The Wedding Breaker (SAMYU AU FF)

My bad rep

Flipping through the textbook in his hands, he sometimes peeked at the students currently answering their mid-term examination papers in the class. When his eyes would sometimes meet with those of despair and hopelessness, he would smile and gave a reassuring nod instead.

'It's just papers, it won't ruin your life if you fail it and it won't bring you fortune if you didn't. It's just what it is,' was what he usually told his student whenever the examination season started. He was bluffing; not to them, but to himself. Back then, when he was a student too, he would study until his nose bleed, till dark circles as deep as a canyon made it seemed like he was punched and till he would lose strength even in his fingers to even write one more character. Of course he would like to say 'don't give up, study hard, and make every second count' but really, he would rather the student have fun while they still had the time. He wasn't even old, yet he felt like he was too old now to do just that.

The strike of deep thoughts halted when the school bell rang and a familiar figure knocked on the class's door. After all the students sent in their papers and went out for the break, Chih Tian walked over to help him tidy up the desk before telling him that Ray was on his way to pick him up.

"Hm? There's still three hours till school end," he took out his phone and saw there's quite a few missed calls from both Sam and Ray. He swallowed his dry throat as he pressed a call to Sam but the call never got through.

"What are you looking at!? Mind your own business!" Chih Tian shouted at the two teachers passing by the class, making him now aware that he was receiving weird looks, even from the students.

"Did something happen?" asked he, in a tensed whisper as he pulled his friend closer, only to be answered with a loud sigh.

Was the board meeting a fail? Didn't Ke Fang get what she wanted? He clearly remembered Sam telling him a week ago that he would vouch for the woman, that he thought Ke Fang was ready to burden the responsibility of the megacorporation.

What went wrong?

He was then pushed outside the class and towards the inside of a nearby storage room at the end of the corridor in which spare tables and chairs were kept.

"Yu Teng," Chih Tian's face was easily read, full of concern and confusion. "Did Sam cheat on his fiancé, with you? Was that why you-"

"No!" he wiped his clammy palm on his pants and took out his phone to look at the news. He expected for the news to be full of his and Ke Fang's pictures, ones that Ke Fang had been threatening him with but that wasn't it; these were old pictures instead.

Scrolling through articles after articles, pictures after pictures, he only saw his name mentioned a few times, a mere mention as compared to Sam- they're all about Sam.

"What.. I don't get it," he muttered under his anxious breath, trying to make sense of what was happening. Why was all the critics and insults directed towards Sam instead of him, when in people's eyes, he himself was the reason Sam and Ke Fang didn't go through with the wedding.

Dejavu. That was what it seemed like to Yang Yu Teng. The malicious comments and accusations, with all Sam's pictures from the past to back their claims were exactly as how it went a year ago, except that this time was worse.

"They finally put two and two together. They found out you're the man at his wedding last year," Chih Tian explained. "I was shocked too. I remembered reading about it that time but your picture was too blurry to make out a face. I would have never thought it was you."

Yang Yu Teng shifted his gaze towards the dusty floor, ashamed of what he had done and at how the ripples never seemed to end. "I..."

"Haiya! What could people do when a man likes dick better than boobs?" Chih Tian squeezed his shoulder, letting out a fascinated laugh. "Don't worry, your rich husband will handle this."

Of course, he would. Like how he handled it back then; with disgrace and humiliation.

"Chih Tian, can you tell Ray to go back? I'll wait till school ends."

"Mn, okay. I'm sure Sam was just worried about you. It's okay, I'll be with you to drive away those busybody teachers," Chih Tian offered him a wide smile before sending a text to Ray.

Yang Yu Teng didn't have time to ponder about how the two was casually exchanging texts or even how they have each other's numbers, his mind was already filled with endless worries.

"Chih Tian, did you read all the articles? When did you find out?"

"About an hour ago. It's suddenly all over the internet."

"All of it? At once?"

Chih Tian drew his brows together before typing in something into his phone and answered after a few minutes, "It seems like it, the articles were all posted around noon."

"Ah!" Chih Tian flicked his fingers in realization. "So it's all planned! When I think about it, to have the news suddenly going viral like this, some money must have exchanged hands," he nodded at his own ability to deduct a wise reasoning, his parents would be proud.

"If you don't know me, what would you first think when you see those news?"

Chih Tian purposely rubbed his chin, looking serious while pondering. "I'd say 'how did this ugly man seduce such a rich man?", I'd ask for tips," a leering smile accompanied the answer.

"Ha ha, funny."

"But seriously, other than your face reveal, there's really nothing about you. Sam is attacked because he denied that he had anything to do with you when you-know-what happened last year. And now that the media found out he married you, wouldn't that make all his words then, a lie?"

"But he didn't lie..," Yang Yu Teng sighed, biting his cheek. Truthfully, it should all be traced back to himself; the root of all the problem was ultimately, him.

"Oh?" Chih Tian tilted his head, getting more confused as the conversation went on. "But people don't know that. They eat what they're fed."