A few hours later...
9:15 PM...
Mingyu's POV...
After joining his family for dinner, Junhao insisted that he drive me home. During the ride, I continue to comfort him about his break-up with Meiling. Though his eyes spoke differently, he tries his best to look strong in front of me. Deep down, I know how much he's struggling to get through the pain. Being a pyschology fan for years, I've come to learn to read people's faces, without them having to explain much. Though I don't consider myself an expert yet, I just hope I'm doing better and that I can comfort him.
"Don't worry about me, Mingyu. I'm a grown man, I'll be ok," Junhao says, before bursting out a small chuckle.
I sigh. "You always look out for me in my worst times. I should be doing the same to you."
He forms a small smile on his thin lips. "Thank you for your care."
After a few minutes, we eventually arrive at my house.
"Here we are, back at home," Junhao says, attempting to sound happy.
I form a small smile at him, before slowly turning my gaze to the front, only to be surprised by a white car parked in front of my house.
"Hmm..this car seems familiar," Junhao says.
"Because it is," I say, before unblucking my seatbelt. "That's Xiaoliang's car."
"Ah..he wanted to see you?" Junhao ask, his voice sounded curious.
"I guess. He didn't say anything about it," I say. "Anyway, thanks for the ride, Junhao."
Junhao smiles. "No problem. Oh yeah, I'll help get your bike out from the back."
"Ok," I say.
Junhao steps out of his car and opens the back of his car and getting out my bike.
"Thanks, Junhao," I say, in which he smiles.
"Well, I gotta go now. Bye," I say, before I walk over to the front of my house while pushing my bike, where I see Xiaoliang standing, with his black hoodie wrapped around his firm body as he tries to call someone on the phone. Chances are he must have tried to call me before, but well my phone is off now since the battery is low.
"Xiaoliang?"
He slowly turns around to face me, where our eyes meet. I could feel my heart start fluttering while staring at his sparkling gaze, before noticing that his lips slowly forms a breath-taking smile. Deep down it made me wonder, how did this man became so beautifully attractive?
"Mingyu, I was looking for you," Xiaoliang says. His gentle voice tinkling through my ears.
"I went to visit Junhao after college. My phone's been off since the battery is low," I say. I continue to push my bike to park it in its usual spot.
"I see," Xiaoliang says. "How is he doing?"
"Better enough," I say, before turning around to face him. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"No worries," he says, before bursting a small chuckle, which somehow made me blush just by staring at his charming face. Damn, he definetly look too cute when he chuckles.
"Anyway, come inside. I'll prepare you a bowl of noodle and a cup of tea," I say as I was about to pull out the glass door keys from my pocket.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you to come with me," Xiaoliang says. "You know, a late night out."
I stood in front of the glass door for a moment. I wanted to be the one to make it up to him for making him wait, but here is inviting me out for some night time fun? At the same time he's giving me mixed feelings of happiness and guilt. But again, I didn't want to turn down such an alluring offer, when my heart knows exactly what it wants, and what is good for it.
"Ok," I answer, a small smile forming on my lips.
He smiles back at me, while letting out his right hand to me. "Let's go!"
I take his hand and the two of us walks over hand-in-hand to his white car. We open the car door and enter it.
"Where are we going?" I ask him, my mind still having no idea where we'll be going.
"Hmm...have you heard about the new cafe just down the block?" he ask me.
"Nope," I answer.
"Then let's check it out," he says.
"Ok," I answer. I honestly I don't mind wherever we're going tonight. As long as I'm going with him, I know I'll feel ok.
I watch as his lips slowly forms a charming smile. I could feel my heart silently starts fluttering at the sight of a simple smile from him. As much as I love spending quality times and communicating with him, I never get tired of stealing silent glances at him. Maybe because, in these silent glances, my heart is able to flutter all its feelings, making me feel a tiny pinch of excitement of live. I guess this is what feeling alive is.
A few minutes later...
Xue Hua Cafè...
