To My Youth [BL]

[32] You Now Walk on a Different Road (2/2)

"Dad. Do you like her?" Gu Heiyu asked.

Their father lowered his gaze, letting a subtle nod. Seeing this, Gu Xiao rubbed his face as thoughts cluttering his mind. 

He had no right to interfere with their father's life, especially since they both never had a simple father and children relationship. 

What right did he have? 

They were just children. Immature children who understood absolutely nothing about life.

"Miss Luo is coming tomorrow?"

He nodded, still wearing an anxious expression.

"I think I will need some time," Gu Xiao said, and walked back to his room.

Now, the living room only had a father and his daughter. Long, heavy silences reigned over the house. 

Time, words, confusion, decisions. 

Each of them had inner secrets that they never allowed to be revealed, but they discovered a way to share the sense of having something hidden from the other.

"Dad," Gu Heiyu called once again, and the man slightly tilted his chin up.

She eyed him and blurted, "Do you always meet Miss Luo looking like that? You should at least groom yourself, you know? Or buy new clothes."

Their father remained silent, confused about his daughter's words.

"I just hope this wouldn't end up being something we would all regret. I don't want the mistakes to repeat because I'm not sure if I could handle it again," she said and stood up, walking back to her room.

In the middle of the dark-lit living room, where the creaks of the wooden floorboard and words echoed each time the wind knocked, laid their father, who sat alone, rubbing his tired eyes.

✎✎✎

Gu Xiao, who slumped his body on his bed, stared off into the distance as he indulged in his murky thoughts. He was worried about his father. 

What if this woman just had some strange thing with older men who used to be in debt? He couldn't shake off the thought that this Luo was just using their father, even though he knew it wasn't good to think like this. 

What could she even use their father for? This family had nothing. Truly nothing.

"Moving to the UK? Then..."

What was he supposed to tell Lan Yuning? There was nothing much he could say since he did tell him that he didn't want or expect a response. 

What was holding him back? Was it because of this uncertainty about their future, that unknown lady, or the house in the United Kingdom?

If they left everything here and realised moving to another place was indeed a mistake, what would happen then? 

Their father was known to make mistakes, and he had made too many that he lost count of them all. 

If everything was to repeat, and his days would return to that suffocating estrangement to his own self, what would happen then?

He pondered on their father's company name. It sounded like such a large company, but there was a sense of familiarity with that name. LS Corporations.

At once, his body jolted up. Gu Xiao's memory always failed him, but this time, he clearly remembered why their father's company sounded so familiar. 

It was Lan Yuning's father's company. 

Amid that unsettled silence, a sharp blade continued pointing towards his heart as it swung like a heavy pendulum. 

That arc of emotions left fresh wounds in his skin, bones, and veins. He twisted and turned around in his bed. Without knowing, he drifted off into a stifling sleep and hoped for the morning to rise quickly.