AUTHOR POV.
Yibo was getting ready to go to the resort. Now he stood in front of the mirror, looking at him with a tight look. He was nervous because he will come out of the shell for the first time in front of his friends. His father and brother already understood about his desire but Yibo kept in denial because he doesn't want Zhan pull away from him after he knows the truth.
"Mm-mm!" Yibo cleared his throat. He took a deep breath and blew it out nervously.
At that time, his phone rang. He looked at the phone on his bed. He walked to the bed and checked who is ringing him. It's Zhan.
"Hey, Zhan! Are you ready?" He asked enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Dressing up now. We meet there, ok?" Zhan answered.
"Ok! Ok!" Replied Yibo.
And the connection cut by Zhan. Yibo looked at the phone and smiled. He was ready for it. Then he went back to the mirror, standing in front of it and looked at his reflection inside the mirror.
"Guys...!" His voice was shaken. "Why do I bring you both here? Do you know?" He talked to himself in the mirror. Then he cleared his throat again.
"Well... There is something I wanted to tell you since long time. But... I can't find the right time. Yet. But now, I guess it's the time. Sooner or later, you guys have to know this...!"
Yibo took a deep breath again.
"I... want you to know... That I... Like Zhan more... Shit! No, no! Not like that!" Yibo shook his head.
"Ahh... Actually.... I... Like men. I'm gay..." Yibo stopped there. He looked at himself.
"Ok! Perfect. Just tell them that I'm gay. That's it! Who I like... That can be revealed slowly. I need to know Zhan's reaction first...!"
Yibo grabbed his leather jacket on the bed then he stormed out of the room.
"Hey! Where're you going, Bo?" Asked his brother who bumped with him at the front door.
"Go out!" Yibo replied without paying a glance at his brother.
Yibo rode his bike to the resort. He asked Yan Ting to meet him in the resort even though she whined that she wanted Yibo to pick her up.
He reached the venue in half an hour. He went up to the building and asked the receptionist about his reservation. A young woman led him to the resort's restaurant and brought him to his reserved table. Yan Ting was sitting there already, fidgeting with his cellphone. Yibo thanked the woman and walked to the table.
"Hi...!" Yibo greeted Yan Ting with a nervous voice.
Yan Ting looked up and smiled brightly when he saw Yibo
"Baby! You look great tonight!" Cried Yan Ting, full with excitement. She stood up and hugged him.
"Thanks," replied Yibo. He pulled the seat and sit on it.
Yibo looked around,.expecting someone.
"Do you want to order now?" Asked Yan Ting.
Yibo turned to the girl and said, "I'm waiting for Zhan first...!"
"Aiyaa... He can eats whatever we order, ma?" Yan Ting said with a joke.
"No! I want him to order whatever he wants. Not based on our taste!" Yibo snarled. He glared at Yan Ting sharply..
Yan Ting was surprised. She knew Yibo is always keep a distance from her and so close with Zhan, but seeing him like this is the first time for her. Yibo was never being so fierce despite his coldness toward her before. And she usually will orders whatever and Zhan seems to don't mind.
"Baby... I was just joking...." Squeak Yan Ting in fear.
"Sorry..." Said Yibo, feeling bad seeing the girl in front of him in fear.
"At least, let's order a drink for us first....!" Said Yan Ting.
Yibo nodded. He waved his hand to a waiter. He asked Yan Ting to order the drinks because he can't think anything else but wonders why Zhan still hasn't come.
*****
"Zhan! Let's go!" Zhan's Mom shouted from downstairs at Zhan who just closed his room door.
"What? I'm going out!" Zhan answered.
"No! You come with us! We have a family dinner in Grandpa's house. Remember?" Replied his Mom.
Shit! Zhan totally forgot. It's his grandfather's birthday. The family members cannot say not coming to this gathering.
"But I promised Yibo already! I have a dinner with him in the resort!" Zhan whined while climbing down the stairs.
