Silent and lonely world (Dark clouds before sunny weather - Book 1)

Chapter 25

Mo Xuanyu woke up and for a minute, he felt like in heaven, he had never slept this good and never woken up this well rested. He was warm, but not too much so, he was not hungry, his body barely hurt and someone was holding his hand. He was laying on a much softer mattress than he was used to, just feeling content with the world at the moment. He concluded that he still must have been sleeping, nothing like that was possible in real life. But that was fine, he liked this dream, and he would enjoy it for one more minute. He closed his eyes again and snuggled closer to that someone who was sleeping in the bed with him.

Wait, what? Why was there someone else in his shack with him? And why were they holding hands? Mo Xuanyu knew that he had often dreamt about someone holding his hand and telling him he was not alone, but not like this. This was too close, and too unexpected.

And then, that someone stirred next to him, pressing slightly onto Mo Xuanyu's arm. It hurt faintly. And if it hurt, this could not be a dream!

Mo Xuanyu shot up into a sitting position, making sure he would not disturb the other person. He gently disentangled their hands and crawled out of the bed – or better said, off the mattress on which he had been sleeping. With wide open eyes, he looked at the boy who was left sleeping there, smiling a bit. It took him a second to recognize that it was in fact A-Yuan, the classmate who had invited him to his birthday party.

Mo Xuanyu would be inclined to believe that the whole yesterday had been a dream, it had been too good to be true, yet he could not anymore, he could not deny that A-Yuan was there and that he was not in fact in his shack. So had everything really happened? Or had he been dreaming at least some of it up?

He could not tell but he was convinced that at least the part where there had been a doctor and gentle, reassuring words from his teacher must have happened in his head. That really could not have been true. It just could not.

Mo Xuanyu looked around and realized that according to the light coming in by the window, it was already morning, and quite late at that. Definitely later than he was normally supposed to wake up. He panicked a little bit. He should have already had the breakfast prepared yet here he was, laying lazily in someone else's bed – for whatever reason he had even been sleeping in the same bed with A-Yuan, he decided that he would not care for now – and just relaxing.

He was in his teacher's house and he needed to get things moving. He had not taken care of the dinner yesterday, it still surprised him to no end that he had been send to play instead of cleaning up, he could not inconvenience his teacher's family any more than this. He needed to do his usual duties and see if it would be enough. If not, he could always ask his teacher to tell him what he was actually supposed to do. Or wait for him to do that on his own.

Without any sound as he had already practise of, he changed his clothes and went out of the room. He hesitated a bit before using the bathroom but since everyone was still asleep, or he hoped so, he had no way to ask where else to go to wash himself up a bit. Then he made his way to the kitchen. Although he did not know what exactly he should prepare, he had no idea about this family's preferences, he would still try his best.

On his way, he had to pass through the living room. There, he got the biggest shock of his life.

Well, that was perhaps a bit exaggerated but it still made him stop in his tracks to see that he had in fact not been the only person awake in the house. A-Yuan's father was sitting with his legs crossed on a thin mattress on the ground, very still and breathing deeply and slowly. His eyes were closed too. Was he sleeping then? But why while sitting up? That must have been very uncomfortable.

Mo Xuanyu however supposed that it was his own choice and that he should not disturb him. As quietly as he could, he tiptoed around him into the kitchen. There, he took a deep breath, looked around and started preparing breakfast.

He was no sure what he was allowed to use but supposed that he would just be scolded later if he touched the wrong things so it would be fine. He spotted the refrigerator quickly enough and opened it, inspecting what was inside. After a minute of contemplation, he decided to make egg omelettes with some stirred veggies on the side. Hopefully the noise of cooking would not wake A-Yuan's father up too soon.

The process of preparing breakfast calmed him down a little bit. He had always enjoyed this time of day when his uncle, aunt and cousin would still be asleep and he knew he could have a few minutes for himself without having to fear their ire. Although he knew that he was in his teacher's house, it still helped him to gather his thoughts and get ready for the day.

While cooking, he managed to, with some difficulties because he could not find some of the dishes in the many cupboards there were, set the table and prepare four places. He did not know if his teacher and his husband liked to drink coffee for breakfast or not so he went with the safe option of preparing green tea he had found on the kitchen unit. He could always make some coffee later, at least it would be nice and fresh.

Once everything was prepared, he looked up at the clock on one of the walls. He felt relieved that it was not too late, he had managed to prepare the breakfast still on time. He went to stand in the same corner as last evening, he did not want to get in his teacher's family's way.

It was only then that he realized he actually did not know at what time the family usually got up. Then again, he supposed, on a working day, for it was Friday today and A-Yuan and him would still have to go to school, they should be waking up by now or they would not be in time for school.

As per his prediction, he heard shifting of fabric from the living room, A-Yuan's father must have just been waking up. Mo Xuanyu lowered his head and waited, hoping that he had not made a mistake in choosing the dish for the breakfast.