At The Edge Of The World | YiZhan ✓

Part 1

On a day when the skies cried, at a time when the leaves crumbled, there was a boy who could have everything he wanted, and a boy who could not. One was told to always be perfect so that he may please those who decided for him, while the other was told to never even dream of seeing the light. 

Yet the two young boys were curious still, the mind desiring to dream but the heart fearing of more. The day came for it but, letting fear be left in vain, rationality being no more but a journey for courage within. They approached the border that divided them, which they had been forbidden to even sneak a glance at. There they saw each other, two boys from two different worlds apart. Yet as they came closer and found the strength to touch, the border between them fell, connecting both as though they were the same. 

And so they realised that they were not so different from each other after all. 

At least that was what Zhan saw in his dream. In his thirty-one years of life, never once did he imagine himself seeing such an odd story filled with indication, yet not ignoring the fact that he related to the boy who was forced into perfection. 

He had been thinking about it non-stop all day, trying to force it into meaning, that it may define a certain plot or a reason in his life, when in reality, it was but just a side of his that was oppressed to the core. He couldn't ignore the truth of that thought either, his hands trembling with annoyance and suffocation. Quickly, he loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt, trying to get a grip and become calm. Yet all that flooded his brain instead, was the reminder of how he had left the dinner table abruptly only moments ago before getting on the road. 

To top top it off, due to the heavy rain, his usual road back home was closed off, so he had to take a detour from inside the city. And as though it were a joke, one of the cars beside him drove before him without turning the blinkers on, causing him to take a sudden sharp turn and drive into an unfamiliar street. The stress building up inside him made him pause and light a cigarette, inhaling the smoke ever so deeply, hoping that it would calm his nerves. 

And so he sat, watching the rain pour heavily onto the hood of his car. His eyes closed off, while his chest grew with each breath. While trying to discard himself of his thoughts did he realise just how ridiculous it was, that this world needed heavy measures to function within, just like the rain above. The sound hitting the windows was like that song he had once heard, making his heart beat faster in need to take more oxygen into his bloodstream. Just to live, and that was all he had ever wanted. Free from everyone else, but on his own.

His eyes then drifted onto a black silhouette approaching him from afar, wobbling and tripping at times until it reached the car. Then a hand pressed onto his hood, later the body it belonged to falling right under his car. 

Zhan didn't know what took over him to get his head wet in that heavy rain that night, tossing his cigarette aside as though it did not matter. When really, many would kill for just a smoke in their lifetime. 

He stepped closer to the headlights, unable to make out the noises coming from the person. So he crouched down to push him to the side, only to realise that it were a man. And not just any man, but the man he had been dreading for too long to see. His hand unconsciously held his face, brushing off the wet strands of hair which were stuck over his closed eyelids. Zhan then parted his lips and furrowed his brows, his vision becoming harder to see by the second. 

"Wang... Yibo..?" Only moments later did he realise what was going on and where he was, not taking another minute as he took him in his arms and put him inside the car.