A Bite of Love

7. Sweet Cream, Cold Brew

"Mu Ran!" Ou Yang exclaimed as he saw the mentioned man was going towards the door to leave the cafe.

"What's wrong?" Mu Ran rushed to the counter. After his incident, the cold war between them ended for good and now they were a bit more friendly.

"Don't leave now," Ou Yang almost begged him, "I... I will take you home, look it is almost nine," he said with a timid smile and Mu Ran's eyes opened wide with shock.

"You want to take me home?" he asked with disbelief as it was too good to be true, "tell me what's going on?"

"Okay," Ou Yang gave in very easily, stooping he said, "I messed with the wrong girl and her brothers are after me."

"What?" Mu Ran burst into laughter, he laughed so hard that he even shed tears while Ou Yang was getting more and more irritated each second.

"Are you done?" he asked at the end with a grimace.

"Pretty much, yeah," Mu Ran pretended to wipe his tears to add fuel to Ou Yang's irritation. "I knew this would happen sooner or later, but I didn't know that you would be this scared."

"Forget about it, just go," Ou Yang couldn't take it anymore. So what if he was scared of a fight? Of course he was reluctant to get beaten up because of a girl whose name was long forgotten.

"Then I am going," Mu Ran called his bluff and left the cafe with lazy steps.

"El Diablo!" Ou Yang yelled behind him and finished the remainder of the work. He checked around two times before he locked the door, and rushed to his car with half-running steps.

Unfortunately, before he could get into his car, a pair of strong hands pulled him down to the ground and he fell backwards.

"Why so fast, bastard?" an angry voice asked from above and Ou Yang could only curse his luck.

"Gentlemen," he started, but a punch silenced him painfully.

For God's sake, are you made of iron? Why so powerful? Ou Yang said inwardly as he tried to sit up. However, the iron brothers had no intention to let him do that. One of them bent his knee to kick him, but a newcomer stopped him.

"What are you doing?! He is the nephew of the minister of public security!"

Hearing the newcomer, the brothers exchanged a glance and decided to run away. Then the newcomer went to check on Ou Yang who was sitting on the ground, holding his punched cheek.

"Sorry to be late," a hand reached towards Ou Yang, but he pushed it and stood up on his own with his hurt pride.

"I thought you had left."

"How could I leave you by yourself when you were that scared," Mu Ran said softly, checking on him with his eyes to see if the bruise needed to be tended.

"Then how come you were this late?" Ou Yang couldn't help but snap.

Mu Ran grimaced, "I received a call from a client and missed you from my sight," he said with an apologetic tone.

Ou Yang rolled his eyes, but he was actually grateful. Thanks to Mu Ran, he only received a single push and a punch. Still, as he couldn't admit it out loud, he rather said, "well, I have to admit it was a good lie, I don't think they will mess with me again."

Mu Ran pushed his hair from his shoulder in a proud manner, "if we are done here, I am going."

"Wait," Ou Yang stopped him, "you live at the other end of the city, I will drop you off as a thanks."

Mu Ran's mouth made an 'O' shape with shock. When did Ou Yang become so sweet?

"Don't stand there frozen like a squirrel seeing headlight, just hop in before I change my mind," Ou Yang said threateningly as he unlocked the car.

"Just a second," Mu Ran mumbled and rushed somewhere and contrasting his threat, Ou Yang waited for him in the car.

After five minutes, Mu Ran came back with a can of drink.

"Did you just go to grab yourself a drink?" Ou Yang asked, irritated as Mu Ran had only one can. If he had two, then he could ignore it, but no, he had ONLY one.

Mu Ran didn't comment on it, rather he pressed the icy-cold drink on Ou Yang's bruised right cheek.

Ou Yang felt himself get red with abashment. Why the hell he could never hold his tongue?! Maybe he had a loose-tongue disease, ha?

The embarrassed man got the can from the other with a feigned cough and started the engine.

Unlike the first time, they talked about random stuff, from desserts to movies, and were delighted to discover that they both liked soft C-POP. Then, Ou Yang turned on the radio and shared a C-POP channel he found recently. The music was just for Mu Ran's taste, so he gave Ou Yang a thumbs up, and the duo listened to the channel until they reached at Mu Ran's apartment.

"Thank you for the ride," Mu Ran said as he unbuckled the seat belt reluctantly.

"Thank you too for... well, saving my ass," Ou Yang admitted for the first time, making Mu Ran smile. Then he grabbed the coke can, saying "you can take it."

"Keep it, you have a long way to go back."

"Okay, see you tomorrow then," Ou Yang saluted him with the can and after waving, Mu Ran closed the door.

That night, both of them thought that actually the other was fun to spend time with.