1438 | YiZhan

Chapter 1

The clacking sound of dishes and the noise of water running  filled the silent kitchen. With a sigh he spoke, "Still staying late for work?" Xiao Zhan asked and looked at his husband who is currently writing down on his notebook.

With out looking up, he replied, "Yes, I still need to finish a lot of things."

Xiao Zhan held tightly on the plate he's currently washing and heaved another sigh. "What time will you possibly arrive?"

"Around 10?"

"Can't you go home sooner?" He whispered but Wang Yibo heard him. "Zhan, we've already talked about this," the man said and frowned.

Xiao Zhan finished washing the dishes and wiped his hand with a clean cloth. "I know, Yibo. You're just barely here in this house," he retorted and crossed his arms.

"I'm working for both of us, Zhan," Wang Yibo said with a hint of anger in his tone. He stood up from his chair and looked at his husband.

"I can work in the city too if you'd let me," Xiao Zhan said rather loudly as he clenched his fists. "Zhan, you know how tiring it is to work in the urban place. You'll get tired."

"You think I can't do it?" Now Xiao Zhan is truly angry and crossed his arms. "You know that's not it-"

"No! I'm so alone here, okay?" He complained. Wang Yibo sighed and took his notebook from the table. "Where are you going? We're not through with this talk yet-"

"Zhan, give me a fucking break," Yibo cuts him off and shouted. He didn't wait for his husband to say anything else, he went out and immediately left the house.

Xiao Zhan is once again left in a big empty house. He couldn't do anything. He really couldn't do anything. His chest felt tight and his heart hurts. He wanted to cry but he tells himself it's not worth it. They've been married for 8 years and it seems that things aren't looking too well. Everyday, they seemed to fight and argue a lot. Xiao Zhan doesn't want to cry anymore, it will just tire him out.

With a sigh of defeat, he went upstairs to his studio.

Staring at the blank canvas, he really doesn't have a motivation to paint the commission he's tasked to do. Should he just entertain himself with Netflix? Scroll through Weibo? Bake something?

Then something clicked in his mind. The origami cranes! Xiao Zhan quickly stood up from his stool and went to the attic.

With a smile, he took out a large box and dusted it off. "How could I forget about this?" He said to himself as he carried the box to the living room.

He took a duster and cleaned in properly, brushing of the dust, he coughed a little.

After cleaning the wooden box, he opened it slowly and his lips turned upward. "Finally, something to keep me busy," he whispered to himself and looks at the hundreds of folded paper cranes inside. He saw a small note on the cover of the box saying, Reach 1000! Current number of cranes: 689.

Xiao Zhan felt nostalgic. When they were still dating back then, they would make at least 20 paper cranes. You're wondering why 1000 paper cranes? Because they say when you make 1000 of them, you can make a wish and it will come true. Sadly, they never got to finish it. Life became busy and they never got the chance to fold origamis again.

There were still a lot of papers wrapped in a pack inside the box. Xiao Zhan took at least 10 and tried to remember how to fold a crane.

After ten minutes of trying, he did it and he actually felt proud of himself. "Hey Yibo! I..." letting the words die down, he stops speaking immediately, he realized that he's alone. No Wang Yibo in sight.

"Who am I kidding? What would he say if I keep folding these papers? What am I, a kid?" Xiao Zhan whispered to himself. Returning the new folded paper crane in the box, he closes it.

Xiao Zhan paced around the big living room. He stared at the box for a good minute and kept thinking. Not a second later, "Aish, who cares about what he says? I'm finishing these paper cranes!"

And so, Xiao Zhan did. That's what he was doing for the whole day as he sang a tune while folding the origami papers.

Night eventually came and Xiao Zhan didn't get to 1000, he just folded up to 803. But that's already okay, for him to do this alone, he's quite fast. With new wounds and paper cuts on his white creamy hands, he whinced at the pain.

Xiao Zhan stood up from the couch and went to the bathroom to wash his hands and put some band aids on his hands. He looked at himself at the mirror and it was obvious he has dark circles under his eyes. With a sigh, he took the first aid kit on the top cabinet.

After fixing himself, he went back to the living room and fixed the mess he made. He hides the box on the lowest part of the bookshelf, along with some other boxes.

Xiao Zhan proceeded to the kitchen, "What to cook?" He whispers to himself. Basically, Wang Yibo would eat anything he makes. He laughed at the thought. Wang Yibo isn't a picky person, he's contented in what he has but this time, when they got married, he wanted to make Xiao Zhan the happiest person ever. That's what he said.

By working hard and buying a large house and always working non-stop. Xiao Zhan was already contented with a small house as long as he can stay with Yibo and be with him for a long time. But things didn't work out that way. Sometimes, even Xiao Zhan felt guilty on making Wang Yibo work.

His husband doesn't want him to be tired when he works because Xiao Zhan doesn't sleep when he's working on something he wants to finish. The reason why he never liked to be alone is that because of the silence. The quiteness of the whole house is making him feel uncomfortable and it makes him even feel more alone.

The obviousness of being the only one in the house suffocates him. Xiao Zhan is a cheerful and talkative person, silence is his worst enemy.

It was already 7 in the evening after he finished cooking, there's no point in waiting for his husband to arrive, so he left some food for him to eat and wrote a small note on top, saying, Eat this dinner that I've made. You've worked hard. :)

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Sorry for the typos! Please do tell if I made errors!