The Door Is Not Yet Closed

Yoshie rubbed her head, then turned to look at the two people on the floor. “What should we do with them?”

“I’ll help you back to your room first, then come back and carry them back one by one.”

“Okay.” Yoshie braced herself against the table and tried to stand. Seeing this, Su Yang rose first and reached out to take her arm. “Come on, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you, Su-san.”

“You’re welcome.” Su Yang gently pulled Yoshie to her feet.

However, because she had been sitting for quite a while and had drunk so much, her legs went weak the moment she stood up. She leaned against Su Yang’s chest and grabbed his shoulders with both hands.

“Slowly,” Su Yang said hurriedly, wrapping an arm around her slender waist.

“My head suddenly felt dizzy, and I don’t have much strength in my legs.”

“You’ve had too much to drink. You shouldn’t have opened that last case. You drank one bottle, and Yuanying had two before she was done for.”

“I was just happy, especially because I got to see you again.” As Yoshie spoke, she lifted her head and gazed at Su Yang with tender affection.

Their eyes met, and both of them recalled the pleasant days they had spent together in Japan.

“I’m happy too. All right, enough talking for now. Let’s get you back to your room to rest.” Su Yang turned around, slipped an arm under Yoshie’s armpit, and supported her toward the bedrooms.

When they reached the hallway, Su Yang looked up. There was a room at the very end, with another room on either side and their doors facing each other.

“Yoshie, which room is yours?” Su Yang asked.

Yoshie shook her head, looking somewhat uncomfortable. “I think it’s the one at the very end.”

“You don’t even remember?”

“Don’t make fun of me, Su-san. My head really is a little dizzy right now.”

Su Yang smiled. “Why would I make fun of you?”

As they spoke, they reached the door at the end of the hall. Su Yang pushed it open, felt along the wall for the switch, and turned it on.

The bedroom instantly filled with light.

It was a cozy, lovely room of moderate size. Besides a double bed, there was also a wardrobe and a bay window. However, none of the three bedrooms on the first floor had bathrooms; only the bedroom upstairs came with one.

When Yoshie saw her suitcase beside the window, she smiled. “I’m sure this is my room now.”

“Good.” Su Yang supported her to the bed and helped her sit down.

Yoshie rubbed her head. Seeing this, Su Yang said, “Would you like me to massage it for you?”

“Hm?”

“I’m pretty good at it. A massage should make you feel a little better.”

“Really?”

“Really. Want to try?”

“Okay... Okay.”

Su Yang smiled and sat down beside Yoshie. He placed both hands against her temples and began gently massaging them.

Yoshie let out a soft moan and closed her eyes.

After Su Yang had massaged her for a while, Yoshie asked, “Su-san, after you left that time, did you go to Hokkaido with your friends?”

“We did. Hokkaido was beautiful, and the hot springs were wonderful.”

“How many days did you stay there?”

“Let me think. I think three days, then we went back home.”

“Didn’t you go anywhere else?”

“No. One of my friends had something happen at home, so we all left with him.”

“Oh.”

“By the way, Yoshie, did you take time off work for this trip?”

“Yes. We get quite a lot of vacation time, and I still had some annual leave left. Put together, I can take quite a long break.”

“Really? That sounds nice.”

“It is.”

Su Yang thought for a moment before asking, “Then why didn’t you go to China?”

“Chi...” Yoshie began, then stopped. She slowly opened her eyes and turned to look at Su Yang. “I... I was afraid that if I went to China, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from looking for you.”

“What’s the big deal? You could have looked for me. I know my way around there. But it’s probably for the best that you didn’t go. If you had really looked for me, I wouldn’t have been there anyway.” Su Yang smiled.

“Qingxia and I had never been to Europe before, so we thought we’d come here and have a look around. Our first stop was Paris. I never expected to see that you were in Paris too when I happened to come across the photos you posted.”

“Haha, I guess that means we’re meant to meet. Even without deliberately looking for each other, we still managed to run into one another.”

“Su-san... I...” Hearing this, Yoshie turned toward Su Yang, her gaze suddenly filled with deep emotion.

Their eyes met once again. After three seconds, Yoshie’s heart began to pound violently. She was about to say something more when Su Yang raised a hand.

“Shh. You don’t need to say anything.”

That moment surpassed a thousand words. An invisible force drew them toward each other until the other person’s features blurred before their eyes. At the same time, they closed their eyes and shared a gentle kiss.

Ever since Su Yang had left that day, Yoshie had barely been able to eat or sleep. She knew very well that she had fallen for this Chinese man during those brief two or three days.

For the next several days, she had been in a daze, unable to concentrate on anything. It took five or six days before she began to recover, but she still found herself thinking of Su Yang from time to time, especially when she was alone at night.

Now, all the emotions she had held back for so long erupted in an instant. She shifted from being passive to taking the initiative, wrapped her arms around him, and pushed him onto the bed.

...

After the two of them had spent several minutes building up to the main event, Su Yang looked up at the bedroom door. “Yoshie, wait a moment.”

“Huh? What’s wrong, Su-san?” Yoshie asked, her hair disheveled.

“The door’s still open.”

“Oh... I...”

“Don’t say anything. I’ll go close it.” Su Yang quickly got to his feet and walked toward the door.

Before closing it, however, he still listened carefully. Earlier, after drinking with Qin Su and Li Yuanying, he hadn’t deliberately checked their breathing.

There had been no need to. But things were different now. He had to make sure—if Li Yuanying was pretending to be asleep again and he heard her, it would be awkward.

After listening for several seconds, he heard that Li Yuanying and Qingxia were breathing evenly, with the faintest hint of snoring. That meant they really had fallen asleep.

“Clear,” he muttered, closing the door and locking it from the inside.

Yoshie had already been waiting impatiently on the bed. She had seen Su Yang standing motionless by the door without knowing what he was doing, but she hadn’t asked.

Only after Su Yang closed the door did she speak. “What was it, Su-san?”

“Nothing.” Su Yang turned and quickly walked back to the bed.

Yoshie bit her lip and looked up at him. “Su-san, I don’t care anymore.”

“Don’t care about what?”

Yoshie didn’t answer. Instead, she turned toward the light switch on the wall beside the bed, leaned over, and turned off the light. Then she sat up, wrapped her arms around Su Yang, and began taking the initiative.

Su Yang’s heart began to race. This situation was different from usual, and it was more than a little thrilling.

He stopped worrying about it and swept Yoshie into his arms, tumbling onto the bed with her.

......

More than an hour later, the bedroom light came on. Yoshie had fallen asleep in Su Yang’s arms, her face filled with happiness.

Su Yang glanced at her, gently held her as he laid her flat on the bed, and then got up and walked out of the room.

He turned off the light, stepped outside, and pulled the door shut behind him.

At that moment, Li Yuanying and Qingxia were still lying motionless on the carpet, sleeping soundly.

Li Yuanying had already drunk quite a bit the previous day, and she had drunk again today. This time, she was completely out cold. Even if someone stood beside her shouting at the top of their lungs, she probably wouldn’t wake up.

“Phew...” Su Yang drew a deep breath as he came to the sofa and looked down at the two women on the floor.

“Oh, right. Let’s first see which rooms belong to each of them.” With that, he turned around, went back to the hallway, opened the two bedrooms facing each other, and took a look inside.

Li Yuanying’s room was the one on the left, while the other belonged to Qingxia.

After confirming who would sleep in which room, he returned to the living room, picked up Li Yuanying, and carried her toward her bedroom.