Me After Meeting You

Amber and the salon owner then looked at each other, and noticed their own state of disarray in the other’s eyes. After sleeping for the entire night, their clothes were now wrinkled, their hair messy, and, compared to this Mr. Axton, they looked just like dried prunes, their clothes so shriveled that they made one feel sad just from looking at them.

Neither of the two spoke, after silently looking at each other one last time, they quickly went inside the washroom specially prepared for customers.

***

The washroom was large and spacious. As they stared at their current somewhat disastrous state through the mirror, the two started laughing.

This laugh closed the previous distance between the two. The salon owner was somewhat distressed, and said, “Director Axton is quite particular, isn’t he.”

“Yes.”

The lady boss sighed regretfully. “I still remember the first time I met him, in his office. I told him that I wanted to open a beauty salon in Axton hotel, and he looked at me out of the corner of his eye with a particularly disdainful look. Then he said, ‘Isn’t the role of a beauty salon to make people beautiful? You clearly haven’t been able to apply that to yourself, but you’re going to try to do it to others?’ My goodness. Even after all this time, I still don’t dare to walk in front of him after that comment from him.”

Her humorous storytelling made Amber laugh. “Actually, I’m in the same boat as you. The first time I met him, he asked me, ‘Do you only have one dimple? Unbelievably ugly'””

The two finished roasting him and then laughed together again. The salon owner then said, “So even you receive such treatment? I thought that he would treat at least you differently.”

Amber’s smile shrunk slightly. “How different can it be? We’re all the same.”

“No, definitely not. At least in all my time in Axton hotel, I’ve never seen any other woman appear by Director Axton’s side, and that’s not even mentioning him bringing someone for me to wash her face. Though ….” As the salon owner started her next sentence, she peeked outside cautiously, lowered her voice, and then continued in a whisper. “Did you do something to make him angry? After you fell asleep last night, he stood to one side and observed you for such a long time that, honestly, judging from his expression, I thought that he was going to pinch you awake. But then ….”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

She originally wanted to say “throw you out,” but after considering that Amber might be upset with her words, she pivoted and instead said, “… and then he told me to let you sleep and to not disturb you. As he said this, he was even gnashing his teeth, clearly upset that you had left him to sleep alone. It was the first time I’ve ever seen that expression on his face-actually, he was both awkward and cute at the same time! Haha, remember to pamper him a little when you see him. He doesn’t have a good temper, but I feel like he really does treat you well.”

Amber had heard two people call Ian cute in the morning, and suddenly felt slightly dissociated, almost as if she were living in some strange fantasy. From the salon owner’s word choice of “gnashing his teeth” and “concerned,” it seemed that she must have been projecting her own impressions onto Ian. Given that man’s cold and nearly stone face, how could she have seen him gnash his teeth or be concerned?

And she had also clearly misunderstood the relationship between them, making Amber somewhat embarrassed. “I’m not in that relationship with Mr. Axton. We’re just regular friends.”

“I get it, I get it.” The lady boss smiled as she replied half heartedly.

In the end, Amber was unable to clearly explain the relationship between her and Ian. In truth, she herself had realized that since she wasn’t able to explicitly state their doctor-patient relationship, some of their actions were truly inexplicable.

For example, the “interest” she showed towards Ian, the attention she paid him, her unbelievable forbearance, and so on and so forth.

As Amber reflected on her and Ian’s relationship, she felt more and more certain that she should explain things to Ian again. However, when the two of them returned to his room, and when Amber asked him why he had brought her here to have her face washed, he looked at her, and replied in a shocked tone. “Don’t you feel dirty? His saliva was all over your face!”

“….” Amber was once again rendered speechless by his logic.

She looked at him with a somewhat weak expression, feeling that it was necessary to explain these basic things to him. “Hugging and kissing are both actions used to express intimacy-”

But before she could finish, he cut her off coldly. “But I find it dirty, very dirty.” Having said that, he looked at her provocatively.

Amber caressed her forehead. “But you’ve kissed me too ….”

“I washed myself afterwards, about seventeen or eighteen times each time.”

“….”

Amber glared at him, and then after taking a while to gather her thoughts, squeezed out, “Then you must have felt quite wronged.”

And Ian even responded affirmatively, seriously nodding as he said, “Yup!”

Amber clutched her chest. She had truly been overthinking it when she was worried that he would misunderstand, hadn’t she? She decided to ignore this topic, and instead ask, “You … came back last night to find me, didn’t you? What’s the matter?”

He didn’t speak, and instead gave her a recording device.

“This is?”

“Tell me a story.”

Amber looked at him strangely. Since this man wasn’t interested in her body, could it be possible that he was infatuated with her voice?

She really should have stopped overthinking it because, as if he had read her thoughts, Ian raised his eyebrows and said, “Your stories are boring enough that they’re the best lullaby.”

“….”

Curses immediately sprung up in Amber’s mind. While she still had a smile on externally, her internal emotions were raging tumultuously. ‘Did he have to attack her so savagely? She’d always thought that her own stories were rather good!’