"Yibo, Yibo, Yibo! You meet him every day! You're with him on Friday from morning 'till 2AM on Saturday. Then you went to his house in the afternoon and just come back home a few hours ago. Why can't you just go to visit your grandpa two times a year? You only meet him on his birthday and Chinese New Year! That also only to collect the Hongbao money!"
"Ok! Ok! I'm going! I'm going!" Zhan screamed hearing his mom nonstop blather.
His mom glared at him.
"Guys! Let's go!" His Dad came out from the bedroom and walked to the foyer.
"I'll call Yibo first!" He said, fishing out his cellphone and dialed Yibo's number.
Zhan's family walked out of the house. His Dad drive the car out of the garage.
"Hey, Bo!" Zhan greeted Yibo on the other side of the line.
"Zhan! Why haven't you come?" Cried Yibo.
"Geeze... Sorry, Dude! I got something comes up!" Said Zhan.
"What? Don't say you can't come!"
"That's it! I forgot that today is my grandpa's birthdays. So I think, I can't make-..."
"You're asshole, Zhan!"
"Bo! Sorry. You can have your dinner with Yan -..."
"It's not only about the dinner, Zhan! You! Agh!'
And Yibo ended the call.
"Wei? Bo! Hello? Ahh... Shit!"
Zhan stomped his feet. Then he ran out of the house approaching his family who already in the car.
*****
After receiving the call from Zhan, Yibo was very upset and it's scared the hell Yan Ting out. She shrunk on her seat. Yibo glanced at her. His eyes soften when realize that his anger to Zhan makes the girl scared.
"A-are you ok, Babe?" Yan Ting asked. Slowly she raised her back from the chair.
Yibo didn't promptly answer. He needs to manage his anger. He squeezed his hand on the phone.
"Zhan can't make it to come here...!" Said Yibo with shaking voice.
Yan Ting dared herself to touch Yibo's hand that rested on the table, squeezing the phone.
"I-it's ok. We still can have the dinner... Just the two of us...!" Said Yan Ting.
Yibo stared at the girl. Yan Ting smiled fondly at him.
"Yan Ting..." Yibo started to speak.
"Yes, Baby?" Yan Ting looked at the boy.
"Do you know why I invited you and Zhan to come here?" Asked Yibo.
Yan Ting shook her head.
"Is there anything important you want to tell us?" Yan Ting asked him back.
Yibo gulped his saliva. His hold on the phone loosened, then he pulled his hand away from Yan Ting's.
Yan Ting looked disappoint when Yibo pulls his hand back.
"Ya. Very important...!" Replied Yibo.
"What is it?" Yan Ying asked. Her face turned brighter by thinking that Yibo might propose her and Zhan supposed to be here to witness this important event.
"I... Want to break up."
Yan Ting's face immediately changed. Her smile dropped into a frown.
"What...?" Yan Ting almost lost her voice, didn't believe what she was hearing from Yibo's mouth.
"I'm sorry... I supposed to tell you this earlier. Maybe I should've tell you this when you proposed me to be your boyfriend...'
"Wha-what is this all about, Yibo? I don't understand. Is this a prank? It's not April fool. Come on...!' Yan Ting spoke with a broken voice. Her eyes glistened with tears that hanging on the brick of them.
"It's not a prank. It's the truth. I... Don't like girls..." Confessed Yibo.
"What?" Yan Ting surprised. Then she laughed dryly. "Bo! This joke ain't funny at all...! I know you have a lot if ex girlfriends before me! Don't tell me it's an excuse to break up with me because it's a horrible excuse I've ever heard!"
"It's not a joke. If it is... Please, you think carefully. Did I ever have an initiative to kiss you first? Did I kiss you passionately? Did we have sex?"
Yan Ting silent. She realized that she's the one who proposed Yibo to be her boyfriend. She's the one who always try yo kiss Yibo first which at many attempts Yibo avoided it. Nine months was not a short time for their relationship 's development. They never kissed like the other couples did. They never had sex even though Yan Ting kept signalling and seducing Yibo to have it. Even when they're alone in the house, Yibo was never have intention to touch her at all . But Yibo was also almost never decline her when she was being clingy and spoilt at him.
