CALANDO

Calando: Falling away or lowering.

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Zhou Yongliang looked worried all day. He looked like a completely different person today. The cheerful and bright boy had vanished into thin air. There was only a gloomy Zhou Yongliang.

What was the reason for his foul mood? The only reason was a handsome student named Yang Liu. The black-haired student did not show up at school from morning to afternoon. He had already asked Fang Xing about the tall student, but Fang Xing could only shake his head, not knowing his best friend's whereabouts.

Even though he was worried, the brown-haired student tried to hide his expression so that his friends wouldn't be suspicious. He knew that they all had not completely accepted Yang Liu, especially Ren Weisheng. Even though he could accept Ren Weisheng's excuse for being very antipathetic towards Yang Liu, but in the future, he intended to change his friend's paradigm.

This afternoon, right after the bell rang, Zhou Yongliang secretly planned to visit Yang Liu's residence. He was not stupid that he couldn't remember the name and address of Yang Liu's apartment. Armed with these two pieces of information, Zhou Yongliang hailed a taxi and asked the taxi driver to take him to his destination.

In fact, Yang Liu's residence was quite close to school. It may have taken less than twenty minutes before the taxi stopped in front of the tall building.

Unfortunately, the security of the luxury place was apparently very tight. It was so tight that Zhou Yongliang was unable to break through the apartment's gate. He had told the guard that he was Yang Liu's friend, but the guard still didn't permit him to enter. They even asked him to leave the building.

But, the student didn't want to comply with the order. He decided to wait in front of the gate, hoping that Yang Liu had not yet returned home and would see him when he came home. If it turned out that the tall guy had returned home, he hoped that by chance, Yang Liu would walk out of the building and see him who was miserably standing in front of the gate.

Zhou Yongliang stood restlessly. He had been standing there for thirty minutes. He had been counting how many vehicles had come in and out of the gate, but none of them was recognized by him.

The handsome student was about to give up, but his dark irises caught a glimpse of a familiar black motorbike speeding toward the gate. Quickly, he spread his arms out in front of the slower-speeding motorbike. He desperately tried to catch the rider's attention.

"Yang Liu!" He even shrieked, resulting in the suspicious glares of the security guard on duty there.

The rider seemed to be surprised, but he had no other choice than to stop his bike. "Step aside," he ordered nonchalantly, but Zhou Yongliang shook his head instead. His eyes showed immense, inviolable ambition.

Inevitably, Yang Liu finally asked Zhou Yongliang to get on his motorbike, then drove the vehicle through the gate. They easily got permission to enter.

They reached the basement, and they both got off the motorbike. Yang Liu casually walked away, but Zhou Yongliang held back his steps by holding his arm.

"What's wrong, Yang Liu? Did I do something wrong that you avoided me like this?"

Yang Liu violently removed Zhou Yongliang's hand from his arm. "Don't ever appear in front of me again," he hissed sarcastically.

"But why? What did I do to you? You can't treat me like this!" Zhou Yongliang didn't want to lose as he kept questioning the taller boy.

"I can! I have no heart! Even your friend didn't see me as a human! You should be afraid of me! You shouldn't have liked a heartless creature like me!"

Zhou Yongliang's lips pressed tightly together. It seemed that he started to understand why the other guy suddenly changed.

"Did you... hear the conversation I had with Ren Weisheng gege this morning?"

Yang Liu looked away from Zhou Yongliang, acting indifferently to the other guy who was now looking at him dejectedly.

"I indeed heard about your past from Ren Weisheng gege, but one thing that I can see from you is that you are not a bad person. Seeing is believing[1], Yang Liu."

Finally, Yang Liu looked back at Zhou Yongliang. The look in the youth's eyes radiated deep sorrow. Zhou Yongliang's words seemed capable of touching the bottom of his frozen heart, touching it with warmth and melting it slowly.

Without warning, the sturdy body embraced Zhou Yongliang's smaller body. The unprepared Zhou Yongliang nearly tumbled backward, but fortunately, he was able to balance his body immediately. He hesitantly returned Yang Liu's hug. He silently placed his hands on the latter's broad back. They let their two heartbeats chimed in harmony with each other.

"I'm sorry..."

The whisper was like a weak pulse of someone who was about to die. There was no strength in it. It was powerless and dying.

After hearing the whisper, Zhou Yongliang could sense that something was not right and he carefully pushed Yang Liu's body. "Why did you say sorry to me?" He asked curiously.

Yang Liu fell silent for a moment. He drew his gaze away from the shorter guy and seemed to be in deep thought.

The brown-haired student patiently waited for the other guy's answer. He didn't want to give him more pressure.

Finally, Yang Liu sighed and looked back at him. "I'm not the right person for you, Zhou Yongliang," he said firmly.

Zhou Yongliang's heart skipped a beat. There were two reasons for his heart's wild behavior. The first reason was he finally heard the other guy called his name for the first time. Meanwhile, the second reason was the content of Yang Liu's speech that pierced his heart into pieces.

His heart was falling away.

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Footnote:

[1] Seeing is believing: from the Chinese sayings "ěr tīng wéi xū, yǎn jiàn wéi shí" that means "what you hear, take as false, what you see, take as true."