WYLAN LAY AWAKE IN HIS BED, staring up at the tinted pink ceiling as his phone buzzed behind his ear. Twisting around to make it closer to himself, he pulled it up to his ear. "Hello?"
"Hey sunshine," Jesper said. "Why are you awake?"
Wylan resisted the urge to roll his eyes (but like, fondly). "You did call Jes," he said smiling into his phone. He wished he could see Jesper. "Shouldn't you be glad I answered?"
"Well, I did call to make sure you weren't staying up late again," Jesper answered calmly. "And you failed the test gorgeous. Go to sleep."
Wylan sighed and ignored the familiar red flush on his cheeks, choosing instead to turn around on his back and stare up at the tinted pink ceiling again. "Well, Kuweii's been acting weird and I just remembered why the two of us fell out of touch," he told Jesper honestly. "I - we - we're just not good friends anymore."
"I hate it when that happens," Jesper answered. "Well you've still got two weeks left. What happened?"
"I - just - he's got his own interests, I've got mine," Wylan said helplessly, moving to an upright position. "I just don't understand him anymore. He's being really... " he trailed off, uncomfortable about saying anything rude.
"Cryptic? Irritating? Stuffy?" Jesper offered. "My dad just gave me a look and - oh! Speaking of, you want to talk to him?"
A furious blush rose onto Wylan's cheeks. Did he want to talk to Jesper's father? Wasn't the whole meeting the parents thing something that happened for a long term relationship? Had they hit the meet-the-parents stage? Was it required? Oh my god - did Jesper want to meet his father? Did Jesper want to meet his mother? Where even were mothers that abandoned their sons during key times of their life and didn't reappear until it was time for their sons' boyfriend to meet them? Was there a facility? A small unheard of island? Maybe Wylan could leave off Jesper meeting Jan Van Eck until they got married - yes, that was the plan. He was leaving it until - wait, marriage?
"I can literally hear you over thinking this," Jesper interrupted calmly. "Don't worry. I'm handing my father the phone right now. We'll talk about prospective wedding venues when we both get home."
"Wait what?!" Wylan almost choked as he heard audible movement on the other side. There was a long exasperated sigh coming from somebody, before some more movement was heard. Finally he heard a rougher voice - like Jes', but not - speak a reluctant hello.
Oh my god what if he hates me?
"- hello sir," Wylan blurted out of the blue, mind going completely blank. Goddammit what manners did he use when talking to his own father? Last time they had spoken had been cold and cut off. Oh my god what was Jesper's father saying?
"... hellooo?"
The greeting was repeated and incredibly dragged out, voice filled with uncertainty. Wylan blinked rapidly as he scrambled for a response.
"Hello," he finally settled on.
"Hello," Jesper's father repeated.
"Hi," he answered feebly.
Jesper's father didn't seem to know how to respond to that. "Hello."
"Oh my god," he heard from a fainter voice. Jesper. "Is that all you're going to say, because if so then hand me the damn phone and let me speak to my boyfriend."
"Jesper," his father said sternly. "I raised you better than this. Let me speak to Wylan. Now Wylan," Wylan took a deep breath of preparation, ready for whatever Colm Fahey was going to say next. "... um, hello Wylan."
His shoulders fell back down gratefully. "Hello," he said, taking a short breath. "This is Wylan. You must be Jesper's father. Pleasure to meet you."
"You too Wylan," he responded. "I'm Colm Fahey, please just call me Colm."
"Yes sir," he said automatically and then cringed. What was the proper protocol for this? Oh my god why wasn't there a handbook for this? With detailed directions?
Quickly making sure the call was still going on, he began googling 'how to talk to your boyfriend's parents' on his internet app, while Colm was beginning to speak again. "Oh like I said, please just call me Colm."
"Alright si- Colm," Wylan responded, the words tasting strange in his mouth. His phone immediately got back results and he squinted at the first answer.
Get some background information. Talk to your boyfriend well before the meeting and ask what his parents like and don't like...
Well, Jesper had ensured that that wouldn't happen, he grumbled to himself instinctively. Realizing the silence on the other end was there so he could speak, Wylan scrambled for words until he finally blurted out, "So Jesper loves waffles what about you?"
"Yes, yes I love waffles as well," Colm answered immediately.
Silence.
Wylan bit his lip as he went back to the internet tab to look at more advice. He frowned at the options that appeared.