"I... Still with you until now.... Because of Zhan's advise. He told me to not hurting you like I did to the other girls because you're too nice and kind. Actually,I wanted to leave you since the second month of our relationship...!"
"Wha-? Why? Why, Yibo?"
"I'm sorry...."
Yan Ting broke down. She cried in front of Yibo hurtfully.
"Does Zhan know that you like... Don't like girls?" Asked Yan Ting after she could manage her sad feeling.
Yibo shook his head, "No".
"Why?"
" I'm afraid he will stay away from me if he knows it..."
Yan Ting looked at Yibo.
"Do you like him?" Asked Yan Ting again.
Yibo looked at Yan Ting.
"Please... Don't tell him. I don't want to lose him. I only want him to know that I'm gay without letting him know that I love him...!"
"You love him..." Yan Ting gulped her saliva. Then She chuckled with a pain darted on her chest.
She never heard Yibo telling her that he loves her. She'll be the only one who kept telling him that she loves him and Yibo was never reply it with an "I love you, too." Not even once. And now suddenly Yibo confessed to her that he loves Zhan. It's really put her down and thinks that she's worthless compared to a man.
"Okay..." Yan Ting nodded. "But until when are you gonna hide?"
"I don't know. Until Zhan finds out and hates me, maybe..."
"Do you think he will hates you for this?"
Yibo didn't answer.
"Don't you think he likes you, too?" Asked Yan Ting .
"Why you say that?""
"He never takes girlfriend and he always spends his time with you a lot. You're the only closest friend to him..."
"It's because he feels grateful to me. I have made him to overcome his insecurity becomes a bully object in the school. It's the way he thanks me...!" Said Yibo.
Yan Ting covered her mouth with her hand, stopping herself from crying again.
"I think I'll go home now...?" Decided Yan Ting. She raised from her seat.
"Don't you want to have dinner? Zhan asks me to have dinner with you even he isn't coming... Asked Yibo, looking up at the girl.
Zhan. It's always because of Zhan. Yan Ying felt hurt even more.
"I have no appetite already to have dinner after hearing your confession, Yibo. I... I need the time..." Replied Yan Ting.
Yibo nodded his head.
"Ok." He said. "Take care."
Yan Ting looked at the boy . She smiled wryly. She told herself, how bad Yibo is. He didn't even offer himself to send her home after breaks her heart. But this is Yibo. Happy or not happy, Yan Ting have to accept it. Yibo was never loves her,.anyway.
Yan Ting slipped out of the table, then she makes her way out of the restaurant. Yibo still sitting on the table, looking at his glass of champagne. He really wanted Zhan to know about this truth. To him, he's the only matter. He didn't bother if Yan Ting would hurt, because sooner or later she needs to know this. He didn't care if that girl would spread the gossip about him over her broken heart of being betrayed. What matter to him was only Zhan's reaction. At many attempts he tried to find out about Zhan's real feeling to him by making him jealous. Yes, many times he saw Zhan feels annoyed but he never showed that he's jealous. Zhan never refused him when he cuddles him, treat him gently just like lovers, but... Yibo still didn't get how's Zhan's feeling really is.
Finally, Yibo went to the club and had drinks there.
"Got problem?" A voice distracted him when he was drowning in the liquor in front of the bar table.
Yibo turned his face to the side of the table. There was Hyungwon sitting on the high stool. He ordered a drink for himself.
"Hey, you...! " Yibo pushed Hyungwon weakly.
Hyungwon looked at him.
"Stay away from my Zhan Zhan....!" Yibo gave the boy a warn.
"Why? It's not like he's yours...!" Hyungwon scoffed.
Suddenly Yibo grabbed the boy's shirt's collar, but Hyungwon remains calm.
"He's my best friend...! He is mine! Don't ever play with him!" Hissed Yibo.
