at Jimmy again, smiled at him and left.

Jim too turned around. His mind was fixated on Kang Sung.

If hatred was all that was between Miya and him, how had they stuck together for so long? And how had Ben come along?

And if there was affection before… then why did Miya hate a dead man now?

This was important, because Sheng was involved.

Jim needed to find out.