Utter Defeat

24. Not Shy

"You definitely don't look as if you are in pain," Zheng Hao said nonchalantly, throwing a side-long glance to his husband who was sitting on the front seat next to him. When they woke up after the intense night, Xiao Yang said he felt sore all over, so Zheng Hao offered to drop him off the faculty. Now, they were on the road, but his naughty husband didn't seem to suffer as he was rocking along to the song on the radio.

Getting caught red-handed, Xiao Yang froze for a second, but then he smiled cheesily, "ge, my body is in pain, but my happy heart doesn't care about it."

Zheng Hao rolled his eyes and decided not to comment on it. If he did, he was sure his cheeky husband would come up with another flirtatious comment, so there was no need.

Feeling his surrender, Xiao Yang smiled triumphantly and turned on the volume. After suffering that much, he wanted the world to celebrate his happiness with him.

Zheng Hao didn't mind it, but when they reached the faculty, he turned off the radio and looked at his husband with a loving gaze.

"I will pick you up at six."

"Really?" Xiao Yang was surprised. It sounded too good for his husband to close the store earlier to pick him up from the university.

Zheng Hao caressed his cheek with a smile, "really. I should complete my duty, right?"

"Yes! Then see you!" Xiao Yang exclaimed and landed a kiss on his lips before getting out of the car. Zheng Hao watched his hopping figure from the car and when he went inside, he drove off to the store.

.

.

After a tiring day, at six, Zheng Hao was waiting outside the faculty just as he promised. A few minutes later, Xiao Yang emerged from the building with several friends, laughing at something one of them said. Zheng Hao realised Ji Bo wasn't with them, but he didn't dwell on it as Xiao Yang turned towards the left, probably not seeing the car. He honked two times to let Xiao Yang see him, but why did the younger man tensed, seeing him?

With a deep frown, Zheng Hao waited for Xiao Yang to say something to his friends before running to the car.

"What's wrong?" he asked as soon as his husband was inside the car.

"Nothing, just-"

A knock on the car window cut into Xiao Yang's words. Cursing inwardly, he watched the older man lowering the window so that he could speak to the boy who was leaning towards the car with a dominating aura.

"Hi," the boy waved his hand, his extremely expensive wrist watch creating a jingling sound with the movement.

"Hi," Zheng Hao greeted him with a smile, "you are...?"

The boy threw a disappointed glance towards Xiao Yang, then answered "I am Yan Lang, I am one of the BEST friends of Yang Yang. I am studying abroad and guess what was the first thing I heard as soon as my plane landed..." he paused for a millisecond, then completed his words with "Yang Yang's wedding!"

In the face of over-dramatisation, Xiao Yang rolled his eyes. Well, indeed they were close as their mothers were friends and they literally grew up together, but then Yan Lang preferred to go to England to pursue his degree. Now he was in China for a vacation and from all those damn days, he picked that day to surprise him and their other friends from the faculty!

Don't get him wrong, Xiao Yang liked him like a brother, but though being innocuous most of the time, Yan Lang had the gift of irritating people easily. Very easily. For example, he only said two sentences, but Xiao Yang was barely holding himself from jumping on him. After all those battle-like days, he was finally lovey-dovey with his husband, so he didn't want to disturb their peace with his big-mouthed rich friends. Yet, here was Yan Lang and the other three were still standing near the stairs, watching the scene, laughing!