831 - I Love You

20. I Got You

I arrived at the playground in a record time. Jumping off the bike, I rushed to my poor angel who was sitting on the swing, his head ducked down and his hands were tight around his knees. Although there was only a dim light provided by the street light, I could see his lonely figure was shaking so bad.

Quickly, I wrapped the scarf around his neck, zipped his coat and started to rub his frozen hands with mine. Ghost didn't say anything, he just looked at me with blank eyes. Looking at his blood-shot eyes, I knew he cried a lot, but now there was no tear in his eyes, maybe he shed them all before I came.

"Ghost, it is so cold, shall we go back home?" I asked softly, trying not to cry to his pitiful state.

My voice broke the trance he was in, his eyes regained their focus as he nodded slowly. I pulled him up but sitting in the cold for so long, his body was so stiff that he couldn't find his balance and fell towards me. I secured him in my arms and whispered "I got you" to his ear before directing him to my bike.

Arriving back to the rooftop, I took Ghost to his own room as my room was a bit too cheerful for his mood with all those balloons and lights. I helped him to get rid of the coat and the scarf, and pushed him towards the bathroom.

"Ghost, take a bath, it will help you to get warm," I said concerningly.

He weakly shook his head in negative, then slumped onto the sofa. He must have been exhausted after whatever he had to go through in his uncle's house. Damn!

Sighing heavily, I grabbed his quilt from the bed and covered him with it, then I sat next to him, my arm around his shoulders. I didn't say anything, I just offered my presence and hoped it was soothing him.

"What did I do to deserve it?" His low voice echoed in the silent room.

I gently put my fingers under his chin and turned his head towards me. The sadness in his eyes pierced through my heart.

"You're the purest creature in this world, so there is no way you deserve to be sad," I said while wiping a stray tear from his cold cheek.

"I am so stupid," he blinked a few times to fight back his tears.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked hesitantly.

He thought for a second, then he said "he called me home because he wanted me to teach his son math before his exam tomorrow."

"What?! Son of a b*tch!" The words left my mouth before I noticed.

He smiled bitterly, "he is always like that, it was my stupidity to think they would celebrate my birthday as they never did." He lowered his gaze to the floor, "as if someone would ever love me," he mumbled but I heard it.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him up to his feet harshly, then dragged him to my room.

"Does it look like nobody loves you?" I asked with a hint of disappointment in my tone while showing the decoration in my room.

He looked around with wide open eyes, under the blink blink lights, he looked like an amazed child.

"Did you prepare these for me?" He asked with astonishment.

A few balloons and blinking lights... They were enough to make him happy, how heartbreaking... My poor angel was deprived of even small gestures...

All my disappointment was replaced with sadness, but I had to hide it from him. It was supposed to be a birthday celebration, not a crying session!

I smiled widely while holding his still cold hands, "of course they are for you as you are the birthday boy." I gestured to him to sit down, " now close your eyes."

He obediently did what I told, then I took out the cake from the fridge and lit the candle.

"Happy birthday to you," I started to sing the old cliche birthday song while placing the cake in front of him.

He opened his eyes and seeing the cake, tears started to trickle down again. I reached him and dried the tears while teasing him "Ghost, how much tears you have! Such a crybaby, crying over a cake!"

Thank God, he smiled. He quickly cleared his face off the stains of tears with the back of his hand, "I get emotional whenever I see a cake," he joined the teasing.

We both chuckled and finally the atmosphere in the room wasn't that gloomy anymore.

"Have a wish so that we can finally eat," I said with a smirk.

He closed his eyes for a second then blew the candle while I was clapping. As it was our first birthday celebration together, I insisted on taking a few pictures. Ghost was shy but he posed anyway and I immortalised the moment.

After the cake, I gave him a small box, "I should have given this to you in the morning," I said apologetically.

He frowned as he didn't understand what I meant. He opened the box and took the white beaded bracelet. "What's this for?" He asked, checking the bracelet.

"I got it from the temple, it will bring you good luck and protection," I got the bracelet from his hand and put it onto his wrist.

"Thank you so much," he said with a cute smile, "but auntie already handled the protection."

"What do you mean?"

He was silent for a while, then he decided to tell me, "when I left my uncle's house, I was very sad so I decided to go to the playground."

"Why?" I couldn't help but intervene.

He looked at me tentatively, "cause you said that it was my safe zone, didn't you?"

I nodded but I wasn't convinced, "why didn't you call me?" I asked, feeling still bitter about the fact that he chose not to call me for help.

He averted his eyes, "I was embarrassed..." he whispered.

"Why?" I asked again. I think it was my favourite question for the night.

"Because I was stupid of me to go there with expectation. Although you never saw them, you knew something was amiss, but I chose to ignore your reaction. At the end, you were right and I didn't want you to think I am that dumb. Therefore, I went to the playground and I asked your mom for some compassion and protection. Then you called me," he told everything in his mind while rubbing the beads of the bracelet I gifted to him.

I was dumbfounded so I couldn't find my words for a while, rather I just looked at him intently. "I would never think something bad about you," I said at the end, "why do you never trust me?"

So all of my efforts were in vain, ha? Not even one step I made my way to his heart...

He grabbed my hands, "not that I don't trust you, I just..."

"You just what?" I asked impatiently.

"I just don't understand why you are so good to me, even when my family hates me."

Suddenly I leaned towards him and brushed our lips in a quick peck, then I pulled myself a little back to see his expression. He seemed to be in a daze, eyes wide open and blank, he was like a bunny seeing a headlight. He was extremely cute so I couldn't resist but smash my lips to his again. For a second, he was frozen but then I felt his clumsy response, and my heart exploded with happiness.