Never Let You Go

6. Slowly but Surely

Next morning, Yu Lin woke up with an itchy feeling on his arm. He looked down and saw a handle of a broom resting on his arm while the other end was in the hand of Lu Fei who was sleeping on the chair next to the bed. He wanted to remove the broom on himself without alerting Lu Fei but the handle slipped from his grip and the broom fell to the floor with a thud.

"What happened?" Lu Fei massaged his stiff neck resulting from sleeping on the chair all night long.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up but the broom slipped from my grip," Yu Lin said softly, feeling a little sorry for the older man who couldn't sleep well because of him. "Why was there a broom on my arm, though?"

Lu Fei got the broom from the floor and tossed it aside, "you kept moving in your sleep. I pinned your arm down so that the needle on your hand wouldn't hurt you."

"With a broom?" Yu Lin was still confused.

"You hate when people touch you so..."

Yu Lin's eyes wide opened, hearing the answer, "how do you know?" he asked with a shaky voice. Up until that moment, he always thought he was doing a great job, hiding his insuppressible disgust of human contact under the mask of I-don't-like-physical-contact. Well, apparently he was not that good.

"I was a regular in the club, remember? Of course I noticed." He omitted the part that he was a regular just because of Yu Lin.

A sudden revelation hit Yu Lin, "that's why you kept me in the VIP section every night..." He didn't notice that he said it out loud but Lu Fei heard him clearly.

"Yes," Lu Fei squinted at bewildered Yu Lin, "I told you that I'm not a pervert, I just wanted to help."

Yu Lin averted his eyes with a strong feeling of guilt. He wished the ground would swallow him up but it didn't. Unfortunately.

"Ok... let's forget what happened before," Lu Fei had pity on the younger man. Then he stood up and asked "may I?" pointing the needle. Yu Lin nodded so he gently removed the needle, trying his best not to touch Yu Lin more than necessary.

"You can take a shower while I am preparing breakfast, I left a towel and spare clothes inside the bathroom," he said before leaving the room.

After Lu Fei left the room, Yu Lin kept staring at his hand while Lu Fei took out the needle. Gently touching the area, he asked the empty room "why is he so good to me?"

Hearing no reply, Yu Lin decided to take a shower. Maybe the bathroom would give some reply...

After the shower, Yu Lin was feeling heaps better. He wore the clothes Lu Fei left in the bathroom and rolled the sleeves and cuffs as they were way too big for him. Still, he liked those oversized clothes on him. He could smell Lu Fei's perfume on them and it made him feel safe as if nothing could hurt him when Lu Fei was around.

Finishing the adjusting, Lu Fei followed the nice smell to the kitchen but he couldn't dare to go in, feeling shy. So he just leaned to the door frame and started to watch Lu Fei who was diligently cooking breakfast. Damn, he looks hot, Yu Lin thought unwittingly, looking at Lu Fei's tall and muscular figure. He was wearing simple gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt but he still managed to look sexy. His messy black hair was also contributing a lot to his casual-sexy look for the poor heart of Yu Lin.

"What are you doing there, standing?" Lu Fei asked with a smile. Seeing Yu Lin in his clothes made him expressively happy, it was as if he was marking Yu Lin as his.

Lu Fei's voice brought Yu Lin's wandering soul back to his body. "Nothing..." he murmured awkwardly before entering the kitchen.

"Sit, breakfast is ready," Lu Fei placed the plates and two cups of coffee on the wooden table. "I hope you are a fan of omelette and bacon cause I don't know how to cook anything else."

Yu Lin smiled slightly, hearing his confession, "it's perfect, thank you."

As it was the first nice sentence without any sarcasm in it, Lu Fei couldn't know how to react other than murmuring "mnn."

They had breakfast in silence because none of them knew how to start. But after washing the dishes, there was nothing more to do, so Lu Fei prepared second cups of coffee and they sat in the living room to talk.

"So, can you tell me what happened yesterday?"

Lu Fei nodded and told Yu Lin everything starting from the moment he went out to look for him. Yu Lin listened to him very attentively and without intervening except saying "thank you" a few times.

"Now you tell me what those guys wanted from you," said Lu Fei after he finished.

Yu Lin fidgeted restlessly as he didn't want to tell a stranger about his problems but he was aware that he owed an explanation to Lu Fei as he saved his ass and took care of him even after he treated him so badly. He took a deep breath and said "I owe them money," in one breath.

Lu Fei raised his eyebrows, he already expected the situation to be related to money so what he wanted to hear was the reason. But Yu Lin was silent again so he pushed a little, "why did you borrow money from a gang?"

"It is a personal matter." He wouldn't give more than that.

Lu Fei wanted to insist but held his tongue as he knew Yu Lin would escape if he pushed further. "What are you going to do now? They won't let you go until they get the money back."

Yu Lin nodded, of course they wouldn't let him alone until he paid the money and the interest but he had no money! Irritated with the fact that Lu Fei already knew he was broke, Yu Lin tried to change the topic. "How do you know how to change those needles?"

"IV drips?" Lu Fei took a sip from his coffee, "my mother gets easily sick so learnt to attend to her when she needs to."

Yu Lin bit his tongue with regret as he heard sadness in Lu Fei's voice. "So, your parents force you to get married? Why?" he tried to change the topic again.

Lu Fei smiled inwardly because he also noticed the younger's good intentions. "I am almost thirty and they are afraid to die before seeing my wedding."

Poor Yu Lin misinterpreted the words 'easily get sick' and combined it with the word "die", and VOILA! He thought Lu Fei's mother was dying! He nodded fast, then asked "don't you have a social circle where all the rich families hang around?" He didn't want to be rude but rich people were irritating him as they had everything while he had nothing but fear.

Lu Fei noticed his irritation as well but pretended as if he didn't. "Yes, we do and I already met several of these rich girls."

"And?"

"It didn't go well, let's say."

"Because you are gay?" Yu Lin asked without realizing what he was asking. He immediately covered his mouth with his hand but it was too late.

Seeing him getting red with embarrassment made Lu Fei chuckle. "I am bisexual," he said when he stopped laughing.

"Then these girls were after your money?" Yu Lin frowned, "but you offered me money so you shouldn't care if they are after your money, right?"

Lu Fei sighed, "not because of money, I just didn't like them enough to spend the rest of my life with them."

"Oh, I see," Yu Lin fidgeted again before saying, "how about me? You said you find me... interesting but you know I am worse than those girls as I am really after money."

Lu Fei smiled at him reassuringly, "you are not after money, you just need money."

Yu Lin's eyes were wide open while his heart was beating so fast. How come a mere stranger like him could understand his situation so well? Seeing through him so accurately? He jumped to his feet, "I... I need time to think about your... offer... no... proposal, and thank you... for your help," he said and hastily ran to the bedroom to get his stuff before running from Lu Fei's house.

After Yu Lin left, Lu Fei smiled very contentedly, "you will be mine and I won't let you go."