// Best YA Romance in the Romance Fiction Awards 2021//
Thrill Hawthorne, keeping up to his name, lives his life on the edge. Or so people think.
Ignatius Rookwood is the darling son and the sole male heir to a gigantic business corporation. Or so...
DOUBLE UPDATE because I've been mia for so long y'all deserve it. (Seriously, I love you folks!)
This one's another brand new chapter that wasn't there in the first draft + there's an easter egg if you can spot it lol.
HOLLER if you see errors.
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Ignatius felt dirty. And anxious. Like he had done something unforgivably terrible and he was now awaiting punishment because he knew he deserved it.
No matter how many cigarettes he smoked, he could not forget the way Thrill's face twisted into a pitiful expression the moment Isadora brought up his... issue with Drayden. Till a while back, Ignatius used to feel disgusted too – they were, after all, brothers, not to forget, both men – but now, after those few words he had exchanged with Thrill, after that boy saved his life and bought him medicine, it did not feel all that disgusting. There was nothing disgusting about Thrill, really. He was just an ordinary guy, with quirky remarks and... a kind heart.
Before he could fully understand what he was doing, Ignatius was back on the Internet, surfing through the news about Thrill Hawthorne. As expected, there was a lot – a lot – of hate. The names that Thrill was being called, the way the people described him – that was disgusting. If even half of those words had been directed at Ignatius, he would've probably killed himself or locked himself in his room for the rest of this life...
But Thrill, even amidst all the hate, was smiling. Ignatius found several videos and pictures of Thrill being unabashedly confident about himself. At pride marches in different foreign countries, he wore rainbow flags and laughed heartily, as if all that hate people had for him did not exist.
It was mindboggling how he could do it.
"I'm really happy to be here," Thrill was answering a news reporter. He was in a pride march, surrounded by people in colourful clothes and loud makeup. "Canada is amazing." The people around him hooted and he threw back his head and laughed. "No, really. I really hope to see something like this in my country too one day."
"What's the situation there like?" the reporter asked. "At home?"
Thrill's face fell immediately. "Uh, how do I put it gently? It's... terrible." He chuckled, but it was one of sadness than mirth of any kind. "If you're gay, you can get jailed for life. If you're genderqueer, you don't get jobs and education. Hospitals refuse to treat queer people. There's bullying and harassment everywhere, by all figures of authority, in every institution –"
Wait, what?
Ignatius' cigarette died between his fingers as he sat up straight and googled the condition of LGBTQ+ people in his country.
It was everything Thrill said and worse.
At first, Ignatius could not believe it. Thrill made it seem like being gay was cool, or rebellious somehow, but in reality, those people were being treated like they were not even people.
