Chapter 7 The Uninvited Guest
"How did you find this place?" Hanyang asked warily, scooping Zhaocai up and moving to close the door.
I stepped inside without hesitation.
Hanyang tried to stop me but failed.
"How did you get here?"
I found a small stool and sat down. "Followed the smell."
"...What do you want? I can't host someone like you."
When I stayed silent, Hanyang stopped asking and returned to the stove to cook whatever was in the pot.
My gaze left him and swept over the room.
There was almost nothing inside. Only a bed, a table, and the pot in Hanyang's hands. The place was startlingly clean.
In my last life, Hanyang rarely spoke about himself. Back then all my energy had gone into getting him into bed, so I never asked.
I never expected his teenage years to have been this hard.
Watching Hanyang add firewood beneath the stove, tears suddenly spilled down my face.
Drop after drop blurred his back into a haze.
I hadn't cried when Hanyang rejected me. I hadn't cried when he died. I hadn't shed a single tear even when I jumped. And now I was getting sentimental.
Hanyang finished cooking. I wiped my face clean.
He put some cooled noodles into the dog's bowl, then ate the rest straight from the pot.
I tried to talk. "Hanyang, your dog... Zhaocai, what's wrong with him? Is he sick?"
"None of your business."
"Do you owe someone money?"
"None of your business."
I shut up.
I sat there until midnight before Hanyang finally spoke first.
"When are you leaving?"
I shook my head.
Hanyang stood up and tried to throw me out.
I blurted out the first excuse I could think of. "My family went bankrupt. I have nowhere to go."
Hanyang's hand on my collar paused, then he resumed his impatient expression.
"None of my business!"
I dropped to the floor. The door clicked shut behind me.
I stayed where I was from nine-thirty until midnight.
Just when I thought Hanyang would never let me in, the door opened.
"Don't freeze to death on my doorstep."
Zhaocai slept by the still-warm stove. Hanyang lay on the bed.
I looked around and leaned against a wall.
The floor was cold and hard. The brick wall Hanyang had built himself let in drafts in places.
I had never been poor in my life and had never stayed in a place like this.
Yet no matter how uncomfortable it was, I didn't want to leave.
Something flew from Hanyang's direction and landed over my head.
I pulled it down. It was his thin blanket.
"Dying inside would be worse luck."
He turned his back to me and pulled his school jacket over himself.
This was clearly an invitation.
I picked up the blanket without hesitation and lay down beside him.
When the warmth touched him, Hanyang flinched and swung a fist backward on instinct.
I caught his wrist and pinned it behind him.
"You want to fight, we can go outside. Then you can leave..."
I finally had a chance to beat him. Why not enjoy the feeling?
I released him and tucked the blanket over his body.
"I don't want to fight. But if you're in the mood for something more interesting than fighting, I can play along."
I leaned in as if to kiss him. He slapped a hand over my face.
"Crazy. Go to sleep..."