Listen attentively to everyone who speaks to you...
Ask questions...
Stay out of arguments...
Find things in common...
Talk about yourself...
Be yourself...
"Um... so how's your year going?" Wylan finally said again.
"It's been going pretty well," Colm replied instantly. "How about - erm, yes, yes it's been going very well."
Finally Wylan heard an aggravated sigh from Jesper and another clutter of movement. "Hey Wy, I'm back," Jesper said conversationally and Wylan heard loud footsteps. "And really? 'Jesper loves waffles what about you'?"
Wylan rolled his eyes, halfheartedly cringing from the conversation. "Oh my god that was terrible," Wylan confessed. "I was searching up 'how to talk to your boyfriend's parents' and the advice was all like, 'ask questions' and 'listen attentively to everyone who speaks to you' and know some fucking background! Jes I'm going to murder you for just springing that on me."
"Wait seriously?" Jesper asked incredulously. "You actually searched that up? I can't decide if that was weird or endearing. Or just flat out - wait I have to tell my dad. This is hilarious."
"Don't you fucking dare," Wylan almost choked, glaring at his phone. "Jesper don't you dare or else when we get back I'm not making out with you for a week."
"I think we both know that's not happening," Jesper retorted smoothly. Distantly Wylan heard a, "Hey dad," and he cringed, readying himself for the humiliation.
"Hey dad," Jesper's voice faintly said, "So you know how you were googling, 'how to talk to your son's boyfriend'? Well apparently Wylan was searching up the same thing, just in reverse."
Wylan paused in his complete mortification, staring at his phone. "Jesper..." he said slowly as he whipped out the internet app again. Stabbing in the words Jesper had said, he stared at the results.
"Treat the new partner with interest, courtesy, and respect, and do more listening than talking," the article was saying. "Although you may be dying to know what her parents' door is if he plans to finish college, keep the grilling to a minimum. One of my friends' sons had this rule: Only one question per night, Mom..."
Keep the grilling to a minimum, Wylan thought to himself. Was that why Colm had refrained from asking him questions in return? Because the stupid website he had looked at had stated to 'talk less and listen more'. How the hell could he have done that if Colm's website said the exact same thing?
"That's why you weren't talking much!" he overheard faintly and Wylan blushed bright red. Colm must have done the exact same thing as him and seen the results that appeared. Oh God.
"Oh you two are hilarious," Jesper said in a laughing tone.
"One week," Wylan hissed at him, eyes narrowing into slits. "I swear to god Jes. One week."
Jesper was still laughing as he cut off the phone, and despite himself, Wylan was smiling as well.
#
"Good morning Wylan," Kuweii nodded at him. Wylan groggily walked down the stairs, staring at him. Kuweii's dark circles hadn't lessened in the least - if possible, they looked like they had darkened - and his eyes were still red-rimmed and filled with weariness. Wylan smiled at him and thanked the staff as they placed a cup of tea and another one of coffee at his seat.
"Hey Kuweii," he said tiredly as he drank the coffee down. "You look exhausted. Did you not get any sleep last night?"
Kuweii shrugged and for an odd reason his cheeks blushed a light red. "Oh you know," Kuweii said casually, "I stay up late naturally. My body's just programmed to be like that." He shrugged, acting like it was a what can you do? kind of affair and Wylan bit his lip. Kuweii was lying, and was a terrible liar at that.
"Have you tried sleeping pills?" he asked and Kuweii gestured to a handful of bottles that he hadn't seen previously. They were all on the counter and Wylan raised his eyebrows as he noted at least ten scattered there.
"Yeah. They aren't really effective," he explained and Wylan nodded, taking another long sip of his coffee.
"That sucks."
"It does."
Kuweii didn't say anything more and Wylan's eyes nervously flicked onto Kuweii again. To his surprise Kuweii had been watching him silently, eyes dark and mouth set in an angry look. As he saw Wylan look at him, his own face immediately cleared up.
"You okay?" Wylan asked nervously. Kuweii looked borderline homicidal.
Kuweii looked at him before standing up. "I'm good," he said, and quickly walked away.
A staff member walked by and delivered Kuweii and Wylan's breakfast to the table. They looked at the empty seat and shot Wylan a confused look. "Do you know what happened?" the staff member asked.
Wylan shrugged. "I have no idea, but I think I made him... " he trailed off, and the staff member took this as a cue to leave.
