To My Pretender [BL]

[4] - Hearing Things

"Wu Jie, did you really sexually assault your co-workers?"

At once, he bolted up and everything in his vision started distorting into different shapes. His feet sunk into the ground and his body weighed him down, though the fresh wound in his head and chest gradually numbed all his senses.

He forced his stomach to keep the fluids down while his heart sounded the beats of drums, knocking recklessly.

I'm hearing things. I'm hearing things. I'm hearing things.

Please don't do this to me. Please don't do this to me.

"I... need to go to the bathroom."

"Are you alright?" Chen Yichun asked, his pupils gleaming with something indescribably and haunting.

At that moment, when Wu Jie looked at Chen Yichun straight in the eyes, he saw the dreadful convulsions of his whole spirit, and a grinning monkeyface.

Chen Yichun's smile was nothing more than an expression so freakish; at the same time so unclean and even nauseating. However, after blinking a couple of times, there was no actual smile there.

"Yes, I'm alright. I just drank too much. I guess my alcohol tolerance isn't that good," Wu Jie said.

Chen Yichun steadied him up and pulled Wu Jie closer, almost so his face was right next to his ear. His breath, travelling down Wu Jie's neck, was cold and disturbing.

A rock sunk in Wu Jie's stomach. If he stayed here any longer, he would've thrown up.

With haste, Wu Jie went to the empty bathrooms and locked himself in one of the stalls.

He fell onto his knees in front of the toilet and hung his head over it.

The rock in his throat forced its way through. His eyes dulled. His trembling hands gripped onto the edge of the toilet seat.

He choked, coughed, shut his eyes, and a rush of thick fluid filled his mouth. It poured out of him, as if emptying everything he had eaten in the past few days as he continued gasping for air.

It sobered him a little, though his headache kept coming and going like ebbing waves.

His phone vibrated with message after message, and he glanced down at his pockets. His nose, throat, and eyes, all burned at the same time as if being thrown into the pits of hell.

Wu Jie checked his phone and read the message from his mother.

【Mother】
《How did the interview go?》14:03
《Please call me back.》14:15

【Mother】
《Why are you not responding?》16:23

【Mother】
《I heard you didn't go to meet Ms. Su. You're already at that age where you should be getting married, settling in a house, and start a family. Look, do you know how hard it was to even get her to meet you in the first place? 》 20:26

【Mother】
《Call me now. 》22:26

《Wu Jie, you took a year break, you don't even have a job now, and you're living in such a rundown place. I've tried my best to make your life easy. I've told you so many times that you wouldn't be able to deal with the pressure, but you didn't listen to me.》22:27

《Get an office job. Do not go back to the hospital ever again. I don't care what you do with your life anymore, but just do not go back to the hospital. I don't think they would even accept you anymore with everything that went on last year.》22:27

《Please call me back soon.》22:27

A deep inhale and exhale left Wu Jie's chapped lips. Once again, his stomach churned, and his head throbbed.

As waves of nausea added to his misery, his stomach lurched and gurgled, puking into the duvet again. His brain swelled, beyond the capacity of his skull and now, his dehydration was stabbing the inner walls of his throat.

Raising his heavy lids, he tried to steady himself up, though his eyelids would fall shut instantly.
He raised them again, and they would close again. It kept repeating.

Wu Jie flushed the toilet, wiped his mouth, and left the stall.

His dried lips parted when he saw Shen Xiaoyun standing before the sink, washing his hands.

Although it was only those two in the bathroom, Shen Xiaoyun didn't show any signs of interest in acknowledging the other's presence, but this didn't bother Wu Jie at all.

"It's quite loud out there, isn't it?" Wu Jie said in a soft voice, almost letting a chuckle roll off his tongue as the corner of his lips raised ever-so-slightly.

Shen Xiaoyun let a "huh?" escape his mouth and turned around.

Wu Jie was taken aback by the sudden look, since he expected Shen Xiaoyun to continue ignoring him.

His smile grew larger, compressing his cheeks so his eyes formed into the shape of upside-down crescents. Without saying anything else, he faced back to the front and washed his hands and mouth.

Should he just go home? But how would he tell them? He shouldn't have followed Chen Yichun to this class reunion. What did he think would happen?

It was natural for him to feel out of place, that even outsiders would've noticed he was like a puzzle piece from another image, forced to fit into another jigsaw puzzle. It was tiring. It was tiring to talk to them.

He had become so infinitely forlorn with himself, that he didn't know who he was becoming anymore.

"I see he still has that annoying attitude," Shen Xiaoyun muttered under his breath as he fixed his hair.

Although he said it softly, Wu Jie heard Shen Xiaoyun's voice loud and clear.

The two never crossed each other's paths until Wu Jie caught Shen Xiaoyun smoking on the rooftop.

The rooftop incident.

That's when Wu Jie apparently snitched on Shen Xiaoyun to the teachers, which made Shen Xiaoyun dislike him. Such a simple thing, but that wasn't the entire reason for  Shen Xiaoyun to hold a grudge against him.

Wu Jie, who didn't know about being framed for snitching on Shen Xiaoyun, tried to be friends with him one time, but all Shen Xiaoyun said to him was:

"What a two-faced bastard."

It was because Wu Jie was fake and Shen Xiaoyun knew just how deceitful he was, and the fact that Wu Jie acted fake towards him after pretending to be all sincere, was what got Shen Xiaoyun heated. After all, Shen Xiaoyun almost believed in Wu Jie's acts of kindness, only to find out it was a façade.

Still, Wu Jie never said anything to justify himself. In the end, he knew it himself. That, his so-called helpful, nice, likeable personality, was nothing but to conceal the loathsome and vile creature he was.

Without realising, he had blanked out, still washing his hands harshly as he drowned in his wretched thoughts.

I shouldn't have come here.

Pulsations of nausea spiked his body again, and his head pounded even harder than before. This time, the feeling of vomiting wasn't from the alcohol. He was overwhelmed by everything.

The voices.

The flickering lights.

The rushing waters.

The boisterous people.

"Hey, are you good?" Shen Xiaoyun asked as he grabbed Wu Jie's arm.