Arrogant Man VS Unyielding Woman
Chapter 355 Are You Threatening Me

Moore sounded better than the last time. There wasn't anything strange judging by his tone. Jean sighed in relief. 'Moore must have been longly these days." She brushed the imaginary dust on her jeans with her unoccupied hand before gently pushing the door open, and a huge smile plastered on her face.

As soon as the door opened, she immediately caught sight of the quite huge glass window with its curtains drawn in the center of the room. On the window's ledge was a simple white vase full of flowers that was permitted by the hospital. Beside the window was a small table. On top of the table was an air purifier, making the whole room smell like a stereotypical hospital room. The bed was situated in between the table and a similar table on the bed's right side. It was empty unlike the rolling table with empty plates on it. The television was turned on into a news channel but in mute. Finally, she turned to Moore who had an IV connected on his left hand.

She smiled hesitantly and called out his name. After hearing his name on her voice, she walked slowly towards him with a confident smile this time and added, "I came here to see you."

She stopped at his non-verbal response, eyes widened in surprise. She expected that he would be happy to see her, but instead, he only gave her an expressionless glance, a shadow crossing across his face, and then turned away to look out of the window. She felt a pang of ache at Moore's indifference towards her as if he didn't recognize her. Despite this, she kept the smile on her face. She moved closer towards him and heaved a deep sigh before asking,"Are you still angry with me? I know I left without saying goodbye last time, but you should know that I had no choice. I didn't know that Zed would come here unexpectedly just to pick me up and insisted that I should go home. Honestly, after that, everything just happened in the blink of an eye that I even couldn't spare some time to breathe,"

Jean explained, hoping that Moore would understand and forgive her.

After a moment of silence, Moore turned his attention to Jean and responded, "So why did you come here and waste your precious time? I thought you are so busy." His eyes pierced at Jean with such coldness that he could be shooting ice towards her. However, the emotion of sorrow slowly became evident on his face and furrowing his eyebrows was his way to hide it.

Jean's smile dropped. Whenever Moore saw her, he had always been wearing a happy smile. This time was the complete opposite, making him unrecognizable. Suddenly, Jean felt a pang of guilt. She was the one at fault, so it was only right of Moore to treat her this way for she might have really hurt his feelings, and she totally deserved it.

Even though Jean felt so dejected at Moore's constant aloofness towards her, a smile crept on her face once more, hoping this time she could please him. "Oh, about the video, you must have heard in the news!" Jean sat on the chair she pulled from the bedside table and beamed, "I rushed here to see you after the video incident was handled."

Moore's expression wasn't fazed by the news. "Do I owe you a thank you then for coming here to see me?" Jean's smile dropped again. Before she could respond, Moore said, "Well then, thank you." Then he turned his gaze back towards the window, adding, "Now that you are satisfied seeing me well, you can leave now. I still feel a little tired, and all I want right now is to take a rest." Jean couldn't believe how Moore treated her. She expected him to return back to his cheery state, but got a worse and impolite response.

She wasn't sure why he was still continuing this act despite all her efforts to keep a smile on her face and try to please him. At that moment, she felt as if she had had enough of his attitude. Anger started to build inside her, and the smile on her face completely vanished as if it wasn't there in the first place.

Standing up, she frowned and thought, 'Ever since I came here, you have been wearing such a long face, and in spite of my attempts to please you, you still don't appreciate them.'

"What the hell do you want, Moore? What do you want me to do?" Jean finally asked irritably, her voice rising. The guilt was gone, so was her temper. With a little impatience, she spoke again, "Yes, I know that it was wrong of me to leave without saying goodbye or any parting words. But I think it is completely immature of you to still have that attitude towards me. Seriously, if you don't want to see me, just tell me, so I wouldn't have to keep trying to please you in vain." She swallowed a lump in her throat, waiting for a response from him. Hearing none, she said with great hesitation,"Since it seems that way, I'm sorry for wasting your time and for bothering you. I won't come here anymore, so you can now rest assured."

Before she could take back the words she didn't want to say, she immediately turned around and walked away still with the fruit basket she had brought for him in hand.

After taking a few steps towards the door, she only then realized what she had forgotten, so she stopped and thought about it for a moment. Reluctantly, she walked back towards the bed. Besides, she brought it for him. She took one heavy step after another. Instead of placing the fruit basket on the empty table, she furiously dumped the basket on his bed, letting out all her frustration in that one basket. However, the basket suddenly fell over the floor after toppling on the uneven surface of the bed.

With eyes wide and mouth wide open, Jean could do nothing but witness the basket drop on the floor, the fruits rolling out of it in an instant.

She was stunned for a moment and stood there in regret. She didn't know what to do.

'Should I just turn and walk away?

Or should I stay?

Or better yet, should I pick up the fruits before I leave?' She wondered. Her gaze was fixated on the empty basket on the ground.

After a short while, she decided to pick the fruits up and then thought about what to do after, while doing so. Before she could bend down, however, she stopped after hearing a soft sigh, but enough for her to hear, coming from Moore. This reaction from him surprised her again.

She turned her gaze towards him as Moore did the same to her. As their eyes met, Jean wasn't quite sure but knew that she saw helplessness in his eyes, but this confusing turn of his attitude just angered her more. She hated feeling uncertain.

"What are you looking at? Pick them up yourself!" After she uttered these words impulsively, she turned her back on him and intended to walk out for sure this time, but she was stopped once more by Moore's voice behind her.

"I will never forgive you if you leave this way." At this point, after seeing Jean act rashly, Moore felt as if he didn't have any other choice but to threaten her. His hands clenched into tight fists out of impatience and frustration. Meanwhile, Jean froze at his words. She turned back to face him with fury in her eyes and complete disbelief on her face. "Did you just threaten me?"

