I'm having a great time writing this! I hope you are too. I owe a chapter to my other Meteor Garden story, so I think I need to switch gears soon.

Chapter 3

"Asi," she said softly. Simultaneously, they moved closer until their foreheads and noses met. His eyes filled with tears. They breathed in unison.

"I'm in love with you," he whispered. "I know I am now. Completely. Please believe me. I need you to believe me."

"I believe you."

"I want what you want. Please give me a chance to love you. Please give me a chance."

Shancai broke off with alarm and backed away. Asi felt sharp pain spasm his gut. Had he gone too far? She turned away and hugged herself, and he almost doubled over at the ruin of his hopes. Tears coursed down his cheeks, but he did not care. A sobbing moan caught her attention, and she whipped around surprised.

"Please."

Wringing her hands, she walked back slowly. Pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, Asi attempted to blot away his tears. Shancai stood before him and lifted her bangs.

"When I was thirteen, my very best friend, Cheng Li, smashed my head through a glass table." She showed Asi that scar that ran from her forehead, around her ear, and down to her neck. "I was in a coma for four weeks, and it took me a year to learn how to walk again." She grimaced at Asi's horrified look. "It took me even longer to get my strength back. It took over four years. I have loved gymnastics since I was little and met Cheng Li. We were in the same program and did everything together. We learned how to skate together, dance together, and do gymnastics together. I loved him deeply, and he loved me."

"How could he have done such a thing then?" Asi was outraged. She acknowledged his anger without comment.

"I don't know. He had changed the last few months I had known him. He'd always been so sunny and so much fun to be with, but in the end he was irritable and easily angered. I'm sure you get the similarities." She ignored Asi's despairing expression.

"I went to his house one night with a birthday gift. It was a necklace with a pendant of half a coin. I had the other half. I brought it to his house, hoping it would cheer him up, but he flew into a rage, choked me, and smashed my head into a coffee table. I don't remember anything else until I woke up in a hospital almost a month later. I still have a shunt in my brain that needs to be replaced every so often. If it fails, I could die, and if I get hit again in the same place I could die."

Asi's shoulders sagged as if carrying an intolerable weight. He felt sick that she had gone through what she did because of temper.

"Listen, I had a great time today," she said earnestly, "but maybe today is enough, you know? Maybe it's best to leave this as a great memory. Maybe in a couple of weeks, you'll get bored and move on."

Asi's eyes flashed with anger. She could call their time together whatever she wanted, but she could not decide how he felt.

"No! I won't!" He took a deep breath. "No, I won't. You don't know me well. OK. But you've seen me on the basketball court. I don't give up. I will never give up. I may be beaten, but I won't surrender. Never."

She frowned as though that was the wrong answer.

"Asi, I'm scared. You're extreme. You're black and white in everything you do. Loving or hating, you do both with all your heart. It's no surprise that you can love so quickly when you explode just as fast. If my very best friend of eight years could smash my head through a glass table, what could you do to me? I've known you for only a month. What would you have done if we hadn't talked that day?"

Asi winced and hung his head, remembering a rage so hot that he might have put his hands on her. Shaking his head, he shrugged, opened his hands, and dropped them in his lap. Huaze Lei had told him more than once that he would rue his temper someday, and today was the day.

"Maybe you should stay far away from me then," he said dully. "I know my temper is bad. Everyone knows."

"Yet your friends have been loyal for a lifetime. They see the other side of you, a wonderful side, and I'm surprised to say that I have too. You were angry, but you were willing to put it aside and talk to me. That wasn't a small thing. I'm not a liar either. I felt something important with you just now, but I don't know what to do with it."

Asi looked up with childlike hope in his eyes, and Shancai almost cried at his innocence. She had wondered if he was a player trying to win her over and then drop her for spite, but now she knew that he was nothing of the kind, and the stirring in her heart strengthened. Perhaps that feeling was worth the risk. Perhaps not, but she couldn't dismiss it out of hand.

"Will you give me some time?" she asked with trepidation. "I'm feeling so many things. I lost four years, but I also don't want to live in the past. I need to figure out what I want in my life and who I want to spend it with."

Asi watched her carefully and held out his hands without expectation, and she stared at them with distrust before reaching out. Closing his hands around hers, he held them with infinite care. She almost balked but caught herself. Still, their arms stretched as far apart as possible while still holding hands.

"Take all the time you need," he said, making sure to modulate his tone. She was skittish, and he knew that this moment needed the greatest of care. She had given him more than a moment, but he knew that if she decided against him now, she was unlikely to change her mind. "Whatever you need. I'll keep my distance, I promise."

A shy smile blossomed.

