Ch. 1

979 58 3
                                    

Wei Wuxian is a cheerful kid. An extroverted one that loves approaching people with his jolly demeanor on him. He loves making friends at most but because of his parents' nature of work, he had to move to new schools every time which gives him no permanent friends to play with. He was always been loved by girls in whichever class he landed because of his natural bubbly self and his cute features that caused his male classmates to hate him. He was always teased, and bullied by them, making him an outcast whenever he tries to befriend them. 

Even if he transferred to a new school, he was treated the same by the male kids in his class.

One day, he heads his way home from school after being pushed away by his male classmates. They were planning to go to an arcade after school, and naturally, Wuxian also wanted to go with them. But what he received was a loud rejection from the other kids, called ugly nicknames, and forcefully pushed down on the ground. 

He didn't fight back in the end and stayed on the ground until the kids turn their back on him and walked away. Wuxian is a kid who never cries but it did hurt his feeling a bit, despite that, he stood on his own feet and pats the dust that clung to his shorts. He shrugs off the rejection and turns his way in the direction of his home, thinking, maybe it's because he's new in the neighborhood, they'll come by is what he thought. 

On his way home, he passed by a playground. Mostly empty and no signs of any presence of anyone. He smiles to himself, maybe he'll try to ask his classmates to play with him in the playground tomorrow, and maybe that way they'll like him. 

And so he runs inside the playground, convincing himself that he'll test every part of the playground so he can make sure his classmates will be safe around them. 

But as he gets closer to the slide, he hears rustling, his knees instantly become weak as he recalls what his parents would always tell him about the story of ghosts whenever he stubbornly not brush his teeth or when he doesn't sleep in the afternoon. 

But his curiosity got him at best. Despite his shaking self, he strides his way to the rustling sound, inching his way to avoid creating too much sound that might trigger whatever or whoever is the reason for the rustling. 

Until he reached the slide, he warily holds onto the railings before peeking behind it. 

His eyes grew wide seeing someone sitting in the sandbox, creating ugly tubs of little pails on the sand. It was messy but the kid sure looked immersed in his own world that he didn't notice little Wuxian curiously watching him. 

The kid looks like he's older than him by the looks of his bigger stature, even so, Wuxian decides to toughen up the courage he once lost.

He heaves a sigh as he stood properly, preparing himself as he confidently walks in the kid's direction. 

"Hello!" he greeted cheerfully at the kid upon stopping in front of him. 

The kid looks up, a bored look on his face as he stares at him as if judging him before opening his mouth to speak. "Hi?" he utters, his hands stopping from shaping his creation. 

Little Wuxian giggles, his doe eyes looking enthusiastically at the kid, his fingers fidgeting as a tinge of pink blush coats his cheeks. He builds his courage for this so he needs to let it out somehow. 

"What?" the kid asked as he felt Wuxian's nervousness from the way he was being restless. 

Wuxian looks down at his feet, "I-Uhm..." he speaks softly, "Can I... Can I play with you?" he finally speaks out, closing his eyes almost immediately trying to lessen the impact of rejection.

"Okay, help me build a castle," the kid spoke plainly which cause Wuxian to immediately whip his head up to glance at him. 

Wuxian thought he'll get rejected just like what his classmates did, his heart leaped out of his chest as his blinding smile flashed onto his face once again. 

Strings of Fate || Mafia AU (hiatus)Where stories live. Discover now