You Are The Apple of My Eyes
Chapter 839 Bumping Into Austin

Shortly after, Tim left.

Michelle heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't know why exactly she felt like this. Perhaps it was because Leon said that Tim liked her.

She had always regarded Tim as a friend, and he had also said he was a friend and a fan of hers.

Then suddenly, her world changed the instant her boyfriend told her that Tim actually liked her. She was at a loss, not knowing how to act around him anymore.

Ever since then, she had deliberately kept her distance from Tim, rarely replying to any of his messages.

Tim had noticed her strange behavior, too.

But he told himself it was because she was busy with work.

Michelle rarely ever replied to the message of her friends and family, too.

Her schedule was packed to the brim. On weekdays, she went to work. On weekends, she would stay in North Yard.

There were a lot of things to learn. Other than eating and sleeping, all of Michelle's time was dedicated to learning under Nina.

No one knew exactly what Michelle was doing with her time, but people could tell that she was very busy. Whenever Elaine picked her up from work, she always wore earbuds their entire trip back home. After meals, she would stand against the wall with a book on her hands.

She was nowhere to be found on weekends, as though she was participating in some secret training.

Elaine tried to ask her about this on multiple occasions, but Michelle had always given her the same, cryptic answer. "I want to improve myself."

In parents' eyes, it was always a good thing when their children constantly worked to improve themselves. But with Michelle, she was working herself harder than students in prep school.

Elaine didn't know what Michelle was up to and couldn't seem to get any more details out of her, so she put all her focus into cooking nutritious meals for her hardworking daughter. As a result, Michelle had a nosebleed one day.

On the day before New Year's Eve, Nina let Michelle have a day off. At first, she refused, but Nina insisted that they should slow things down. It was impossible to get everything down overnight. Nina also said afterwards that she herself wanted a holiday in celebration of the New Year.

Only then did Michelle agree to hit pause on her learning for three days.

On the day before New Year's Eve, Michelle's family went shopping in preparation for the festival. However, this year was a bit different, because now they had a fourth member joining them—Tim. Because they had invited Tim to celebrate the holidays with them, Michelle's parents insisted on having him shop with them, too.

As they were walking along the street, Michelle bumped into Austin.

She hadn't seen him in over three years, yet he looked like he hadn't aged a day. He still looked elegant yet aloof.

Both he and Lydia were studying in B City and were due to graduate half a year from now.

But it wasn't Lydia he was with. A lovely girl of about twenty years old was standing next to Austin. She held up a red lantern and asked him if it was beautiful. Michelle thought about what Lydia had said the last time they talked. She mentioned that Austin had a crush on another girl. Could this be who she was talking about? They did go shopping together before the New Year's Eve.

But to Michelle's knowledge, Lydia and Austin hadn't broken up yet.

Even if they were just nominally boyfriend and girlfriend, she firmly believed that they needed to break up if Austin had fallen for another girl.

How could Austin go shopping with another girl openly before breaking up with Lydia?

Michelle just stared at Austin and the girl angrily.

"Michelle, what's the matter with you?" Noticing that the strange look on her daughter's face, Elaine followed her gaze. "Isn't that Austin? Wasn't he your classmate?" "Yes," Michelle replied through gritted teeth.

Wondering why Michelle was so angry, Tim also turned to see what she was glaring at. Austin was a tall and good-looking young man who stood out in the crowd. Tim's eyes then landed on the girl next to Austin, which confused him even further.

Wasn't Michelle in love with Leon?

"It is Austin," Adams said, his eyes flickering with recognition. "There's a young lady next to him, too-his girlfriend, maybe?"

"I think so." Elaine nodded in agreement. Turning to her daughter, she suggested, "Michelle, why don't you say hi to them? I remember you, Austin, and Lydia were the best of friends." "Great idea!" Michelle stomped over towards the couple, as though she was about to interrogate them.

But she had a baby face and round eyes. No matter how angry she was, she looked absolutely harmless.

Before Michelle was able to say anything to him, Austin saw her and the three people behind her approaching.

"Michelle, are you shopping for New Year's gifts?" he asked brightly.

"Yes." Michelle sized up the two people. "And you two?"

"We're just looking around." When Austin recognized Michelle's parents walking towards them, he went to meet them halfway to greet them.

He walked right past Michelle, who was suddenly speechless.

The girl followed him. As she passed by Michelle, she smiled politely at her.

Out of courtesy, Michelle returned a polite smile.

But then she felt off; this girl was Lydia's rival, so she didn't need to be so polite.

The smile on her face quickly disappeared.

Austin chatted idly with Michelle's family. After a while, he received a call from home and needed to leave in a hurry, so Michelle didn't even have the time to ask about his relationship with the girl. She gloomily watched as the two figures melted into the crowd.

The girl slipped her arm in his and started talking to Austin happily.

But since they were out of earshot, Michelle couldn't hear a word they were saying. Nevertheless, she felt bad for Lydia.

The girl, who was actually Austin's cousin, looked up at him and asked, "Austin, was that girl your girlfriend? She was looking at me weirdly."

"I guess it's because you are holding my arm," Austin said.

The girl stuck out her tongue defiantly but and let go of him.

"She is my girlfriend's good friend, Michelle," Austin explained. "We were classmates in college."

Suddenly, the girl snickered. "Austin, you're going to be in trouble."

Austin tilted his head and glanced at her questioningly.

"I'm sure that girl misunderstood our relationship." The girl grinned and walked ahead to turn around and face him. "Austin, you should explain things to her, or else your girlfriend will get jealous." "Jealous?" Austin echoed, perplexed. Then, he stopped in his tracks and thought of something.

The girl tilted her head to the side. "Yes, jealous," she said simply.

"Okay," Austin replied lightheartedly and continued to walk. If she wasn't mistaken, it seemed to the girl that Austin was actually in a good mood.

The girl hurried to catch up with him. "Austin, are you really not going to explain things to her?"

However, he didn't reply.

Meanwhile, Michelle picked up her phone and tapped on Lydia's chat box. She started typing a long message, relaying everything that had happened just now.¶¶¶¶¶