Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu

Jin stretched his arms and released a tired sigh with the back-to-back meetings. He rose from his chair and collapsed on the couch, taking Ai-chan in his arms. He chuckled, tickling under chin.

"Are you not bored sitting here all alone?"

Ai-chan let out a yawn and purred. She tapped her paw on his chin as if saying that being in Liu Corps was entertaining enough. He let out another chuckle and looked around for Jun-kun.

Where is the other- oh nooo! Did he step out?

Jin exited his office in a rush and as his gaze fell at Alix's office, he stopped abruptly. He opened the door to her office and could only be speechless at the scene.

"What is…Jun-kun doing sitting on your head?"

"...Huh?"

Alix was completely occupied in stretching her eyes wide to the max at the laptop screen before her.

He placed his hand on the screen and said, "You want to go blind?"

"Ah! You broke my focus!" She glared at him.

"Before you broke your eyes. And what is Jun-kun doing on top of your head? I thought you wanted to stay far away from the cats."

Alix clapped her hands once in vigor. "This cat is a genius!"

"..."

He saw her entire collage document ruined and in a mess, which he was sure was Jun-kun's work. He was expecting her to chew his head out.

So what just happened to make her change a full one-eighty degree?

"You have to see this! Come here."

She grabbed his wrist and pulled him near her chair. She then held his neck and practically pushed him to become one with the laptop.

"What the hell?"

"Look at the picture in front of you."

He took a sharp breath.

"I am not interested in looking at a zoomed-in picture of your sister's…chest…" he spoke through gritted teeth.

She frowned. "Why are you looking at her chest?"

"That's where you are pressing my face against the screen, idiot!"

She took a look and made a small O out of her lips. "Oops. My bad. Anyway, you shouldn't be enjoying that view."

His knuckles cracked.

"I wasn't enjoying anything!"

"Do you see that reflection in the background?" She ignored his outburst and pointed at an object.

Jin muttered under his breath and took a look that had gotten Alix so excited.

"What reflection are you talking about?"

"Over there. Behind Mui where you see her back."

Jin squinted his eyes. It looked like a picture of some small get-together celebration and dinner at some hotel. Alix and Mui stood together, smiling at the camera.

"It looks so emotional us standing like that," she grimaced with disdain. "But the truth is so different."

"It's too blurred…" Jin tried but failed. "Isn't she holding her purse at her back?"

"There is some small vial she is gripping on top of her purse."

"That thing?"

He pointed at what he thought was the right answer and turned his head but froze. Their faces were so close that he felt his lips could practically brush against her cheek if he wouldn't be careful. A few extra centimetres of movement and something so awkward could happen that he might bury himself in a hole and never crawl back.

"Yup, yup, the vial, you see it too, right?"

She turned her head next which almost collided with his.

"You saw that too, right?"

He stared at her unblinkingly as if he was frozen by some spell. His breath couldn't move past his throat and neither did he feel any strength in his feet. The invisible tension arose an unknown, uncomfortable feeling in his chest that he couldn't decipher.

"Jin?"

*Meow*

Ai-chan hopped out of his arms and into Alix's lap.

*Meowww*

She licked her mouth while releasing a small yawn that completely broke Jin's stupor. He inhaled a sharp gasp and swiftly withdrew by a few steps.

On the other side, Alix froze next. Jun-kun laid lazily on the top of her head and Ai-chan made herself comfortable on her lap, staring at the laptop curiously.

After a few breathless breaths and reeling himself from that strange, uncomfortable atmosphere, he looked up. And he burst into a laughter as if the earlier tension was all just his imagination.

He didn't waste a second's moment and clicked her picture in her frozen, confused state with her hands spread at her side, having no clue what to do.

"What did you do?" Alix's gaze darkened.

Jin showed her the picture and her expression worsened.

"Don't say anything. You have clicked an embarrassing picture of mine too."

"Delete it."

"Jun-kun and Ai-chan are in it too. Take their permission."

*Meoww*

The cats lazily yawned, having no interest in their banter. Jun-kun and Ai-chan were busy having their own meow conversation from Alix's head and lap respectively.

She gritted her teeth. "I will let this slide on account of this genius cat sitting on top of my head."

He snorted. "Much obliged. By the way, what did the genius cat do?"

"Danced on my laptop and ruined my collage."

"And I was expecting a very different reaction."

"Yes, I was going to chew your head out but then I realized my sister's evilness. You noticed that vial in her hand, right?"

Jin stepped closer again but maintained a small distance between them very consciously this time.

He cleared his throat. "Yes."

"And you notice her very suspicious and anxious smile too, right? Like she is caught in some act?"

Jin looked closer at her expression.

"It indeed doesn't look so comfortable. It seems like a spur-in-a-moment picture. She wasn't ready for it."

She sneered. "Maybe because she was busy mixing something in my food and she quickly hid it because somebody told to smile for the picture. She didn't get the time to put it back in her purse."

Jin grimaced. "She spiked your drink at that company party and now this. Is your sister too obsessed with spiking stuff or something?"

"Not everybody's. Only mine. This picture is two years old."

Jin frowned. "Do you remember this evening when the picture was clicked? Did something happen when you had the spiked food?"

"If you mean that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed the next morning, then no."

His gaze darkened. "I didn't mean that way. I mean…it could be that but…"

He didn't understand why it felt so irritating to think of that scenario.

Alix didn't notice his discomfort and said, "No, this is different. This is not about making me sleep with some random stranger. If she does something similar two years ago, then..." She tilted her head. "I need to find out what is in that vial. This doesn't seem to be so simple."