We eventually arrive at a small, wooden-style cafe. From the outside, the place looks like a classic little cozy cafè, yet there's a few pots of pink and red meihua plants decorated outside the cafe. Other than that they also have some snow-like decorations on the sides of the glass doors of the cafè, giving it a vibe of both winter and spring.
Xiaoliang and I got out of the car and walked inside the cafè. Inside we could see that the whole place is decorated with dim-yellow lights, with two big pink meihua trees on each corner of the room. The walls of the cafè are decorated with beautiful paintings of snowflakes as well as red meihua flowers.
"Xiaoliang?"
Xiaoliang and I turned our heads upon hearing the male voice. I see a man who looked like he's a few years older than Xiaoliang approaching us with a warm smile. The man is dressed up all casual yet still looking neat. This must be the owner of the cafè, in which Xiaoliang had told me that the man is  his childhood friend.
"Young brother, glad that you came," he says as he smiles at Xiaoliang.
"Xiang ge, congrats again for the opening. I had been busy these past few days, that I just found some time to visit tonight," Xiaoliang says in an apologetic tone.
"Ah, no worries, boy! Glad you made it," the man, Xiang, says, before he shifts his vision towards me.
"Is she your friend?" Xiang asks Xiaoliang with a smirk, making me suddenly blush.
I glance at Xiaoliang and see that his cheeks are also blushing a deep shade of red.
"Yeah," Xiaoliang says, in a rather shy tone.
The man turns his gaze back at me, flashing a friendly smile. He then turns his gaze back at Xiaoliang.
"Well, I assumed you need a table for two?" Xiang asks Xiaoliang.
"Yes, Xiang ge," Xiaoliang answers.
"Then I have the perfect spot for you guys! Come here," Xiang says as he leads us to the back garden of the cafè.
The garden is filled with small pots of pink and red meihua flowers decorated beautifully with sunset yellow and crystal blue small lights. Xiang leads us to a small table for two in the middle of the garden.
"Enjoy, buddies," Xiang says in a sarcastic tone, before putting two menus on the table for us.
"Thanks, Xiang ge," Xiaoliang says.
We start to go through with the menu, scrolling for any eye-catching cuisines. Since I already had dinner at Junhao's place, and Xiaoliang already had dinner at Yifei's place, we thought about just going with some snacks and drinks. We eventually decided to order Chinese fries, dumplings, and chicken feet. As for drinks, I decided to order a glass of orange juice, while Xiaoliang decided to go with a cup of warm tea.
As we wait for our orders to be serve, we decided to ask each other about how our day went. Simple, yet it was comfortable enough to enjoy the good time I'm having with him. With Xiaoliang, even talking about the simplest thing could make me feel a certain kind of comfort.
"So how was Junhao?" Xiaoliang ask.
"He's better now, but I'm just concern about his current mental state," I say.
He smiled at my statement, again making my heart flutter. As I feel my cheeks blushing, I slowly turn my gaze down, away from him.
"Mental health is a big issue that some still take for granted," Xiaoliang says.
Hearing this, I slowly turn my gaze back to face him. His statement was right, and I couldn't agree more. For years we've been living in a society where mental health is still being ignored by many. It's as if people don't even care about a healthy mind and feeling, that they tend to treat people in the worst ways.
"You're right," I say.
"So...how is your grandma?" I eventually ask him about how his grandma is doing, since what she heard the last time was that her condition had relapsed.
Before Xiaoliang could answer my question, the waiter returns with our orders. He places the orders neatly on our table, before rushing off back to the kitchen.
"She's good, but the doctor said that she needs more rest," Xiaoliang says, before taking a sip of his tea.
I smile at him, before taking a sip of my orange juice. We start to dig in the various of dishes we ordered, taking turns making each other taste the dishes. Sometimes we even slip some simple jokes while attempting to feed each other. Looking at tonight, my mind feels relaxing as my heart finds itself in peace. And after all the remedies that didn't seem to work much, tonight is a gift that opened my eyes, that all this time the only remedy I needed is inner peace in myself, and to my luck, other than Junhao who brought me the sun, I found Xiaoliang who brought me a rainbow after the rain.
