Zhan reached the living room door and opened it slowly, looking at who was standing at the doorstep. He lowered his eyes, moved aside, and stood there.
Expressionless, A-Bo looked at him and said, "Why did you call my phone crying like I sent you? Why didn't you call I-Bo and cry to him instead of me?"
Zhan lifted his reddened eyes and looked at him. He felt tears fill his eyes again and bowed his head. After a few seconds, he lifted his head and looked at A-Bo, who was still staring at him. With difficulty, he said, "If you know him, please talk to him to delete my pictures off his phone. Even Aunt Fin sent me the picture. And honestly, I don't know him."
A-Bo said, "You don't know him, yet you stood next to him baring your teeth and took a picture?"
Zhan burst into tears, turned quickly, and left, going back into the living room, lying on the chair, and crying loudly.
Surprised and annoyed, A-Bo couldn't say anything; he just watched him. He hated unnecessary crying in his life. He also noticed that Zhan did nothing but cry useless tears ever since he met him. How was I-Bo coping with interacting with him like this? He didn't have that kind of patience.
He entered the living room and locked the door. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket because he was already cold from the short time he had stood outside.
He went to where Zhan was lying and crying, frowned, and said, "Don't you dare call my line again crying. I didn't send you to follow your silly friend to a party where you took a picture with another man. Stop stressing me with your troubles, please. I am not I-Bo."
Zhan stopped crying, glaring at him, and frowned, saying, "We didn't go to a party. It was a get-together. Stop calling it a party."
A-Bo glared back.
Zhan turned his head away, wiping his eyes. A-Bo looked at the living room heater, then went and turned it on. Zhan followed him with his gaze as A-Bo went to the living room window, opened the drape, and looked at the snow falling heavily outside. He was just imagining how he had managed to get here in this snowstorm.
Zhan slowly stood up and made his way upstairs. A-Bo turned and watched him go.
:
:
Around eight-thirty, Zhan came out of his room and peeked downstairs from the corridor where he was standing. He saw that A-Bo was still sitting in the living room, leaning his head against the chair, his eyes closed.
Zhan thought he had left. After a few minutes, he came downstairs, looking at him. A-Bo still hadn't opened his eyes. Zhan walked slowly to the window, looked outside, and saw that it was still snowing. He came back to the living room and went to the kitchen. After a while, he came out with two cups of tea and went to where A-Bo was sitting, stopping and looking at him.
Quietly, he said, "Here's tea."
A-Bo opened his eyes, then adjusted his sitting position and said, "Did I asked for one?"
Zhan gave him a look, then said, "Well, I saw that you looked cold since you couldn't leave."
A-Bo looked at him and said, "I will pour the tea in your mouth if you don't get out of my face. Didn't you bring me out in the cold? Do you think if I-Bo were here, I would listen to you? He's the unfortunate one."
Zhan said, "I didn't bring you out in the cold. I didn't tell you to come....I just called you to ask you to tell that man to remove my picture from Instagram. But I didn't tell you to come."
A-Bo just stared at him. At this point, he seemed lost for words. Zhan turned and went back to the kitchen, put down one cup, came out, and went upstairs holding his own cup of tea. A-Bo still followed him with his gaze without blinking.
Zhan finished drinking his tea, lay down, covered himself with the duvet, and closed his eyes, hoping he wouldn't have another nightmare that would terrify him like before. Suddenly, as if remembering something, he slowly opened his eyes. He reached for his phone and checked whether his housemate had returned his call without him knowing. But he saw that he hadn't returned the call. He put the phone down, then picked it up again slowly, turned on his data, and logged into WhatsApp.
Since the call I-Bo had made to him in the morning that he didn't answer, he hadn't said anything to him on WhatsApp. And he had uploaded a status not long ago. Zhan lowered his eyes, turned off his data, put his phone down, and adjusted his lying position.
Immediately, his mood changed. No matter how much he wanted to sleep, he couldn't. He kept tossing and turning until nearly eleven at night. Finally, he sat up, removed the duvet from his body, put on his jacket, and slowly opened the living room door and went out.
He stood in the upstairs corridor, looking at A-Bo, who was lying on the three-seater chair with his eyes closed-the living room light was still on. He stood there for over two minutes, watching him. Then he turned and went back to his room, took one of the new duvets I-Bo had gotten for him, removed the white duvet from its pack, and came out of his room and went downstairs.
He walked slowly to where A-Bo was lying. He folded the soft duvet in two and covered A-Bo with it. His hand didn't touch A-Bo's body, but he could feel that he was running a temperature.
