Are You Addicted?

When Gu Hai hastily arrived at home, he found Bai Luo Yin in the process of packing up his belongings.

As Gu Hai watched Bai Luo Yin, he noticed that, every single strand of hair on his head remained unscathed and nor were his movements impeded. Gu Hai was temporarily relieved.  But then, he saw Bai Luo Yin grabbed his clothes and personal toiletries before he shoved them into his luggage.

Gu Hai couldn"t stay calm anymore.

"What are you doing?"

Bai Luo Yin didn"t respond or turn around as he continued on with his task. His back appeared to be rather stiff.

Gu Hai took a large stride forward and roughly grabbed Bai Luo Yin"s arm.

And then, he was petrified.

The corner of his eyes displayed beautiful arrays of blacks and blues, and, due to the swelling, both his eyes appeared asymmetrical. The surface of his nose was swollen and even the ala of it were a.s.sailed as speckles of purple danced around them. Several bloodstains adorned the nape of his neck and slithered downward before they were blocked off by the collar of his shirt. Gu Hai strained his eyes after those stains but he wasn"t able to see clearly the mishap underneath.

The two soldiers were indeed ruthless with their hands. As luck would have it, Bai Luo Yin wasn"t a useless coward. Even though he was beaten to such state, it wasn"t to the extent, as what the two soldiers had said.

"Yin Zi…" Gu Hai"s voice couldn"t conceal the regret that plagued it.

He wanted to undo the b.u.t.tons on Bai Luo Yin"s jacket, but instead, Bai Luo Yin forcibly held his hand down. The expression in his eyes were not only strange but also swallowed by stubbornness.

"Don"t put on that hypocritical face, it disgusts me."

This sentence, like a dagger, stabbed into Gu Hai"s heart. So much so that even his fingers trembled along with his vision. Bai Luo Yin effortlessly smacked his hand away. With that being done, he didn"t bother to lift them up again.

He watched stiffly as Bai Luo Yin walked into one room and then to the next, from one end to the other. Then he zipped up his luggage and made his way towards the front door before he changed his shoes.

Gu Hai was torn by conflicting thoughts; his heart was an extremely confused piece of meat. He took a huge stride toward the front door and gazed intently at Bai Luo Yin, asking, "Where do you want to go?"

"It doesn"t concern you where I go."

"Do you want to return home?" Gu Hai continued to ask in detail.

Bai Luo Yin explicitly told Gu Hai, "I am not returning home. I"m not going to do something that shameless."

"Then, where do you want to go?"

Bai Luo Yin cold and stiff eyes stared straight into the depths of Gu Hai"s black orbs, "I repeat, it doesn"t concern you in anyway at all, where I go."

Gu Hai blocked the doorway, his heart suddenly frozen.

"You want to go to where she is?"

Bai Luo Yin, with his entire being, really wanted to give Gu Hai a big slap on the face. He wanted so to make this hypocritical, twisted perversion of the truth and unreasonably barbaric guy, wake up. To sober up. But, unfortunately, he wasn"t able to raise his hands. He thought that it was unnecessary. Really unnecessary. It would have just been a waste of his time.

"That"s right. I"m going to where she is."

Gu Hai"s heart suffered a grave damage…grief, indignation, unwillingness, anguish…every single emotion all squeezed together tightly in his chest.

"Was it you who told her to come back?"

Bai Luo Yin almost grabbed the luggage and swung it on the floor. He gritted his teeth in agony and squeezed out, "Yes."

"Now, is it also you, who forced her to stay?"

"Yeah, you don"t have to ask. I admit to everything. While I"ve been living here, I called her every single day. I"m always thinking of her and concerned for her well being. You don"t know how happy I was, when you had those two soldiers came to investigate us. Do you know, I"ve being looking for an excuse, a way, to sever our relationship? You"re so f.u.c.king good to me. Everything that"s in my heart, every single one of my thoughts, you know them all. You found those two soldiers to beat me, beat me until my head became clear. Finally, I can seriously tell you, Gu Hai, that"s enough!"

