Chapter Five
Truth be told, after being hurled thru three countries for one of the most ambitious fashion shoots he has ever been a part of to date, Dylan planned a two-week vacation in Italy to be with Bai.
He hasn't seen her in a month because of their busy schedules and he was looking forward to surprising her.
He even coordinated her schedule with her manager.
"I'm sorry", he told her over the phone now, though.
He had to cancel one of her calls yesterday and when he tried calling her back, she didn't answer.
He sent message after message of apology.
"No. No. I'm sorry too", she answered, "I fell asleep right after you canceled my call and thought I will just call you back. I was so surprised with all your apology messages."
"I thought you might have been angry."
"I'm not. Anyway, are you ok?"
"I am", he assured her, "but a good friend of mine isn't."
"Do I know this friend of yours?"
"You do but… I really can't talk about it now. Even to you. I hope you understand."
Yue's story isn't his to tell.
"That's ok. Be with your friend. He must really need you."
Dylan grimaced but did not refute her use of "He".
Yue hasn't told him anything yet, and he hasn't pushed her to open up about it, but he isn't blind nor insensitive to not notice how her eyes would turn hollow during the moments that she thinks he isn't looking.
She'd be smiling and laughing it up with him over a joke one moment, and then she'd look down in the dumps the next.
Dylan knows the symptoms of sadness all too well.
He just doesn't point it out to her and has decided to patiently wait for her to tell him or to understand that he might never know her reason but he should be there for her.
"It seems so…"
"Well… take care of yourself, ok?"
"I will. You too."
He waited for a beat before ending the call.
It felt strange somehow but then again, after deciding to break up, there have been a lot of moments when awkward silence would overtake their conversations.
She created such weird rules around their break-up that he agreed to.
Rule No. 1 – No I love you.
Rule No. 2 – No I miss you.
Rule No. 3 – No trying to flirt.
Bai said she wanted to truly focus on her career and not be distracted.
He does his best to be very understanding for she supported him in the very same way too.
But being in limbo like this is difficult.
He decided to not think about it for the moment and focus on something that needed more of his attention.
Dylan checked on his watch.
Yue should be up by now.
His phone rang at that exact moment and he smiled at seeing her name.
"WHY DID YOU SEND OVER A MAID TO PACK FOR ME?!", she demanded.
That made him laugh. "Good morning grumpy pants!"
"Oh yeah… Good morning", she remembered her manners – and then returned to her high-pitched opening seeming to want to fracture his ear drums, "SO WHY DID YOU SEND OVER A MAID TO PACK FOR ME?!"
"Because we're checking out."
"WE'RE WHAT?!" By the way she's screaming, she could join a choir club as a soprano.
"Yue, I'm concerned. I think I am going to have my ears checked very soon."
"DYLAN!"
He could imagine her red in the face in frustration now. He remained calm. "Do you have any plans while you're on vacation?"
"I –", and then a long pause.
"You don't."
From what he could understand, she took this vacation on a whim.
And knowing how normally organized she is and how out of character that move was, she wouldn't have had time to plan anything.
"Well… I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do."
BINGO.
"Knowing you, two weeks would have passed by before you could have decided", he smirked into the phone, "I have had my vacation planned out months ago. We're brothers. Just come with me!"
"Dylan!"
"Am I wrong?"
Silence.
"Yue… just go with me."
He can imagine her scrunching her forehead and nose in indecision.
"I'm already done packing. I'm sure you already showered and had your breakfast. Meet me at the lobby in thirty minutes."
"Dylan!"
"I'm kidnapping you. You either go with me peacefully or I go to your room and carry you to the lobby."
He's done it before to her.
And from her lack of response, Dylan is sure she remembers that too.
There is particularly no reason she chose Italy for her "vacation".
But as the helicopter taking her and Dylan to Amalfi coast traversed the sea, she knew without a doubt that she made a good decision to come here.
"I feel like I don't want to go down this helicopter", she mumbled.
"Really? They have no restroom here, no food, no –"
Yue punched him in the arm before he could end his sentence. "Idiot!"
He laughed.
"I wanted to brag to you that coming with me is THE right decision but I decided to be kind and just tease you about something else."
She rolled her eyes at him. Trust him to rub that in.
His smile widened and she turned her back to him and allowed herself to once again be entranced by the exquisite charm of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Dylan kept her in the dark about where they are headed but she understood enough from their pilot to eventually realize that they are headed to the UNESCO heritage site – one of her dream vacation locations.
