When the Autumn Comes | BoyxBoy

04 - Still A Loner

When the autumn comes, will you hold me tight like how you always do?

"Talk about being late, Yihan," A feminine voice rang behind him right after he closed the door of the main entrance. He looked in front, only to face a woman batting her eyelashes at him in annoyance. Running her fingers through her smooth, black luscious hair, she batted her eyelashes coated with mascara again as a small smile tugged the sides of her lips glazed with scarlet. Her iris, covered with a layer of burnt umber contact lenses, gazed at him with mixed emotions as she observed him carefully. As per usual, she wore that her favourite velvet sleeveless dress which hugged her skin tightly, showing every part of her figure ravishingly. From her attire, he deduced silently that she came from the company's meeting.

"The last time I remember you didn't tell me that you will be coming today, so why are you here, Hannah?" he asked as if her name was a poison to his tongue. The woman now walked towards him, her face retaining the same expression she had earlier as she touched his shoulder fleetingly.

"Come on, your favourite cousin is here to visit you. Can't you just show me that you're excited to see me?" She replied, but her voice was no lack of poison.

"Because I'm not. Go back to where you come from, Hannah Xu. I don't have time to entertain your nonsense." With that, their glares hardened, the atmosphere tensed uncomfortably until Yihan broke it with a light chuckle. "So, why are you here? I have History now. I can't deal with you now. Wait for me in my room if you persist to stay here."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll never stop teasing you. I love teasing you, actually. Acting as if we're rivals, but we're actually as close as Siamese twins. Right, honey?" This time, her eyes carried a genuine smile as she grabbed his hand and gave him a hug before she pulled away.

"Stop calling me 'honey'. They're already suspicious of our relationship. Our parents, the company and the teachers here. They thought that we're having an incestuous relationship, which is utter nonsense because there's no way that will ever happen. Don't add fuel to the fire, Hannah. Anyway, I have to head to the study room now. I will talk to you soon." He broke free from her grip, giving her an assuring smile before he left for the study room in the villa.

Giggling to herself, she replied anyway, even though she knew that he would not hear, "Yeah, yeah. Trust me, I'll never like you that way too."

-

When Yihan finally returned to his room after two hours, Hannah continued to take sips from her beverage, as if he had not come in at all. He removed his vest, then he sat down beside her. Pretending that I'm not here, is it? A moment later when his personal assistant knocked his door, standing still as he carried a tray of desserts and coffee, he went up to him, thanked him and received the tray from him before closing the door. Returning to his seat, he offered a piece of cake to her after he placed the tray on the small round table beside the sofa they're sitting on.

"Did the meeting not go well?" he prompted after a while.

"So-so. We were stuck on which plan to go with, but with the help of your great brother, Yiyuan, we decided to go with building our budget before we open up three new chain stores in XX town. It's not as if we don't have enough budget in hand, but according to Yiyuan, if we use up the budget to build three new chain stores, it will cause a financial problem in a long run. Whatever, most of the executives support his idea. Naturally, your dad, being the big, big boss went with his idea." With the mention of his older brother, Yihan creased his eyebrows as he took another sip of his coffee again.

He was never close with any of his family members except for Yiyuan and Hannah. The three of them were playmates since young, so they understood each other completely. Unlike Yiyuan and Hannah who attended an all boys' school and all girls' school respectively, Yihan was homeschooled due to reasons that were not known to him. So, they were the only ones he could call friends. Yiyuan was four years older than him while Hannah was two years older than him, but they had one another as company. To them, the age gap didn't matter. However, as they became older, Yiyuan grew distant from them and his mind became increasingly impenetrable as before. When Yiyuan was nineteen, he stopped talking to them altogether and focused on his studies entirely. The only time he could see his brother was in the company he had a love-hate relationship with.