Chapter 11 - Visiting His Place

Before he could succumb to foolishly grin or let out an idiotic giggle, Yul waved off the incoming bout of happiness and changed the subject back to its origin, "God! How can Bin be your type? He's a monkey, always clowning around."

"And you are a piggy," Zeng poked Yul's cheek. He seemed to have taken quite a liking to them. Unlike his own high cheekbones with hollow cheeks, Yul's were set lower and still had that baby fat under them. Zeng found it extremely adorable.

Yul frowned, making his chubby cheeks more evident, "I am not a piggy. I am a lion," he stressed, "I am a Leo, you know!"

"You believe in zodiacs?" Zeng asked, to which Yul shrugged.

"Alright," Zeng concluded, putting on his seat belt. When he was younger, his atheist self had always debated about such things. But as he grew up, he came to know that it was better to leave people with what they want to believe. It was their life, their choice. As long as it's harmless, every belief was fine.

Zeng's phone gave a ring. It was from his landlady. He picked it up while Yul prepared himself for their later talk.

"I need to go back." Zeng put back his phone. "A window of my room was jammed and the landlady called someone for repairing it," he told Yul and then bit his lips, unable to decide whether to say it or not, "Do you mind if we stop by my room first?"

A fuse blew up in Yul's brain.

'Room? Zeng ge's room?!'

His mind logged out for a moment. Was he actually going to visit his crush's house? Like really? His very last active brain cell told him to answer it.

"I don't mind," Yul successfully answered without freaking out, keeping his usual unbothered face.

"Okay then," Zeng put on his seat belt and drove to a new road. The drive was silent. Yul had a difficult time remaining calm. It was all that bastard Subin's fault for mentioning 'that' topic while lecturing that day. Now his shameless mind had decided to explore the thoughts while Zeng was driving all innocently.

In this closed space, along with his crush beside him, how could Yul think straight?

While stealing glances at Zeng, Yul noticed that the other looked tired. Also upon looking carefully, he could also see the eyes bags. The weird thoughts that Subin had planted got erased within a second.

"You look tired," Yul stated.

The other smiled, "I had a night shift. That's why. And sorry, like I promised last time, I couldn't bake anything for you. I even bought all the ingredients for baking you a pastry but didn't get time. Sorry," Zeng apologized, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

The car went silent again. Yul had to bring up a topic as he didn't want to think about 'that something' in this closed space. And so he decided to start up a random conversation, "Zeng ge, you said you were in the second year of your internship, then shouldn't you be 25?"

He asked without minding much but failed to see Zeng's grip tightening on the steering wheel.

"Uh… I- I failed my PG entrance exam. So…that's why," he answered, gulping the lump in his throat and focused on driving. The atmosphere inside had suddenly turned tense and Yul didn't dare utter a word as he sensed that it was because of his previous question.

However, it was strange. He never thought Zeng could fail in anything as he always considered him as a hardworking and passionate guy.

He didn't get much time to ponder over it as soon the car parked in front of a local apartment complex. The area was not high-class as he had expected from someone who owns a Toyota Corolla. Then he remembered that Zeng's car was actually his parents' old one and he was paying all his expenses by himself so had to settle for 1BK apartment.

The four-storey building had no lift so they climbed the stairs. The landlady and a carpenter were already waiting by his door. The landlady greeted the newcomer while Zeng unlocked his door which had only one key without any spares.

"Is he your friend?" The lady asked. "My God, what a handsome young lad! We didn't have such good looking guys at my time," she praised Yul wholeheartedly while the young man bowed politely and thanked her for the compliments.

Yul was habitual of receiving praises even when he went to his hometown where all the nearby household ladies would shower him with compliments.

Zeng only smiled secretly, even though he didn't know why. The landlady was praising Yul, so why am I happy?

After the carpenter was done with the repair, Zeng slumped back on the small couch in his room. The night shift was really tiring.

Yul looked around the apartment. The room was small but clean and simple with minimal furniture. It was mostly filled with books. He peaked over a book whose cover was that of a human anatomical view with a cut-open section of the entire left side of the body. He immediately averted his eyes. The human body was sure scary like this! Yul quickly backed away.

Attached to the main room was a small kitchen on the left and a small balcony on the right. Yul settled on the couch, keeping a comfortable distance from Zeng.

"You can go to sleep, you know," he said looking at the tired man, "Let's meet next Sunday."

"No, we will have to wait for an entire week then," the tired man brought in legs to his chest, curling up into a ball. This six-foot tall giant looked like a baby to Yul now. So small and fragile. What made him even happier was that Zeng also had the same feelings as him about waiting for an entire week.

But then things would be left hanging for another week and Yul really wanted to clear it up as soon as possible.. He didn't want the doctor to misunderstand anything. It had to be done now!