If You Want Me

In a dim pub filled with the smoke of burning cigarettes, people were ecstatically raising toasts to one another. At one corner, however, a woman could be seen downing a shot of whiskey before filling it up again and raising her glass. Tears were in her eyes.

"Consuela, you're drunk."

Upon seeing that Consuela Xia was working towards getting herself dead drunk, Sheryl Xia immediately snatched her glass away from her.

What nobody noticed was how she discretely slipped a sinister looking pill into the said glass.

"Why are you here?" Consuela Xia asked as she giggled like a little school girl. Her liveliness, however, severely contrasted with the lifelessness behind her eyes.

"Look at yourself. How could a woman let herself get this dunk?! Our parents will definitely get mad at you if you go home like this!" Sheryl Xia nagged, convincingly feigning anger.

"If that's the case, then I guess I'm not going home!" Consuela Xia answered, her tone firm and dismissive. She was "dancing"-swaying carelessly from left to right-making it clear that she had already taken in too much alcohol.

Sheryl Xia took deep breaths upon hearing Consuela's words. She hated her younger sister so much.

Ever since their childhood, their parents had treated them differently. She wouldn't be allowed to do what she wanted, but they would let Consuela Xia have all the fun. Because of that, she had no choice but to behave herself. Consuela Xia, on the other hand, had no rules and did whatever her heart desired. Weren't they sisters? Why were they treated so unfairly? Why was Consuela Xia treated like the Xia Family's princess while she was treated like a poor girl?

Sheryl Xia subconsciously clenched her fists as she felt fury grip her heart. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in an attempt to relax herself. Before she spoke again, she put on a gentle smile for her sister. "I knew you'd say that. I've already booked you a room. 316. You..."

Sheryl Xia's phone rang before she finished what she was about to say.

Hurriedly, she fished her phone from her purse to check out who it was. After scanning the screen, she gestured to Consuela Xia that she needed to go out first to answer the phone.

When Sheryl Xia came back, the first thing she saw was Consuela Xia's empty glass on the bar counter. A glint of hatred and satisfaction flashed across her eyes. She was barely able to conceal her excitement when she turned to her sister and said, "Consuela, will you be able to go to the room by yourself? I am so sorry but I just have to meet with someone right now! Don't worry! I wouldn't take long! I'll go straight to Room 316 once I'm done with what I have to do!"

Consuela Xia saw the concern and worry in her sister's face. She really didn't care if she left her alone. With that, she nodded and urged her to go where she needed to be.

As soon as Sheryl Xia turned around, a vicious expression appeared on her face. Once again, no one, including her sister, noticed it happen.

After waving goodbye to her sister, Consuela Xia began her journey towards Room 316. It took her a while but she was able to successfully stagger to the said room after some time. It was open and so she went straight in without thinking twice. A terrible headache was already starting to form inside her head, and all she wanted to do at that time was lie in bed and hopefully sleep.

It wasn't long before she was able to locate the bed and lie down. She immediately drifted off to sleep, but somehow, her consciousness was active enough to feel that her body temperature was steadily climbing. Soon, a strange feeling took over her. She opened her eyes. Everything was blurry, as if she was in a trance.

Slowly, she tried to look around, but to her surprise, a man's face came into her view. He was sitting on a sofa with eyes closed. His forehead was sweating, and his face was red. Although her head was pounding, she tried to get up to approach him and know what happened to him. But at that exact moment, the man opened his eyes. Consuelo Xia noted how his body language seemed like he just let go of his sanity, making her fear for her safety. Then, all of a sudden, the man lunged at her and held her by her shoulders. His eyes were crazed and bloodshot, and the expression on his face only relayed one thing: he had lost control.

Consuelo Xia didn't realize how terrible the situation was until the man starting tearing her clothes away and inappropriately kissing her. Though she tried her best to stave off the man's advances, she found that her strength was no match against his.

But with enough effort, she was finally able to free herself from the man's grasp and flee to one corner of the room.

"No! Go away!" she said with a sob.

"Please, don't do this to me!"

Tears were now streaming down her cheeks. She didn't want to give herself to a violent man she didn't know! With her shaking head, she pleaded for her safety.

However, in the man's eyes, she was just playing hard-to-get.

