LBOT- chapter 74

The excitement of the date momentarily faded as Wang Yibo’s car was heading to an increasingly strange place since a while ago.

He drove out of the center of Beijing and entered a place commonly known as a slum, but later the road had become narrower until they had to stop and get out in the middle.

Xiao Zhan, who got out of the car stopped when he found a small hole-in-the-wall shop in front of the neighborhood.

In front of the dilapidated hole-in-the-wall store, a stooped, gray-haired old lady was sitting on a bench peeling garlic. The old lady raised her head at the visit of strangers.

Seeing the large mole next to her eye, Xiao Zhan flinched back.

“Do you need anything?”

Her hearing seemed to be not so good, so her voice was loud.

Xiao Zhan’s memory quickly flashed to the past. At that time, hunger was an everyday thing, and he often visited the store to steal bread because he couldn’t bear the hunger.

He would get caught and beaten, but the aunt of a particularly generous store owner covered Xiao Zhan and secretly gave him bread or milk. And she also had a big mole next to her eye.

As Xiao Zhan stepped back, he felt a warm hand on his back. The hand then came up to rest on his shoulder.

Xiao Zhan turned around and faced Wang Yibo.

“This is…”

“You remember?”

“How did you know?”

“There are many ways to know.”

Xiao Zhan was speechless. He looked around the neighborhood once more.

The stairs he climbed up and down while delivering drugs as a child, and the spaces where he hid from his parents’ beatings, were still the same.

Xiao Zhan wasn’t ready to climb up and just stood there, but Wang Yibo extended his hand.

“Do you want to go see the house you used to live in?”

“…”

“Tell me if you feel uncomfortable. We can go back.”

Xiao Zhan was silent. After leaving China, he never wanted to set foot here again. But as he began to settle down, he became curious sometimes. How would that place have changed? Will the house he lived in still exist?

He could find it if he tried, but he couldn’t bring himself to look for it. But now that he has come here, it wasn’t as scary as he had thought.

While he was lost in thought, Wang Yibo went into the store and came out with two ice creams.

The man’s muffled voice was from inside as he swiped his card.

He peeled off the wrapper and handed one to Xiao Zhan.

Xiao Zhan absent-mindedly took it, and Yibo was already taking a bite of his strawberry ice cream.

The scene where Wang Yibo eats 1,000 won ice cream was as unfamiliar as Kim Joon’s thick hair. He spoke to him affectionately with strawberry-flavored ice cream in his mouth.

“Do you want to go up?”

He extended his hand, and Xiao Zhan looked at it blankly before stepping away. Wang Yibo trailed behind him and held his hand.

It seemed strange for two big men to go up the hill holding hands, so Xiao Zhan kept pulling away, but they eventually made it up the hill while holding hands.

There was graffiti on both sides of the alley with red paint spars, and there were old people sitting and relaxing along the way.

As they continued up the steep hill, Wang Yibo seemed to get hotter and took off his jacket, draping it over his arm.

The stairs where the man fell to his death and the house where old Kim lived were all still there.

Xiao Zhan’s heart tightened as more old memories surfaced in his mind. Whether it was because of strength or for some other reason, his step became heavier and heavier.

The closer he got to the house, the tighter his breath became, and he couldn’t take any more steps. Because his hands were sweaty, he let go of them and rubbed them on his pants several times.

“Shall we go back?”

Xiao Zhan shook his head quietly in response to Yibo’s question. Still, since he had come this far, he was curious.

Xiao Zhan took a long, deep breath in front of the tightly closed blue iron door. He felt like he was going to be grabbed by the hair and stomped in the face the moment he opened it.

He felt like his dead mother was going to scream at him with her demonic face and tear at his body with her ghostly nails.

It seemed that his terrifying father was going to hit him with a golf stick in a fit of rage. He couldn’t bear to take a step, and just barely put his hand on the door.

It felt chillingly cold.

As he slowly opened the door with a creaking sound, Xiao Zhan stopped in his tracks.

The front yard of the house was full of flowers. It was obvious that someone had put a lot of effort into taking care of it. The whole house was clean and had a cozy feeling to it.

Xiao Zhan grabbed Yibo’s arm and pulled him.

“Let’s go… someone must be living here.”

Wang Yibo pretended not to hear and went to sit on the porch, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it before patting the seat next to him and motioning for Xiao Zhan to sit.

Xiao Zhan looked around and cautiously stepped inside.

“There must be someone living here.”

“No, there isn’t.”

No matter how you look at it, it’s obvious that someone lives here. It wouldn’t be this clean otherwise.

Xiao Zhan couldn’t even imagine that this was the house he lived in. Come to think of it, there were red roses climbing all over the walls.

Wang Yibo approached him and placed a cigarette in his mouth as Zhan carefully sat down on the floor.

He then walked up to the floor in his shoes and lay down on Xiao Zhan’s thigh.

“Oh, it’s comfortable.”

