Water and Fire (BL)

Chapter 47: The Moral Persecution Continues

Chapter 47: The Moral Persecution Continues

The following weeks were like purgatory for Eric. Never had he felt extreme loneliness when he said goodbye to David to go home, barely a day in his stay at David's house.

Eric had decided to leave then, as it clearly became awkward for him to stay there, since there were all the maids there, his mother who always side-eyed him, as well as David's father who also side-eyed him. And of course there was that loud Chinese girl who's always glued to David. Eric also noticed that David became awkward the moment that girl arrived. It's like he lost the fire in his eyes.

For David, on the other hand, the following weeks were like a living hell. Not only did Xiaoge's voice drills into his mind in his waking life, he's also hearing her voice in his sleep, like a nightmare. Heck, he was even pretty sure that he saw her in his sleep paralysis one random midnight.

David felt pained to watch Eric leave his house. It was like all his good (and naughty) plans had all crumbled to dust by the time Xiaoge arrived. He had been planning to bond more with Eric. Now they won't get to do it because Xiaoge interfered.

He also hated his father for lying to him and saying he had a business meeting to attend to. Business meeting, my ass!

Xiaoge's coming to the country must have been his cunning father's plan all along. Or maybe his mother's too.

David never felt lethargic hanging out with Xiaoge. The girl's just too much to handle. One day they celebrated autumn festival together at an amusement park and the damned girl made them ride thirteen gut-wrenching rides in total. After riding all of it David puked all that he's eaten on the pavement. And the girl had the nerve to be shocked about it. David was dumbfounded at how that girl didn't puke after all those rides. Maybe she really was an evilspawn herself.

They also ate moon cakes together, much to David's chagrin, because he wanted to do it with Eric. He had planned to celebrate autumn festival with Eric. He had planned to introduce him to Chinese cultural stuff. But now all those plans had turned to dust.

Eric, on the other hand, also experienced terrible things during the remaining weeks of semestral break. His mother Marilyn became more intent on having him attend numerous church mass in the morning with her.

So during the remaining weeks of semestral break, the face that Eric became familiar with was that local priest's unsettling face. As days went by it seemed like the priest's voice became a resident in Eric's mind, as well as that of Jesus, reminding him how much of a sinner he was.

And in all those fucking church mass that they attended, all of the damned sermons tackled about homosexuality. Not once did that priest talk about anything else except homosexuality.

That homosexuality is a mortal sin, a sin against flesh itself that God had created sacred and should be cherished, etcetera.

One day, the priest even had a question and answer portion in the sermon, where he would get to ask a volunteer about something related to the sermon, and the volunteer would answer the question. It typically involved easy questions, just simple ones that usually involved a yes or no answer, and usually were easy and required minimal thinking.

And this priest, of course, he gotta call Eric to stand up in front of the crowd as the volunteer. He asked him, "Tell me child, although homosexuality, in this day and age, is becoming normal, do you think that God approve of it?"

And Eric, poor Eric, his knees were shaking at that very moment, his vision hazy amidst the penetrating eyes of the crowd who all seemed to judge him right there and then—especially his mother's eyes which eyed him like he's not supposed to say anything wrong.