Hyungwon smirked. He grabbed Yibo's hand and dumped it from his shirt.
"He's your best friend. Not his partner... What the thing on earth makes you have authorize forbidding me from getting him?" Said Hyungwon, full of confident.
Yibo creased his eyebrows looking at Hyungwon.
"Are you gay?" Yibo scowls.
"Heh! Are you sure you're straight?" Hyungwon scoffed. He chugged into his drink.
Yibo was about to grab Hyungwon's neck, but Hyungwon was faster slapping his hand away. He slammed the glass on the table, looking sharply at Yibo.
"You're too coward to come out of your shell, Wang Yibo. Instead of telling him, you keep hurting him. You're too selfish to accept who you really are. As long as Zhan hasn't choose anyone, he's free to be with anyone...!" Hissed Hyungwon. Then he walked away.
Yibo saw the boy off. He was angry to the boy for telling him the truth. Yeah... Hyungwon was right. Maybe he's too coward, too selfish to accept himself. He was worried if Zhan would leave him if he finds out that he has feeling for him based on what he did to Zhan. Yibo was worried if his special treatment to Zhan would scared him in the future if Zhan finds out.
Yibo stood up from his stool. He threw some money on the table before he decided to leave the club.
*****
Yibo felt upset and disappointed by Zhan's answer who advising him to keep staying with Yan Ting. He already gave Zhan signals that he doesn't like to have sex with that girl, he doesn't want to be with that girl anymore. But why does Zhan so insensitive? He even threat him to not talk to him anymore if he leaves Yan Ting after he had sex with her which he never did? Is he the one who put the wrong bait to get Zhan's into his trap?
Yibo tried to call Zhan but he ignored him. It made Yibo couldn't sleep that night. He only can sleep in the morning and he couldn't get up anymore. He only woke up in the afternoon and found his phone was dead, ran out of the battery. He was too lazy already to go to the campus, so he decided to skip it today even though he remembers that he has an exam today.
Instead of going to the campus, Yibo went to have a ride to the nature park in the town to heal his soul. He joined the group of people who have a stroll in the human care forest. He separate himself from the group when he met a waterfalls. He sat on a big rock in the center of the river. He looked at the water that swifts around the rock. He fished out his phone that connected to a power bank from his pocket and turn it on.
"Shit!" He cursed when he found his phone was never recharge.
"Stupid power bank!" He whined when he realized that his power bank is powerless. He disconnected the power bank from the phone and threw one of them to the river that can flow it away to the waterfalls.
"Useless power bank!" Yibo grumbled.
He glanced at the device on his hand and he was shocked.
"Wha-?"
He didn't know he have to cry or angry with himself. The thing in his hand was the power bank, and he threw his latest model iPhone he just bought a few weeks ago.
"Zhannn....!" Yibo cried.
Yibo came back home after purchasing a new handphone and requests to renew his lost SIM card, so people who already on his phone contact won't need to lost him, too. He took a selfie in the bathroom before showering to test the camera, then he went to shower.
He had to rush from the bathroom when someone bangs on his room door. He thought it would be Zhan who bangs the door because his father is at work and his brother are out of the town. He pulled his joggers and home t-shirt before he went to open the door which he locked.
"Wait, wait!" Yibo shouted.
He opened the door with a big grin in his face, but instantly changed into a frown when he found no Zhan in front of the door. It was Yan Ting instead. How does she come in?
The sound of music blaring from downstairs and he heard someone is singing. Oh, yeah! Of course. His father is at home now. He's back from work.
"What are you doing here? I thought I told you that we're break up already...!" Said Yibo. He still rubbing his wet hair wih a towel.
Yan Ting glared at Yibo and she barged into the room without Yibo invites.
"Yan Ting! You can't do this!" Cried Yibo, chasing Yan Ting who runs to the balcony.
"Yan Ting!" Yibo grabbed her hand.
Yan Ting slapped Yibo's hand away roughly.
"Are you sure that you like Zhan?" Asked Yan Ting.
"Why do you ask?" Yibo frowned.