"Weren't you so enthusiastic just now? You need to stop pretending so pure and innocent. It doesn't suit you!" Richie Ye snorted condescendingly. He then walked towards Consuelo Xia and pinned her to the wall.

He had met a lot of women like this one, but none of them had dared to drug him.

When he thought of this, anger started gripping his heart. He looked Consuelo Xia in the eyes as he continued to press his body against hers. Contempt was evident in his face, and a deranged smirk had already graced his lips.

"No! No! I-I don't know..."

Consuelo Xia was now sobbing uncontrollably.

All she could remember was she was drunk and her elder sister told her to wait for her in the room. Since she had drunk a lot, she fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She woke up and the man was already inside the room with her!

What the hell was going on? What was happening?!

"Then, I'll satisfy you as you wish!"

As it seemed like the inevitable was coming, Consuelo Xia totally broke down. This was not what she wanted-she didn't want to be violated like this!

"Why, why are you doing this to me? Who are you?" Consuela Xia sobbed.

Her words were full of fear and pleading, which somehow made the act more tempting to Richie Ye.

"No. Ah!" Consuelo Xia bit her lower lip as shame enveloped her whole being. She wanted the whole ordeal to be over, but it seemed never-ending.

Seeing Consuelo Xia behave this way, Richie Ye couldn't help but snort. This was what she wanted, wasn't it? Hadn't he satisfied her enough?

Huh...

After a few minutes of carnal pleasure, both of them peaked. As they started coming down from their ecstasy, they noticed how sweat fully covered their bodies.

The drug's effect had also subsided. As Richie Ye looked at the woman he just feasted on, he snorted. 'What a shameless woman! If I wasn't drugged, I would never sleep with someone like this person. Never would I want to be with such a slut!'

Quickly, he got up from the bed, disgust on his face.

"You have achieved your goal," he said, his back to Consuela Xia. "Get out of here right now."

Richie's words and the way he was acting made Consuela shiver in fear and anxiousness. Though her body was still sore-from the effects of the drugs she unknowingly took and the rough sex she just had with Richie-she sat up on the bed and defensively said, "I don't know what happened! I don't know what you're talking about!"

"You need to stop acting like a virgin, whore. You already got what you want. There is literally no point in trying to pretend you didn't plan any of this." Despite his aggressiveness, Richie actually wasn't angry anymore. Besides, he wouldn't dare hurt a woman with violence.

"Look here, you-"

"Just so you know, the Ye Family wouldn't accept a woman like you. Give it up."

Before Consuela could even finish what she wanted to say, Richie interrupted her. He turned his head to look at the woman on the bed, his stare cold and sharp.

A lot of women had already tried to tie Richie down before-all with varying levels of success-but none of them really got close to him. Today was the first time he let his guard down and he got drugged.

Consuelo couldn't believe what she was currently going through. A shiver ran down her spine as she tried to recall what had happened-nothing. She tried to continue proving her innocence to the man in front of him, but words wouldn't come out of her mouth.

Richie scoffed. As he walked towards the bathroom, he said, "If you're smart enough, you'd know that the best moment to disappear is now."

Slowly, Consuelo was mustering up the courage to speak up. Her vulnerable state had been taken advantage of by this man, and that was a fact!

"I am not interested in your family at all! I don't even know who the fuck you are! I am the victim of this situation!" Glaring at Richie's back, she added in a furious tone, "And I'll happily leave right now. Your face disgusts me, and I never want to see you again!"

Richie stopped in his tracks. A sneer formed on his lips. 'Is this bitch still playing hard to get with me?' he thought.

Consuelo stood up from the bed despite feeling a sharp pain in her side. She was determined to get away from the stuffy room where the man had continuously humiliated her!

Unfortunately, she quickly realized a big dilemma: she had nothing to wear. Every piece of clothing she had had been ripped off of her by Richie-from anger or passion, she didn't know. If she was to go home at that moment, she would be buck naked!

With a deep breath, she picked up a coat on the ground. She knew it was Richie's, but she had no other choice. She swallowed her pride and wore it. Good thing it was big and long enough to fully cover her up.

"I'll return this to you after I clean it," she declared. She didn't want to talk to Richie anymore, but out of respect, she did. Her voice, however, was colored with so much disgust.

Richie continued his way to the bathroom, ignoring Consuelo. 'Looking for an excuse to see me again, huh,' he thought, sneering.