Gu Hai remained still at the door. There were no traces of any expression anywhere on his entire face. His eyes were empty of all emotions.

"Can I leave now?" asked Bai Luo Yin.

Gu Hai"s rigid gaze slowly shifted towards Bai Luo Yin"s face.

"Everything you"ve said, are they true?"

The corner of Bai Luo Yin"s mouth hung loose. A broken, decrepitated smile smeared across his face, "Whether what I"ve said were true or not, you still don"t know?"

Gu Hai remained silent, a cold and gloomy air exuded from within the depths of his pupils.

"Get out of the way."

Gu Hai was motionless.

Bai Luo Yin cruelly pushed Gu Hai to the side and kicked the door open. In the twinkling of an eye, his cold back gradually disappeared into the elevator.

Outside, the northern wind whistled. Cold air continued to emit from within his body. The pain in his heart was unbearable, so painful that even his breaths felt somewhat heavy.

He never felt this way toward anyone before: utter disappointment. He wished he could take a stick and beat him to death but even then, it wouldn"t purge the anger in his heart.

Why don"t you believe me? You obviously said it yourself, you promised…but still you couldn"t do it. Could it be…that my expectations of you were too high? Or could it be that, you were so good to me…so good that I couldn"t see any of your flaws, so good that I believed in every single word you"ve said to me without any doubts. So when I uncovered your true innermost thoughts, just like that, it became unbearable?

—

Afterward, Bai Luo Yin did not attend cla.s.s for three days. His excuse was that he was at home reviewing but all along he remained nestled at a hotel. Final exams were on the fourth and fifth day. Bai Luo Yin and Gu Hai were separated into different examination rooms. After they finished their exams, Bai Luo Yin did not return to the cla.s.sroom nor did Gu Hai. They haven"t seen each other since the day that they had split up. And, it was like this, that winter break started.

Bai Luo Yin still hasn"t returned home. The wound on his face has not faded yet. He didn"t want to return, furthermore he wanted to let a few more days pa.s.s by peacefully.

Bai Han Qi called several times and each time, Bai Luo Yin replied that he was with Gu Hai and that, after a few more days, he will return home. Bai Han Qi felt relieved with his two sons, so he didn"t question him again.

—

Finally, it was Shi Hui who first came to look for Gu Hai.

When the two met, "Can you tell me where Bai Luo Yin went?" were Shi Hui"s first words.

In the seven days that Gu Hai"s heart been dried up like a dry terrain, a huge gash finally ripped open.

"He"s not with you?"

Shi Hui forced a helpless smile, "It would be good if he was with me, but I haven"t seen him for a week already."

Gu Hai wished he could confront himself and smack his own face.

As expected, I’ve misunderstood him.

"Maybe he returned home."

Shi Hui shook her head, "He didn"t. I went to his house to look for him and his dad said he was here with you."

The expression on Gu Hai"s face tightened as he got up, with every intention to leave.

Shi Hui, contrariwise, weakly said, "It"s okay, nothing will happen to him. He"s a really intelligent person."

"Since he"s not here, is it still necessary for us to talk about this?"

"Of course, I"m not looking for you only because of this matter," Shi Hui smiled genuinely.

Perhaps, if it has anything to do with Bai Luo Yin, Gu Hai didn"t want it to slip on by, so he sat back down.

Shi Hui perceived the coldness in Gu Hai"s eyes. She rarely saw this kind of expression on any guy"s face. Even if a strange guy sat in front of her, looking at her eyes, still wouldn"t be this cold and aloof.

"It seems you don"t really like me?"

In an insouciant manner, Gu Hai replied back, "I can"t say I like you nor can I say I dislike you. It"s just I have no feelings toward you."

"I will work hard so that you will like me," said Shi Hui smiling.

Gu Hai coldly retorted, "Just get to the point."

