Chapter 381: 【Park Hyomin doesn't know, she really doesn't know!】 (Seeking subscriptions and monthly tickets)

The next day.

The sunlight of Dubai squeezed in through the gap at the edge of the curtains, carving a thin, long, golden-white band of light onto the dark wooden floor.

On the large bed inside the bedroom, Liu Zhimin opened her eyes.

The first thing to enter her field of vision was that unfamiliar ceiling, the unfamiliar chandelier, and that unfamiliar sliver of light and shadow at the edge of the unfamiliar floor-to-ceiling curtains.

Everything was so unfamiliar.

Even the hand that was gently wrapped around her waist was so unfamiliar.

But Liu Zhimin did not move.

She just lay there quietly, watching the slowly moving spot of light on the ceiling, listening to the steady, long breathing behind her, and feeling the body heat radiating from that arm.

Her mind was frantically flipping through the scenes from last night, one after another.

And then, she suddenly laughed silently.

A smile rippled from the corners of her lips, spreading all the way to the corners of her eyes, and into the messy long hair she had buried into the pillow.

Only then did she gently turn around to look at the person sleeping beside her.

At this moment, Lin Xiuyuan was still fast asleep.

The morning light crawled from the gap in the curtains onto his profile, outlining a slightly undulating contour from his jaw to his Adam's apple.

Liu Zhimin just watched him like this, watching for a long time.

Then she reached out her hand, using her fingertips to gently trace his brow bone, separated by a few millimeters of air.

She did not touch him, just drawing stroke by stroke across that thin layer of air.

From the peak of his brow to the tail of his brow, from the bridge of his nose to the peak of his lips, from his jaw to his Adam's apple.

As if tracing a painting that was far too precious.

Just at this moment, Lin Xiuyuan's eyelashes moved slightly, and the instant he opened his eyes, he saw that someone who had already propped herself up and leaned forward.

Looking at the finger she hadn't had time to pull back yet, looking at her movement that was frozen in mid-air, somewhat at a loss.

Having guessed something, the corners of Lin Xiuyuan's mouth slowly curved upward.

He spoke, "Morning."

His voice carried the hoarseness of just waking up, very low, very deep.

And as Lin Xiuyuan spoke, the auricles of Liu Zhimin's ears also turned red in a "pop."

While quickly pulling back her hand, she turned over and buried her face and shyness into the pillow.

Seeing this, Lin Xiuyuan gave a light laugh, "I didn't see anything."

"Liar." Liu Zhimin's voice came from deep within the pillow.

"I really didn't see anything." Lin Xiuyuan's tone was excessively sincere, "I just woke up, my vision hasn't recovered yet."

Hearing this, Liu Zhimin revealed one eye from the pillow.

She glared at him, but there wasn't a trace of real annoyance in the depths of her eyes; instead, they were rippling with a fine, fragmented smile like the morning light.

"You definitely saw it."

"Mm, I saw it."

"..."

"!!!"

"Saw you leaning over, wanting to sneak a kiss on me." After Lin Xiuyuan finished speaking, the smile at the corners of his mouth deepened.

And Liu Zhimin hurriedly turned around to explain, "I didn't, I was just—"

"Just what?"

Looking at that face within arm's reach, Lin Xiuyuan teased and asked in return.

Discovering she was being teased, Liu Zhimin couldn't hold back for a moment; she threw herself into Lin Xiuyuan's arms and started making a fuss, rubbing and grabbing—it was a scene of infinite spring.

And Lin Xiuyuan also played along with her for a while, at the same time taking advantage of this action to digest the tension from last night, so as not to appear so reserved and unfamiliar.

So after making a fuss for a moment, Liu Zhimin finally adjusted the status between the two of them, and then softly called out, "Xiuyuan."

"Mm."

"Do you have any plans for today?"

Lin Xiuyuan did not answer immediately, but instead held the delicate body in his arms, following her gaze toward the curtains filled with morning light.

After pondering for a good while, he then replied, "Yesterday we went dune bashing and visited the garden. Today we can go to the Old Town to look around; there's also the Dubai Creek, the Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, and the spice market to visit. Over there, there are traditional small boats you can take to cross to the opposite bank to see the Gold Souk."

After hearing these words, Liu Zhimin slowly reached her hand out from under the quilt and gently placed it on the back of the hand that was holding her.

"How about we forget it, let's not go out, we'll just rest here in the Jiudian."

"Okay." Lin Xiuyuan didn't hesitate for a second and agreed instantly.

And the sunlight outside the window became even brighter.

It was another winter day common in Dubai, sunny to the point of being almost transparent.

At the same time, deep in the corridor of the high-floor guest rooms of this Jiudian, in a position diagonally opposite to the room where Lin Xiuyuan and Liu Zhimin were staying.

