Never Letting You Go

Bai Luoyin had taken some of the rice porridge his father had made him home in a Styrofoam plate and kept it in the refrigerator with the hope of eating it later.

Exhausted, he dragged himself to his room, took a bath, took a nap and worked on his assignments.

By the time it was a little past 9 pm, he had started to feel hungry.

Dragging his body out of bed, he walked into the sitting room, his mind set on his father's rice porridge waiting in the refrigerator.

The food would taste horrible, that was a given. But the nostalgia made him a little bit ecstatic.

In the sitting room, Gu Hai sat with his backside pressed on a couch while he concentrated on playing a rather violent video game.

Like she was giving him space, Jiang Yuan was perched on a dining chair in the dining area, knitting something that was either a scarf or a sweater.

As soon as she spotted him walking past, she called out to him, "Luoyin."

He stopped in his tracks and stared at her.

"You didn't come out for dinner."

Inadvertently synonymous to the harmony of choir boys in a choir concert, Gu Hai and Bai Luoyin sighed then said, "So annoying."

Both of them referring to the woman who wouldn't let up on doting on her son.

For a split second, both boys stared at each other.

Without the knowledge of how to react in an awkward moment where a stranger you dislike thinks the same thing as you, Bai Luoyin quickly searched for an excuse in his head to exit the sitting room.

Recalling his original mission, he turned away and went into the kitchen.

Gu Hai's gaze lingered a little longer causing his avatar to suffer a headshot resulting in a gruesome scene of his brain splashing on the inside of the TV screen.

Gu Hai cursed before restarting the game.

In the kitchen, Bai Luoyin walked to the refrigerator and opened it to take out his dinner.

To his surprise, it was missing.

Bai Luoyin rummaged the fridge, but the blue Styrofoam plate was nowhere to be found.

Maybe I left it in my room, he thought with a muddled mind.

As he was about to leave the kitchen, he saw what was unmistakably his blue Styrofoam plate in the trash can. Empty.

His breath got caught in his throat at the sight of it.

Did Jiang Yuan throw out his food?

He picked up the empty box and walked into the sitting room, fuming with anger.

"Why did you throw out my food?" he asked Jiang Yuan once he got to the dining area, his tone laced with accusation.

"What food?" Jiang Yuan's eyes widened in astonishment.

In the past thirty hours that he had stayed there, she had not seen him eat a thing. If he came home with something to eat, why would she throw it out?

Just how terrible of a person do you think of me, Luoyin? Her eyes had started to water.

Although Bai Luoyin managed to maintain a calm demeanor, he couldn't hide his irritation, "Will you stop with the acting? It's pissing me off."

Finally realizing what was happening, Gu Hai paused his game and walked up to the bickering mum and son pair.

"I ate that," he informed Bai Luoyin with an annoyingly nonchalant tone.

Refusing to believe it, Bai Luoyin turned around to look at the boy who had just confessed, "You did what?"

"Didn't know it was yours," Gu Hai's tone was just as nonchalant as when he had confessed.

He had lived here alone for years now, his father was almost always at the Military Camp.

He was used to eating anything that magically appeared in the refrigerator, this is the first time he has had to apologize for it.

Realizing he had wrongly accused another person for the disappearance of his food, Bai Luoyin's anger doubled.

It wasn't the accusation that made him feel bad. It was the fact that one, he now owed Jiang Yuan an apology he would never give and two, a moment ago, he saw a tear fall down the side of her face, and it made him feel inexplicably uncomfortable.

With no other way to vent, he grabbed Gu Hai by the neck of his shirt and shook him as violently as his strength allowed, "I've never seen someone as shameless as you."

"And I've never seen someone who could make me pause my game," Gu Hai told him.

With a furrowed brow, he added, "I already apologized. There's no need to drag this on."

If it was possible, Bai Luoyin felt his anger increase even more at this statement and was about to throw a punch in the face of the rogue whom had spoilt his evening but Jiang Yuan quickly interceded, holding his hand and begging, "Luoyin, let him go."

The soft plea touched Bai Luoyin who was still feeling guilty for accusing her wrongly.

He let go of Gu Hai's shirt, pulled his hand out of her grip and walked out of the sitting room door and into the street.

The fresh air soothed most of his grievances, and he relaxed.

This new mood would soon be disturbed by his father's Nokia c3 ringing in his pocket.

Thinking it would be his father, he hurriedly picked up.

Seeing the caller ID, his mood was immediately ruined again, and with a frown, he shoved the phone into his pocket.

That same number had been calling him for weeks on end. Their discussion was a series of backs and forths that yielded no results, and it only annoyed him.

The caller was his ex-girlfriend, Shi Hui who was studying outside the Country.

At first, she just complained about how much she missed him while crying at the other end. Now, she was trying to coax him to get back together with her, while still crying at the other end.

It annoyed him so much that four days ago, he had stopped taking her calls.

While he was thinking about this, his stomach growled, telling him that he needed to eat something, reminding him of what just happened.

That fucking Shaoye. Eating people's food without permission.

He made up his mind to find someplace to eat.

Thanks to You Qi paying for his lunch, he had a couple more bucks he could spare for dinner.

After walking a couple blocks, he noticed an open coffee shop and walked in. Hopefully, the food there wouldn't be too expensive.

After wolfing down the food he had ordered, he called for his bill, but he was immediately informed that the bill had been settled.

Once he heard this, he got torn between curiosity and excitement and asked who paid his bill. In his mind, if you took away Jiang Yuan and her stepson, this would be a pretty nice place to live.

Before the waiter could reply, a silhouette and a voice stride by his right side before transforming to a person in front of Bai Luoyin, carrying an aura that sent the waiter scurrying away, "I did."

Bai Luoyin looked up and was startled. Did this bastard follow him here?

Like the person in front of him could read what was in his mind, he quickly informed him, "I followed you. You're so unaware of your surroundings.

You didn't even notice when I followed you all the way to your Baba's place."

"Aren't you a bit too much?" this new information made Bai Luoyin sick to his stomach he didn't even have the strength to physically assault the person in front of him.

As he walked out of the coffee shop, Gu Hai followed him and asked, "No thanks for buying you dinner?"

"If I knew you would pay for it, I wouldn't have eaten it."

"You can pay me back if you want," Gu Hai said.

Bai Luoyin furrowed his brows. It would be a cold day in hell before that happens.

"What was so great about that horrible food that got you so pissed anyways?" Gu Hai asked, adding fire to the flame.

This question pissed Bai Luoyin off, "It's not the food..." he started to explain but stopped.

It wasn't the food, it was the hand that prepared the food.

The more he thought about it, the more it pissed him off.

Maintaining a calm demeanor, he turned to face Gu Hai, "Why are you still following me? Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"I can't leave you alone now, we're going the same way," he informed Bai Luoyin who shook his head in apprehension.

What he really wanted to say was, 'Now that I understand you a little better and I feel the need to take care of you, how can I leave you alone?'