"It's yours. Throw it, burn it-I don't care. I hate that coat anyway."

His tone, too, was filled with disgust.

He then closed the bathroom door without even waiting for Consuelo to respond. Soon, Consuelo heard water running inside.

It was Consuelo's first time to feel humiliated like this, and she did nothing to experience this kind of treatment.

As she felt tears forming in her eyes, she raised her head to look at the ceiling.

After a few moments, she took a deep breath, pushed the room's door open, and strode out.

"Sheryl!"

Right after getting off of the elevator, Consuela saw Sheryl. She ran into her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Shock flashed across Sheryl's face for a split second before she was able to collect herself and put something into her bag.

"What's wrong, Consuela?" she asked as she patted her sister's back, comforting her in a soft voice.

"Sheryl, where did you go? Last night....I..." Consuela couldn't begin to tell the tale. Slowly, she raised her head and wiped off the tears on her face. She wanted to ask why the man was in the room instead of Sheryl.

"Me? I waited for you the whole night in Room 319! You didn't show up! I should be the one asking where you've been last night! I knew you got drunk but I knew you could handle your alcohol. I waited and waited for you but you didn't come. I almost wanted to check out!" Sheryl said, acting so impeccably that no one would be able to detect that she was lying.

"What? Room 319?" Consuela's eyes widened in disbelief. How was that possible? She clearly remembered her saying that their room was 316!

"Yes, Consuela! 319! I repeated it many times, right? You really drank a lot last night!" Sheryl frowned as she tried to look like she was recalling the events that had transpired last night.

"What? How could it be possible?" Consuela could not believe what she was hearing. If Sheryl was indeed telling the truth, it would only mean that she had mistakenly heard 316 instead of 319, entered a stranger's room, and lost her virginity just because she was so drunk.

'So everything was my fault?'

"Consuela! Consuela!" Sheryl waved her hand in front of Consuela, trying to get her attention.

"What's happening? What happened to you?" After she concluded that everything was because of her reckless drinking, Consuela swallowed her saliva and faltered, "I-I... just... I got into the wrong room and had to sleep there. Nothing else happened!"

She would never tell the whole thing to Sheryl, even if she was her sister.

"Okay..." Sheryl responded, her eyebrows furrowed. "But why were you crying just now?"

"I-I... I just had the most terrible nightmare in that room. When I woke up and you weren't there, I got so scared!" Consuela rolled her eyes and continued, "Yes, I was just scared. That's all."

"Well, that's good. I thought something happened to you since you looked like you're panicking. I'm relieved that you're fine."

Sheryl smiled with relief. A ray of sunlight hit her face, illuminating her every feature. Passers-by craned their neck to look and admire her.

'Sheryl always looks so beautiful. No wonder Harry is so nice to her.' The more Consuela thought about that, the more she got annoyed. She felt like she had no right to love Harry Xue any longer.

A bitter smile crept up on her face.

On the other hand, after taking a shower, Richie went out of the bathroom and wiped his hair with a towel.

When he saw a touch of red on the sheet, he stopped. He raised his eyebrows. 'That woman is desperate to become a member of the Ye Family!' he thought to himself.

The contempt in his heart rose again. He then went on to continue drying himself, forgetting about Consuela.

The days following Consuela's encounter with Richie were uneventful. Despite still being shaken up by her experience, she just kept on telling herself that everything that had happened was just a bad dream and that she should forget about it.

And she did that soon enough. It was two weeks post-Richie that she finally decided to meet her long-time crush to admit her feelings for him. She told herself that even if she got rejected, she wouldn't feel regretful. At least she tried, and that was what mattered.

The two were set to meet in a fancy coffee shop.

When the man arrived, his eyes were sparkling. Aside from being beyond handsome, he exuded a nice, approachable aura that made him more attractive. "Consuelo! How are you?" he greeted.

Consuela didn't even bother returning the greeting and went straight to the point. "Harry, I love you-"

Ding!

Harry Xue's phone lit up just before she finished her confession.

As he tended to his sudden notification, his brows furrowed. Then, his eyes widened. Without saying a word, he suddenly stood up, making some utensils on the table drop on the floor. He looked confused, disgusted, and offended. Consuela, who was sitting across him, was incredibly confused.

His facial expression was so hard to read, but the way he was clinging onto his phone made Consuelo think that something was wrong.