The atmosphere inside another guest room there was currently still immersed in the laziness and tranquility unique to the morning.

Park Hyomin, who had just pushed the door open and walked out of the bathroom, still had water droplets remaining on her face from washing it with cold water, and a few strands of hair on her forehead were dampened.

After coming out, she raised her hand to gently press a towel against her cheeks, her gaze looking toward one of the beds in the guest room.

Over there, Li Juli was still fast asleep, half her face buried into the fluffy Jiudian pillow, her breathing steady and long.

The quilt had been kicked into a bit of a mess, covering only her waist, revealing the light gray silk pajamas she was wearing.

After glancing at her, Park Hyomin walked to her own bedside and picked up her phone to look at the screen: 10:47 AM.

——

Originally, the three of them had planned to return today, but last night before going to sleep, while Dalongzai was curled up over there scrolling through her phone, she suddenly looked up and said a sentence.

"Unnie, shall we stay one more day? There's nothing to do back home anyway, and it would be nice to wait for Xiuyuan. It'll be more lively if we all go back together."

Li Juli, who was wearing a facial mask at the time, looked at Dalongzai through the mirror and nodded in agreement, but said, "I'm fine with it, but it depends on what Xiaomin says. What if she has things to take care of?"

Park Hyomin, who had originally wanted to say something, felt that there was no reason that absolutely had to be said once the words reached her lips.

Because in the few days she had disappeared, her lover had only sent two messages asking why she wasn't home, and then there was no follow-up.

So, after thinking about it, she agreed as well.

Thus, the three of them began to change their bookings.

They prepared to stay one more day and return to Seoul together with Lin Xiuyuan later.

Thinking of this, Park Hyomin hung the towel back on the bathroom rack and stood in front of the mirror to look at herself.

Bare-faced, her long hair tied loosely behind her head, her loungewear was the most ordinary pure cotton style, without any adornment.

Only that face in the mirror seemed to have become a bit pale and colorless, appearing exceptionally haggard, not at all as rosy and radiant as Dalongzai and Li Juli.

After looking at herself repeatedly for a few more moments, Park Hyomin averted her gaze, not wanting to look any longer.

Instead, she turned and walked to the bedside, gently pushing Li Juli's shoulder, "Unnie."

Disturbed, Li Juli gave a vague "Mm," then turned over, pulled the quilt up, and continued sleeping.

"Unnie, time to get up."

Seeing this, Park Hyomin raised her volume a little, and her hand movement changed from a gentle push to a light shake, "We agreed to go out shopping today, and you nodded yourself last night. It's almost noon now; if you don't get up to wash and put on makeup, it will really be afternoon by the time we head out."

Hearing this, Li Juli's eyelashes fluttered, and she finally opened a slit in her eyes.

It was just that those eyes were still filled with sleepiness, and her focus had not yet fully gathered. She squinted at Park Hyomin standing by the bed, then looked at the already quite bright light squeezing in through the gap in the curtains.

She was silent for two seconds.

"Ah."

Then she let out a response that was somewhere between awake and asleep.

Next, she slowly propped herself up on the bed, her long hair piled messily on top of her head, and the sleep marks on her face extending from her cheekbones to the side of her ears.

Maintaining this posture of sitting on the edge of the bed, she stared blankly for a while before answering, "Got it."

Her voice was still hoarse from just waking up, and she waved her hand at Park Hyomin, "You go call Zhiyan first, I'll get up after I recover a bit."

Park Hyomin glanced at her and said nothing more.

She turned and walked toward the door, pulled it open, took a few strides to the door of Dalongzai's room, and pressed the doorbell.

Once, twice, three times, there was no response.

After waiting a few seconds, Park Hyomin pressed it a few more times.

This time she pressed it longer than before, which caused the crisp doorbell sound to appear exceptionally abrupt in the quiet corridor.

This time, there was finally some movement from inside the room; it wasn't very loud, but one could hear that someone was active inside.

After another few seconds, the door was pulled open a crack from the inside.

Dalongzai appeared behind the door.

Having been rudely awakened from a deep sleep, her long hair, which was usually styled exquisitely, was a tangled mess, like a bunch of uncombed seaweed piled behind her head and on her shoulders.

She was wearing a deep wine-red camisole nightdress, leaning her whole body against the door frame, her eyelids still drooping, and she let out a long yawn.

"Unnie—why so early————"

Dalongzai's voice, just woken up, carried a heavy nasal tone, soft like a rice cake just scooped out of the blanket, "Early?" Park Hyomin looked at her, her tone carrying a trace of helplessness, "Look at what time it is now, and you call it early."

While speaking, her gaze failed to hold its ground.

Her eyes seemed to have a will of their own, subconsciously crossing over Dalongzai's shoulder from the side of her face to scan the dim space behind the door crack.

It was just a glance.

