A Bite of Love

18. Cold-Hot Situation

"Ou Yang!"

"Ha?" the called out man finally gave some reaction.

"What are you thinking? I have been calling you for a while," Li Rang shook his head and decided to serve the order by himself as Ou Yang was in space.

Puffing, Ou Yang leaned his elbows on the counter and rested his head on his palms. Although it had been a week, the kiss in front of the bar was still haunting him. Like a mature person, Mu Ran never mentioned the topic again and acted normal while Ou Yang was torn apart by the vicious dilemma.

On one hand, he was aware that what he felt for Mu Ran was beyond friendship and he couldn't deny feeling butterflies in his stomach when their lips touched, but on the other hand, after despising gays for so long, his ego couldn't accept the fact that he was attracted to a man. What would he tell his mother?

Ou Yang's wandering thoughts came to a halt, seeing Mu Ran enter the cafe. "Morning," he said as normal as he could, but the latter didn't answer back, he simply walked to his usual table. If Ou Yang didn't know Mu Ran better, he would take offense. However, he knew the face Mu Ran was making when he was bothered by something, and didn't fail to see the dark circles under his eyes.

Shall I ask or not? Perfect! Another dilemma!

"Well, we are still friends," he convinced himself and prepared a latte for Mu Ran although he didn't order it, and rushed to his table.

"What's wrong?" he asked and Mu Ran jumped out of his skin. "Opps, sorry," he said and sat across the startled man before giving him the cup.

"Thank you," Mu Ran said and circled his cold hands around the cup in an attempt to warm them.

"You look distressed, do you want to share?" Ou Yang asked with concern.

"It is about work, nothing serious," Mu Ran said with a fake smile and Ou Yang couldn't press as his client arrived. Rejected, Ou Yang got the order and went back to the counter to prepare it.

Luckily, Mu Ran had only two dates to supervise, so after two hours, he was done. As he needed some distraction for his roasted brain, he approached the counter with a shy expression.

"Ou Yang," he called the only person he wanted to spend some time with.

"Hmm?" the cafe owner looked at him with an encouraging smile.

"I wanted to ask if..."

"If?"

"... you have some spare time, but it is okay if you don't want to spend time with me," he said in one breath as he didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

Seeing how anxious the match-maker was, Ou Yang felt so sad, knowing he was the reason for it. He could seem normal, but apparently, now he was hesitant to approach Ou Yang freely. As he was the reason, he must have been the solution. With a bright smile, he replied "let me inform Li Rang that we are going."

Mu Ran heaved a relieved sigh and waited for Ou Yang to grab his stuff. When he appeared again, the duo went to Mu Ran's house for some privacy.

"Will you tell me what's wrong now?" Ou Yang asked as Mu Ran handed him a cup of coffee.

There was a hesitant look on Mu Ran's eyes, but he spilled it anyway. "It is about a client. His mother literally dragged him to our company to find him a girlfriend."

"And? Doesn't he want to date or what?"

"He is gay," Mu Ran said with a sigh.

"Oh," Ou Yang grimaced as he could see the whole picture now, "I guess his mother doesn't know."

The match-maker shook his head, "she thinks he is just picky and blamed me for not being able to find him a good girl, as if I could arrange him a date."

"That sounds bad," Ou Yang sympathised with him, "how old is he? Why doesn't he say that he is gay?"

"He is twenty-four, but that's not that easy," Mu Ran buried his head in his palms, rubbing it with irritation, "what if she is like my mom and rejects him?"

Ou Yang patted his back, understanding his dilemma, "then just say you can't help them."

"Well..." Mu Ran thought about that option as well, but a loud voice in his head was saying it was cruel to leave him like that.

"You want to help him?" Ou Yang guessed, hearing his reluctant answer.

"I just see myself in him," Mu Ran confessed, "I wished many times that there was someone for me when things got ugly, so I feel responsible for him."

Ou Yang could only imagine what Mu Ran went through, but remembering the time when he broke down, asking if he was worthless, his heart sank anyway. He wanted to protect the man because he really deserved that.

"Then let's help him," he said with a reassuring smile.

"But..."

"But what?" Ou Yang arched his eyebrows, daring him, "you want to help him, so what's there to hesitate?"

"I can't lose my job," Mu Ran said with a low voice, "I need money to survive, right?"

"Oh," Ou Yang didn't think about it as he had never had problems with money, "I will take full responsibility, I won't let Ge Lin fire you," he said, patting his own chest.

Mu Rang could only gape.