Thread That Binds Us

Chapter-7

Yo! Still alive? Me too!😎 Serving updates to all you poor souls.😎

I really want to finish this fic as fast as possible. Who knows, I might die tomorrow and leave you people cursing after me for not closing things up with a bow on top.🙄

My country is under lockdown. Human curfew everywhere. I live alone. So, there's lotsa panic around. Me sad potato.😒

Stay alive and safe, 'kay? Eat lots of vitamins, hydrate, take every precaution. Stay indoors as much as your life allows you to be. I don't know you but I pray for you every night.❤️

Hugs and love to those who left comments and votes. That's the only reward for us amateurs.😍❤️

Off with the read, then!

See ya next week!

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Chapter-7

Zhan had no idea for how long he had been sitting there in his son's room, in the dark, staring into nothingness, spacing out. A snuffling noise from the bed pulled him out of his thoughts. Xing had kicked his blanket down in his sleep. Zhan tucked him anew and patted his chest softly, making shushing sound. After a bit of ear scratching, Xing stilled again, breathing slow and deep.

He looked at his son's innocent, sleeping face, blinking.

He was prepared for today, prepared to confront, to tell YiBo the truth, to accept the blame, to set the grounds. But turned out, he was far from that. To see this new YiBo in their old home, to hear those same old accusations from that changed, mature face, twisted up in disgust, crushed all his resolve. Turned out he still wasn't strong enough to see hate in those eyes that once used to look at him with so much love.

He hadn't always been this nervous mess of a person. He had fended off Wang YiBo's, the lover boy extraordinaire's, advances for one long year before accepting after all. But years of anxiety over his career, losing his love, getting his life turn upside down, having and raising a baby alone had wrecked havoc on his psyche. The bouts of panic attacks, meltdowns were way better than they were in those early days but they were still there, waiting for a trigger to activate.

Am I a bad parent? I did separate Xing from his other father for this long but...

But what was he to do? To say their relationship was going through a rough patch at that time would have been an understatement; they were rocky at best. Arguments, hurling insults at each other, screaming, YiBo's insistence on going official, upon Zhan's repeated rejection his boyfriend's completely baseless suspicion of an affair between Zhan and Talu- it was the worst of times. And then, he conceived Xing. It was not only unplanned but also was probably the result of an angry make up sex.

When Zhan discovered his pregnancy, the problems between YiBo and his had already reached its crescendo, so much so that the mention of a break up had been raised a couple of times by both of them.

YiBo was always the more passionate, more courageous one between them. He always wanted to make them officially out and together. While gay couples were not uncommon in their industry, settling down at the peak of one's career would have been a fatal step which Zhan could not let his boyfriend take. YiBo was 22 at the time, taking the industry by storm with his vivacious, intense persona, rapidly reaching the height of his acting career.

If news of his having a non celebrity, still struggling boyfriend with whom he had been living in for almost five years, of them having a baby out of wedlock were to get out, YiBo's career, for which he had worked so hard so long, would have been butchered overnight.