It's Your Turn To Cry and Beg, Dear Uncle
Chapter 13: Unfamiliar Sensation

Chapter 13: Unfamiliar Sensation

Was that it?

The reason why he cared for her?

All of the sudden, Oliver couldn’t figure it out himself. He understood that he had meddled far too much at one point. But, wouldn’t seven years of relationship do that to anyone? Just like how James had known Kyra that long and so had Oliver.

The first time he had met Kyra was when she was twelve years old. He had come to meet James for a group project and Kyra had just arrived home from her tutoring. The little girl was a bundle of joy running out of the car with her uniform and school bag.

It was mid-summer. The heat had baked his skin and coloured the girl’s fair skin red. Yet, her smile remained bright without a hint of exhaustion despite the layer of sweats beading down her face.

Her blue eyes felt nostalgic as they locked on him, and her childish voice evoked a memory of a small girl who had called him the same way she did.

"Who are you, big brother?"

Oliver stared absentmindedly as Kyra disappeared behind the door, leaving him with a look of confusion. However, that feeling didn’t last long. The moment she passed through the secretarial office, looks of surprise and disbelief greeted her. She immediately sobered up and threw a fit once again inside the lift.

"Put me down!"

Unfortunately, James chose to ignore her. So, Kyra had to bear another form of humiliation as the man carried her all the way to the lobby, garnering the attention of the employees. In that instance, blood rushed to her cheeks.

She resigned to her fate. With closed eyes, she buried her face onto the man’s back while wishing that everyone would not recognize her. Perhaps her days of visiting Oliver had come to an end.

James took large steps towards the main entrance. His face remained indifferent despite all the gossip and people eyeing them.

"Sir?" Even the driver was dumbfounded when he saw his boss come out with the young miss on his shoulder. What kind of role play are they doing now?

"Open the door," James ordered sharply from a distance.

The driver immediately obeyed, rushing to open the backseat door. The moment James reached his car, he shoved the girl inside without hesitation.

Kyra didn’t wait for him to climb in, she immediately lunged for the opposite door to escape. But James was faster.

As her hand gripped the door handle, his arm wrapped firmly around her slender waist, yanking her back effortlessly. Kyra let out a startled yelp. She struggled to break free but her puny strength was no match against the man’s toned arm. He locked her in place, perfectly stuck to his side.

"What the hell do you want, James?!" she shouted, her voice trembling with fury.

James merely glanced at her expressionlessly. "I want you to shut up."

His tone was firm, laced with authority, every word was designed with the intention to intimidate the girl. Kyra pressed her lips together, realizing that struggling was not only useless but almost absurd. Resigned, she chose to stay quiet, settling into his hold without a word. Yet, she refused to turn and face him.

James noticed her deliberate attempt to shut him out. His lips parted slightly but closed just as quick. In the end, he turned toward the window, retreating into his own thoughts. And just like, they engaged in a cold war with neither deigned to surrender. Though they sat side by side, his arm around her, their skin brushing, neither felt the other’s presence.

Kyra turned her head slightly, catching his side profile in her peripheral view. This was the face she had traced countless times over the past fourteen years since their first meeting. Every line, every curve, every feature—etched deeply into her memory.

He was supposed to be familiar. Yet somehow, he felt increasingly foreign, as if the man she had known all these years had been someone else.

’If only it were that simple...’ Kyra smiled bitterly. ’We could just become strangers without a single memory of each other.’

It would’ve been so much easier.

As the car passed through the residential gate and drawing closer to the Wisteria Mansion, her gaze drifted outside. It had only been a day, yet strangely, the sight of those Wisteria trees felt... different.

When the car came to a halt, neither of them made a move to get out. The driver sat frozen, unsure of what to do. He silently cursed his misfortune for being caught in the middle of their fighting.

With a resigned sigh, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and reached for the door handle. Slowly, he began to step out—only for someone else to beat him to it.

He was speechless as he watched Kyra’s figure brushed past him. She went around the hood and towards the door. As soon as Kyra left the car, James followed along, leaving the driver completely stumped. In the end, he returned inside the car and brought it to the garage.

Meanwhile, James chased after Kyra as her strides grew longer and faster until she broke into a full sprint toward her room. He caught up just as she reached the door, intercepting it before she could slam it shut. Without hesitation, he gripped the edge, leaving a narrow three-centimeter gap.

Kyra glared at him. She scoffed, "Wow, you really can’t keep your hands where they don’t belong, can you?"

"If you learn to stop being insolent, I will gladly learn to keep my hands off the place they don’t belong." James flashed a mocking smile.

Kyra sneered back. She refused to back down as she pushed the door with all her strength. But, Kyra was just a young woman with a delicate figure, how could she win against a man as big as James?

In one swift motion, James effortlessly pushed the door open. Kyra staggered backward, caught off guard by the force, but James was quicker. He reached out and pulled her securely into his arms.

For a brief moment, James thought the girl would struggle to break free again. But this time, Kyra remained motionless, her head resting fully against his chest.

Her unexpected stillness and her quiet dependence froze him in place. Yet, what truly made him tense was something else. Something that he had never felt before. Over the years, James had held Kyra countless times, yet only now did he sense a startling shift.

The curve of her waist under his arm felt unfamiliar. Her frail shoulders seemed as though they might break under his grip, her fair skin brushing against his rough one. But, the most unsettling of all was the soft pressure against his chest—a sensation that sent every alarm in his head blaring.

"Why?"

Kyra’s voice broke through his spiraling thoughts, pulling him back to the present. The sound of it only quickened his heartbeat.

"Why do you keep chasing me if you hate me? There’s nothing left to say between us. You should’ve just minded your own business."

She tilted her head back to meet his gaze, her eyes searching his. "I don’t understand. What is it that you want?"

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart pounded uncontrollably as their eyes locked. It suddenly hit him, all at once—the realization that the body he was holding was no longer that of the Kyra he had always known.

It was the body of a blossoming woman.