"I won't say that my first kiss doesn't matter to me. Because it does." He proclaimed in a deep voice and paused to see how she would react.

Lina sucked a deep breath in to calm the storm inside her mind and then nodded her head in understanding.

'It must be his first love. Those surely are hard to forget.' She reckoned and avoided his eyes by focusing her sights on his chest.

She knew what the effect that first love would have on the heart of any man.

The legendary 'moonlight' that she had read in almost all the novels was the woman who had the male lead's first, innocent and most pure love which they would still look back on with fond memories.

Knowing that Reuben had someone like that in his heart was enough to make any wayward thoughts she had about him to dissipate in an instant.

She wanted a whirlwind romance but not at the cost of her own happiness and sanity.

'I want my man to only have me on his mind and not some other woman!' She puffed her cheeks and nodded in determination.

She knew that she was asking for much but that was what she wanted, a man who would focus solely on her without having any other woman on his mind.

She most certainly did not want to be stuck in some love triangle once the guy's white lotus moonlight would come back and try to disrupt their lives.

With these thoughts in her mind, Lina strengthened her resolve to forget that the kiss ever happened in the first place.

Reuben waited for her to answer and finally, he heard her gentle voice reaching his ears.

"I understand what you are trying to say. We can just forget that it ever happened and then go back to being friends. Right?" She whispered without looking up.

"What are you talking about? You did not let me finish!" Reuben gritted his teeth when he heard what she had just said.

'I want to strangle her for even thinking about forgetting our kiss!' He narrowed his eyes and his glare was enough to drill a hole on the top of her head because she was still not looking at him.

"Forget about what!? The moment we shared that was so amazing? Or the fact that I am trying so hard not to kiss you right here before all these people!?" He spat those words out and continued to glare at her.

Lina's head whiplashed when she heard him and once again they were stuck gazing into each other's eyes.

"Fuck!" He cursed and turned his face away to resist the urge of kissing this beautiful woman who always seemed to assume the worst possible outcome.

"And no… I don't want to be friends with you." He muttered in a tone that did not give her any room for arguments.

Lina's eyes widened when she heard him declare that he no longer wished to be friends with her.

'Why is he confusing me like this!? One moment he wants to kiss me and now he doesn't want to even be friends with me?' She looked at the side of his face and tears began to form in her eyes.

Hearing the soft sniffles coming from below, Reuben turned and looked down at her face.

There was sheer panic in his eyes when he saw the tears that were ready to fall at any second.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He raised his hand which was on her back and caressed her cheek.

"Ruby doesn't want to be friends with me." She put her head down and the tears began to fall on her chest.

'Why am I crying? Why does it hurt so much?' Lina wondered as she blinked through the tears.

The thought of losing him as a friend was causing her tears to fall with even more force.

Reuben gently brought her face up and held it there.

"Kitten, can you listen to me for just a second before jumping to such bizarre conclusions?" He sighed and spoke in the most patient tone that he could conjure at the moment.

Lina thought for a moment and then nodded her head as a response to his question.

Having her total attention back on him, Reuben closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them up.

Staring straight into her eyes he continued to caress her cheek and finally said what was on his mind.

"Lina Yang, I don't want to be friends with you anymore." He paused there when he saw her eyes widen.

He raised his brows at her and this made Lina realize that she was rushing to conclusions once again.

She took a deep breath and nodded to let him continue what he was about to say.

"The reason why I do not want to be friends with you is that I want to be more than just friends with you." He revealed what was going on in his mind ever since their first kiss.

Lina tilted her head to the side and looked at him as though she was lost.

"You want to be best friends?" She asked and wondered why Reuben looked as though he was about to breathe fire at any moment now.

'Calm down, Reuben… You just have to calm down!' He chanted in his mind in order to not strangle this airheaded woman looking like a lost puppy before him.

"Do you know any best friends who kiss each other?" His sarcastic question was answered with an immediate nod.

"Yes, my own best friends kiss each other. Gwen loves to kiss Ren." She replied as she shrugged her shoulders.

Her best friends had been dating each other for years now and they would often kiss right before her eyes.

'Always feeding me dogfood!' She scoffed when she thought of that PDA loving couple.

"Kitten, concentrate on me!" Reuben lost his patience when he saw that she was once again thinking of something else.

'Before her attention gets diverted I need to finish what I wish to say!' He decided and twirled her body around.

Holding her back in place, he looked into her eyes and blurted out what he truly wanted from her.

"Kitten, let's date!" He exclaimed and grimaced when he felt her step on his feet.

'Wha-' Lina's brain froze the moment she heard him say 'date'.

"What about your first kiss?" She shot right back at him with furrowed brows.

'He likes someone else and wants to date me? No way!' She waited for what his answer would be before she could stomp on his feet once again.

"What about her?" He shrugged without a care.

Lina gritted her teeth and was about to give him a piece of her mind when she heard his next words.

"That was a long time ago and I doubt that it would affect our relationship now. So what do you say?" He asked with his brows raised.

"What relationship? I don't love you!" She shook her head, still not satisfied with the way he answered her.

Reuben's idea of how this would end was different from what was happening right now.

'I thought she would like this but why is she behaving in such a hostile way?' He wondered and frowned when she rolled her eyes at him.

"That was the worst proposal I have ever had! No woman would want such a bland and boring proposal!" She scoffed and ridiculed him straight to his face.

"So you want a better proposal? I can do that." Reuben chuckled and conceded to what she wanted.

"No! That is not what I meant! What exactly do we know about each other that we should start dating?" She tried to reason with him because dating was a big step in her life.

She did not want to jump into a relationship just for the heck of it and wanted it to be a wholesome and meaningful one.

Hearing her reasoning, Reuben thought for a while and then smiled when a brilliant idea popped up in his mind.

"Let me ask you this. Do you hate me?" He asked while tilting his head.

"No." She immediately shook her head.

"Do you hate it when I touch you?" He squeezed the little palm in his hand and lightly pressed his hand that was positioned on her back.

Lina felt a shiver run down her spine when he touched her there.

She shook her head to indicate that she did not hate it in the least bit.

"Do you like spending time with me?" He smiled at her and held her tight in his arms.

Lina thought back to the few times they met but every time they had fun together.

"Yes." She muttered, wondering where he was going with these questions.

She held her breath as she watched him lean closer to her face.

"We can have a lifetime getting to know each other but can we do it while we are together?" His deep voice caused waves in her heart.

Lina was lost in those beautiful black eyes that were so close to her and she head bobbed subconsciously.

"So you're agreeing to date me?" Reuben's cheerful voice woke her up from her daze.

The brilliant smile on his face was proof of how happy he was right at this moment.

'What just happened?' She blanked out after seeing his beautiful face and did not know what was going on anymore.

Right at that moment, the music stopped and Reuben quickly escorted her back to their table.

When they reached their table, Reuben pulled her close and held her by the waist.

He confidently stood before her cousins and uncles with a smile on his face.

"From this moment on, we are officially dating." He announced to the people before him and then smiled at the woman who whiplashed to face him.

"Wait wha-" Lina gawked at him with her mouth wide open.