8 waterfall

Where the hell was he?

It was a white room, there was only a night table, a wardrobe, and a bed. He was lying on the bed, he leaned on his elbows and looked around, a sound reached him.

It was a boy in the whole corner of the room crying, the boy was turning his back on him and he had clothes as clean and white as the whole room. Zhao Yun supposed that the white was to give an air of purity and cleanliness, but all he felt was emptiness and pain.

His body moved on its own, he was a few feet away from the boy, if he stretched out his hand he would reach him.

"Hi" he preferred to talk rather than make any contact with the boy, he had no idea who he was and how he would react if someone touched him out of the blue.

The boy jumped out of his skin and turned around in seconds.

That face... Why did his face look so familiar?

Zhao Yun tilted his head trying to remember, it was like not knowing

a word and having it on the tip of his tongue.

There was something so familiar about the boy, and it wasn't just his face and his complexity, it was like his overall aura, something pulling him from his heart, a sense of calm and warmth. It was like coming home after a long time. The boy looked at him and did the same as him, it was as if they were two strangers who were not so strange, Zhao Yun wanted to approach the boy and touch him to see if it was real, if he could feel it under his touch, which he could not control because in less than a few seconds he was getting even closer, the boy did not move, just stood there paralyzed, as if his

brain still did not process information.

Zhao Yun placed himself at the same height as the boy and could swear that when his skin made contact with the other for a millisecond everything was an explosion of colors, but everything happened so fast, almost like a blink, Zhao Yun did not put so much thought, in his mind, he thought that everything had been an effect or trick that his eyes made him see. Another reason he had not reacted so much was that his mind was more than focused on the boy, almost as if he were hypnotized.

His hand had remained the same as the boy, paralyzed, but the truth was that Zhao Yun still wanted to keep running his hand through the soft skin of the boy who was now prettily decorating himself with red, Zhao Yun could not help but smile, which made the boy turn redder and look at him with some admiration in his eyes. That cloud of sadness that had been there before was gone.

"You're cute" was what he said unintentionally and made his face turn the same color as the boy.

The small, almost imperceptible, shy smile that escaped the boy's lips was reward enough, but before Zhao Yun could ask him the name or who he was, everything began to become blurred and the whole picture disappeared.

He opened his eyes.

**

After breakfast and lunch with Chen Ling, Lan Xue had no choice but

to return to what he said was his home-it wasn't-if it was up to him, he would stay with his friend for the rest of his life but he couldn't leave his mother like that, which sounded a bit contradictory considering that a few hours earlier he had almost abandoned her completely, but this was something different, all his stuff was there and he couldn't move because he couldn't pay Chen Ling the rent, she told him not to worry about that but Lan Xue couldn't abuse his kindness that way so much, besides, his precious cloud was there.

Lan Xue knew that he couldn't continue living with his mother, but before he moved out he had to analyze many things and consider others, he could feel a migraine starting to form on the side of his

head.

When Chen Ling left him in front of his apartment, Lan Xue felt like emptying his lunch at that moment, but he put up with it.

His friend looked at him with concern, but after telling her that he would be fine, she did not believe him, but she knew that he also did not want to say what they both already knew, she could only give her support.

"Please take care of yourself and text me" Lan Xue nodded to her and watched her leave, the migraine began to spread.

**

As soon as he set foot inside the apartment his mother was already yelling at him as if there was no tomorrow, Lan Xue didn't know how the neighbors didn't complain, well, it's not like they helped him every time his mom hurt him, nor would it be in their best interest to complain when they acted like they were deaf.

Without saying anything or even paying attention to her, he headed to the kitchen, he had eaten at Chen Ling's, but he knew that after he locked himself in his room, going back out would be a real struggle and Lan Xue was too tired to deal with his mom.

"How could you disappear like that? Do you want me to get something? Why are you so ungrateful? I raised you and fed you, gave you a roof over your head. Why are you paying me off like this? You're ungrateful, coward, you're just like your father, are you going to abandon me too?"

Lan Xue was about to say 'I wish'.

Everything his mother was telling him was nothing new, despite that, despite being used to it, his eyes filled with tears, they were tears of helplessness and sadness, no matter how much he told himself not to pay attention to her, that nothing she said was true, she was his mother, after all, it had not always been like that with him, there was a time when his family was a family until everything began to fall apart.

He bit his lips and closed his eyes trying to think of something else, the worst thing he could do at that moment was to show his mother how much it was affecting him. His chest felt heavy and his throat itched, the migraine now surrounding his whole head, he had to control himself.

He could do it.