I Don't Like The World, I Only Like You

Chapter9.2: Illegal Cohabitation

009

The impression others have of Mr. F is that he is a model youth who excels in the five important areas: study, thought, occupation, discipline, and way of life. Wherever he went, he always looked impeccable and flawless; however, my fellow friends, we should always caution ourselves against being deceived by appearances! Indeed, this fellow is obstinate, stubborn, compulsively clean, fusses over minor details and is highly difficult to please.

He never ever loans his books to others, because he hates people flipping through his book flippantly without taking proper care of them; he never ever lets outsiders enter his room, and instantly locks his room the minute young children visit the home. He reared a golden retriever when he was younger. However, when he brought it out for a walk and met others who requested for his permission to pat the dog, he always refused, and would even get peeved on several occasions, demanding to know why in the world they wanted to touch his dog.

When we were studying, there was this one time our class organized a BBQ outing. The rest of us made do with disposable bowls and utensils - only he, he actually brought! his! very! own! utensils! During the outing, when someone wanted to check whether the chicken wings were fully cooked, the classmate seated next to Mr. F grabbed Mr. F's chopsticks and used the chopsticks to place a piece of chicken in his own mouth. Subsequently, Mr. F, being the annoying brat that he is, threw away his chopsticks and refused to eat anything else, causing the entire atmosphere to become rather strained.

When we started staying together, I initially thought that his fussy temperament and obsession with cleanliness would contribute to numerous conflicts between us - who would have known that not only would he refrain from fussing over minor matters, he would further allow me to slowly but gradually enter, and invade his personal space. Currently, he is able to tolerate my habit of using his cup and his chopsticks, and he is also able to put up me when I wear his T-shirts. He has even allowed me to influence him in cultivating numerous bad habits - nowadays, when we wake up in the morning, he would lay in bed with me whilst we eat our breakfast; when reading, he would lie with me on the floor or on the sofa for one entire afternoon. When standing, he no longer stands upright, and when sitting, he no longer straightens his back. When describing such a phenomenon, he chose to characterize it as follows, "the good habits that I cultivated since young are now all destroyed because of you."

I replied, saying that your personality in the past was horrendously dislikable. Conversely, you're so cute now it's unbelievable.

010

Previously, I asked Mr. F whether there was anything in which he was confident of achieving.

Subsequently, he told me that amongst the numerous things he believed in, one of them was his expectation that we would ultimately end up together.

However, what he did not expect was my decision to come to Beijing to look for him of my own accord. At that time, I didn't tell him that I had quit my job in Changsha, mainly because I felt that it would be extremely embarrassing if I suddenly ran up to him and told him that "I quit my job only because I wanted to slog it out in Beijing with you".

It was only after I arrived in Beijing and settled down when I finally decided to give him a call. He thought that I was here on a business trip, and arranged to meet me on a weekend.

I managed to locate my rental apartment from a cursory Internet search, and moved in immediately on the night I arrived in Beijing. Because of my young age, I had very little experience renting rooms from others, and never thought about checking the housing permits. Subsequently, I discovered that my 'landlord' was actually just a tenant - because of his greed for rental money, he secretly erected partitions in the house and sublet these 'rooms' without the landlord's permission. On the second day of my stay, the landlord came to check the apartment.