"I appreciate that. This day has been wonderful, and I owe you an answer."

"It's been the happiest day of my life," Asi said with absolute conviction. He grinned at another shy smile.

"I will tell you as soon as I've decided," she said.

"Wherever and whenever you want," he said. "I'll be there." He looked up the beach and saw his car and driver waiting. His perfect day had ended with a question mark but not a defeat.

Asi held her arm while she picked through the sand, holding her flip-flops with her other hand.

"Ouch," she said and hopped on one foot. Between them and the car lay a thick scattering of shells.

"Will you allow me?" Asi asked, and he mimed carrying her. After a moment, she nodded.

"I can't afford to cut up my feet," she said. "Thank you."

"Have a race to run?" he teased. "Some sporting event?"

A strange look passed over her face so fast that he almost missed it. She laughed, but it didn't sound real.

"I might," she said.

Asi carefully reached around and put her on his back. Even if she was wearing her usual baggy clothes, she would have put a strain on his self-control, but he underestimated the feeling of her and struggled not to let his feelings show.

"Almost there," he said looking at the car and not her bare legs wrapped around his waist. The chauffeur opened the limousine door, and Asi carefully set her inside. Once the car pulled out of town, Asi and Shancai glanced at each other, unsure how close to sit or in what position. A moment of awkward jockeying had them sitting on the same bench seat but facing each other.

"Your apology was exquisite, Asi. Thank you again."

"Have you forgiven me, Shancai?," he asked, his brow furrowed. "Is there anything left to say? I will listen, I promise."

She cocked her head and looked thoughtful.

"No, nothing. Nothing else I can share right now."

Asi nodded and said no more. His estimation of her appearance had undergone a radical change. Although he had always responded strongly to her, he now found her beautiful. Certainly, she had been hiding a great deal underneath her dowdy clothes. Now he knew why. Her lovely physique would have attracted a lot of unwelcome attention. Asi thought though that her willingness to dress as she had today signaled a letting go of the past. He hoped that he had spurred some of that change, but he also knew that she would become a center of male attention tomorrow if she dressed as she did today.

"Asi, I'm a private person, but I get the feeling that you'll burst if you don't talk things over with your friends, so if you need to, that's OK with me. But please don't let it go beyond them." He nodded, and they talked about neutral topics until they reached her house.

Asi could not concentrate in class. The past week had been awful. Shancai seemed to have disappeared, and every time he was sure their paths would cross, she had taken another way. His only consolation was a handwritten card that he found in his locker, thanking him for the lovely day. He carried it with him.

"Asi," Meizuo whispered his shoulder

Their professor stood at the podium outlining the upcoming group project, but Asi was too restless to listen. With one knee bouncing and pencil tapping, he recalled everything he had said and done.

Over and over, he had replayed the day, combing through every interaction and evaluating his actions and words. Had he said enough and done enough to tip the balance in his favor? What did she signal with her words and expressions? But the more he tried to divine her answer from what happened between them, the more frustrated he became.

The big unknown was her feelings about Cheng Li and that he could not fix. Her story was horrible and heartbreaking, and he was both furious at what Cheng Li had done and anxious about the consequences for him. He tried to imagine how he would feel if someday his friends beat him so badly that he was left in a coma for weeks. No explanation and no chance to understand. No closure.

Asi closed his eyes and sighed. A sharp poke in his back snapped him out of his reverie.

"Asi!" Meizuo hissed. "The professor is looking at you."

Asi opened his eyes to see his professor glaring at him. He had stopped his lecture, and the class was staring at Asi, but he had not noticed.

"Do you have anything you want to add to the discussion, Dao Ming Si?"

"Uh." Asi struggled to remember what the project was about. Business requirements. "I apologize, professor. When we talk about gathering business requirements, we must take the time to research the client's current business model, business culture, and past experiences with other consultants. It's not enough to know business analytics. Otherwise, the personalities of the client's team and its working culture can derail a project or significantly slow its progress."

Asi hoped that his answer sounded reasonable enough to get him out of trouble. The professor looked impressed. Asi smiled.

"Very insightful point, Dao Ming Si, and very true. Many projects have been derailed due to internal issues that were not properly addressed when gathering requirements. Very good, Asi."

Asi ignored the teasing whispers of his friends behind him while trying to still his turbulent thoughts, and he annoyed his friends to no end with his constant fidgeting and absentmindedness. Exactly one week from their day trip, he got a text from Shancai asking to meet Monday between classes at 2:30. When the morning came, he spent extra time making sure that he looked his best.

His class ended at 1:30 pm. His fate would be decided in an hour, and he felt nauseous.

"Club room now, Asi," Ximen commanded. "You have some explaining to do."