It has been three years since I abandoned the Rose. It has been three years since I ended my five-year relationship with Minghao.
I met him in highschool, while I was fighting off some bullies with these sharp martial arts skills.
I'm watching the bullies who are grunting and crawling on the ground. That fight didn't even make me break a sweat. Then someone clapped behind me.
"You got moves. " The man said.
"Thanks."
He started attacking me out of the blue. We exchanged kicks and punches but at the end, he cornered me with a tip of his fingers on my throat. He's close to me so I can smell his perfume, it's a mild floral, maybe lavender, scent. It's soothing.
"Oh, so you know martial arts, too." I said.
"Yeah. In fact, I'm good at it."
We started hanging out since then. We do simple things like buying milktea during our math class or playing basketball in the gym when it's our literature class.
After almost a year of being best friends, we developed feelings for each other so we stepped it up to boyfriends.
He is my very sweet and romantic boyfriend. He writes poems and paints sceneries for me. Every now and then he picks roses from the biology projects of other class to give it to me.
Although, our relationship wasn't accepted well. They already don't like us to begin with since we stand up against bullies. They hated us even more now everytime they see us together being expressive of our feelings.
We thought these judgements would end when we go to college. We thought.
We went to the same university and they greet us happily when they learned that we're boyfriends. But behind our backs, they talk ridiculous gossips about us. They chat with us gleefully but all they wanted was to know more so they could mock us.
That's when a silly idea popped on my mind.
We were in our usual hang out place, the university roof top. All classes are done and the gates are closed. We climbed up here and appreciate the silence paired with a clear view of the night sky. We sat on the floor and he gave me my daily dose of flower. That's when I proposed this to Minghao.
"Why don't we start a fraternity?"
"Sounds good. Do you have a name?"
"Hmmm." I looked at the flower he picked from the principal's garden.
"Rose."
"Rose? Junnie." He wrapped his arm on my neck.
That's how our humble fraternity formed. We recruited more university kids who are looking for people that will accept them.
The fraternity was too much for our name, since all we do is hang around the university grounds, or chat and play some sports. Sometimes we ask for help in homeworks, or answers in their exams.
Our recruited members look up to our physical strength so much they bragged it to their peers. That's how the word spreads on how strong Minghao and I are.
This news intimidated other fraternities in our university. Different groups come to us almost every day and pick a fight.
As more and more fraternities come to us, and as more and more fraternities we beat, the more and more people wanted to join.
Members invited others and since we're very inclusive, we just let them.
Then, it was too late to notice that they were recruiting outside our university and even non-students. We're surprised to see outsiders and even adults.
On top of that, these people are garbages. They always want to start a fight with no apparent reason. We had no choice but to join just to protect our group. This is alarming, so I tried to talk to Hao in our usual peaceful place.
"Minghao."
"What?"
"I don't like this."
"I don't get it."
"Come on. You know this is so wrong."
"Jun." He held my hand "Together, we're powerful even beyond the university. They respect us. They accept us as a person and our relationship. Jun, this is the world we wanted to live in. Together, we're free."
"This is getting out of hand. We're just bunch of delinquents now that are constantly looking for a fist fight. Our people, they're not our friends anymore. I don't know them."
"See, we don't know them but they respect us."
"No, they fear us."
"Jun, where is this conversation going?"
"Let's disband the fraternity."
"What? This is our opportunity!"
"I don't like to be part of this!"
"You will just just leave then? You will abandon our people?"
"We don't know those people anymore. We need to stop this whole monstrosity!"
"We poured our efforts into this.."
"It doesn't matter anymore, just do it before we kill anybody."
Minghao hugged me and said
"Please, give this a chance. Let's reform this, try to make this a peaceful frat. Okay?"
I hugged him back and agreed. I understand why Minghao doesn't want to let go of this. The amount of respect we get now is way larger than before. This is very tempting.
But literally days after our conversation, the adults picked some fight again and this time, they have killed a person.
I was so scared. Both Minghao and I were not present in the fight but we're definitely involved in this because those people are ours. So I had to talk to Minghao again.
"I told you this bad!"
"Don't worry. We're not gonna be dragged into that."
"What do you mean? We are the Rose. We're definitely part of it!"
Minghao fell silent and scratched his nape. I held his face on my level.
"Minghao, listen. Let's leave the group."
"No. We won't. We will stay."
"We will go! Are you leaving with me or not?"
"What if I won't leave?"
I thought for a while. What can I do to make Minghao leave with me?
"Then I'll leave you, too." I said.
"..."
"Minghao, let's go."
"Then leave."
"What?!"
"Leave the group. And leave me."
"No.."
"Go. This is what you want, right?"
"Ming-"
"Stop! Just go."
He pushed me away but I pulled him closer to me and kissed his lips.
"I love you. Come back to me, okay?"
I let go of him and opened the rooftop door. I wanted to leave now but my feet won't move. I looked back, saw him standing still, face down. I thought to myself, I really love him. He's the person I want to be with for the rest of my life.
I will get him back.
"Bye for now, Xu Minghao."
I left him alone in the university rooftop with the last stalk of rose he gave me.
That was the last time I saw my ex. After college, I pursued the hobbies I'm interested in: Chinese food and gossips. I started a small food cart that I was able built as a restaurant within a year. I did that with my side business which is the information dealing.
I didn't expect that after three years, this is how I'm going to be reunited with Minghao.
I missed him so much. I wish we could just go back to what we have before.
But neither of us have no idea how to.
And currently, I have no idea how to escape the death he brings.
I ran away from Minghao who's throwing blades at me. Even before, he's way skilled than me. I never won against him in bare fights.
So what can I do? A weapon, which I have in my restaurant.
"Getting tired?" He threw three blades at the same time when I got near to the restaurant. I really don't want to break my window. It's high quality and I didn't get it cheap. But I don't have a second to open that door so I jumped to the window.
I landed inside and apologized to the glass shatters and to my wallet.
But what I saw inside MY restaurant pissed me off.
Why are my friends hanging around in here, of all times, when a hot Chinese man is trying to kill me and Joshua?