"You would have left without any hesitation if I didn't," Moore replied immediately, shaking his head with a sigh.

"What was the head shake for?" In a raspy voice, Jean asked before walking over to him. She placed her hands on her hips and furrowed her eyebrows into a frown, waiting for his response.

"You are the one at fault here, but why do you act as if I am the one who owes an apology? Honestly, I don't know what to do with you. I can't do anything but bottle up all my grievances by myself as if I have another choice." He confessed with a deep sigh and turned to look away from her.

Jean stared at him for a moment, contemplating what to say. "I don't understand. What grievances do you have? You don't tell me anything anymore, how could I know? Besides, you're the man. You even have the guts to haggle with me," She finally mumbled in a softer voice this time, even though she knew that this conversation that they were having wasn't anywhere near reconciliation. 'As if, for now,' she thought.

Moore turned his gaze back to her and revealed, "Jean, you don't know how much worried I was after you left without any word. Thoughts of you getting in a messed up situation crossed my mind, and I couldn't help but feel disappointed by myself for being here. Before I could think of ways to escape and try to replace you to make sure you're okay, I heard that Zed had already picked you up. Í felt at ease, and I can't make myself to blame you at all." Jean's expression softened. The coldness on Moore's face was gone and was now replaced with sincerity she couldn't point out exactly.

Still, that doesn't explain the reason for his previous actions. "You tell me now that you couldn't blame me for it, but why have you been giving me the cold shoulder since the moment I came here?" She asked, upset clear in her tone, and then she crossed her arms on her chest.

"Because..." He suddenly stopped, unable to replace the right words to say. She looked at him intently, waiting for him to continue his sentence. For a moment, Moore considered making up a story, but then again, there was no point anymore to keep up with this act. With his gaze kept on her, he heaved a deep sigh and spoke, "Yes, the video incident may have already been cleared up, but it hasn't been resolved yet. We still don't know the real culprit behind it, so we don't know where he or she is or what he or she could be doing right now. Thus, how dare you come here alone? Aren't you afraid of making another wrong step and be framed again? Most importantly, who knows what plots the culprit could be stirring up right now to get back at you?"

Jean's eyebrows furrowed. "So to clarify, you ignored me just because I came here to see you alone?" She asked in confusion. She stared at him in bewilderment, waiting for an answer. Deep inside, however, she still couldn't believe what he had said, let alone connect his answers together.

He didn't reply for a moment, thinking of how he should answer her question. Before long, he nodded and said, "Maybe."

Satisfied with his answer, he didn't add anymore. Besides, it was all because he was worried about her that he treated her that way. He was disappointed at how impulsive she acted that way for sure. He would hate himself if ever something happened to her since he was stuck here unable to do anything. He then felt disappointed at Zed too, for he let her out alone.

Jean stared at him for a while. "Maybe? What do you mean?" She felt a little funny about his words. She stared at him intently and said, "You know, Moore, not until today that I have discovered this part of you that talks weird."

"Why am I weird?" He asked, wondering how Jean grasped the things he said just now. With a sigh of relief, he was thankful that she was no longer frustrated at him.

"Well, for one, you were treating me with the cold shoulder, but now you tell me that you are just worried about me. If you haven't told me about your true intentions, I would have mistaken your true nature to be completely narrow-minded. And if you have let me leave, then I wouldn't most probably come back here again. Did you even think how much you were risking? What if I really left? Then you won't have the chance to explain to me, so will I. Can you imagine that? Our friendship ended because of a small misunderstanding," Jean said, looking at Moore with a serious face.

This made him get lost in his own thoughts. He had been really disappointed at her when she had left without saying goodbye last time. Of course, he would have conveyed his anger at her when she showed up.

Then again, he didn't give his actions any thought at all and acted upon his pure emotion, forgetting about reason.

These thoughts took him aback. He was fortunate to have not destroyed their relationship.

'What Jean had said was totally right,' he thought. 'If I vented my anger out on her without letting her have the chance to make me forgive her, she would have left, and the chance of meeting her would have been very slim. She might not even face him anymore, let alone give him a chance to explain.'

With emotions so complex he couldn't point them out exactly, he stared at her, unable to respond.

Jean noticed the mixed feelings that were showing on his facial expression and knew exactly what he was thinking judging solely by it. "What do you think? You do realize that I said those words not to scare you, right?" She said with a playful smirk on her face. At that moment, she knew they had reconciled, so she bent down to pick up the fruits that fell.

"Yeah, but you would have left if I haven't threatened you." Moore murmured softly, frowning at her with discontent.

"What?" Jean asked, not really quite catching what he had mumbled.

"Nothing," he replied, giving her a weak smile instead. Confused, she stopped picking up the fruits and stood up to look at him. She became more curious about what he had said under his breath.

Seeing the frown forming on her face, Moore knew that she would lose her temper again if he told her what he had said. It would spark another argument that might risk him losing her completely, so he immediately changed the topic before that happened. "You... You two have reconciled?" He dropped the first question that popped in his mind, even though he knew that they did judging by how Jean looked so much better now.

Jean cocked an eyebrow, tilting her head at him. "How did you know?" She was shocked at his sudden change of topic, but more so by what he had just said. It was more of a statement than a question.

He gave her a weak smile. 'How did I know? It is too obvious judging by your face, silly girl,' he thought but knew very well not to say it out loud.

He cleared his throat. "Well, I saw how both of you acted when you two were featured on the news, and that your innocence has been proven." He stated in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. For a moment, he didn't know how to deal with the new emotion building up inside him. 00000