Winterbloom [BL]

Chapter 7: His First Friend?

The previous day.

Luan sat on his desk - camera in hand. It's screen had been stagnant on the same picture for the past five minutes. He slouched on the comfort of his revolving chair as he stared into the colourful image, dazed.

A soft orange tint reflected off the lense; beneath it, an eye in deep thought staring right back. Luan had zoomed into the photo that he 'accidentally' took of Huey earlier in the day because his "finger slipped".

Partially, this was indeed the case. It was almost as if his hand grew a mind of its own and took the photo without letting him think it through. It was impulse, in simple terms. Luan's photographer eye would always be on the hunt for beauty in the world it sees. As soon as it locked in on Huey's very aesthetic, eye-catching eye, it immediately signalled the impulse to take a pic.

Pure impulse. Luan didn't like the sound of that. Although he was a spontaneous person at heart, this didn't mean he liked making decisions without thinking them through. He'd have the urge to do something, briefly think it through and then finally act upon it. He made sure he did this because he knew exactly what kind of trouble  he had gotten into whenever he hadn't.

Like when he impulsively said yes to a girl because he was sick of being gay.

Clementine - or Clem - was a close friend of his. Sweet, smart, charismatic; overall quite likeable as a person. Their friends had been shipping them for months, saying they had a very promising chemistry. For Luan, this was true but only on a platonic level.

They shared most classes so he offered to hang out with her despite being a typical introvert. His friends probably caught onto that. This girl was the kind of person that was approachable and fun to spend time with, so he saw no further meaning to their occasional study and lunch hang-outs. She had also been to his place to study for a major assignment. His grandma adored her.

Later, she asked him out.

For the past few weeks, he had been noticing her friends secretly teasing her in a very obvious manner whenever he spoke with her. She would first seem annoyed, then look downwards, holding back a grin; he knew what a blush looked like.

If she ever asks to become more than good friends, what should I do?

This should've been an obvious answer: "Sorry, but no." Unfortunately, it wasn't so simple. He could only recall flashbacks of the genuine smile on his grandma's face when she met this girl; how she would ever so often ask, "How has Clementine been?" or, "You should bring that girl over sometime again. She was so sweet." He got the message.

Back then, Luan wasn't out... to anyone.

He didn't want to burden his beloved  grandmother with his controversial identity. Although she had always accepted him for whatever he liked, even if that included his mother's supposedly 'girly' childhood toys, he didn't want to risk it. There was too much to lose.

She was the only family that actually raised him after all, as well as the person he was closest to.

His parents were flight attendants. Travel was both their job and their forte.

Uptil the age of five, he didn't live with his grandmother in this humble house. He lived abroad in a metropolitan city where his parents' airlines was based, considering that cabin crew must live a certain distance from the airport. This was for standby duties in case they're needed last minute, given the tight routines of the aviation industry. Hence, they were barely ever home and when they were, they had little energy to spare after long and tiresome flights to actually bond with their son.
He was basically raised by the daycare and housemaid during that time. He was a quiet child who didn't make a fuss so it took a while for his parents to realise their negligence.