In Between Us || Zhanyi

|| 32 ||

Not always the other person is bad when we get treated badly. A person could be anything on his individual level....gentle, soft, rude, cheater, playboy or playgirl, abusive, possessive or maybe even psycho.

But in most cases, we got hurt or treated badly not because how the person is but because how WE ALLOWED the person to treat us? Where we set our own limits to endure or sacrifice for the mentioned person?

Even if he/she is gentle by nature, if our own limits and boundaries are not clear, the partner of such people can get hurt. As well when we are with a person entitled to be playboy or arrogant or possessive, if we have our limits set from the beginning, we will never be treated badly for sure.

I again repeat people can not be changed by you or me, they change on their own when they feel the need. Now if the need is temporary then the change is also temporary, if the need is for lifetime, then the change is also for lifetime.

That is why, don't be a open book or a person without boundary at the beginning. Set strict boundary......grow together, discover together and unfold the boundary one after another, keep the freshness of a relationship alive, keep the fire ignited.

A person loves you for real will respect your boundaries without manipulating them, without using them as a tool to blackmail you........but again,

How easy it is for anyone to set boundaries and maintain it while dealing with people who mattered, who are dear, who are special.....the line is thin and tend to blur, urging you and me sacrifice ourself for the sake of the relationship.

Will you sacrifice?

******

The cabin of the administrative head, Sean Xiao Zhan stood silent as ever from the outside, its thick walls swallowing every whisper, every breath, every sound of life within. But beyond that deceptive quiet, the air inside crackled with tension, sorrow, and a despair so palpable it could suffocate. The heavy door separated the world from the raw, heartbreaking sobs of a fragile soul—cries that no one outside would ever hear, would ever discover.

A few minutes earlier...

"No!!!!", Yibo's scream tore through the room, sharp and desperate. But was it really meant for Zhan only? Was it only to stop Zhan?

Yibo had only screamed once—an instinctive, desperate sound which wasn't actually meant for Zhan but for himself. It was a scream of conflict, of a soul torn between the awareness to fight and the fear of being left behind.

On the surface it seemed only Zhan's wrath was the cause but in depth—The scream was for Yibo's himself, an echo of his inner turmoil. It was as if he was begging his own mind to silence the warring voices inside him, each pulling him in opposite directions.

'What have you done?' it whispered. 'You pushed him??? What if he leaves you now? What if he also abandons you?'

On one side, the voice of his independence self made him aware about the changes in situation, it urged him to push back, to reclaim his dignity, it rationalized that Zhan was not this kind of a person, it forced Yibo to trust Zhan to understand him, it tried to make Yibo believe that his one, only one resist can make Zhan see the wrong side.....who screamed inside his mind, 'Yibo!!!! Don't worry!!! Speak up! Stand your ground! Zhan will understand you'.....it cried, fierce and relentless.