Boyfriend Privilege (Sam YU AU FF)

Almost There

Yu wiped away the tears falling down on his cheeks before he continued cutting up the tray of onions in front of him. He was wearing a white headband and a grey colored waist apron on his long sleeves blue shirt. The Japanese restaurant he had opened up inside the district of Wanhua under his alias was half empty seeing that it was not yet lunch time and it was raining outside. It can be hectic but Yu decided that he could manage just by having one assistant to look after the small restaurant. The compact kitchen was hidden by rolled down curtains and separated from the dining area with a high counter where he usually placed the completed orders on.

"Boss, another bowl of Udon, extra beef." The girl named Yuna whom had worked for him for almost a year shouted from across the restaurant.

Yu stopped his work on the chopping board to move on to the noodles. Placing a handful of it on a strainer, Yu blanched them inside boiling water for less than a minute. Upon placing the noodles into a ceramic bowl, he heard a commotion from the dining area. He could hear Yuna's voice increasing in volume as he lifted one of the curtains up.

"Let me go!"

Yu sighed. He shouldn't have hired a pretty girl as his assistant/waitress, he thought, but Yuna was too good at her job for him to let her go. It was the second time this month alone that the girl was harassed. Yu knew that Yuna had attracted the attention of one of the gang leader there. They weren't as threatening as the ones Yu had encountered during his time in the yakuza but they can be scary. He sometimes regretted his decision to relocate to the dangerous area but he thought he would be safer living somewhere the enemy wouldn't have thought he would be.

He took his soup ladle with him as he walked into the dining area. From his peeking just now, he noticed that the three men causing ruckus had tattoos on the back of their necks. Yu bowed before the three men, asking them to let Yuna go as politely as he could. It wasn't tough since he had already been doing that for more than a year. It shouldn't be tough; he's Japanese afterall, bowing was like his reflex to everything. He also bowed to his other customers who by choice, took their leaves, probably afraid that they would be harmed too.

"You have pretty wife here buddy."

Yu snorted at the comment. He got that a lot too. He watched the gangster wannabe in front of him; on second look, he thought that they couldn't be older than him.

The three kids laughed at Yu's response, another one of them then squawked, "Look, he looked so happy that we be praising his missus."

"Don't look so proud bro, share her with us," The kid currently holding Yuna's hand said with a smirk.

Yu maintained his business smile as he looked at the kid up and down. The kid's head was cleanly shaved, he was wearing a short sleeves T-shirt tucked inside a seasoned jeans. A black sunglassed dangled on his chest.

"She is pretty but I think you're prettier." Yu initially approached them carefully but upon seeing the fake tattoo of a dog trying to bark like a wolf, he knew they were just kids playing tough.

"Huh?" The man in the centre tilted his head, loosening his grip on Yuna while his other two friends chortled in between words, "Woa! Someone called Ah Chen cute!"

"Are you trying to die today, you- you goddam elbow!" Ah Chen growled as he threw a punch towards Yu.

Ducking the attack, Yu hit the kid on his head using his ladle while responding, "Haha, how long did you take to come up with that?" Smacks after smack followed after as the kid was persistent on landing a hit on Yu, while the two other kids were just standing and enjoying their friend being bullied from the side.

Yu stopped when Ah Chen stopped to rub his reddened head. "Look kid, it's almost noon and daddy has got work to do. So please pay for your meals and leave."

"Woa, he wants to be Ah Chen's daddy!" The friends cheered again.

"And you two! Come join your friend here." Yu called the now frowning kids. He laid open his palm as he said, "Pay up."

One by one, the kids handed him the money and swiftly tried to leave the restaurant. Yu pulled on the back of their shirts, making them stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Star jump. 100 times. Go." Yu instructed. He gestured Yuna to watch over the reluctant kids as he turned his back to go back in the kitchen but the kids were faster. The three of them ran out of the restaurant the second Yu wasn't paying attention. Yu dashed to catch them but he decided against it as it would be too much of a hassle. His steps stopped right in front of his small restaurant which stood in between two other restaurants. He had been working in the kitchen since before dawn so he took the chance to look up the now clear sky. His mouth turned up as he shielded his eyes using his ladled hand, squinting against the blaring sun to see a large faraway rainbow at the end of the increasingly bustling road.

Amidst the trance that brought him back to the happy memories of him and Sam in Jiufen, he heard a voice from behind him, the voice deep, "I thought you didn't like rainbows."

"Nons-" Yu was about to retort as he lowered his hand to his side and turned his body towards the voice. He was met with a pair of glinting eyes and a soft smile. The man was scratching the back of his neck with his nose scrunched.

Yu dropped the ladle onto the ground with a loud clang, his eyes widened as he stammered, "L..Lin Zi Hong?"