A smile returned to Shi Hui"s lips. Her big clever eyes carried within them a thick layer of helplessness.

"I wanted to ask you to help me persuade Bai Luo Yin. So that he and I can be good again."

An air of derisiveness hovered at the corner of Gu Hai"s eyes.

You came looking for me, so that I can persuade Bai Luo Yin to be good with you again? Yeah right! You"ve completely made the wrong choice today.

"That"s impossible."

Shi Hui"s pupil shook for a second, "Why?"

"He doesn"t like you anymore."

As far as Shi Hui was concerned, this kind of attack…this sentence, spoken by the people around Bai Luo Yin was not a petty matter. It was almost the same as personally hearing Bai Luo Yin, himself, admitting it.

Perhaps, because Bai Luo Yin always thought about certain aspects of things, what he says, would in turn, differ from what"s in his heart.

But toward this friend, Shi Hui was honestly incapable of understanding, what motive would he have to deceive himself like this?

With a dark and gloomy complexion hovering across her face, Shi Hui bit the corner of her lips.

"Then…can you tell me. Does he have someone he likes now?"

Gu Hai answered back with an extremely unusual resolution, "He does."

Shi Hui"s face exposed an even more unsightly complexion, "Then, can you tell me who she is?"

"He"s sitting right in front of you."

Confusion took root in her eyes as she nervously looked around the room. Gu Hai"s fingers, however, tapped the surface of the table.

"Don"t bother looking, it"s me."

It was like Shi Hui had been struck by lightning, her entire body trembled from the bolt that struck her. She looked at Gu Hai with a pair of inconceivable eyes.

Bai Luo Yin? Likes a guy? How can that be!

She had seen many people like this abroad, so with regards to it, she wouldn"t consider it an explosively shocking new. But discovering it on Bai Luo Yin, Shi Hui was not able to accept it.

"You…are you teasing me for fun?"

Gu Hai apathetically played with the lighter in his hand. The contour of his robust face exposed a domineering manner.

"Do you think so?"

Shi Hui"s heart froze into a cube of ice. Her toes that snuggled tightly together, hidden by her shoes, involuntarily trembled.

In that moment, she suddenly thought about many things. She thought about the time she gave Bai Luo Yin a phone call, a guy had answered and said that he was Bai Luo Yin"s boyfriend. At that time, she didn"t take much notice of it. Now, she suddenly realized that Gu Hai"s voice sounded extremely familiar. And also, the first time she came to look for Bai Luo Yin, Gu Hai insisted on going with them. When Bai Luo Yin and her were at the café chatting, there were those two unpleasant and monstrous soldiers…

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Gu Hai looked at Shi Hui.

Shi Hui once soft and gentle eyes suddenly hardened, her voice carried an unyielding vitality in them.

"Did he accept you?"

Showing no mercy, Gu Hai countered back, “If he didn’t accept me, would I be here saying these words to you?”  "Then why did he suddenly disappeared?"

"That"s our business, it has nothing to do with you."

Shi Hui didn"t know how she came to possessed such confident. A smile and then a laugh, laced with traces of mischievous and coldness, unexpectedly, played out across her face.

"Bai Luo Yin doesn"t like you. The reason for why he had those kinds of abnormal feelings for you, was because I left. His heart felt empty so he anxiously sought out someone to fill that emptiness. I am back now. He doesn"t need you anymore. You will soon come to find out that, actually, in his heart, he has only like me."

"Your imagination is very rich."

Shi Hui laughed again, "Imagination or not, it"s still the truth. Bai Luo Yin is a very rational person. He has his own principle. And within his principles, fooling around is fine, but he will never truly accept a guy."

Gu Hai laughed faintly, "Pretty girl, I"ve underestimated your mental capacity."

Shi Hui hugged her arms together and stood up. She walked toward Gu Hai"s side. Her soft rosy lips slightly parted.

"You can"t beat me."

Are you Addicted?