It was so fast that she herself didn't even have time to realize what she had done.

But it was caught exactly by Dalongzai.

So the hand supporting the door frame paused, and then the eyes that were previously too sleepy to open slowly curved up, like a little dinosaur that had caught the tail of its prey just after waking up.

At the same time, she couldn't hold back her laughter and said, "Unnie, stop looking."

Then she straightened up and generously pushed the door open a bit more, revealing the quiet guest room behind her with the curtains tightly drawn, "Xiuyuan didn't come home last night; he's not in my room."

Hearing this, Park Hyomin withdrew her gaze, her face showing no major change in expression, and she made her tone as flat as possible, answering as if it were just a casual tease, "Then you're still so calm; your man is cheating."

This sentence made Dalongzai tilt her head and look at her for two seconds.

That gaze couldn't be called scrutiny; it was more like an observation filled with amusement, like catching a Pinocchio who was telling a lie.

So the next second, Dalongzai threw out a line, "Unnie, you're overthinking again."

This sentence seemed to mean nothing, yet it was like a small stone of just the right weight, accurately thrown into the lake of Park Hyomin's heart, which was already rippling.

So Park Hyomin didn't respond, just gave a light "Hmph," and turned to walk toward her own room.

However, after walking only a few steps, she stopped and turned back to call out.

"By the way, hurry up and wash and put on makeup. We agreed to go out shopping and eat; don't make us wait for you alone again."

"Got it————"

Dalongzai, having finished teasing the other, was very happy; she waved at her back with a drawn-out tail tone, then let out a second yawn and closed the door.

About an hour later.

The three of them finally appeared in the hotel lobby.

Li Juli wore a beige long trench coat, with a simple black and white striped shirt underneath.

Dalongzai, walking beside her, had changed into a light apricot-colored knitted dress.

And Park Hyomin, walking at the very front, wore a haze-blue oversize suit today, her long hair styled into natural big waves with a curling iron, draped over her shoulders, the ends of her hair gently brushing against the lapels of the suit.

Outside the hotel entrance, the car they had booked in advance was already waiting in the drop-off area.

The three of them got into the car one after another, with Li Juli sitting in the passenger seat, and Park Hyomin and Dalongzai taking the back seats.

After the few of them were seated securely, the car, under the driver's guidance, slowly pulled away from the Jiudian and merged into the traffic that was still flowing incessantly at high noon in Dubai.

And as soon as she got in the car, Li Juli, who was fixing her stray hairs in the passenger side sun visor mirror, suddenly seemed to remember something and turned her head to look at Longzai in the back row.

"Zhiyan, did you tell Lin Xiuyuan about us changing our flight, so we can go back with him when the time comes?"

Longzai, who was leaning against the seat back looking out the window, looked to the front upon hearing this, "I told him, I sent him a message before going to sleep last night."

"But he hasn't replied to me yet; he's probably still sleeping."

After she finished speaking, she even shook her phone screen toward Li Juli; there were indeed a few KakaoTalk messages sent last night that remained unread to this day.

"Sleeping so soundly." A voice drifted eerily from beside her, "Who knows what bad things he went off to do last night."

The voice came from Park Hyomin.

While speaking, her gaze remained fixed outside the window, as if it were just a casual, unintentional remark.

But that tone and that manner made both Li Juli and Longzai unable to help themselves, and they turned their heads to look at her at the same time.

Two pairs of eyes, carrying almost identical smiles, landed on her profile.

"Unnie, your state right now is so resentful."

"Exactly, exactly. Someone who didn't know better would think Lin Xiuyuan did something to wrong you. For example, hmm—"

"Cheated on you or something."

"—"

The teasing from these two made the fingers Park Hyomin was using to hold her phone tighten slightly.

She turned her face to look at Li Juli's smiling eyes in the rearview mirror, then looked at the face full of mischief beside her, Park Jiyeon.

Her lips moved as if she were about to refute, or perhaps as if she were about to explain something.

But in the end, she said nothing.

She simply turned her face back toward the window, leaving her entire profile and the back of her head to the two women in the back seat whose shoulders were shaking with laughter.

And right now, the Dubai outside the window was at its most radiant moment.

Yet Park Hyomin, looking at all of this, seemed as if she saw nothing at all, because she was thinking of one person.

At this moment, her mind was full of that man who was not within her line of sight.

And it wasn't the one on her marriage certificate, but Lin Xiuyuan.

Just thinking about this point was truly too absurd.

Yet even Park Hyomin did not know when she had started to become like this.

Was it that night in the lounge when he spoke that secret she thought only she knew?

Or was it yesterday at the airport when she took his hand and he naturally gripped back to lead her running toward the boarding gate?

Or perhaps even earlier, so early that before she had time to put up her defenses, the problem had already occurred?

Park Hyomin did not know; she truly did not know.