As he covered him, A-Bo pulled the duvet off his body and threw it away without opening his eyes, saying, "Get out, I-Bo..." Then he started trying to turn over on the chair, but he fell hard onto the carpet.
Zhan quickly covered his mouth. He himself didn't know why laughter came over him-even though his body had gone cold after noticing that A-Bo was running a temperature, A-Bo's reaction made him laugh uncontrollably.
A-Bo was mumbling, "I don't like this, I-Bo. Why are you stressing me? Get out, please. I think I caught a cold. Can you help increase the room heater before getting out?"
Then he slowly opened his eyes, holding his head, which felt heavy because he didn't hear I-Bo responding.
Zhan just watched him in surprise.
A-Bo looked so shocked to see him. He started looking around the living room, then looked at Zhan, frowned, and said, "You-get out of my sight."
Zhan didn't know when he laughed and said, "Well, it's not me who pushed you down. I just brought you a blanket, and you heavily fell down on the carpet."
A-Bo frowned even more and said, "Get out of my sight. Am I a joke to you?"
Zhan turned his head away, then headed to the stairs, glancing back at him until he went upstairs and entered his room. Only then did he start laughing, surprised that A-Bo was like that.
Even after thirty minutes, Zhan couldn't sleep; he just sat in his room. After a while, he slowly stood up, went out of his room again, and peeked downstairs. He didn't see A-Bo lying in the living room. That made him start coming downstairs. He looked at the duvet that A-Bo had placed on the chair, and the house keys. Then he looked at the door, went to it, and tried the handle-it was locked. He went to the window and peeked at the garage-A-Bo's car wasn't there. He came back to the living room, picked up the house keys, and looked at them-A-Bo had removed one of them from the bunch.
Zhan felt somehow, seeing that he wasn't well and still had left the house like that, especially since the snow was only just letting up. He stood there for over two minutes. After a while, he picked up the duvet to go back upstairs when he felt A-Bo's phone vibrate.
He looked around but didn't see the phone on the chair. Finally, he found the phone under the chair-it must have fallen from the chair and slid underneath.
He looked at the phone screen and saw that I-Bo was calling. He silenced the phone, went upstairs holding the phone and the duvet. I-Bo called three times. Zhan just put the phone in front of the mirror and lay down.
***
The next morning, after finishing his morning routine, he was about to lie down when A-Bo's phone began to vibrate in front of his mirror. He kept looking at the phone, then went and checked the screen-he saw that I-Bo was still calling. He turned and went back to his bed and lay down.
Around nine in the morning, he finished getting ready to go to school. He was standing in front of the mirror in his room, trying to tie his hair, when I-Bo called A-Bo's phone again. Zhan stared at the phone without blinking, then picked it up, put it on speaker, and didn't say anything.
On the other end, I-Bo said, "Why weren't you picking up your calls? I hope you didn't go out yesterday because I heard there was heavy snow. How are you doing?"
Zhan, listening, lowered his eyes and said, "Good morning. He forgot his phone."
I-Bo was silent on the other end for almost ten seconds. Then he said, "Sean..."
Zhan said, "Good morning."
I-Bo said, "Morning. Where did he forget his phone?"
Zhan said, "In my apartment."
I-Bo fell silent and didn't say anything. After a few seconds, he said quietly, "OK then."
Then he hung up.
Zhan kept looking at the screen, then put the phone down and stared at it. After nearly a minute, he was able to continue fixing his hair.
After Zhan finished what he was doing, he put A-Bo's phone in his bag to take to school with him, in case A-Bo came to pick it up at their department. He didn't show Bin anything when they met at school, even though he was still very angry with him.
Bin looked at him and said, "Now, your mind should be at ease because I went and checked-Yoki has removed your picture from his account. Someone must have talked to him. As for me, he still hasn't replied to my WhatsApp message."
Zhan said, "Well, if he's not irresponsible, how could he take my picture without knowing me and post it on his account? He doesn't even value his own wife if that's the case. Who does that?"
Bin said, "Well, I just heard that he has a wife, but I don't know and I haven't confirmed it."
Zhan looked at him with his mouth open.
Bin said, "Honestly, that's what I heard. They also say he has a heart condition. He doesn't look like someone with a heart condition to me, and I don't even believe that story. You know girls are upset with him because he only pays attention to whoever he wants, so they spread this bad rumor about him. But look at a healthy person like him-someone says heart condition? And he loves going to clubs."
Zhan didn't even know what to say to Bin. He just turned his head away because Bin's way of speaking was starting to scare him....the way he was saying earlier... it was as if Yoki had told him himself that he has a heart condition and a wife.
