Just a step away from you

CHAPTER IX: Knock... Knock-knock-knock...Knock

It was pouring that day; An Ziyan was coming home from an appointment when he saw Mai Ding walking at the side of the road in a bemused state, all drenched. He opened the car door and run towards him.

"An Ziyan won't remember me anymore, my feelings... for him, it means nothing already." Mai Ding said quietly. How can he take him back like this if An Ziyan, himself has no memory of it all?

"Mai Ding, you're soaking. Come with me." He held his hand and led him to his car.

"It's none of your business." Mai Ding sounded hurt; he was pushing An Ziyan away even though he doesn't want to.

"Ever since you met my sister....Is this about your dead lover, does she knows about it?"" An Ziyan asked this out of nowhere.

"Stop it; you don't know anything at all. You should just forget about everything you heard." Mai Ding was stunned for a bit. He realized that he did say something that occurred in the room when he was dead drunk.

"That time when you asked my sexuality at the cafe and when you expressed your grief in the hotel, what was really on your mind?" Mai Ding just pulled away from his grasped when asked and constantly make an effort to walk through him.

"An Ziyan, would you please let me go, already." Mai Ding was now reasoning him to stop.

"Was that kiss, a momentary confusion?" An Ziyan turned the bespectacled man towards him.

"What did you... just say?" Mai Ding was taken aback; he can't process what he was hearing.

"I'm the one beside you, look at me properly!." He suddenly kissed Mai Ding on the lips passionately.

In that moment, Mai Ding holds him close thoughtlessly. He had yearned for this man and craved for his touch for so long.

Mai Ding couldn't help but cry and pleaded.

' An Ziyan I love you, please God I beg you, please give him to me, even in the next life I still want to be with him. I still want An Ziyan to be the one man for me.'

***

That night they went back to An Ziyan's own home.

An Ziyan touched his whole body like never before. They were unable to resist each other's embrace, leaving them both gasping for air to breathe.

In the midst of intense fervour they continued to kiss one another. An Ziyan was still holding him as if owning Mai Ding's entire being.

"I love you..." Mai Ding says with bliss, as he voiced his thoughts.

An Ziyan smiled as he kissed his forehead and strokes his cheek.

They held and caressed each other until in the end they fell asleep. That night, was different with all the other nights, the dreams that An Ziyan has having when his alone didn't occurred.

He doesn't know why but An Ziyan was feeling a memorable sensation from Mai Ding's warmth; beyond doubt, it was happiness, that's what it is.

***

"I'll be going first. I borrowed a set of clothes." - Mai Ding

"What do you look like wearing those, silly?" An Ziyan was laughing with delight; he knows that his clothes size was a little big on him. As soon as he got up that day, Mai Ding was nowhere beside him. An Ziyan was giving him a call but there's no one to answer on the other line.

He reached a decision to take a shower and leave his house early that morning. Subsequently, his phone began to ring "Mai..." An Ziyan responded to the call without checking at the screen. However, it was from another person.

"Ziyan, it's me; I'm sorry could you go to the family house and help me find my handbag inside my room?" An Suo asked his brother while continuously keeping herself busy in the working area.

"Can't you just go get it yourself, I'm off to work?" He heaved a sigh in annoyance.

"It's still early; bring it in the boutique. Don't be so uptight to your big sister." An Suo said to his little brother demandingly.

***

His entire luggage was now packed in his stroll bag; Mai Ding was ready to check out from the hotel. He saw that An Ziyan was giving him calls, yet he doesn't answer back.

But before he left, he touched the wall on the side of his bed. "Knock..knock-knock-knock..Knock." [1]He taps it with the back of his hand for three times.

"Goodbye..." Mai Ding remembered how he brushed An Ziyan's hair before leaving him stil asleep.

Holding that last memory into mind, Mai Ding moves towards the door and left, making the room empty at it was before. TBC

[1] 1..3..1(I Love You) knocks by An Ziyan at the dorm.