3 Chapter 3: What the Actual Hell?

Ēn Chén chuckled softly. Startling Stacey, who clutched at his chest for a minute as he gathered his breath.

"Jesus, you freaking ninja."

Ēn Chén didn't lose his grin, but wiggled an eyebrow and sipped his drink. "Grumbling about Hunter again?" He shook his head and clicked his tongue.

"Why does he even get under your skin? You all go to the same events. Just because he enjoys himself and how he chooses. Does it really matter?" Ēn Chén asked.

"You would think that, cause you kinda have a bit of the same personality as him. So you wouldn't see anything wrong with it." Stacey commented.

Ēn Chén shrugged. "He isn't a playboy, he just knows how to work people to get them where they need to go, and he wants them to be, anyway. Kinda gotta respect how much effort he puts in to accommodate someone else."

"He doesn't just accommodate people. He gets stuff out of it. I dunno why, it just bothers me. He bothers me. He always just gets what he wants, like he trades his skills for his desires. It just… It's sleazy." Stacey said flatly.

"Yeah, sounds like a fair deal to me." Ēn Chén said.

Stacey rolled his eyes at his friend. 'Sometimes, I do wonder how the heck we ended up best friends when you would get along with Hunter so well.'

"Anyway, what took you so long?" Stacey asked, turning to look up at his friend.

Ēn Chén plopped back down on the seat beside him. "Sorry, I had to use the washroom, too many fruity drinks. They go right through you. And the lineup at the bar was intense."

"Did I miss anything titillating while I was gone?" He asked.

Stacey nodded.

"Riveting stuff. Hunter made me and a few others uncomfortable while making other people… uhhh… comfortable. And your phone buzzed, but I was too busy to answer it. I think it was Zhēng Yù."

"Busy doing what? Ogling Hunter?"

Stacey scoffed. "No. I was cleaning up." He stated, gesturing at the table.

Ēn Chén looked around him and shook his head. "Only you, Stace, only you would do that. We are in a bar, that's literally someone else's job."

Stacey shrugged and handed him his phone.

Ēn Chén grabbed it, unlocked it, and then scrolled with a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, it was." He said.

Stacey waited patiently for Ēn Chén to say anything. 'He could tell it was a lie.'

They both knew Zhēng Yù hadn't texted him so much as once since then. No matter what he wrote, or how much Ēn Chén had apologized for screwing up, Zhēng Yù was not going to answer back.

Honestly, it was such a mess, his heart broke for him. He had only known the two of them since High School and even he had known that was a relationship that was going to stand the test of time.

Or at least he had thought it would.

He had assumed.

He supposed Ēn Chén must have, too.

And if it left, his mind reeling to comprehend it. He couldn't even imagine the pain Ēn Chén must be going through, trying to make it through his thoughts every day. Maybe that's why he was here instead of at home in bed beside his beautiful soon-to-be wife.

Maybe that was why he seemed reluctant to go.

Maybe that is why he had lied.

"I guess I better go then."

"Yeah, want me to take you home. I haven't been drinking and you shouldn't be driving." He stated.

"No, it's all good. I already called a car service to come grab the car and me and take us both home." Ēn Chén said, then stood up and shook out his pants to make them fall back into place.

His legs wobbled a little, but he was back to his composed mask quickly. "I guess I better get back, Klara is up and waiting for me." He said, with just a tinge of sourness.

'So it had been Klara not, Zhēng Yù.'

'I wonder, did he come out here just to text Zhēng Yù probably without Klara knowing?' Stacey realized that was probably highly likely the case. Ēn Chén had stopped over into his side of the world before he was going to continue, it was only four days, and he had needed to see Stacey, and rather than Stacey flying down to Taipei, this time he came to him. He had gone to all of his entire school years before his family moved here right after he finished graduating high school. All his friends outside his coworkers were from back home in Taipei. Friends like Ēn Chén. Zhēng Yù, Justin, Santiago, and Zhì wēi yīn, all lived so far away, practically from another time in life, basically a different universe. He still talked to Ēn Chén. Zhēng Yù the most from back there, he texted Zhēng Yù almost every day. Which is how he knew Ēn Chén didn't have a chance in hell right now. Things were too raw. He had messed up. Bad.

'Poor Ēn Chén. Zhēng Yù hasn't been answering, and he hasn't gone anywhere he knows you will be. Not for months.' But then he supposed Ēn Chén had already figured that out too.

But hope and love feed off each other and he could see that Ēn Chén was unable to accept the loss of either right now.

"Honestly. I dunno why you come to these things when you won't drink anything."

Ēn Chén broke into his thoughts. His voice was sour and had a tinge of alcohol on it.

"And you even stayed two hours after Aiden and Lindan went home. It's not like you talk to anyone else here. What are you going to even do once I leave next Friday?" Ēn Chén turned, waved a hand, and walked away before Stacey could even respond.

'I hate that he does that. Why does he ask questions and then walk away before letting me answer? It was a totally Ēn Chén thing to do, and something Zhēng Yù had been able to put up with much better than the rest of their group of friends.'

'I come because all the people I want to see are here, and it's better than an empty apartment, alone again…' he told himself. 'Ēn Chén didn't understand that, though. He has never had to be alone all his life. He has a family that is his family, regardless of what happens. He has Zhēng Yù… Or rather he had Zhēng Yù. from what he heard third hand through Aiden and what little Ēn Chén had said. It sounded as if Zhēng Yù had finally given up, had stepped away from Ēn Chén, and worse, didn't seem to want to come back.'

Which shocked him, because he had always assumed their friendship was so solid nothing could get in the way. Not even the clear one-sided feelings Zhēng Yù had been harboring for Ēn Chén.

If there was anything in the world that could convince him, love was not for him. Tonight sure was shaping up to be a prime example of just what not to do to find love. Between Hunter's disgusting display and future promise, and Ēn Chén's broken heart that had come to drown in paltry amusements and tons of booze. The world of happiness and souls intertwining seemed pretty disgustingly doomed to him.

Stacey sighed, dropped a few dollars on the table for his soda tonic, and then stood up and pushed his way out of the crowded bar.

The air was cold and chilly and hit him in the face, the impact of such a change from the hot damp interior of the club.

The wind rustled the leaves in the small tree outside the little parking lot that was jam-packed with cars and drunk people laughing and chatting loudly. Smoke straggled on the wind running past his nose, making it sting and itch.

'Well, home, alone, in the dark is better than here, thinking of…' His mind flashed to Hunter, leaning in on him and telling him to not look away. He swatted at the memory as if it were a fly he could beat away from him, and not something that he experienced and would probably think about another one hundred times tonight before he even closed his eyes.

'Seriously though, just what the hell, Hunter?'

'Like what the actual hell?!'

He sighed before walking to his car, unlocking it, opening the door, and getting in. He started the car up, and it hummed to life amidst his grumbling as he pulled away from the curb. Still grumbling his outrage to himself.