#
Kuweii's acting really weird
like weird-weird or I-just-got-my-period-for-the-first-time weird
Do I want to know how you know how weird that is?
actually i'd be a little confused if you knew how weird that was. i know bc nina's awesome and she came to me like a sad confused duckling the first time she got her cycle. we snuck out the orphanage and ran to the nearest pharmacy. it was exciting.
Not for Nina I'm guessing
def not. she was terrified that she was going to die.
Well, Kuweii's been acting really weird and I'm kind of scared now
sunshine what happened?
Kuweii keeps on glaring at me and looking vaguely homicidal. And he has really dark circles under his eyes - like he's really stressed, even though his college is also on winter break - and he keeps on disappearing into his room.
merchling... you said that the call from kuweii was random right
Yeah. Why?
bc what if it wasn't random? what if it had something to do with your apartment being trashed, and that threat letter you got?
You think Kuweii did it for some reason?
think about it: your apartment got absolutely trashed, you got a mysterious threat letter, and for some random-ass reason kuweii called out of nowhere so he could stay with you during winter break. suspicious? especially because you're not close friends with him, and everytime you two meet it seems like he's got a problem with you
Wylan bit his lip as he thought about it. Terrifyingly enough, it seemed plausible.
You may have a point, he bit his lip hard, thinking about whether Jesper had a point. What do I do? Should I talk to him about it?
idk merchling. pls be careful - i can't afford a plane trip to singapore but maybe you should come back home
Should he? Was that even a possibility? His plane ticket had already been bought for the appropriate time, and the company didn't offer refunds. He would have to spend even more money on another plane ticket at an earlier time and that would attract Jan Van Eck's attention. Large sums of money coming out of his account would surely alert the man that something was wrong, and then who knew how that conversation would turn out?
I think I should talk to him
i think so too. but please be careful sunshine.
Alright I'm going to. Bye
bye
Wylan took a deep breath and unplugged his earbuds, slipping them onto the bed. Getting up, he wearily crept to the door, slid it open and locked it behind him, and then headed for Kuweii's bedroom. He knocked at the door quietly.
"Kuweii?" he called. "Kuweii, are you in there?"
There was no response, and he slid the knob open. Maybe Kuweii was listening to music really loudly.
The door slid open effortlessly and he frowned at the empty bedroom. Last he had checked, Kuweii had been inside and hadn't gotten out again. Maybe he was out buying groceries?
Wylan remembered the sheer amount of staff Kuweii had and figured he was wrong.
"Kuweii?" he called wearily, but nothing happened. He wasn't in his room.
Preparing to turn around, he frowned at a stack of letters falling onto the floor near him and he crouched to pick them up. Turning them face up, his eyebrows rose as he saw the familiar stamp. Squinting at the contents of the letter, he clumsily pieced together the words 'expulsion' and 'university'.
It was an expulsion letter from Nanyang, University of Technology and Arts, he realized.
Biting his lip to keep from gasping out loud, Wylan put the letter away and his eyes focused on another letter. This one was from Jan Van Eck, the writing familiar.
Why the hell was Kuweii getting letters from his dad?
An uneasy feeling rose as Wylan opened it and the words blurred seamlessly in front of him. Quickly taking his phone out, he sent a quick text to Jesper.
Can you read me what this means?
Taking a picture of the letter, he sent it to Jesper and looked behind him. The door was still carefully shut. Hopefully Kuweii wouldn't come in soon.
The phone rang and he answered it, bringing it up to his ear. "Jesper, what does it mean?" he asked, fear rising in his chest. His stomach seemed to be in knots, tangled and twisted like a set of sparking wires.
"Wylan..." Jesper said, fear thick on his voice. Wylan swallowed uneasily, his throat feeling like jagged claws running down them. "Your dad offered Kuweii ten thousand dollars to send you that threat letter."
*
a/n: and here's the next chapter!
(here is also the chapter things start taking a very, very rapid curve down hell)
but also, because i probably won't update again before christmas or new years eve (sorry guys - i'm trying!) happy holiday! i hope you have a hell of a time celebrating these next few days (whether it's christmas or anything else, though i think hanukkah finished three days ago, so happy belated hanukkah!). also, happy new year (because lmao, i'm probably not going to have updated by then). but anyways, 2017 was a hell of a year, and here's to 2018 being (better) and just as much as a whirlwind.
thanks for reading,
mercy