Love in Hell

The end (sort of)

Lhong wouldn't say that he was psych but when it came to Tharn, he did have a sense that rarely was wrong so when he guessed that the freshman from the orientation would be a problem, he should have trusted his instinct instead of getting complacent. If he had then he could have taken care of the brat before he started showing up in front of Tharn with the sweet, eager-to-please smile that reminded him too much of Tar. Even worse, Tharn seemed to be weak against the brat because instead of sending him away or discouraging him, Tharn happily believed all his lies about having questions and being eager to 'start classes.'

'No one is eager to start school,' Lhong thought with a scoff as he glared at the kid that had all of Tharn's attention while they went over the campus map.

"This is where you would have your intro classes," the older man explained with a soft and sweet smile that Lhong hadn't seen in a long time.

His pencil snapped in his hand and he almost groaned but he couldn't make Tharn suspect anything. Lhong has worked for years within the shadows, clearing bad influence or dead weight from Tharn's life; he got rid of King who thought he was Tharn's best friend and wanted to separate them, he got rid of all those kids that wanted to make Tharn believe that they were true friends when Tharn lost everything, 'I mean if they were true friends, they wouldn't have left so easily. I tested them and they failed, it was the best for Tharn.' He scared every liar and cheater that wanted a relationship with Tharn for superficial reasons.

'They weren't good enough for him anyways,' Lhong thought. Then there was Tar, who had been his greatest challenge, 'the little bastard dared to reject my offers to leave Tharn alone so I had to do it the hard way.' It didn't work out as he expected but still, it got the job done. Now this brat was coming here and trying to undo all the work that Lhong had done to make Tharn realize that he was and would always be the only one that truly loved him. He sneered at the snacks the kid brought, 'how cliche,' it was clear that the kid wasn't really good at seducing someone of Tharn's caliber.

"I might have added too much sugar," the young boy declared sheepishly.

"You made this?" Tharn asked surprised as he stared at the chocolate.

"I noticed that you seem to really like chocolate, I just wasn't sure if you liked it really sweet or bitter."

"Who likes bitter chocolate," Tharn pursed his face in disgust.

"I know!" the kid exclaimed with far too much excitement in Lhong's opinion, "chocolate is a candy, it's meant to be eaten sweet."

Lhong felt his eyes twitch as Tharn's eyes almost shined as if the kid really understood him or knew him and wasn't just playing a schtick. This was the reason Lhong had to watch out for him because Tharn was so easily fooled by people with bad intentions. "Wow, they're delicious," the man exclaimed with eager eyes.

'I have to get rid of him now.' They had two months before the year ended. Right now, the kid only came sometimes because of school but once school was out there was nothing to stop them from dating.

The snacks weren't the only things the kid brought, unlike Tharn's other admirers, the kid upped his game by bringing little gifts. The most basic were flowers which Lhong scoffed at until Tharn became misty eyed, "no one has ever given me flowers before." If Lhong knew how much the man liked them, he would have bought Tharn flowers everyday.

"That's a shame because P'Tharn is amazing, you deserve flowers every day," the kid declared eagerly and to Lhong's shock, Tharn actually seemed to blush at this.

'I can buy him a whole fucking flower garden!'

Then there were the drumsticks that were actually good quality; at first, Tharn insisted that he couldn't take them but the brat got teary eyes and expertly manipulated the older man. It happened for weeks and Lhong was ready to take care of the kid the way he did Tar, he still had the numbers of the guys that did the last job. 'They were left unsatisfied so I'm sure they would be more than happy to get another shot with a similar young twink.'