Chapter 38: 31.2

The demi will behave naturally and without the slightest bit of awkwardness, but that only makes the male troubled and anxious.

He will have imposed on a stranger, and has to continue getting in touch with that stranger. It is so uncomfortable and troublesome to him, that before he can finally return the bag to the demi, he’ll feel like he has something he must do.

Unfortunately for the male, the demi, being a reporter, will often be travelling between many planets. It will be two months before the male will finally be able to arrange a meeting with the homecoming demi. When returning the bag, he’ll notice the scars on the demi, and ask, what happened.

The demi will tell the male about his work as a war reporter on the frontlines; the male, having no idea about what a battle frontline looks like, will be confused. The demi will start explaining.

That is when the male will realise that this friendly demi really knows a lot, from iconic buildings on each planet to local cuisine, and even customs and traditions still dying hard on less developed planets.

A whole wide world the little male will never have seen up to that point.

As for examples of those buildings and customs… Cheng Zhaoci plans to ask Mr Liang, who he understands is well travelled in the past.

The demi will have unwittingly become a bridge for the male to access and appreciate the beauties of the world itself, so naturally, the male will also find himself occasionally thinking about the demi.

He will not be concerned at first, merely having conversations over social media with the demi and occasionally meeting in person. One day, though, the demi will send him a video – a video of a more pristine section of an undeveloped planet, where blue luminescent butterflies that only glow at night will have taken to the skies.

The video will show how, during the night time, with a brilliant universe as the backdrop and the planet’s natural moon slightly larger than other specks in the sky, the demi has taken a seat at the front of a small rowboat. The water is lit by both the blue butterflies and the stars up on the sky. Everything will look like they’re merging together, like the heavens leaking through and splattering glow and blobbiness everywhere on the ocean. It will be so breathtaking the male will forget to blink.

The demi wants to show the shy young male this amazing scene. After spinning the camera in a circle around him, he will point it back at him, with his camera in one hand and a torch in the other – so that the demi doesn’t ruin the scene with any modern lighting equipment, as the artificial lights are too strong and will ruin the mood.

“What do you think?!” The demi will ask loudly.

The male, having seen the video through a realistic holodeck projection, will reply, meekly, “really, really pretty.”

The demi will smile happily.

Although the demi will not know, that the male will not have been referring to the stars in the sky, or the dancing butterflies, or the fluttering lights reflected on the ocean.

But the demi himself.

The flames, dancing on his face, is softening all the edges, giving it a warm orange glow.

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Between the sea and the skies, between all the brilliant and cool colours, is the only warmth dotting the landscape.

It is such a minute flicker among the vast oceans, but it will have landed straight into the male’s heart.

After penning that section, Cheng Zhaoci stops to ponder, “what am I even drawing now?” Honestly, it just came so naturally, and the more he drew, the more it got to his head. So a return to reality after drawing such sugary sweetness… Argh! He, Cheng ‘Male’ Zhaoci, has been a single virgin for two lives now! How very well that is.

Though of course it’s just a short self-loathing session. He wouldn’t ruin his lengthy preparation for anything.

After that, the young male will have a dream one night, that he and the demi would both be on the boat, with their fingers crossed, gently enjoying the ocean breeze, surrounded by the blue, glowing butterflies all around. The young male would look at the demi peacefully, just looking, until finally, he wakes up from his dream.

The demi will have lodged himself firmly in the young male’s heart, unable to be dispelled. The male will have tried, and failed, to resist, and will come to accept this reality; he will also start avoiding the demi, because of worries that he might get busted, revealed, and even if he knows there are none in this world who would refuse a male;
He will still be afraid, afraid of the tiny, tiny possibility.

Finally, one day, the demi will find and question him, stopping him when the male is again out to get his shopping. The demi will ask if he did anything wrong, that the male started avoiding him.

The male will fervently deny it, but will fail to produce any excuses. Still fumbling with his words as always, the male stutters, and the demi, disappointed, sighs and moves out of the way to leave. This spooks the male into action, and, with probably the most courage he will ever have mustered, will yell, “I like you!”

After yelling, the male will finally break, and collapse to the ground crying. Oh no! Oh dear! It’s over! The little flame of love is getting doused!

Helplessness will also infect the demi, who can only keep apologising to an unreceptive male, who is just sobbing and sobbing like sand has been dumped by the bucketload into his eyes.

With nothing else he can do to defuse the situation, the demi will finally confess, that he also really, really likes the male.

Why would he have been doing all that to make the male happy otherwise?

Trying to give the young male a hug, though, results only in the demi getting his hand patted away. The young male will run home crying after that.

While the demi will end up questioning if he has doomed their entire relationship by that action, the male, whose crying will have finally started causing pain in his head, will suddenly cock his head, and will wonder, if he hadn’t just heard the demi say he liked him.

So finally, the young male will quietly retrieve his holodeck to make a call to the demi. The demi will pick it up almost instantly.

“Did you just say you also really, really like me?” The flustered and flushed male will ask.
“Huh?! Oh, I did! Yes,” The confused and wide-eyed demi will answer.

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