"I see," I say, before taking a sip of my orange, as I let my gaze stare at Xiaoliang. "She's very lucky to have you."
Xiaoliang smiles. "More likely I'm lucky to have her."
I smile after hearing his sweet statement. This boy always sounded so humble and sweet, I can't help but to find him more and more attractive during every encounter.
"I'm gonna say that the two of you are lucky," I say, before grabbing the fries on the table.
"Whatever I do, I still can't repay all the generosity she gave me through out these years," he says.
I smile. "You're such a sweet kid."
Xiaoliang chuckles. "Not as wise as you, Wang Mingyu."
I turn my gaze to him, before grabbing a dumpling and placing it on my bowl.
"What makes you think that I'm a wise person?" I ask him. Honestly, I know that sometimes I like to give him attention, but is that even enough for him to define me as a nice person? I think that's kind of cliche.
"Because when life is bitter, you just try to overcome it instead of giving others bitterness even if they did you wrong. That's only something a truly wise person can do," he says, before grabbing a chicken feet with his chopsticks.
I wanted to drop my jaws out of disbelief. Is he really being serious when I don't even feel it that way? The only reason why I'm just ignoring everyone who bullied me is because I didn't want to cause more problems in my life.
"My action was done because I was trying to avoid more problems. That doesn't really make me kind, rather it made me a coward," I bluntly say what was on my mind.
"Not really. To overcome trouble doesn't mean you have get involved in every unnecesarry problems. At least, not always," he says before taking a sip of his tea. "But one thing, to have the courage to face the bitterness is a special gift."
I smile after hearing his statement. This guy never fails to make me smile even in the most simplest way. It's like everything he said brings peace to my heart.
"Well, thanks for the compliment. But I still have to learn about it if I wanna be as wise as you," I say.
"What makes you think I'm wise?" he sounded clueless enough, that somehow it just makes him look more cute.
"Hmm...I guess I could say, it's because you're calm and humble," I say.
Xiaoliang turns his gaze down at his cup of tea. "At least, that's what I've been trying to be."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Honestly, I don't think I'm actually calm. A lot of times my emotions still gets the best of me," Xiaoliang states.
"It's normal for humans to have emotions. This means their feelings are still alive," I say, before taking a sip of my orange juice. "Emotion is a gift of life, while numb represents the death of it."
Upon hearing, I see Xiaoliang's eyes slightly widens at my statement. I could tell he pretty much agreed with my statement. Slowly, his lips forms a small smile.
"You are right," he says, before taking another sip of his cup of tea.
11 PM...
At Mingyu's house...
A few hours passed, and Xiaoliang had drove me back home safely. I'm happy to be spending some quality time with him tonight, which made my heart feel a special kind of happiness.
"Thanks for tonight, Xiaoliang," I say to the boy as the two of us stood in front of the noodle shop.
"You're welcome, Mingyu," he says with a smile. Again his smile never fails to send butterflies dancing in my heart.
I start to notice how close we are standing in front of each other, again on a fine night where the moon represents the only ray of light in this neighborhood. My hearts finds itself like a racing magnet. Though it starts beating faster for how close we are now, somehow there's something about him that keeps pulling not only my body, but also my heart closer to him. Slowly, we start to feel each other's breaths as let my legs step closer to him. I stare deeply into his calming brown eyes, getting myself lost in them.
My heart is at a point where it could have stop at any moment by how fast it is racing. Deep down, there's a small feeling inside me that longs for a sensitive sensation from him. This is something which I almost thought was impossible to experience with mental depression, but as weird as it sounds, all that change when I lost myself in Xiaoliang's eyes. The desire to just let him heal my wounded soul kept grewing the more I stare at the young boy. I couldn't take it anymore, I knew where this is going. But for the first in my life, I actually didn't care if it's gonna end in a way I had imagined, even though I knew some parts would be awkward. Well, at least a little bit.
"Mingyu.."
I didn't give him another chance to speak as I connect our lips together. The vibrating feeling of vulnerable desire starts rising in me, slowly crawling around my heart as the sensation slowly heats up when he starts to give in and get lost in this little wonderful moment.
To be continue...