I've Been There Before

Grace was forcefully pulled out of the Royal Club by Franklin.

They went to a busy night fair. Franklin led her through the crowd holding her hand and the vendor's hawking could be heard from time to time. Grace was not accustomed to walk hand in hand with someone. But Franklin seemed to have a tenacious nature. Even if, for several times, she found some excuses to take back her hand, he would smile and hold up her hand again.

They shuttled in the night fair and the tantalizing aroma from the stalls around drifted into their noses.

Grace walked in a slow pace, but Franklin didn’t urge her.

She raised her head glanced at the back of the muscular and tall man who was holding her hand… Franklin didn’t urge her to walk quicker; plus, Grace even noticed that he was slowing down his pace secretly.

Usually, a night fair would attract a large number of people every night. Since today was weekend, there were even more people, and among them, there were many couples.

In the milling crowd, a handsome man was walking slowly and hand in hand with a plain woman.

This was naturally a combination that would attract people’s attention.

Grace subconsciously wanted to dodge the gazes from the people who were studying her… She hated such kind of gaze very much.

Could you please don’t look at me?

Could you please don’t look at me with that kind of gaze?

Those gazes seemed to penetrate through her fresh and bones.

Could you please…

“Let go of my hand! Let me go!” Grace desperately struggled to cast off his hand, “Mr. Cordon, let go of me! Please!”

“Please!”

She roared desperately and huskily with all her might.

Her wrist was red because of the fierce struggle, “Please…” Her voice was finally tinged with a trace of plead after the hysterical roar.

Grace looked at Franklin, and Franklin also turned around to look at her. Suddenly, Franklin let go of her hand. But before Grace could heave a sigh of relief, Franklin held up her hand again. But this time, he held her hand more tightly. His warmth and comfort transferred from his palm to Grace’s palm.

“Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t care about them.” As Franklin was speaking, he suddenly pulled Grace closer to himself and then hugged Grace tightly. He then raised his head and glanced around, “Damn! What’s the point of looking at us? Haven’t you seen a loving couple hanging out together?”

With Franklin’s loud reproach, most of the passers-by shifted their gazes.

“Let’s go. Let’s enjoy our meal.” Franklin held Grace by her shoulders in an overbearing manner and led her into an alley. There was a beef noodles restaurant in the alley. The decoration of the beef noodles restaurant was not as exquisite as that of restaurants outside the alley, and even appeared to be obsolete and aged. Franklin then led Grace into the restaurant.

“Noah, two bowls of beef noodles, please.”

“Little Frank, you rarely come recently, and you’re free today?” The owner of the restaurant was a middle-aged man in his fifties. There was some grey hair among his black hair. He was always smiling and appeared to be kind and friendly. When he saw Franklin, he immediately put down the plates, wiped his hands on his apron, and then poured two glasses of warm water for Franklin and Grace.

“Who’s this?”

friend.” said

and added, “Girlfriend.” He looked up at Noah, “Noah, how does my

petrified… G…

who looked so kind, from

Franklin was

looks so beautiful. She has good facial features. But she looks

stunned again… She glanced at Noah with doubts. How

be honest, Grace was beautiful three years ago. But now, her beauty had faded because of the

I will go and make beef noodles for

“Bosh, I’m not your…”

to explain it, but Noah had walked towards the kitchen. She was then in

you’re

and joking voice sounded in Grace’s ears and Grace finally came to her own sense. When she looked at his handsome face, a strange feeling suddenly surged in her heart.

in the air and his ears became red. He hurriedly explained, “Don’t follow Noah’s suit. When I was young, my parents didn’t allow me to have snacks and they were very strict in controlling my diet. So I liked to come to Noah’s restaurant and

was passed down from his ancestors. It’s said that the receipt was originated from the

this moment, there was a trace of childishness on her, just as she preserved three years ago. Franklin was red from ears to his necks. He anxiously said, “Noah is my senior, but you are not. Don’t call me ‘Little Frank’ like Noah does. You

Grace didn’t reply.

beef and noodles in it.” He then specially instructed

utter the remaining words

your own stuff. I and my

laughed and

looked into Franklin’s eyes, “Why did you deceive Noah? I’m

and said, “Who told you that I was deceiving Noah?”

Grace was so shocked!

It was too sudden!

and she blankly stared at Franklin for a long while… “Mr.

said, “I said, would you like to my girlfriend? What about having a

her hand and refused without hesitation, “Mr. Cordon, the noodles have cooled down… By

“I was not jok…”

him and shouted, “It can just be a joke,

he wanted to say and stared at Grace. After a long while, he

who had a pair of sharp and keen eyes, caught the bitterness flashing across Grace’s eyes

green scallions was so subtle, Franklin still had noticed it.

man sitting across her was swiftly selected out the scallions

she glanced at the bowl which was put in front of her again –

the noodles. Franklin held up Grace’s hand again and walked in front of her, leading her through the milling crowd and turning around to tell Grace those interesting things happened in his childhood from

hands blankly. She was

aren’t you afraid