"What if Zhan is straight?" Asked Yan Ting without answering to Yibo's question.
"How do you know?" Yibo squinted his eyes.
"What if?" Yan Ting screamed.
"Heyy, hey.... Take it easy, Yan Ting...!" Yibo held Yan Ting arms. His head crouched down to Yan Ting's level.
"You're a good girl. A nice person. I don't deserve you. Ok? You don't deserve to be played, Yan Ting... That's why I told you the truth...!" Said Yibo, comforting the girl.
Yan Ting started to cry. Then she raised her head, staring at Yibo.
"Can I get a kiss? A last kiss?" Asked Yan Ting.
Yibo quiet. He didn't want to disappoint Yan Ting after he disappointed her so much by his confession. But he couldn't give what she wants now. She never have feeling for the girl. Even if Yan Ting kissed him when they're together, he never returns it passionately. It would be a small kiss.
Without he realize, Yan Ting stood on her toes and brought up her face closer to Yibo's. Fortunately, Yibo knows when he felt Yan Ting's breath blew on his lips. Yibo quickly jerked the girl's shoulders and brought her down into a hug.
"I'm sorry... I can't. We are friends only from now, Yan Ting. Nothing special between us. Yesterday, now,.tomorrow... And in the future...." Yibo whispered.
Yan Ting sobbed in his chest. She liked the boy so much. But finding this situation, it is hard for her to maintain. How can she wins Yibo over Zhan? Even he is less popular than Yibo, Zhan is loved by male and female in the school.
After a few minutes more spending time in Yibo's room, Yan Ting finally went home. Yibo felt relief because she's willing to understand. Then he sat in the living room, watching the TV while drinking some beer.
His hand wandered on the couch, trying to get his phone.
"My phone?" He turned to the side and found there was no cellphone.
"Eh?! Where is my phone?" He mumbled.
He flipped the cushion to find his cellphone but it wasn't there around. Yibo tried to remember where he left his phone.
"Bathroom!"
He went up to his room and strode to the bathroom. He found his phone was near the basin. He turned on his phone and found there are many miscalled from a few people. He scrolled down and he found Zhan also miscalled him.
"Oh, shit! It must be when I was in the balcony!" Cried Yibo. He called Zhan back. But Zhan's phone was dead. He tried again and the same thing he gets.
"Haish!" Yibo hissed.
He checked on the messages and he found Zhan also texted him.
Bo, I'm outside of the gate!
"What?" Yibo surprised. ,Why didn't he press the bell?
Yibo ran out of his room again and went outside. He got out of the gate and looked for Zhan, but of course Zhan wasn't there anymore. His last message was about two hours ago.
Yibo decided to call Zhan's parents. He understood that Zhan's family must be has gone to bed in this time but he can't help to ask about Zhan to them.
"Hello? Uncle!" He cried once his call was picked up.
"Yibo? What happened?" Zhan's Dad asked him.
"Uncle. Is Zhan home? I couldn't reach him!" Asked Yibo.
"Isn't he with you in your house? He told us that he's going to see you since you didn't come to the campus and he couldn't contact you...!" Replied Zhan's Dad..
"He was here. But he never meet me. He go again before he meets me...!" Said Yibo.
"What? So where is he? Honey! Zhan is not with Yibo!" Zhan's Dad sounds panic.
"Uncle, calm down. I'll go to find Zhan, ok?"
"But aren't you sick,?'
"Sick? I'm not sick...!'
"Zhan said you are. You didn't come to the campus today...!"
Yibo silent for a while.
So, he thought I'm sick. Maybe he called me the whole day...
"Yeah! But I'm ok now. Only a light fever and headache!" Said Yibo, covering Zhan's worries.
"Would you ok looking for Zhan? I'll try to find him also...!"
"It's ok, Uncle. Zhan doesn't hang out with other friends a lot. I'm his closest friend he used to hangout with...!"
"Ok, then...!'
Yibo ended the call. He was thinking, where Zhan would go.