As Never Was

Chapter 11

Here goes nothing, Evan's pov...

Btw I can't believe I used to type all this shit on my phone back when I didn't have a laptop yet. All 3k words of stuff. Determination and passion do things to people, guys. 

I found myself in the new fandom of Stray Kids and is currently thinking up of at least 10 prompts of OT8 fanfics saved up somewhere in my notes, no promises about how fast these fics are gonna go, since I have like three fandoms actively requiring me to write, which I find really fun tbh. Just....time constraints. Commitments. Stuff. 

Anyway, enjoy? I may or may not have written this at the airport on my way home for Raya. 

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Evan has always has his....reasons for things. Some of which may not be the most reasonable or righteous of reasons, but they were. Reasons. Which was why every damn thing he did had and end goal he aimed to achieve, and while some of them aren't as attainable as he thought they'd be (courtesy of the urge to do the impossible so long as the chance arrives) very few instances led him to ever regret many of his decisions. 

And if the situation calls for it, Evan tries hard not to regret the things he did. If push comes to shove, he could always blame it on the primal curiosity that stirred in his heart the moment he saw the Chinese walk through the door of his office a few months back. 

He had thought, after the first day of observing the children playing the Game, that he would have to yield soon enough, that he was going to regret insisting the boy's participation, if only because he wanted to see how things would go about once Shao Long got serious. 

When Shao Long first entered the Academy in hopes of enrolling, Evan's first thought of him directed him all the way to his father. Much of Shao Long's identity to him back then had revolved around the one man named Xi Yuze. 

There were many geniuses of their generation, ranging from the fields of science to law, to art, to business. Among these people, they were much more aware of each other compared to the media celebrities and influential figures. Politicians were more known, and then composers and designers, then it shifted to the business people from all industries, and to the more reserved ones in law. These socialites, as Evan liked to call them, tend to live in their own version of the world, viewing life in their own perspective, dividing people into categories based on their intelligence, income and influence over any industry they were in. There were no judgements based on which field you came from, it had since long ago been established that no matter what you specialize in, the one that that is required for a person to be a part of this very small group of people was their intelligence. 

And by intelligence, they didn't mean straight As in any exams they took, or knowing more than three languages, or having multiple PhD in whatever field they feel the need to. It was the intelligence one needed to be able to alter the course of their entire industry, the intelligence to make history, to go beyond the charted territory and come back stronger each time. 

They didn't need to be rich. 

They just needed to be that good at what they do. 

And among all these people, competition didn't exist as much as you'd think there would. They all had their own goals, and being better than one another was the last on the list. Still there, but not the top priority.