Strange Love [19 Days Fanfiction - He Tian/Redhead]

Chapter 15 ☼ Trouble

The darkness seemed far more inviting after that. Hong Fa was checked out a few days later. He ignored all calls from Jian Yi and Zhan Zheng Xi, only using his phone to call the police and check on He Tian's case that seemed to come to a dead end at the warehouse.

Vaguely he felt guilty, curled in his bed with the lights off. His mother was clearly worried sick about him, taking days off of work to care for him. She hadn't even taken off work when he had been far more injured, as He Tian had assured her that he'd look after Hong Fa.

On his eighth day out of the hospital... or perhaps it was his ninth, he was losing count... Hong Fa hadn't left his room. He hadn't gone to school, and hardly sat up to eat and drink the food and water his mother would bring him. Jian Yi and Zhengxi finally showed at his front door. Seonigmi sent them straight to Hong Fa's room in hopes that they'd know how to cheer the boy up. However, the first thing Jian Yi asked had Hong Fa out of the bed with intent to wring the blond's neck.

"Is he dead?"

Zhengxi intervened, of course, yanking Jian Yi behind him and holding out a hesitant hand to the panting Hong Fa. Hong Fa felt like he was freezing solid from the feet up, his knees locking and his jaw taunt.

"We're sorry, Red, we are... we've only heard the rumors though and we just wanted to make sure you were okay," Zhengxi explained.

"I'm fine."

It was one of the biggest lies he'd told. His chest squeezed tighter, and he shakily sat back down on his bed. The other two boys shared a glance that Hong Fa caught, and he averted his gaze to his bedside shelf where the pocket knife He Tian had given him rested, looked to his pillow that He Tian's jacket was bunched on.

"He's alive?" Jian Yi questioned further. "I just... I just want to know, he was my... friend."

Friend. Hong Fa wished the pain he felt was as simple as the loss of a friend. He'd never quite had someone he could even call a friend, but he knew for certain the aching in his chest was far too deep than it to be due to the loss of a friend, and he'd heard how much that hurt.

"Red?" Zhengxi pressed softly.

"I don't know," any sort of fight drained from the boy, his shoulders slumping. "Can you just... can you guys go? I don't know. I don't know where he is."

"Then tell us what happened!" Jian Yi huffed.

And it stung, because he could almost hear his voice inside of his mind, could see dark hair and bronze skin sauntering over and flicking Jian Yi in the forehead as he laughed in the deeply rich voice of his, "Blondie, stop being a nosy shit."

"It's all because of me."

It was all he said before he slipped back under his covers, turned his back on the boys in his room, and burrowed his face into He Tian's jacket as tears slipped from his eyes for what felt like the millionth time. He hadn't even cried as many times when his father had gone to prison.

☼

It felt like months had passed. He Tian didn't even know anymore. He had tried keeping track of the days in the beginning, but now he couldn't differentiate day from night. Everything hurt. Granted, being sprawled on a hard, cold, stone floor certainly didn't help. His leg, torso, and head were sticky with blood, and he really had to piss but bathroom trips were a rarity. He'd already been forced to soil his clothes several times previously, and being given fresh clothes to wear was a gift, more of a treat to the people who had to touch him to hurt him.