'I get that he had a bad day but come on! How long does he plan on hugging me?' Lina gently rubbed his back while rolling her eyes.

It had been a good five minutes since Rueben had so sincerely asked for a hug and Lina had obliged to his request because everyone needs to be held in a tight embrace at some point in their life.

"Ruby, do you want to talk about why you are so upset?" She whispered in his ear which was so close to her right now.

Reuben felt a shiver run down his spine when her hot breath fanned over his ear.

Letting go of the hug, he stood straight yet looked into her golden eyes which glowed under the moonlight.

'Talk about what? About the distant past where I hated you or the past from a few minutes ago where I wanted to kick you out of my life?' He avoided her eyes and looked around the terrace garden.

He noticed that there was a bench just a few feet away from them, so he held onto Lina's hand and led her it's direction.

Lina glanced down at their hands whose fingers were interlocked together and an amused smile appeared on her face.

'Ruby likes to hold hands a lot today.' She grinned and then sat down beside him.

First when he dragged her out and now as he led her to the bench. Both times he had held onto her hand without her permission.

Lina was not used to being in such close contact with a man whom she wasn't too familiar with but she tried to relax her body.

'It's just Ruby!' She reminded herself and looked at the star-filled sky.

Promptly, he released her hand which helped in calming her racing heart.

"So, Lina… When were you planning to tell me that you were a Yang? That you were so closely related to my two best friends?" Reuben turned his torso to face her and questioned with his brows raised.

'I can only ask this to distract her mind from her previous question.' He looked at her flustered face and chuckled.

This distraction wasn't really needed because the hand holding had made Lina's mind to become befuddled.

However, when she heard his chuckle, she glared at him and playfully smacked his shoulder.

"You know that my brothers will kill you if they know about everything that happened between us. That was the reason why I hid my real identity from you." She explained and received an understanding nod from him.

'Well, that was ONE of the reasons why I hid my real identity.' She turned her face away to hide her guilty eyes.

Lina had deliberately not revealed her real identity when Reuben's identity was disclosed because she was angry at his mom at that time and wanted to stay away from him in the future.

Funnily, it seemed as though fate was playing such bizarre games with them.

When she wanted to stay away from him, they ended up snuggling in each other's arms for the entire night and today when he wanted to stay away from her, they ended up embracing each other.

Thinking of the twins, Reuben remembered Stacy and also his promise to treat their sisters as his sisters.

Now with this woman sitting next to him, Reuben thought of how his life would be with Lina as his little sister.

The very thought of that made him feel a weird and annoying sensation in his heart and that idea was instantly thrown out of his mind.

'We are friends and that is enough!' He declared his reason for not treating Lina as his sister.

'For now…' A silent voice emanated from the back of his mind but Reuben had not yet realized its existence.

Lina's brain had now cleared and she realized that he had not answered her previous question.

"You still haven't told me why you were in such a foul mood earlier?" She asked as she tapped his shoulder to get him back from his thoughts.

Reuben flinched a little when she went right back to the topic that he wanted to avoid.

"That… Um... How should I tell this to you?" He was mulling over whether to tell her about their past or not.

But his careful contemplation wasn't needed because Lina's face brightened and she pointed a finger up in the air just like how a student would do before answering a question in class.

"I think I know what must have taken place today! Something bad must have happened at the site of your gaming arena!" She tried to guess what had caused his day to sour.

Listening to her excited tone, Reuben had a confused face and looked at her as though he did not understand a word of what she was talking about.

"The gaming arena that you wanted me to accompany you to today? Is that why you were angry? Did they mess something up?" She elaborated to help him understand what she meant.

'She made up a totally plausible excuse for me. Looks like the heavens also doesn't want me to reveal what had happened back then.' He sighed inwardly and then nodded to agree with her.

"Yes. That is exactly what happened. Someone messed up one of the floors' layout and we had to delay things for a bit." He flawlessly cooked up a valid excuse for his earlier outburst.

Lina nodded her head in understanding and patted his shoulder to show her sympathy for the goof up.

In reality, Reuben's trip to the construction site was a total success and they could start working by the end of next week. But it looks like that would have to wait.

'I need to delay the construction for a while in case Lina inquires about it in the future.' He made a mental note to remind Assistant Kim about his new plans.

"Speaking of this matter, why were you avoiding me for so many days? I tried calling but you just wouldn't answer and when you did answer my call, you gave me such a vague answer." Reuben shot back with a question of his own.

This question had been in his mind for so long and now he finally could ask her about it without any distractions.

Lina immediately turned her head away and looked at the sky to avoid his searching eyes.

'I don't want him to think of me as some weak woman who would be on the hospital bed for every little thing.' She clenched the fists that were placed on her thigh.

Her tachophobia was her biggest insecurity, she felt like this was just going to burden everyone around her and thus she did not want many people to know about it.

Reuben noticed her refusal to answer his question and he felt hurt that she wasn't willing to trust him with her problems.

"It's fine if you are not comfortable with letting me know what happened. But at least tell me if I did something that made you avoid me like that." He muttered in a low voice, embarrassed that he was acting like a clingy girlfriend.

Lina's head whiplashed to face him and she almost burst into laughter when she saw his pouting face.

"You did nothing wrong, Ruby." She assured him that he was not at fault in that situation.

"Oh, then were you busy with your design work?" His eyes brightened when he thought of the beautiful blueprint that she had made for him.

'I think that I should commission Lina for the next pet projects that I pick up.' His mind wandered to the numerous projects that were still in the planning process.

Deep in his thoughts, he did not notice the sad smile that had emerged on Lina's face because it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

"No design work. I was a little under the weather those few days so I wasn't allowed to touch my phone or any other electronic device." She exaggerated a painful expression as she held her hands over her chest and sighed.

"Drama queen!" Reuben fell for her acting skills and did not doubt a word of what she had said.

If Mommy Yang would hear her 'little under the weather' remark then she would have, without a doubt, thrown a slipper at Lina's face.

Three days in a coma was downplayed into a common cold by this woman who was giggling after she noticed his sarcastic smile.

Reuben chuckled along with her but then abruptly stopped.

Lina turned to face him and tilted her head, wondering why there was this sudden awkward silence between them.

She silently watched as he stretched out his hand and held her cheek.

He gently rubbed the side of her face with his warm thumb as his black eyes gazed into hers which were hazel and golden.

"Your health is important, kitten." His voice sounded deeper than usual which mesmerized Lina.

"It doesn't matter if it's a common cold or anything else, you need to take care of your health because YOU are important to us." He uttered those words without breaking their eye contact.

Lina's brain overheated when she saw how concerned he was about her.

All she could do in that situation was nod her head timidly as she blushed.

'Ruby is acting so weird today! Not fair!' She chided him in her mind for making her heart race on multiple occasions.

The words that were about to leave her mouth were interrupted when they heard a clicking noise coming in their direction which could only belong to someone wearing high heels.