Tides Of Healing Love

8. The Eye of the Beholder

When Yibo came to his class, early in the morning as usual, he was rather surprised to see Zhan there already; he was cleaning the blackboard when he saw Yibo.

He gave him a smile and said, "good morning."

Yibo smiled and said, "good morning. I see that you are early today. I thought you were going to be absent today."

"Oh, not a chance, I already have a lot of absents, I can't afford to be absent."

Yibo looked rather concerned as he came near him and asked, "but are you really okay? You looked tired."

"That I am, I only got four hours of sleep and then I got a fever at night."

"Then have you eaten something?"

"One apple."

Yibo sighed, "hey, are you trying to kill yourself?"

"Ah...no."

"You should eat something first," Yibo said as he grabbed his hand made him sit on their usual seat, and gave him his lunchbox.

"It's alright, I usually don't eat in the morning."

"Well, you are not usually sick are you?" Yibo asked, just eat a little bit, "and have you kept medicine with you?"

Zhan who had started eating and was not chewing his food said, "Actually, I didn't since I had taken a pill before coming to the college, so I thought I wouldn't need it."

Yibo just looked at him as if he was the dumbest person on earth and Zhan said, "In my defense, I know that I am going to be alright."

Yibo smiled, "oh really? let's see."

Zhan smiled back "Really."

~~

"You look like you are going die any moment." Yibo taunted as he looked at Zhan who had his head down on the table.

Zhan stared back at him, "Thank you for the immense support that you are giving me right now, and what the hell, why are you smiling."

"Because I was right."

"Yeah, but you should not laugh at other's misery."

"I am sorry, I just can't help it."

"And you said that you are my guardian angel, is this how  angels are supposed to help others?"

"Yes." Yibo said, Zhan just rolled his eyes and said nothing after that, by the time it was recess, his fever had risen, and Yibo said, "I'll go and bring some medicine for you." he was about to get up but Zhan grabbed his hand and stopped him, "no, just stay here."

"Zhan, I will be back soon."

"No, just stay here please." Zhan requested, "I don't want to be alone."

Yibo looked at Zhan's hand that was holding before he squeezed Zhan's hand back and said, "Fine."

~~

After some time Zhan felt that someone was shaking him awake, he also felt that someone was wiping his face.

"Get up Zhan." Yibo said, Zhan slowly moved before he sat straight and Yibo said, "Here, have some medicine."

Zhan looked at the medicine and asked, "Where did this come from?"

"I asked Nicole to bring one."

"Oh... I should thank her."

"Yeah, but for that you need to get better." 

Zhan took the medicine before he sighed and then suddenly he moved to the side and kept his head over Yibo's shoulder making the latter's eyes widen.

Yibo became stiff and didn't dare to move before he said, "Zhan..."

"Let me just stay like this for some time." 

Yibo sighed and didn't argue but then Zhan said, "Tell me where should I start?"

"Start what?"

"Start to get my life back on track?"

"Um...first of all by not giving a fuck about anything and going back to how you were before."

Zhan asked, "And according to you how was I before? A flirty fuckboy, a party animal, arrogant playboy, rich dad's spoiled son? Hmm" his tone was not cold or rude.

Yibo smiled as he said, "Is that how you think of yourself?"

"Others do. At least others have told me that's what I used to be. You don't think so?"

Yibo looked to his side and stared at Zhan before he said, "No, I don't think so."

"Then, what do you think?"

"I think that you used to be the most charismatic and radiant person, a person like a ball of sunshine who knew how to lighten everyone's mood, a person with a smile so contagious that no one can resist. An aura, so perfect that once you enter the room all the eyes are on you.

An all-rounder idiot who does not realize his potential."

Zhan opened his eyes before he looked at Yibo, "you seriously think of me like that?"

Yibo looked at him with all the seriousness and said, "Yes, I do think of you like that."

Zhan smiled and said, "I was quite rude to you."

"It's okay, you are going through a lot I know that and I know that you have been going through a lot for a long time before you were able to hide it well behind your smiles but now you have reached your limit, it happens."

"Wow, no one has defined me like this before. All alone I thought that people always thought of me as some brat."

"How about you ignore such opinions just like how you ignored my existence for three years?" Yibo said and Zhan suddenly burst into laughter, "It's not my fault if you have such a low presence."

"Yeah, sure."

"And how do you know that I used to hide my pain behind my smiles what are you? a stalker?"

Yibo gasped, "I am offended, I am an angel and I know because I just know. I am quite an observant person."

"So you have been observing me for the past three years."

"Well, you are quite hard to ignore."

"What's the other step?"

"What?" Yibo asked.

"You only told me one step, what are the other steps to get my life back on track."

"Oh,  how about going back to playing sports, especially the ones you loved namely football and badminton, and you know play so well that Liam and Grady will lose their limelight.

The more you take part in extracurriculars to more good it will be for you. Besides it's your last year you should give it your best."

These are the things that Zhan already knew as he had done all of them before but during these past few months he had just forgotten how active he used to be and he was thankful to Yibo for reminding him again.