Xiao Zhan exhaled a long puff of cigarette smoke and looked around the house. The house had changed so drastically that he wondered if it was really his house. It was at the top of the hill, so sitting in the shade was quite pleasant.

The wind blew and cooled the sweat on his forehead, making him feel alive.

Xiao Zhan, who was looking around the yard looked back. He saw a tightly closed door. Still inside, it seemed that his mother was having affairs with strangers.

After staring blankly, he lowered his gaze and looked at Wang Yibo, who had closed his eyes and barely moves.

“Are you asleep?”

“No.”

“This… how did you find this place?”

Wang Yibo opened his eyes. Xiao Zhan’s face was reflected in his languid eyes.

“I found out by accident when I was looking for you after you ran away last year.”

Last year… Looking at the pretty flowers on the flower bed and the wall, Xiao Zhan felt suspicious if Yibo had done it.

Wang Yibo sat up and made eye contact with Xiao Zhan with a slightly serious expression.

“It’s been empty for a long time, and it’s covered in dust. They say it’s haunted, so no one has lived in it or touched it.”

“…”

“I was curious about how you looked when you were young.”

Wang Yibo stopped talking and remembered that time. Messy household items, adult products, and a small amount of drugs scattered around the room, empty bottles of alcohol, and gambling cards.

“I wondered if I had come to the wrong place because there were no traces or things of raising a child.”

Xiao Zhan bit his lower lip. There couldn’t be anything like that in the first place.

“For fuck’s sake, if they had given birth to you, they should have taken at least one photo. Don’t you think?”

The only children’s clothes Yibo could find were a few rags. They weren’t worn out over time, but they were just that way from the beginning. There were no toys, notebooks, or writing utensils to be found at all.

Wang Yibo gnashed his teeth with hatred in his eyes.

Xiao Zhan’s nose turned sour as he watched Yibo take his side.

When Xiao Zhan tried to brush it off, telling himself that it was all in the past, Yibo stood up and walked over to the flowerbed.

He drew a cigarette and smoked it, so Xiao Zhan thought he was doing so to relax, but Yibo went into the flower bed and broke off the flowers blooming here and there one by one.

Xiao Zhan frowned.

“Why are you picking the perfectly good flowers?”

Wang Yibo pretended not to hear and kept bending and carrying it slowly across the yard.

Wearing loose clothing, smoking a cigarette, and holding a randomly picked flower, it reminds Xiao Zhan of a villain character from a certain movie.

It felt like he was about to pull a gun out of his pocket and shoot. Instead of a gun, he held out a flower.

When Xiao Zhan remained motionless, Wang Yibo stubbed out his cigarette on the ground and smiled brightly.

“Consolation to you who grew up without being loved as a child.”

Ah, why was this man like this? Xiao Zhan took a deep breath, and that’s when he smell it.

The smell of alcohol. The smell of heavy cosmetics. The smell of cigarettes. The smell of fishy semen. The smell of blood. The voices of his parents screaming that they should never have had a child like him.

Xiao Zhan kept his eyes fixed on the ground and couldn’t lift his head. His nose was sore and his eyes were hot.

“Babe. Can you take it before my arm falls?”

At his joke, Xiao Zhan raised his head.

Instead of his abusive parents, there was a handsome man holding out a flower with a charming smile. The scent of flowers was so strong that it made his head dizzy.

Wang Yibo took out his cell phone and sat right next to him.

Wang Yibo turned the camera on without saying a word. It was awkward to see himself on the camera sitting side by side with Wang Yibo.

“What are you doing?”

“Taking a picture.”

Xiao Zhan snapped out of his daze. He tried to run away because he didn’t like it, but he was caught and forced to take a picture.

Xiao Zhan’s expression in the photo was unnatural. Wang Yibo looked at it disapprovingly.

“Fuck. It came out as if I was the only one who liked it.”

Xiao Zhan laughed unconsciously at the childlike complaint.

Wang Yibo looked at Zhan’s smiling face, then pulled the back of his head and swallowed his lips. His tongue slipped into the open mouth and slid across the sticky coating, then fell off.

After that, Yibo hugged him tightly and stroked his back and head with his big hand.

“Thank you for growing up well.”

Xiao Zhan’s throat tightened. It was the kind of thing you usually only hear from your parents.

Xiao Zhan buried his eyes in Wang Yibo’s shoulder. He felt like he was going to burst into tears.

“From now on, I will give you all the love you need.”

It was nice to hear the softly whispered confession.

If it wasn’t for that last word, it would have been more memorable.

“If you get it from someone other than me…”

Wang Yibo stopped talking and Xiao Zhan held his breath.

“Then we’ll be buried together in this flower garden, do you understand?”

Xiao Zhan raised his head and frowned, Yibo pressed Zhan’s head back down to rest against his shoulder and patted him on the back to soothe him.

“Good boy, it’s okay.”

Unlike his frightening words, his voice was as affectionate as ever.

Whether it was a confession or a threat, Xiao Zhan can’t tell.

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