In between love and death《Yizhan version》

Chapter 22

Xiao Zhan's POV

I looked nervously between Yibo and Lily, Yibo's eyes were still wide with shock while Lily maintained a calm smile of hers before speaking up, breaking through the icy silence, "I didn't expect people would exaggerate my disappearance that much, I was just in a bad spot and needed some time away," Lily pouted lightly while talking.

"S-So, you're okay? I'm not imagining this, right?" Yibo looked at me for confirmation, I started to feel a little uncomfortable, but Lily's eyes pled me to play along.

"Y-Yeah, of course, Lily is okay, she's right here, isn't she?" Yibo approached Lily, poking her arm like a curious cat.

"Haha~ What are you doing, Yibo?"

"J-Just making sure I am not seeing a ghost . . . But since you are here, who the hell do you think you are, leaving Haoxuan and me without saying goodbye!" Yibo's shocked expression was replaced with an annoyed one, and Lily laughed, but her eyes turned a little bit sad.

She took a shaky breath, "I'm so sorry, but I just . . . Couldn't be in this city for a moment longer . . ."

"Yeah . . . I know exactly how you feel, but then again, it's the thing that three of us have in common," eh? What did Yibo meant by three? 

"Wait! Now you're in town, you have to go see Haoxuan!" 

"Wait, you know Haoxuan, too?" Lily remained silent, so Yibo answered for her instead, "yeah, the three of us go way back, we've got a long history."

"I see . . . I never knew that . . ." Lily still didn't meet my eyes, I couldn't tell what was going inside her head now.

"Anyways, Haoxuan should be heading home by now, you should come over, Lily!" Lily was still hesitant at first but smiled kindly at Yibo.

"Okay . . . It couldn't hurt to show my face to an old friend," she sighed and for a moment she looked different, somewhat nostalgia, and the feeling of that kept haunting me that she felt familiar, I shrugged off the feeling. 

"Great! Haoxuan is going to have the biggest shock of his life," I'm already having a big shock from all of this . . .

As we get up to leave the café, Lily suddenly walked next to me, she whispered near my ear while Yibo was distracted for a moment, "do me a favour and just play along for now."

I whispered back, "if I do, will you tell me what happened?"

"I will in due time, do we have a deal?" I thought for a moment before nodding firmly at her request, "you better honour this deal, okay?" Lily only smiled warmly in reply, focusing ahead of her.

My eyes shifted to the floor, this unpleasant feeling was growing more and more, but how could it not when I know the real truth?

***

My pulse was beating like mad when we reached the front door, just how was Haoxuan going to react seeing Lily . . . ?

I could see Lily opening and closing her palms nervously next to me, "well, time to see the priceless look on Haoxuan's face," I tried to laugh at Yibo's joke, but it just sounded as awkward as I felt instead.

Haoxuan was already in the living room waiting for us, I couldn't help but notice that Yibo was quickly hiding something in his pocket while standing near the table, was that . . . A yellow bottle? 

"You better have a good explanation for telling me to come home early, Yibo," Haoxuan leaned back into the sofa while watching me.

"This one is definitely worth returning home early," Haoxuan sighed while nodding after hearing Yibo's statement.

But Haoxuan stoppedmid-yawning when he sees the other figure , his eyes instantly growing wide, but he remained quiet as he stared at Lily, Haoxuan is frozen on spot, so Lily approaches him instead.

"Hi, it's been a long time,huh?" Haoxuan still couldn't utter a word, to my surprise he embraced Lily.

"It was indeed way too long . . . I thought you were . . . I really didn't wanted to . . ." Haoxuan was fumbling with his words when they pulled back.

"I'm sorry you heard such terrible rumours about what happened to me . . ." I looked between Haoxuan and Lily when suddenly Yibo interrupted, "that rumour spread because you disappeared without telling any of us!"

"I was in a bad spot like I said, I needed some time for myself, that's all . . ." Lily tried to avert their gaze, but once again Yibo spoke up, "you could've informed us," his voice became to lightly fall towards worry.

"I'm sorry . . . I didn't know what to say . . . I just . . ." Now it was Lily's turn to fumble with her words, but Yibo raised his hand to stop her.

"I have my faults too, I lost your contact information after we graduated," Yibo sighed deeply, fumbling his hand through his messy hair while Haoxuan kept quiet, watching both of them.

"I didn't even tried to contact any of you, all of us followed different aths after we graduated, but I'm glad to see your acting career is going well," Lily did her best to lighten up the mood, but Yibo only winces.

"Wouldn't call it 'well', but it's still going, at least, and I have this idiots to keep me on, so . . ." Yibo waved to Haoxuan with a small grin.

"Hey, who are you calling an idiot!" Both Yibo and Lily laughed at Haoxuan's expression, and i found myself smiling while I watched them, but at the same time I felt really sad, they must've been very close . . .

"Oh yeah, how did you guys even manage to find each other in such a big city?" Haoxuan looked from Yibo to Lily, and then back to me.

"Found him having tea with Zhan at a café, what a small world, huh?"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Haoxuan glanced from me to Lily and back, Haoxuan focused on me now, I fidget, uncertain of how to answer, thankfully, Lily answered for me, "ahh . . . Well, I've known Zhan for quite a while, she's a friend of one of my relatives and we're just catching up, right?" She glanced at me . . .

Word count: 1105 words

***

New chapter up, please tell me how you guys find the progress of the story and who do you think the mysterious X POV is? I guess it was quite obvious from the beginning already, but yeah? 

Anyways, stay safe, take care, and have a great day~