Mizpah《Zhanyi version》

Chapter 6

Present time . . .

"Who are you, Zhan?"

"I am just a human with feelings, like you . . ." Zhan averted his gaze, before going further with his story, the night was long and cold.

***

Fourteen years ago . . .

He waited.

Yibo had been waiting under the mistletoe since the moment his dad had left his room, even after the clock struck twelve he kept his hope while sitting under the mistletoe, holding back an upcoming yawn of the tiring day that passed like a blur.

After all, he was still not used to celebrating Christmas without his mother he quickly shook the thought away while letting a small yawn escape, his eyes luring out of the window, searching for a silhouette through the darkness.

Unknown to Yibo, Zhan had been standing outside in the cold weather, watching Yibo through the window while having a thoughtful look, Zhan had been watching Yibo under the weird kind of branch, not sure if he should approach Yibo or not, so Zhan kept waiting and waiting.

The tower clock that struck twelve, in the end, made him decide to go in and see what Yibo had been doing under that weird branch hanging above his head like clouds.

Slowly he climbed through the window, and while he did so he saw Yibo smiling brightly, but different from normal Yibo did not move away from his place, as if he was insisting keep standing under that weird-looking branch thing with a bright red ribbon tying it together.

"Yibo?" Yibo smiled while Zhan approached him, still eyeing weirdly at the thing above his head, "Yibo, what is that weird branch you've been sitting under, right now for like three hours without moving? Did you perhaps got possessed by that thing?" Even though Zhan was around the same age of Yibo, he learned less than Yibo because Zhan couldn't attend school, above all, there did not exist something like a ghost school while Yibo heard the story of mistletoe with Christmas from friends and wanted to try it out.

Yibo's eyes bulged out at Zhan's words, trying to suppress a burst of laughter from escaping, inside his heart Yibo acknowledged he was younger yet understood more things than Zhan, but he did not expect the older not to know what a mistletoe was, after all, Yibo learned it from a young age when his deceased mom told him it was the way she fell in love with his dad.

Zhan cocked an eyebrow at Yibo, slowly coming closer while Yibo tried to hide his blushing face behind his hands, "Yibo? Are you sure you're okay?" Yibo nodded while not looking at Zhan, actually not daring to look at the other, not knowing if he should reveal to Zhan what the meaning was of mistletoe, but if Yibo wouldn't explain and wouldn't get a kiss from Zhan, it would mean bad luck like his mother once told him, right?

"U-Uhm . . . So . . . A-Actually . . ." Yibo's voice trailed off while he slowly let his hands go down, not able to hide the growing redness on his face anymore, and Zhan slowly sat down on the opposite chair of him, his eyes still fixated on Yibo with curiosity burning inside them.

"S-So, when my mother was younger like in middle school she had a Christmas party once a year, and uhm . . . My mom went there that day all alone because she hadn't had a boyfriend or anyone my mom particularly liked, so she went there dressed elegantly, and while my mom watched everyone including her closest friends dancing, and without her own realization she stood under a mistletoe, or actually the only mistletoe on the party. And my dad was standing next to her and ended up giving her a small peck on the cheek, that's how they end up falling in love . . ." Yibo scratched his nape awkwardly while trying to avert Zhan's burning gaze that was fixated on him like a perfume you couldn't wash away no matter how hard you try.

"Okay, so you actually planned this whole thing for me to kiss you, but in the end, you failed because you thought I didn't know what a mistletoe was?" Yibo nodded at Zhan's summary before looking into Zhan's eyes with question marks in his eyes.

"What do you mean by I thought you didn't know what a mistletoe was? You didn't know it . . . Right?" Zhan chuckled, and Yibo speechlessly stared at him, at a loss of words.

"Yibo, lion baby, did you really thought I would be that stupid to not even know what mistletoe is? I just wanted to know to which extinct you would go to explain this al," Zhan laughed again, and it was a fresh and soft sound, like the autumn breeze touching your face, Zhan looked so beautiful while laughing.

Before Yibo even got the chance to answer Zhan's sudden secret he felt something soft landing on his lips, Yibo closed his eyes, it was Zhan's lips, and they collided softly, one second felt like one century, and before Yibo was able to drown into the sweetness of the endless kiss, the source of warmth was gone.

Yibo opened his eyes again, blinking a few times to let himself adjust to the darkness, and he saw how Zhan smiled while a strand of hair fell in front of his eyes, and before Yibo proceeded what happened, he already took the bit of hair and put it behind Zhan's ear while leaning so close that Yibo was sure Zhan heard him breathing next to his ear.

Though Zhan knew he wasn't able to blush anymore, he still felt that unexplainable source of happiness blooming inside him, as if thousands of butterflies were flying through his stomach and tickling him, and Zhan wasn't able to do anything more than just smile idiotically.

After all, both of the youthful boys knew thousands of reasons to not smile, but they still ended up to think of a million reasons to why to just smile, and so they did.

Yibo took Zhan's like always cold hand into his and dragged Zhan to lay next to him, he placed his head on Zhan's shoulder while pulling his blanket higher, yet sharing it with Zhan at the same time.

This time Yibo did not withhold the yawn that came, and when Zhan saw his beloved one yawning, he placed his hand over Yibo's and with a soft blow the small flame of the candle went off, and so did the streets became deserted with no lights visible anymore . . .

Before Yibo fell asleep, which happened quite quickly because he was tired of the long day that had passed, he carefully whispered four soft words that Zhan would whisper back, but only when he was sure Yibo fell asleep on his shoulder, "I love you, Zhan . . ."

"I love you too my dearest beloved lion baby Yibo . . ."

And the silence engulfed them into a storm of darkness . . .

Word count: 1160 words