"Tell me… who were you supposed to take with you?" She asked without thinking.
The man beside her stiffened a little but then eventually relaxed. "I was supposed to take Bai."
His response made her feel bad that she asked so casually.
She knew of their break-up but didn't know too many details.
He told her (as well as everyone else) that it was a mutual decision and it had to happen so that the model could focus on her career.
Yue has developed a friendship with the woman too but in the past six months, she has not been able to see her AT ALL.
She has been quite active in magazines and the runway though, giving legitimacy to what Dylan has told them.
But it concerned her a little that Bai made that decision to break it off with him just to focus on her career.
Won't Dylan be supportive of her?
He is one of the best guys she knows.
It somehow added to her fear about how Nian Zhen might react if she tells him she would like to put off getting married at the moment.
If Bai felt the need to break-up with Dylan… would she feel the same as her…
"Don't think about it too much. I'm happy I'm taking you."
Her face must have shown her conflicted emotions for him to comment that.
"Uhmmmm…." she squirmed a little in her seat but decided to plough on. She had already opened this up, there is no turning back now. "Were you planning to win her back during this trip?"
A second of silence.
"I've always been planning to win her back since the day we broke up", he replied sincerely.
That made her turn away from the view and look at him.
He raised a brow at her. "What?"
"Why did you agree to break up with her then?"
The right side of his lip quirked upward before he answered. "I fought for us to stay together but I realized that at that moment, I was the only one fighting."
Something pierced Yue's chest at his words.
"She loves me and I love her", Dylan continued, "That isn't going to go away but the industry she is in moves at a pace that is faster than light and will leave her behind. It won't wait for her."
"But you will…"
He nodded. "But I will…"
Would Nian Zhen be as understanding?
"Couldn't Bai balance being your girlfriend and being a model? She's done it before?"
"She told me that she felt it wouldn't be fair to me. I told her it didn't matter but she said that she wouldn't be able to help herself if she knew I was there waiting for her."
"She will always put you first."
"Exactly. But for her career, she needs to put herself first."
"You are so mature in understanding her."
His forehead scrunched up. "Am I?"
"You are."
"I don't really know if it's maturity. At the time, I remember thinking that I just wanted her to stop crying", he smiled sheepishly, "I really can't seem to handle girls crying."
As she searched for what to say next, their pilot announced they'd be arriving at the airport soon.
This diffused some of the heaviness in the air but she could not shake the feeling of something wanting to burst inside of her.
Dylan's talk of his love for Bai made her reflect on her relationship.
Would she really have to choose between Nian Zhen and her career?
So far… she has been able to do what she needed to do with his support.
But, of course, marriage would have demands on her.
And she knows that Nian Zhen will want to have kids soon.
She has that dream too but she hated how their timelines are misaligned.
Is love really not enough for two people to stay together?
"Didi…", she began as he checked on his seatbelt.
He looked at her in surprise. She rarely uses his nickname.
"Yue?"
Her conviction steamrolling thru her hesitations, she took his hand because for the very first time, she was going to say something out loud to someone other than Xiao Wen.
And saying it out loud made it so much more real… saying it out loud turns it into something she truly cannot run away from – at least, not anymore.
"Nian Zhen is going to propose to me."
Dylan's face lit up at the news but quickly became confused because of her lack of enthusiasm.
"Isn't this great news?"
"It should be, shouldn't it?", she bit down on her lip.
"It should be", he declared slowly, "but why do you look like it isn't?"
She locked eyes with him at the same time their descent was announced.
"I know in my heart that I do want to marry him, Didi, I do. BUT I can't marry him now… at least not just yet."
It took a few beats of them staring into each other's eyes until Yue saw understanding dawn on him. "Are you afraid that if you tell him this, he will leave you?"
She nodded weakly.
"But he loves you."
"I think he might be feeling the pressures of settling down. Will his love for me be enough to make him wait?"
"It should be enough", he responded strongly.
She let out one of the deepest sighs in the world. "It should be but… we both know it isn't."
He bit down on his lip and she knew that if it was up to him, he would reassure her, he might even promise her the world.
But it isn't up to him.
Yue immediately looked up the ceiling to stop her tears from falling.
Dylan squeezed her right hand.
"I took this vacation because I wanted to clear my head", she shared, "And maybe… because I'm trying to test out how to do things on my own again. I haven't done that in years."
