Kiss Me Not

Berry comforted her mother. Both of them were so worried, and they could only pray and hope for the operation to be a success. They stayed there waiting, praying till the sun went down.

Soon enough, the doctors finally went out of the operating room and informed them that the surgery was a success. Berry and her mother sobbed tears of joy as they hugged each other, thanking the heavens for the miracle they received.

Berry promptly arranged everything in the hospital, shaking her head as she grabbed her mobile phone from inside her purse and saw that it was off. She forgot to charge it, apparently, so the battery was currently empty.

She looked at her wristwatch and sighed. She should call Harry and inform him that she couldn\'t go home that night. Making her decision, Berry immediately went inside the private room where her father would be transferred soon, recharging her phone there as she waited.

Seeing her phone light up, she turned it on and immediately saw a lot of missed calls from Harry. As such, she immediately returned the calls.

"Hello? Are you alright?" Harry asked as soon as he answered his phone. He was worried when Berry didn\'t answer his calls. And when he was unable to reach her afterwards, it only made his imagination run wild. He had wanted to pick her up from work since she messaged him a while ago that she wanted to report at work. But then, he couldn\'t contact her, so he went straight to his house, only to find out that she was still not home.

"I\'m at the hospital. Sorry, my phone died and I\'m-"

"Hospital? Which hospital?"

"Yang Globals," Berry replied. "It\'s my Father. He was rushed here, so I won\'t be able to-"

"I\'m coming now…" Harry said before ending the call.

Looking at her phone, Berry was about to call him back when her phone suddenly rang. It was her mother.

Picking it up, Berry nodded as she replied to what she was hearing, "Yes, mom, I\'m going to get you some food. The room is ready, so rest for a bit while we wait for Dad. I\'ll be back…"

Ending the call, she immediately went out, leaving her phone behind since it was still charging. She had the habit of not removing her phone off the charger until it was full. She then ordered boxes of food, knowing the twins would soon arrive. The hospital wasn\'t that far from Harry\'s house, so maybe she could go home late at night once everything was settled. Besides, her mother would surely not leave her father\'s side.

After everything was said and done, she soon returned to the room, only to be startled upon seeing Harry inside.

"You\'re here?!" she gasped.

"I told you I\'m coming," Harry casually spoke.

"Sis, you never told us you\'re engaged. We didn\'t even know you had a boyfriend," Mickey teased. "Are you that in a hurry?!"

Berry winced. It would seem that the twins were already in the room together with her mother. She held an awkward smile as she looked at her mother with questioning eyes.

\'Did he just introduce himself as my fiance?\' she thought, but then asked, "When will they transfer Dad here?"

"Trying to change the subject, I guess?" Mousey interrupted.

\'These two!\' Berry inwardly frowned before letting out a sigh. "Mom, this is Harry. Uhm… my fiance. I was planning to introduce him to you soon. It\'s just that… Uhm, I became quite busy with… you know… Brione\'s wedding and some work stuff…" she mumbled with an awkward grin.

Her mother sighed and nodded. "He already introduced himself to us while you\'re gone. You left your phone while he was calling, and Mickey answered it."

Berry knew that look from her mother. To be honest, she grew up with very conservative and strict parents. Her parents were very different from how liberated she was. They believed in the traditional way that men should court her inside the house. But now, she just broke the rules by introducing him as her fiance all of a sudden.

"Wow, you\'re lucky Dad is in the hospital right now. You absolutely did not follow their concept of properly getting a fiance," Mickey giggled. "You did the shortcut route, right?"

Berry glared at her younger brother. All the while, Harry felt a bit awkward at the situation. However, he already had a decent grasp of the situation.

"I\'m sorry I haven\'t brought anything with me. I was in a hurry in coming in here cause I was worried about Be-"

Harry did not know what came to him but he practically flew to the hospital without thinking. He honestly just heard Berry say the name of the hospital but the other details came blurry since he was way too worried hearing she was suddenly in the hospital.

"That\'s okay, really. It\'s my fault too that you suddenly showed up like this anyway," Berry cut him off, before then looking at Mickey and Mousey. "You two, stop playing around and don\'t leave Mom, okay? I\'ll come back tomorrow early in the morning so you two can go to school. I\'ll call later…"

Berry looked at her mother who simply nodded, giving her permission to finally leave. Returning the nod, she walked towards her and kissed her mother\'s cheek as she whispered, "I\'ll bring him home and introduce him to you and Dad properly. So please don\'t worry about me too much, okay?"

Her mother only gave her a reassuring smile. Harry also politely bid them farewell along with a promise of returning with Berry tomorrow.

"I\'m sorry, did I put you into a tight spot or something?" Harry apologetically asked.

Berry hugged his arm as they walked and said, "It\'s fine. They\'re just caught off-guard. You see, I planned to tell them about you first before actually showing you to them. Like I said, my family is a bit conservative…"

"The twins are still studying?" Harry curiously asked as he changed the subject. The two men looked so alike that he assumed that they were identical twins.

"Yes, in college. Both of them are twenty."

"How about your Dad? Is it fine that you leave now?" Harry worriedly asked.

"The operation was successful. And according to the doctors, Dad\'s body is reacting positively. He\'s fine…" Berry waved his worry off. "I can\'t sleep there anyway since the twins will definitely refuse to leave the room. I\'ll just come back tomorrow once Dad is already transferred into his private room."

"Did you eat dinner already?"

"I\'m pretty hungry, actually," Berry confessed.

With a smile, Harry held her hand and said, "Let\'s eat dinner first then…"

Berry found herself staring at the hand Harry was holding on tightly. His palm was too big and warm, and She didn\'t want to let go of his hand no matter what. She only hoped that she could make Harry fall for her deep enough for him to not let her hand go easily as well.