Bin said, "Let's go eat...I'm hungry. Maybe the person who told him to remove the picture is why he ignored me on WhatsApp and didn't answer my call. He has always been arrogant and way too pompous. It must be your housemate who asked him-he's the one who talked to him to take down the picture. I'm sure he wouldn't tell me-he thinks he's the son of a deputy governor, you'd think he's the son of a vice president. Deputy governors whose existence isn't even known in China-he acts like he's above everyone. Look at his eyes-you know he wouldn't lack for taking drugs."
Zhan said, "But now, if Yiming sees this picture, what do you think, Bin?"
Bin stood up and said, "Who is Yiming again? Please, let's go see what we can buy to eat-I'm hungry, honestly."
⏭ ⏭
Zhan left school that day without seeing A-Bo come to pick up his phone. That made him feel in his heart that A-Bo was sick.
Zhan was surprised that even after he returned to school, his housemate didn't call him or say anything to him on WhatsApp. A-Bo's phone also didn't ring again, except that his father called the phone twice.
At night, Zhan couldn't hold back his heart anymore-he just sent a message to his housemate via WhatsApp. He greeted him and asked how his cousin was doing.
After almost fifteen minutes, I-Bo replied with "All good." And then he didn't say anything else. Zhan was taken aback. He put his phone down and lay down, feeling something in his heart.
✴✴✴
After two days, Zhan and Bin were sitting at their department spot. Zhan was explaining one of their courses to him, which he said he didn't understand. In a low voice, Zhan heard Bin say, "Look at that handsome Yoki over there. He's coming toward us. Don't lift your head."
Zhan didn't lift his head; he continued his explanation to Bin. By the time Yoki reached where they were sitting, he said calmly, "Good evening, Bin and Zhan."
Bin bared his teeth and said, "Hi, Yoki. How are you doing? It's been two days."
Yoki said, "Very well. How are your studies?"
Bin smile and said, "All good. We haven't seen each other since that day until now."
Yoki looked at Zhan and said, "Good evening, Zhan."
Without looking at him, Zhan said without any cheerfulness, "OK."
Yoki looked at Bin and said, "I see your friend is upset."
Bin laughed as hard as he could, his face cheerful, and said, "He didn't like what you did to him. Even though I explained to him that you didn't do it intentionally, and he understood, he's just afraid your wife might see the picture."
Yoki looked at Bin and said, "Did you marry me off?"
Bin laughed and said, "Well, you see, people are watching him, and that's why he's worried."
Yoki said, "OK, if I had known that, I wouldn't have removed the picture. Because some guy who is full of himself....I think he's his boyfriend found me and talked to me about it. He knows me, and I know him in this country, but we've never spoken to each other. Had I known, I wouldn't have removed the picture to see what he would do."
Bin lowered his voice and said, "You see, Yoki, Zhan is a married person, there's no hiding it..."
Yoki smiled without letting Bin continue and said, "I don't believe it. The one who told me to remove the picture....I know him, he's not married..."
Zhan lifted his head, his face firm, and said, "Please delete my pictures off your phone, Mr. Man. I don't know you. I have nothing to do with you, and I see no reason why you should post me. No sane person would do such a thing. Please take my pictures off your phone-I am a married person."
With that, he pushed Bin's laptop to him, stood up, grabbed his backbag, and left without looking back.
Yoki watched him go, smiling slightly.
Bin held his chin, tired of telling Zhan to learn diplomacy and how to get along in the world. He should have been able to part ways with Yoki peacefully, but look at what he did.
Yoki nodded and said, "We shall see then."
Bin looked at him and said, "You know he has been possessed, Yoki, and it has even affected his brain. It's not easy for them to get up here. Honestly, when he starts panicking, it's hard to catch him. That's why you always see him without cheerfulness-I'm the only one who can be with him, so don't mind his behaviours. And the one who made you remove the picture is not his boyfriend, believe me..."
Yoki smiled and said, "Well, that's my problem. You see, it's settled." Then he turned and left.
Bin sighed and held his chin again.
Zhan arrived home around five o'clock. As he was about to open the door, he felt that the door was already open. He looked at the parking space and didn't see any car there. He pushed the door slowly and entered the living room.
He sat down and saw that A-Bo had turned on the TV and was watching a game. He didn't even turn around until Zhan came fully into the living room, looking at him.
A-Bo stood up without looking at him and said, "Give me my phone."
Zhan said, "How is your health?"
Only then did A-Bo look at him and say, "Did I tell you I'm not well?"
Zhan said, "No, I just noticed that when you're not well, you make incomprehensible noises in your sleep..." He finished speaking with a smile, looking at him.

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