Behind The Red Curtain | YiZhan ✓

60-Somebody To Lean On

Separating day from night is easy. You just look at the sun, the moon and how light or dark the sky is. 

But when underground in a bar, lit only by the small red spotlights, you wouldn't possibly know what time it was, but couldn't even comprehend it. And that's how it was for Wang Yibo, who was now drinking to his heart's content whereas Hu Li kept giving him side glances to hold him back if he did too much. 

"Haven't you drunk enough?" Yibo shook his head, taking yet another mouthful of whiskey. "...drinking is like medicine when your heart is broken.. have you ever had your heart broken?" Hu Li sighed, darting his gaze as he answered. "...i haven't. You know me." 

Yibo raised his glass with a mocking grin. "Ah... right. Because you are untouchable! You have so much experience that you know when to open your heart, and when to not. But i don't know such a thing, right?" 

Hu Li leaned forward, gaze a little dim from the light maybe. "It's reckless to open your heart to someone when they have the ability to step over it-" 

Yibo shook his head as he heard the familiar words. "No no- you are just not brave, and because you can't fucking admit that, you go and put the fault on the rest." Hu Li's hands clasped together while his lips pressed close. "But then who's guilty? I am! Goes and turns his back almost every time i get close, then yells me in the face when i make an attempt to walk away myself. I get that he has trust issues... that he's scared... but what more could i give him to make him understand that i am there for him?" 

"Time." Hu Li said simply, his eyes now closed in a peaceful manner. "I think you did good by letting him go. Or how will he understand what you went through?" 

Yibo was half drunk, half baffled, yet still managed to listen. "One can only grow stronger by fighting their fear alone. Sometimes it doesn't help to simply have someone by your side to lean on." 

Yibo then looked down, biting his lip in an attempt to rip the skin off. It then bled down a drop before being pressed with a tissue. "...you should go home." 

He nodded back, eyes lost in ave. "...i should go home.." 

With that he left, swaying all around as he took a cab. Despite his bad condition and having felt like he was about to faint a countless times, he still somehow managed to make his way home. 

After jumping off the cab, he slammed a couple thousand yuan in the driver's hand and started to walk to his apartment. In the distance, he could see the silhouette of a man, dressed in all black. The closer he came, the closer he came to realise who it was. 

As they made eye contact, Yibo felt his heart jump up, ready to have him in his arms. So he opened them wide, yet his legs closed, causing him to tilt to the side like a pillar and dive into the bushes. 

The latter then ran after him, and pulled him out to help. Yet he could not have prevented the small scratch Yibo got under his eye, causing him to make a worried face. Yibo looked up at him and laughed. "Haha... i must be dreaming. You look just like someone dear to me you know?" 

Zhan swallowed, his arms beginning to fall weak at Yibo's state. "You're... terribly drunk- how much did you drink?" Yibo chuckled, his finger now before Zhan's face, one raising each time he counted. "One... two... three bottles!" 

Zhan sighed, now pulling him up to stand. "Let's just get you up..." On the way up, Yibo told him about various things, all the way from bat's giving blowjobs, to how Zhan had hurt him in so many ways. 

"But you know what the worst part was? When he said i turned my back on him." Zhan's heart ached at that when he remembered his reaction, his head falling weak to gravity. "I never turned my back on him."