'But why?' she thought, lost. A love confession should not elicit this kind of reaction!

Time then began feeling like it had stopped.

Harry Xue was still standing up and looking at his phone. His face was noticeably becoming paler and paler as seconds ticked by.

At this point, it was clear to Consuela that something was amiss. As she raised her head to take a closer look at Harry Xue, she began to feel tension building up inside of her chest. She, too, then stood up, craning her neck in an attempt to see the contents on Harry Xue's phone.

"Uhm...Harry...? What's happening?" she asked.

At that same moment, however, she caught a glimpse of what Harry Xue was gawking at. Her pupils constricted in an instant and her breath became labored. A cold feeling spread from her neck to her back. She became too frightened to even utter a single word.

"That, that is..."

Consuela grabbed the phone from Harry Xue's hand. She was so concentrated on what was on the screen that she didn't even notice that she had knocked down the glass of water on the table. She wanted to see the photos more clearly, and she didn't want Harry Xue to see them.

Her dress became soaked, but she didn't care.

There was a woman and a man in the photos. The man had his back to the camera in some photos, while his handsome profile was shown in some other. And the woman with a red face was none other than Consuela.

The camera was aimed at her. It was as if the whole thing was staged to take pictures of her, as in all the photos, her face was in clear view, while the man's was concealed.

'Why? How could this be possible?'

Consuela felt that it was harder and harder to breathe. Who would have taken these picture? Who would have sent them to Harry? Why would they do this?

"Didn't you say you love me?"

Harry Xue seemed to have already recovered from being shocked by the photos. Though he looked calm and had already sat back down, his voice was still shaky.

"I-I..." Consuela had no idea how to respond. The pictures were of her and a man on a bed!

"What's going on?" Harry Xue asked, a hint of pain and hesitation in his eyes.

He wanted Consuela to tell him everything he just saw was fake.

"I-I... don't know!" Harry Xue's confused and disbelieving tone scared her so much that she was so close to tears. She wondered why... and how these pictures appeared on the social media!

"You just need to tell me," said Harry Xue, who raised his head a little bit and closed his eyes. "Is the person in the photos you?"

Consuela heaved a sigh. She bowed her head, feeling as if all her strength had been drained from her body in an instant. The phone slid down on the floor with a thud. How could she answer such a question in front of the man she had loved for so many years?

Seeing the look on Consuela's face, Harry Xue was sure that she had betrayed him. The disappointment he felt when he saw the photos flooded and filled his chest.

Consuelo didn't know how to answer Harry Xue. As soon as she raised her head, she lowered her head again because of fear. Tears were already rolling down her cheeks.

Many different thoughts were already running inside her head.

With the strength left in her, she clenched her fists. She didn't feel any pain as her fingernails were dug into her palms. Closing her eyes, she nodded.

The room was blanketed with dead silence. Chilly air filled bit at her skin.

Harry Xue didn't know how to react. He had always thought that Consuela was like a white lotus-pure and innocent. Now that he had discovered she was the opposite, he felt angered. He could not accept it. It felt like the person he had trusted for a long, long time had stabbed him in the back.

Through the tears, Consuela tried to decipher what was on Harry Xue's mind, but she couldn't.

'What should I do? What can I do?' she thought. How could she explain it to Harry Xue?

Consuela's mind was a mess. She didn't know what to say. Words were lost on her.

"Harry...believe me... that was an accident!"

"Ha-ha..."

She wanted to tell Harry Xue what had happened that day. But all of a sudden, a sarcastic laugh came through, interrupting what she would say.

Consuela was confused. She tried to continue,

"Harry, I..."

"I'm very disappointed!" Harry Xue raised his head, giving her a meaningful look with disgust and dislike.

Consuela looked at him in a daze, forgetting what to say for a moment. Harry Xue's gentle appearance contorted into a grimace of judgment. It was as if he was a completely different person.

"Harry..." Again, she uttered the name of the man she had been in love for many years.

"Stop. I've always thought you are an exquisite girl. I guess I was wrong." Harry Xue tried his best to sound calm to the point it sounded like he didn't care about Consuela at all, but there was still something in his voice. He focused his eyes on her and kept thinking of the photos he had just seen. For years, Consuela had projected an image of utter grace and innocence. What had happened? Did it mean that any man could touch her when she felt lonely? Disappointment surged in his heart.